Caste on the International Stage

The official Indian position against including caste as a specific sub-set of racism is based on the assumption that race has a "physical component" which caste lacks. However a look at the history of the idea of race shows it to be a construct of a particular European anthropology and is, like caste, embodied in the very Self of the individual. While caste and race remain different forms of social oppression, viewing them as related is a creative political strategy.