Poster-style graphic on Ambedkar Castes in India: the 1916 Columbia paper and the endogamy theory | अंबेडकर कास्ट्स इन इंडिया पर नेवी-ब्लू पोस्टर स्टाइल ग्राफिक: 1916 का कोलंबिया पेपर और अंतर्विवाह का सिद्धांत
Ambedkar Castes in India Explained: Summary and Theory
Ambedkar Castes in India is not a book. It’s a paper he read at age 25, and it’s one of the sharpest short accounts of how caste works. Here is an abridged version.
Ambedkar read it on May 9, 1916, before the Anthropology Seminar of Dr. A. A. Goldenweizer at Columbia (BAWS Vol 1, p. 3). It is about twenty pages long (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 3-22). Here’s what it says, in brief.
The complete title is “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development.”
He sets a restricted limit. He claims time and space force him to handle only the genesis, mechanism and spread of caste (BAWS Vol 1, p. 6). He also says caste is not “unknowable” and can be understood (BAWS Vol 1, p. 5).
The starting point: one culture, many castes
Ambedkar begins with a puzzle. Ethnologists state that India’s folks mix several stocks, and he accepts that (BAWS Vol 1, p. 6). Yet he claims that a common culture, rather than a common ancestry, makes a folks one (BAWS Vol 1, p. 6).
So, for Ambedkar, caste is not a system that created separate groups within a society, but a system that divided an existing society into different social classes. That is why he says explaining the caste system means explaining the ‘parcelling’ of a society (BAWS Vol 1, p. 6).
Ambedkar begins by reviewing the four definitions of caste, provided by Senart, Nesfield, Risley and Ketkar (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 6-8). Ambedkar dismisses Senart’s definition as the ‘pollution’ principle is not necessary for a caste system (BAWS Vol 1, p. 7).
He finds nothing new in Risley and thinks Nesfield has mistaken an effect for a cause (BAWS Vol 1, p. 8). Out of the four definitions, Ketkar’s comes the closest to what Ambedkar considers the essential characteristic of a caste system (BAWS Vol 1, p. 8).
He considers there are, in reality, only one feature of a caste system (BAWS Vol 1, p. 8). This characteristic is endogamy, i.e. the prohibition against marrying outside the social class or group (BAWS Vol 1, p. 9).
In an exogamous society, marrying within the same gotra, i.e. within the same social class, was a social taboo (BAWS Vol 1, p. 9). So, why did the ancient Indians create the caste system? It was to bring endogamy in the society by placing it above exogamy (BAWS Vol 1, p. 9).
The Mechanism: The Surplus Man and the Surplus Woman
The main idea: A closed marriage circle needs about the same number of marriageable men and women (BAWS Vol 1, p. 10). If a husband or wife dies, a ‘surplus’ man or woman appears, who could marry outside and break the circle (BAWS Vol 1, p. 10).
He cites four methods by which a caste deals with this: Sati (widow burning), enforced widowhood, celibacy for the widower, and marriage to an unmarriageable girl (BAWS Vol 1, p. 12). He relates these methods to three social customs, Sati, enforced widowhood, and child marriage (BAWS Vol 1, p. 13).
He argues that these customs were honored because they were practiced, and that they served the purpose of upholding endogamy (BAWS Vol 1, p. 14). The editors summarize it in the same way, i.e. endogamy superimposed over exogamy is the main cause for the formation of caste groups (BAWS Vol 1, editors’ introduction, p. xiv).
Genesis: ‘A Caste is an Enclosed Class’
For the origins of caste, Ambedkar states what he means by ‘origin’ to be the ‘origin of the mechanism’ for endogamy (BAWS Vol 1, p. 14). ‘Caste’ and ‘Class’ are side by side, he says, and ‘A Caste is an Enclosed Class’ (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15).
He asks which class closed first. He says he can only answer obliquely (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15). The three customs appear in full strictness only among Brahmins, and elsewhere they are copied from them (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15). Hence, he thinks that the priestly class closed first (BAWS Vol 1, p. 18). He is not definitive as to why, and states this is a query for a later time (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15).
He says caste was in existence before Manu, who is the codifier of the rules (BAWS Vol 1, p. 16). He dismisses the notion that Brahmins imposed caste on others as “incorrect in thought, and malicious in intention” (BAWS Vol 1, p. 16). Being closed out was beyond them (BAWS Vol 1, p. 16).
How caste spread: imitation and closing
Ambedkar identifies two processes. First, imitation. Borrowing from the works of Bagehot and Tarde, he states that lower groups emulate the caste practices of a higher group (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 18-19). The customs of the Brahmins and the other groups who copied two or all three of the customs are strictly observed only among Brahmins (BAWS Vol 1, p. 20).
Second, closing. While a group closes itself, others are closed out (BAWS Vol 1, p. 20). So he says that caste in the singular is unreal. Caste exists only in the plural (BAWS Vol 1, p. 20). Excommunication leads to the formation of new cases (BAWS Vol 1, p. 21).
Color, race and Risley
Ambedkar also identifies an account that he warns against. He indicates that European students of caste give too much importance to colour (BAWS Vol 1, p. 21). He alludes to Ketkar, who argued that in ancient India, there was no importance given to colour (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 21-22).
This relates to one of the contentions in our article on the ‘origin’ of caste in India. The 1901 census placed castes in ‘social precedence’ tied to race, and Ambedkar had already dismissed the race theory in 1916.
The Ambedkar Castes in India thesis in four points
He summarises his own study in four points (BAWS Vol 1, p. 22). First, he explains that India has a deep cultural unity, in spite of being a mixed country. Second, caste was a division of a larger cultural entity. Third, at the very beginning, there was only one single Caste. Fourth, classes turned into castes, through imitation and excommunication (BAWS Vol 1, p. 22).
Ambedkar Castes in India: the limits he names himself
Ambedkar was cautious. He claimed his conclusions were provisional and if the theory was proved untenable, he would give it up (BAWS Vol 1, p. 22). He was also clear that he could not answer the question who enclosed themselves first (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15).
In Frontier, Abhijit Guha notes that the paper in question is “pure” scholarship and thus lacks personal anecdotes, but standard caste folks ignored it. For example, Ghurye cites Ambedkar only once in Caste and Class in India, mentioning him as a leader (Guha, Frontier, 2018). This type of close reading of primary sources is what the Ambedkar-ite Educational Program trains: blogging & SEO, website building, and Google AI.
How the paper connects to Annihilation of Caste
Ambedkar wrote in the preface to the third edition of Annihilation of Caste that he intended to fold “Castes in India” in that essay. Unfortunately, he says, he ran out of time and just printed it as a reprint (BAWS Vol 1, preface to the third edition). Editors say “it may be that they eventually did get folded into Annihilation of Caste”.
The Ambedkar Castes in India argument fits in one line: caste is endogamy laid over an older exogamy, kept alive by customs that control marriage (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 9–14). He treats it as a theory open to correction, which is why it still reads as a method (BAWS Vol 1, p. 22). Read the paper itself, not just a summary.
Babasaheb gave us three words: Educate. Agitate. Organize.
Reading is Educate. Agitate and Organize start when you share a sourced page, not a screenshot.
Today, X bans accounts. Reels get shadowbanned. WhatsApp groups get reported. So Bahujans need their own platforms: emails, blogs, websites, AI tools.
The Ambedkarite Educational Program is made for exactly this. ₹297 lifetime, includes Prompt Engineering, Google AI, Website Building, Email Marketing, Blogging & SEO, Canva, plus all future courses free.
What is Ambedkar Castes in India? It is a paper Ambedkar read at Columbia University on 9 May 1916 and published in the Indian Antiquary in 1917 (BAWS Vol 1, p. 3).
Is “Caste in India” a book by Ambedkar? No. It is a paper of about twenty pages, reprinted in BAWS Vol 1 (pp. 3–22).
What is the main thesis of Castes in India? That endogamy is the one feature peculiar to caste, and that castes formed when endogamy was laid over an older exogamy (BAWS Vol 1, pp. 9, 22).
What does “A Caste is an Enclosed Class” mean? It means a caste is a class that closed its marriage circle (BAWS Vol 1, p. 15).
Where can I read Castes in India? In BAWS Vol 1, published by the Government of Maharashtra, pp. 3–22 (text copy on marxists.org).
