Stop seeing caste from western lens. Move away from ‘Sanskritization’ to ‘Vaishyavization’

21-Aug-2023

In Caste as Social Capital: The Complex Place of Caste in Indian Society, Professor R. Vaidyanathan’s intellectual debate acquires a new sharp edge.

If there is one thing that defines our country and at the same time differentiates us from others, it is the institution of caste. We call it varna, jati and other words. Many argue that it is enshrined in the metaphors embedded in the vedas; our epics certainly have plenty of references to them; the unfortunate Manu who is hardly ever read, we are told, was obsessed with Jati; the Portuguese introduced their word “casta” with its own categories of bloodlines and class distinctions; the British tried to methodically record “native” categories as they saw them and ended up creating a completely messed up social and political scene. The result is that today, in the parlance of our elites, expressions like caste, casteist, and casteism are derogatory and deemed to have a flavor of wicked primitivism associated with them.

To read more : https://theprint.in/opinion/stop-seeing-caste-from-western-lens-move-away-from-sanskritization-to-vaishyavization/1721397/