'Caste privilege is still holding back national progress'

On the social and cultural dominance of upper-caste elites and the ignored impact of this on our society, economy

- Majid Maqbool

You write that elite savarnas are unaccustomed to being subjects of critical scrutiny, especially from non-savarnas. Why has there has been so little cultural commentary on savarna elites in India?

The reason for the lack of commentary is due to many factors. First, there is the simple reluctance of a privileged group to interrogate itself. In this, caste is not unique. Where it becomes distinctive is in the epistemic erasure of caste as a frame of reference in discursive analysis. In popular discourse and academia, until very recently there was a major dismissal of the need to explore caste as a sociological variable to explain material reality. Savarnas simply did not “see” caste in anything. Even when caste is considered, it is always as an investigation of SC, ST and OBC lives.