Caste, Culture and Colonialism

“As the Indian diaspora expands, conceptions about the meaning – and very existence – of caste affect social attitudes and legal regulations in Europe, America and beyond. This volume of detailed materials on the history and theory of caste should prove useful for scholars, regulators and fellow citizens.”

- Vikram David Amar, Daniel J. Dykstra Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law

"This book is a trenchant and deeply researched study of the law and politics that bear on the term ‘caste’ as used globally, in India and elsewhere. It delves into the history, deployment and administrative lives of the category in Asia and the West. The book deserves to be read closely by all those who seek to understand the topic."

- Sumit Guha, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin

“This critique of classical conceptions in caste scholarship and modern westocentric human rights activism highlights simplistic, excessive focus on rigidity, innate disadvantage and discrimination. Advising nuanced plurality-conscious study of socio-cultural manifestations regarding varna and specifically jati, it warns against framing and naming caste specifically in law.”

- Werner Menski, Emeritus Professor of Law, SOAS, University of London

“Rarely do readers get an opportunity to engage the attempted overthrow of a master key paradigm, like the caste system. The ‘caste system’ represents such a western theorist's fantasy. The ‘caste system’ simply does not exist and should be purged from scholarly discourse.”

- Ivan Strenski, Professor Emeritus at University of California, Riverside

“To assert, as I have, that British colonial rule created modern components of the caste system in India is neither to suggest that caste did not exist for centuries in various forms before the British nor that caste can simply be wished away today. Dr Prakash Shah sees caste quite differently, as a recent construction that can be “deconstructed,” arguing for example that contemporary legal systems are significantly distorted by their implication in profound cultural misconceptions around caste. Reading this intriguing book against the grain, one might ask not only whether India’s future (rather that its past) might benefit from imagining that caste could in some utopian world disappear, but whether such a future might be hastened by proceeding as if caste might be the problem rather than the solution for many legal and political reforms.”

- Nicholas Dirks, author of Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India.