Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Caste, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Caste, Race, and Social Division in the U.S.
Caste as a Global Problem
How Caste Sustains Itself
The Costs of Caste
Summary
Analysis
By creating a presumption of “inborn superiority” in the dominant caste, upper-caste members can control the subordinate castes by making it seem absurd—even criminal—to question the inferiority assigned to them. For instance, laws in the Jim Crow South forced Black people to walk in the gutter rather than on the sidewalk, and there were restrictions in India on what Dalits could or could not wear. This reinforced, at every level of society, the idea that there are privileges to which only the dominant caste is entitled.
While connected to illusions of purity and pollution, the idea of inherent superiority versus inherent inferiority is perhaps even more insidious. By creating laws that constantly reminded the subordinate caste of their inferiority and unimportance, the dominant caste could terrorize and psychologically manipulate the subordinate class into acting as if they were inferior.
Themes
Even drunken, illiterate, cruel members of the dominant caste are seen as inherently superior to the most intelligent and moral members of the subordinate caste. This creates an atmosphere of dehumanization in order to preserve a social system based on the subordination of an entire group. As the dominant caste becomes more and more accustomed to the “embedded superiority” that defines their lives, the chasm between them and the subordinate caste continues to widen. This, in turn, makes it easier to justify violence, injustice, and degradation.
The idea that all members of one caste are inherently superior to all members of another is used to keep the lines of power in a society firmly drawn. It doesn’t matter how intelligent, empathetic, successful, or upstanding a member of the subordinate caste is—they will still be considered inferior to even the cruelest members of the dominant caste. This demonstrates caste’s fixed nature and shows how difficult it is to dismantle a system that disempowers people in this way.
Themes
