Did the British Invent Caste? Varna, Jati and the Census with Halley Kalyan
Everyone remembers the pyramid: priest on top, king below, everyone else exploited. Halley Kalyan argues that picture was drawn in the last 200 years, and that the British census did something to jati that tradition never did: it froze it.
In the first ITIHA Podcast he takes apart the word "caste" itself, one English word doing the work of varna, jati and kula, explains why India kept lineage identities long after Europe gave them up, and makes his case on reservations.
Chapters
00:00 Opening
00:48 Intro
02:20 Is Hinduism the "OG liberal" religion?
05:55 How much decoloniality is too much?
11:56 The Ship of Theseus: when nothing original remains
13:30 Lost in translation: Dharma, Atman and "God"
17:38 Our own languages are dying
20:17 Language warriors, and the anxiety behind them
23:18 Decoloniality in Telugu literature, without the word
28:22 Is "caste" even the right word? Varna, jati, kula
33:55 Should you be ashamed, or proud, of your caste?
41:43 Did the British create the caste system?
48:25 Did the census make caste rigid?
55:21 Is caste uniquely Indian?
1:00:54 Reservations, and why caste refuses to die
1:08:15 "This is real": squash coaches by category
1:11:41 Should reservation end?
1:19:26 Caste vote banks
1:24:08 Closing: nothing gets solved in one hour
