On the Futures of Caste

Surinder S. Jodhka

Review of Development and Change, 2025, vol. 30, issue 1, 5-28

Abstract: Caste is often viewed as an ancient and traditional structure of hierarchy with its origin in the Hindu religious system, flourishing in the social ecology of the Indian village. Such framings of caste believed it would decline and disappear with India progressing on the path of development and modernisation. However, caste persists, often manifesting with much greater vigour, even in modern urban contexts. What could be the future course of caste? This article aims to examine the futures of caste, arguing for a revisiting of the mainstream framings of caste, both popular and academic, that remain ‘trapped’ in a moral language, while uncritically accepting the colonial and Orientalist imaginations that treat caste as an exceptional institution, unique to the Hindus of India. Proposing an alternative framework, the article argues for a deeper engagement with the obvious materiality of caste and its context-specific relational processes.

Keywords: Caste; modernity; social structures; inequality; materiality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09722661251346574 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:revdev:v:30:y:2025:i:1:p:5-28

DOI: 10.1177/09722661251346574

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Development and Change
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().