Quotes About Caste

India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long hair and hatred of the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding vultures. Ethics, which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed. Take

In a country which had accepted caste distinctions for many centuries, inequality had become an inborn mental concept. If caste was abolished by legislation, it came up in other forms of class distinction.

In a country which had accepted caste distinctions for many centuries, inequality had become an inborn mental concept. In a state of chaos, self-preservation is the supreme duty.

The "salla bhangi," as he referred to the Dalit, lived on the other side of the village.

Given the Beemer's Brahminical status at the top of India's vehicular caste system (bicyclists being the Dalits of the road), few cars dared to cut in front of it or venture too close lest they contaminate its uncorrupted, venerated bodywork.

Systems can be fast, open, or secure, but only two of these three at a time.'51 The threat to world order can be summed up as 'very fast networks x artificial intelligence x black boxes x the New Caste x compression of time x everyday objects x weapons'.52

super zip codes', looks increasingly like a new caste, equipped with the wealth and power to override the effects of mean reversion in human reproduction, so that even their dimmer progeny inherit their lifestyle.14

La política, amenazada por el terrorismo, ha dado vida a los miembros de una casta condenada a no saber nada del país que debe gobernar. Casta sí, pero en el sentido de los parias indios, despojados del contacto con los demás seres humanos.

And it was the same with many of his habits; elegance was a sign of caste, and he chose to be one of the "workers"—although he had never worked at anything but making pictures and speeches. He chose to believe that everything the workers did was right and that everything the rich did was wrong, this being in accordance with the doctrine of economic determinism as he understood it.

if we don't break down England's caste system, we'll find this war was hardly worth fighting." Lanny agreed with all that; but he wanted to shake his head sadly when the flyer went on to say: "There will be a different England after this war. Our people will never be content with the old life, after the sacrifices they have made." Lanny had heard exactly the same words from Alfy's father during World War I, before this youngster had been born.

He was unrelenting in his cause, though his own need for religious faith involved him in contradictions and compromises; though the caste structures in his own family remained in place; and though, in the garbage of Madras, the broken roads, the absence of municipal regulation, the factionalism and plunder of the DMK administration and its successor administrations, something close to chaos could be seen.

I thought: How dare you lecture me about history and loyalty, you slave? We have paid bitterly for people like you. Who have you ever been loyal to, apart from yourself and your family and your caste?

Also India had taught me that change grows from the bottom, like a tree, and that caste or race can double or triple women's oppression.

Gender is the remaining caste system that still cuts deep enough, and spreads wide enough, to be confused with the laws of nature. To uncover the difference between what is and what could be, we may need the "Aha!" that comes from exchanging subject for object, the flash of recognition that starts with a smile, the moment of changed viewpoint that turns the world upside down.

Mrs. Greene made me understand the parallels between race and caste--- and how women's bodies were used to perpetuate both. Different prisons. Same key.

living in India had made me aware of how segregated my own country was. But only Mrs. Greene made me understand the parallels between race and caste—and how women's bodies were used to perpetuate both. Different prisons. Same key.

Gender is the remaining caste system that still cuts deep enough, and spreads wide enough, to be confused with the laws of nature.

They're wise in China. There the first of a dynasty's always a peasant or the son of a peasant, and the throne's always taken by force with bloody hands. No hereditary caste there—isn't that China's strength?

The class system in India is very hard, and it is very unfair.

The Congress is dividing the country on the lines of caste and regions. We need a stable government to put the country and its economy back on the rails.

Men like me feel that untouchability is no integral part of Hinduism, it is an excrescence.

The preservation of individualism—of either type—has historically required the suppression of less privileged voices. The unacknowledged social underpinning of both forms of individualism is caste, privilege, and exclusivity.

Linguistic and educational relativism helps to transform a class into a caste – a caste, almost, of Untouchables.

Wayward Brahmin: 'I can buy all the ginger and pepper you can grow.' Spice Islander: 'Marry my daughter!' The young bride melts into his arms. Wayward baron: 'But isn't it forbidden to marry outside caste, my guru?' 'Unless gig is very, very good, my disciple.' A century or so later: 'You grow all the ginger and pepper we can buy!