Caste Privilege ≠ Merit

 

1. What is "Caste Privilege"?

Caste privilege refers to the unearned advantages historically granted to upper-caste communities (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas) due to their birth, including:

• Access to Education: For millennia, Brahmins monopolized knowledge (e.g., Sanskrit texts), while Shudras and Dalits were barred from learning. Even today, upper-caste families often have generational access to elite schools and networks.

• Wealth and Land Ownership: Dominant castes controlled land, resources, and trade, accumulating intergenerational wealth.

• Social Capital: Upper-caste networks dominate politics, bureaucracy, and corporate sectors, easing access to opportunities.

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2. How "Merit" is Weaponized

• Myth of "Fair Competition": Upper castes often frame merit as "neutral" or "colorblind," ignoring how caste privilege skews the playing field. For example:

  • A Brahmin student with generational access to English-medium schools, tutors, and exam-prep resources competes against a Dalit student from a family historically denied literacy.

  • A dominant-caste job applicant benefits from caste-based professional networks, while a Dalit candidate faces biases in hiring.

• Reservations as "Reverse Discrimination": Affirmative action (reservations) for marginalized castes is labeled "unfair" by privileged groups, who dismiss their own inherited advantages. As scholar Suraj Yengde notes: "Merit is the alibi of caste privilege."

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3. Data Exposes the Myth

• Education: Only 5% of IIT professors are from marginalized castes (Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs), despite these groups constituting over 70% of India’s population. Upper castes dominate elite institutions.

• Corporate Leadership: Over 90% of top corporate executives in India are from upper castes, per a 2019 study.

• Wealth Gap: Upper castes are 3x more likely to be in the richest 20% of Indians, while Dalits are 2.5x more likely to be in the poorest 20% (World Bank, 2022).

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4. Caste Privilege in Global Context

• Silicon Valley: Tech workers from marginalized castes report exclusion from upper-caste-dominated networks. A 2020 survey found 33% of Dalit techies in the U.S. faced workplace discrimination.

• Academia: Caste-based slurs and exclusion persist in Western universities, where caste privilege is often invisible to institutions.

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5. Why "Merit" Arguments Fail

• Ignores Historical Oppression: For centuries, marginalized castes were legally and socially barred from education, land ownership, and upward mobility. Upper-caste "merit" is built on this exclusion.

• Denies Structural Barriers: A Dalit student today faces caste slurs in classrooms, lack of mentorship, and financial precarity—barriers upper-caste peers rarely confront.

• Equates Privilege with Ability: Dominant castes mistake their head start (e.g., English fluency, cultural capital) for innate superiority.

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6. The Way Forward

• Affirmative Action: Reservations are not "handouts" but reparations for systemic exclusion. Expanding quotas in private sectors and judiciary is crucial.

• Caste-Literacy: Mandate education about caste history and privilege in schools/ workplaces to dismantle biases.

• Economic Reforms: Land redistribution, universal healthcare, and quality public education can reduce caste-based inequities.

• Global Accountability: Recognize caste as a protected category in anti-discrimination laws (e.g., U.S., UK).

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Key Quote

B.R. Ambedkar:
"Caste is not just a division of labor. It is a division of laborers. It is a hierarchy in which the divisions of laborers are graded one above the other."