Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson

“According to the caste system,” he said, as if informing me of the status of someone he once knew, “I belong to the second upper caste. The warrior-soldier caste.” I looked at this man who was not much taller than I, small-boned, narrow-shouldered, gentle of face, self-effacingly modest in bearing and wondered on what planet would this man be seen as a natural-born warrior? Here was living proof of the miscasting of caste. This had long ago registered to him as well, and he took the caste ascription with so little solemnity that he was not at first able to give the exact spelling of the caste, or, in Sanskrit, the varna, to which he was born. I did not yet know the four varnas at the time, or that castes were even called varnas, so I asked him to write it down for me. He wrote the words Khatriya and then Kayastras in my notepad.