Critique of Caste Violence: Explorations in Theory

This paper is an attempt to arrive at a theoretical understanding of caste violence. Structured in three sections, it engages with three different sets of materials, namely Social Science, Literature and Philosophy. The second section begins by posing the question what is caste in caste violence, and makes two connected arguments: that caste is a relationship, and that relationship is necessarily determined by violence. The implication of these arguments is that caste is necessarily a relationship determined by one or other forms of violence, and caste can only be understood in relational terms. Caste is not a thing but a relationship. Violence is the ideological kernel of caste. To make these arguments, I launch a critique of certain ideas of caste prevailing in the social sciences, particularly from influential social scientists such as Andre Beteille and M.N. Srinivas. I also suggest that the prevailing notions of caste are not restricted to these two thinkers and are rather pervasive.