Caste Matters

by Suraj Yengde

those who openly defend or have a defensive justification of the caste system or present their ‘naivety’ over such a gruesome form of subjugation give historical references for the indefinite perpetuation of the caste system. Those who enjoy the privileges of caste never want to attack an abhorrent system as that would threaten their position of power. They are unwilling to face challenges to the caste privileges that were granted to them without any work. Many in this category offer ‘merit’ as a justification for this attitude without paying attention to their privileges that add up to the creation of ‘merit’, which is then considered ‘impartial’. Their cultural and social capital becomes ‘merit’. And therefore, anyone lacking access to these avenues is judged against their predetermined merit. In a competitive, unjust world, merit becomes an excuse for the historically privileged and dominant groups to rally against welfare measures that are oriented towards addressing inbred social inequalities. To address an unequal system, provisions to improve material conditions are necessities. Such material conditions are based on improving the living conditions of those who are oppressed and deprived. Currently, numerical scores are taken as an arbitrary measure of a person’s ability to study further, notwithstanding the fact that