The Caste Pod

Caste and Urbanization with Malini Ranganathan and Juned Shaikh

This episode features a conversation with urban geographer, Malini Ranganathan, and historian, Juned Shaikh, on the centrality of caste to urbanization in India. Through a focus on 20th century Bombay (now Mumbai) and 21st century Bangalore (now Bengaluru), we explored the symbiotic relationship between caste and capitalism manifest in the political economy of urbanization from the heyday of industrial capitalism to contemporary neoliberalism. We also delved into the continuities between rural and urban caste relations as seen, for instance, in caste networks that remain key to the movement of capital from rural land to real estate. In addition to the centrality of caste in shaping urbanization, we also considered changes to caste wrought by its role within urban processes. The final part of the episode shifted to a discussion of oppositional mobilization among the urban poor, from the upsurge of literary and political activity among Dalits in Bombay and Bangalore in the 1950s-70s to the ongoing pushback against the threat of dispossession and displacement by real estate and finance capital. Guest bios Malini Ranganathan [https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/malini.cfm], Associate Professor, School of International Service, American University Juned Shaikh [https://campusdirectory.ucsc.edu/cd_detail?uid=jmshaikh], Associate Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz References Khumbarwada: a historic potters’ colony now located within Dharavi, Mumbai (Bombay). OBC: shorthand for Other Backward Classes, a Government of India classification for socially and educationally disadvantaged castes who are beneficiaries of affirmative action. OBCs are distinct from and considered to be relatively more advantaged than the Scheduled Castes, or Dalits, and Scheduled Tribes, or Adivasis, who also benefit from affirmative action. SC/ST: shorthand for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (see above). Malini Ranganathan, David Pike, and Sapna Doshi, Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501768750/corruption-plots/#bookTabs=1] (2024) Malini Ranganathan, “Towards a Political Ecology of Caste and the City [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10630732.2021.2007203?src=]” (2022) Malini Ranganathan, “Caste, racialization and the making of environmental unfreedoms in urban India [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2021.1933121]” (2022) Juned Shaikh, Outcaste Bombay: City Making and the Politics of the Poor  [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295748504/outcaste-bombay/](2021) Juned Shaikh, “Imaging Caste [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00856401.2014.936579]: Photography, the Housing Question, and the Making of Sociology in Colonial Bombay, 1900-1939 (2014) Frank Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans, 1700-1935 (1977) Nikhil Rao, House, but No Garden: Apartment Living in Bombay’s Suburbs, 1898-1964 [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816678136/house-but-no-garden/] (2012) C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo18241312.html] (2014) Ajantha Subramanian, The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987883] (2019) K. Balagopal, Probings in the Political Economy of Agrarian Classes and Conflicts [https://balagopal.org/probings-in-the-political-economy-of-agrarian-classes-and-conflicts/] (2020) Sushmita Pati, Properties of Rent: Community, Capital, and Politics in Globalizing Delhi [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/properties-of-rent/983A71CF220584202A8DC5212BD2029E], Cambridge University Press (2022). Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay, 1900-1940 [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/origins-of-industrial-capitalism-in-india/3C4F764E812B4F12A98D649C24097150] (1994) Priyanka Srivastava, The Well-Being of the Labor Force in Colonial Bombay: Discourses and Practices [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-66164-3] (2018) Dana Kornberg, “From Balmikis to Bengalis [https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/47/review-urban-affairs/balmikis-bengalis.html]: The 'Casteification' of Muslims in Delhi's Informal Garbage Economy,” Economic and Political Weekly (2019) Amita Baviskar, Uncivil City: Ecology,. Equity, and the Commons in Delhi [https://books.google.com/books/about/Uncivil_City.html?id=_ByAzQEACAAJ] (2020) Mukul Sharma, Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environmental Justice [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dalit-ecologies/C4FFCB4F9D50301B22F851231B4C51AD] (2024) Liza Weinstein, The Durable Slum: Dharavi and the Right to Stay Put in Globalizing Mumbai [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781452941127/the-durable-slum/] (2014) Siddalingaiah, A Word With You, World: The Autobiography of a Poet [https://navayana.org/products/a-word-with-you-world/?v=0b3b97fa6688] (2013) Dharavi: a residential area in Mumbai (Bombay) considered one of the world’s largest slums. Chico Mendes: a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader, and environmentalist who fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and Indigenous people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Caste and Race: Ambedkar and King with the Ambedkar King Study Circle

This episode features S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi, the Convenor and Secretary of the Ambedkar King Study Circle, an anti-caste organization based in Silicon Valley. Our conversation began with a discussion of the choice of B. R. Ambedkar and Martin Luther King Jr. as the titular heads of the organization, then moved on to a conversation about its membership-based structure, the anti-caste struggles in which the AKSC has participated, and the significance of California in general, and the Silicon Valley in particular, as an epicenter of caste consolidation and anti-caste mobilization. Guests: S. Karthikeyan is an IT professional based in Silicon Valley and regular contributor to public outlets such as The Wire. S. Subbulakshmi is a postdoctoral fellow in cognitive neuroscience and has been a member of AKSC since 2024.  Mentioned in the episode: B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste [https://www.versobooks.com/products/75-annihilation-of-caste?srsltid=AfmBOoo5DFcHtNLc91r1DLgDQBtziq_bG1mkNTQO6JopkeW9TVCPCJz4] Martin Luther King Jr., “Where Do We Go from Here?” [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here] Savera [https://www.wearesavera.org/] is a multiracial, interfaith, anticaste coalition of organizations and activists. S. Karthikeyan, “The Hindu Supremacist Disinformation Campaign Against the Caste Discrimination Litigation in US” [https://thewire.in/caste/the-hindu-supremacist-disinformation-campaign-against-the-caste-discrimination-litigation-in-us] S. Karthikeyan, “How Protections Against Caste Discrimination Are Being Opposed in the US” [https://thewire.in/caste/caste-discrimination-hindu-american-foundation-us] S. Karthikeyan, “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing [https://caravanmagazine.in/caste/cisco-haf-hindu-american-dalit-diaspora]” Ajantha Subramanian, The Caste of Merit [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987883] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Transnational Solidarities with Nico Slate

My conversation with Nico Slate began with him reflecting on his own path into the study of historical connections between South Asia and the United States. We then moved to a wide-ranging discussion covering the importance of the transnational scale for an understanding of antiracist and anticaste politics, the repurposing of ‘race’ and ‘caste’ through creative acts of transnational translation, the interplay between the race-colony and race-caste analogies in solidaristic politics across the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the conjunctural factors that have shaped the rise and fall of race-caste scholarship. Guest bio: Nico Slate [https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/history/people/faculty/slate.html], Professor of History. Carnegie Mellon University. References: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyay]: Indian social reformer, nationalist, feminist, and socialist who promoted handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre. W.E.B. Du Bois [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois]: American sociologist, historian, and Pan-Africanist who authored some of the most consequential works on the global color line and racial capitalism. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi]: Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political thinker who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. Daniel Immerwahr, “Caste or Colony? Indianizing Race in the United States” (2007) Oliver Cox [https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/oliver-cromwell-cox/]: Trinidadian sociologist of race relations. B.R. Ambedkar [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar]: Indian jurist and anticaste thinker who chaired the committee that drafted the Indian Constitution and served as the independent India’s first Minister of Law. Lala Lajpat Rai [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_Lajpat_Rai]: Indian revolutionary, politician, and author. Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/653196/caste-by-isabel-wilkerson/] (2020) W.E.B. Du Bois, Dark Princess [https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/D/Dark-Princess] (1928). Katherine Mayo, Mother India [https://press.umich.edu/Books/M/Mother-India2] (1927). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Caste and Tech with Murali Shanmugavelan and Sareeta Amrute

This episode features a conversation with Murali Shanmugavelan and Sareeta Amrute about how caste structures IT workspaces and communication infrastructures. We began with their reflections on how they came to scholarship and advocacy on caste. The rest of our discussion covered a range of topics including, the ideology of tech as immaterial and disembodied, the role of tech within racial and caste supremacist projects, how and why large language models systematically favor dominant caste norms, the internal and external pressures required for tech companies to advance social equity, the necessity and limits of law in advancing protections against caste hate speech and other forms of identity-based violence and discrimination, and the need to balance visibility and secrecy as two dimensions of the anticaste struggle. Guest bios: Murali Shanmugavelan [https://datasociety.net/people/murali-shanmugavelan/]: Affiliate with the Data & Society Research Institute and Senior Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Sareeta Amrute [https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/sareeta-amrute/]: Associate Professor of Strategic Design at Parsons School of Design, Affiliate Faculty of Anthropology at the New School, and Principal Researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute. References: Karve: Dhondo Keshav Karve set up a home and school for widows in the city of Pune in Maharashtra in 1896. The institution, which is now called Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha, runs 60 sites for women's education. Periyar: E.V. Ramasamy Naicker, commonly known as Periyar, was a writer, social revolutionary, and politician who was one of the principal ideologues of the Self-Respect Movement. Western Ghats: a mountain range that stretches along the western coast of the Indian peninsula. Sriram Krishnan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriram_Krishnan]: tech executive and Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in the second Trump administration. Bruno Latour [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Latour]: French philosopher known for his work in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Maha Shivarathri: annual festival to celebrate the deity, Shiva. Mimi Onuoha [https://www.mimionuoha.com/]: Nigerian American visual artist and academic whose work examines the effect of data collection and technology on society. Thenmozhi Soundararajan [https://dalitdiva.com/]: founder of the Dalit feminist organization Equality Labs and author The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition. The Hindu Code Bills aimed to codify and modernize Hindu personal laws, promoting gender equality in marriage, inheritance, and adoption. Gail Omvedt [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Omvedt]: sociologist and anticaste activist whose work on Dalit epistemology and politics was path-defining. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Upper Caste Liberalism with Ravikant Kisana

This episode features a conversation with Ravikant Kisana, Dean of the School of Liberal Education and Languages at Galgotias University in India, about his book Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything. We discussed the term “savarna” and how his personal experiences as a student and professor in liberal institutions led him to write the book, the performativity and insularity of upper castes, the importance of endogamy to caste social reproduction, and how to understand the recent shift from claims to castelessness to overt assertions of caste pride. Guest Ravikant Kisana [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IPrkNvoAAAAJ&hl=en], Dean, School of Liberal Education and Languages, Galgotias University, India References: B.R. Ambedkar, “Castes in India” Babasaheb: an honorific for B.R. Ambedkar meaning “respected father.” IIMs: Indian Institutes of Management Mayawati: first Dalit woman chief minister of India who served in the state of Uttar Pradesh as the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party. BSP: Bahujan Samaj Party founded in 1984 and focused on representing the interests of Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and religious minorities. OBC parties: see above Veds/Vedas: ancient Sanskrit scriptures Kayasth: scribal and administrative caste originating in Maharashtra, Bengal, and Odisha. Marwari: mercantile caste originating in the Marwar region of Rajasthan. Baniya: mercantile caste originating in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Baniya and Marwari are overlapping categories. Jat: agricultural caste originating in the regions of Sindh and Punjab. Noida: a city in the National Capital Region that falls within the state of Uttar Pradesh Congress: Indian National Congress, one of India’s main national political parties founded in 1885. MGNREGA: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 is an Indian labor law guaranteeing at least 100 days of paid, unskilled manual work per financial year to rural households. Read the transcript here [https://cdn.craft.cloud/44c3b6c3-3307-4a13-a091-f99416660f91/assets/TCP-Episode-4-transcript.docx#asset:447295@1:url] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]