‘Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution’: How caste can be a conduit of identity and revolution

I grew up in a supposedly “caste-less” world. I grew up not knowing my caste. My surname was just a cool name I had, one that linked me to my father’s family, and made it apparent that I come from a line of heritage restaurants and celebrated scientists. My name made it clear that I was Punjabi. I grew up in a world where my tiny high school batch of 47 people went unquestioned. My access to spaces in my city was just like that – a fact of my life.

But I also grew up listening to vicious rhetoric against reservation, to aggrieved seniors angry at the race for seats in engineering colleges, and I grew up with humanities classes at school not addressing caste. I then went on to study at a private college, where, shielded from the world outside (read public universities), I thought about caste in abstract terms. In a world far, far away, caste operates – but me? It is not for me, I don’t care about caste.

Caste in small worlds

It is true, I don’t. Caste does not impede my life. It is not my first thought when I wake up every morning, my interactions are not mediated by...

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