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One of the major errors we make when it comes to the question of caste is that we localise it: we think of it as something either geographically situated in the Indian subcontinent or legitimised by one form of religion. Caste is not solely an Indian problem even if its exemplary form can only be found here. Caste functions as a name for a process, whether social or philosophical, that legitimises inequality on the basis of metaphysical claims. This can be best understood when we realise that perhaps one of the greatest advocates for this metaphysical basis of caste in modernity is not an Indian thinker but a European one: Friedrich Nietzsche.

It is Nietzsche, who with his theory of master and slave morality and the gospel of the Übermensch legitimised caste as a modern principle of rank. This might seem controversial, but Nietzsche’s value to the defenders of caste was much appreciated in India, with writers like Bal Gangadhar Tilak realising this as far back as the early 20th century. Thus, the goal of annihilating caste must also consider that with Nietzsche, we find one of the first modern theories that seeks to globalise caste as a metaphysical project. Ankit Kawade’s new...

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