Transformations of Caste in Colonial India

Abstract

Abstract This chapter addresses the question of the transformations of caste identities under colonialism. It addresses conceptualizations such as the colonial “invention” of caste and “sankritization” and makes a historical argument rooted more in the longue duree. Under the carapace of colonialism, there was much flux in social and economic relations as also the emergence of a labor diaspora across Empire. Much of what happened to social relations reflected the agency of people as much as the unintended consequences of policies aimed at settling the land. What may have remained unchanged was social hierarchy and relations of violence towards the lowest groups in society. That contemporary Indian society is characterised by what Ambedkar called an ascending hierarchy of respect and a dsecending hierarchy of contempt is arguably the result of a longer-term stasis as much as change that exceeds the effect of colonialism alone.