The Caste Conundrum

This book examines caste debates in post-independent contemporary India, addressing its pervasive influence across personal, social, public, and political spheres. It offers an understanding of caste through the lenses of reservations, identity politics, affirmative action, and public policy. This book examines caste debates in post-independent contemporary India, addressing its pervasive influence across personal, social, public, and political spheres. It offers an understanding of caste through the lenses of reservations, identity politics, affirmative action, and public policy, while comparing India’s approach with programmes in the United States and other major democracies. The book offers a renewed twenty-first-century perspective on caste, analysing how political economy, globalisation, technological advancement, and artificial intelligence are reshaping caste-based discourses. It challenges outdated narratives that have failed to produce balanced policies, proposing instead a harmonious approach grounded in social justice, inequality, unemployment, and social cohesion. Through rigorous arguments, it addresses the critical question of fair resource distribution in a democratic, globalised India. This work is essential for research scholars, graduate and undergraduate students studying India’s caste system across political science, sociology, anthropology, law, public policy, South Asian studies, literature, public administration, economics, and liberal arts. It provides vital insights for anyone seeking to understand one of India’s most complex and urgent contemporary challenges.