Postcolonial Theory and the Challenge of Caste

Abstract

Colonialism in India that postcolonial studies centrally theorizes is almost exclusively the understanding of colonialism of the caste-Hindu elites. Colonial modernities of caste groups other than the dominant caste-Hindus are not only at variance in priorities and textures but often do not share the latter's articulated anticolonialisms. To demonstrate this difference, I discuss in this paper a site – one out of many possible ones – where caste difference explodes the framework of postcolonial theory: English in India. I further show how vernacularism as the chosen postcolonial response also obscures the caste-privileged constituency of postcolonial theory in the Indian context. Given this difference, from the vantage point of my pedagogy, I argue that postcolonial theory needs disentangling from anti-colonial nationalism to be useful to, hold up to the scrutiny of, and offer more equitable entry points for students with different caste histories. I propose that postcolonial is taught – in and for the Indian context at least – in a tense juxtaposition with caste scholarship, annotating its lacuna and interrupting its intense interlock with nationalism.