Caste Matters

by Suraj Yengde

The fight against bourgeois nationalism and neo-liberalism has failed in India. Bourgeois nationalism firmly believes in the ownership and rulership of a few elites over the large exploited mass. The bourgeois nationalism that we inherited was inherent to the dialectic materialism with a strong force of caste sentimentality that was translated into landlordship—feudalism by granting lands to certain agrarian castes, thereby ensuring the retention of the caste structure. By the maintenance of caste, kings, Brahmins and Banias all benefited. However, to effect the control of caste, dominance had to be continued upon lower castes, who were the primary recipients of caste hierarchy. And to do that the person closest to the lowest structure but higher in the hierarchy was detailed with the privilege of ownership of land and everything that was present on it—the tiller’s toil, the surplus, the pasture and cultivation. On the other hand, neo-liberalism taps into the existing loosened social structure of a society to make inroads, and validates the position of the oppressive ruling class. This helps neo-liberalism bring the exploiter on its side. It has so far not been able to involve Dalits alongside Muslims and other minorities in its fold. No one is willing to identify the traditional mercantile castes as an important agent in executing the exploitation of the poor and working class in India. Farmer suicides in India are largely due to the caste–capital nexus. Historically, and...