This post was prompted by my recent visit to India as well as my reflections on the continuous conversations with Indians (I use the broad framework of India to refer to a space that is rendered meaningful in my interactions with it, narrated through my memories and through experiences that I negotiate in my everyday interactions). So coming to the topic of my post today, the subject of casteism in India, I want to share a viewpoint that is mired in paradoxes. On one hand, a postcolonial reading of the portrayal of India within a frame of the caste system depicts the ways in which the framing of the case politics in India gets situated within the colonial gaze. On the other hand, a materialist reading of the case politics points squarely to the continuing problem of the caste system and the ways in which the system impacts the fate of those at the margins. Of particular importance here is the ways in which the narrative of casteism has been taken up by neoliberal India, adopted within ...