Caste: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

In January of 2018, Wilkerson traveled to Delhi, India for the first time. As she wandered the city streets on the way to the conference she was attending, she thought about the differences—and unlikely similarities—between India and the U.S. Both countries are defined by their caste systems, and both employ similar methods of maintaining distinctions between their castes. Though both countries have officially abolished the laws defining their caste systems, those systems live on in both places.

Many scholars throughout the years have written about the similarities between the Dalits and African Americans. Both groups were enslaved and confined to a system of sharecropping (or saldari); both continue to occupy the lowest social positions in their respective societies; and both are singled out from other groups based on characteristics ascribed to them by the dominant caste.

The Indian caste system is different from the American one in that there are many subcastes, or jatis. Surnames rather than physical features tell others about a person’s caste—though a person’s accent or clothing can also indicate which caste they belong to. The biggest single difference between the two systems is that the Indian caste system is bound by religion—and the Hindu belief that one’s caste is reflective of the good or bad karma they accrued in their previous life.

But the members of the Dalit caste do not, as many outside observers might like to believe, accept their position in the caste system. In fact, the Dalits have a vibrant history of resistance, inspired in large part by the American civil rights movement. A 1970s-formed resistance group, the Dalit Panthers, were inspired by the Black Panther Party—and Dalits to this day feel kinship with Black scholars and sociologists who visit from overseas, even welcoming one group of African American professors visiting India with a rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the American civil rights movement.