Digital media serves as a primary platform where caste negation narratives are constructed and disseminated, often originating from upper-caste, liberal meritocratic, or modernisation-focused perspectives. These digital spaces facilitate several key discursive strategies that serve to maintain privilege:
• Amplifying the "Caste-Blind" Narrative:
Social media allows individuals to widely broadcast claims of
"caste-blindness," where they present their personal non-recognition
of caste as a progressive stance. This digital performance often involves mistaking
inherited caste privilege for personal neutrality or merit, effectively
shielding the speaker's social standing from systemic scrutiny.
• Promoting Exceptionalism over Systemic Data:
Digital media is a major site for denial through exceptionalism, where
personal anecdotes (e.g., "I have Dalit friends") are used to invalidate
systemic data like National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports on
atrocities. By highlighting rare exceptions or personal circles, these
narratives frame caste-based violence as "media hype" rather than a
widespread reality.
• Reframing Reservations as "Reverse
Discrimination": Digital discourse frequently reframes affirmative
action as "anti-upper-caste bias" or "reverse casteism".
These platforms amplify arguments that "merit is sacrificed" and that
the "general category suffers," shifting the public focus from
historical and structural oppression to the perceived modern-day
"victimhood" of upper castes.
• Normalising Caste as "Community Pride":
Social media provides a space to rebrand structural inequality as "culture,"
"tradition," or "gotra matching". By framing endogamy
as a harmless way to "preserve culture" or express "community
pride," digital narratives hide the violence and exclusion required to
maintain such hierarchies.
• Reinforcing the "Post-Caste" Myth:
Digital media often pushes the assertion that caste is a thing of the past,
claiming that urban anonymity and globalisation have diluted traditional
hierarchies. This narrative asserts that caste only persists among the
"uneducated" or in rural areas, while ignoring persistent data on
wealth gaps, education disparities, and the under-representation of
marginalised groups in elite urban sectors.
Ultimately, digital media does not erase caste; instead, it
provides the tools to downplay and dismiss it, protecting structural
power by shifting blame onto the oppressed and resisting policies like
reservations or caste censuses.
- Caste negation isn't just "not seeing" caste; it's a strategic narrative used to maintain privilege by framing systemic discrimination as an outdated or irrelevant issue.
- When you say "I judge by merit, not caste," you are often mistaking inherited advantages—like networks and resources—for personal neutrality. This form of privilege denial allows the dominant to ignore the structural barriers others must climb.
- Think we live in a "post-caste" society? Over 90% of marriages in India remain intra-caste. Modernity hasn't erased caste; it has relocated it into "private" traditions to ensure social and economic capital stay within the same elite circles.,
- Reducing caste to a purely economic issue ignores a hard truth: caste is an independent axis of inequality. A poor upper-caste person rarely faces the same social stigma or exclusion as a poor Dalit. Poverty and caste are not the same thing.,
- Reframing reservations as "reverse discrimination" shifts the focus from centuries of structural oppression to the perceived "victimhood" of the dominant. Affirmative action is a tool for corrective justice, not a sacrifice of merit.,
- Urban anonymity is often used to mask persistent exclusion. While overt untouchability might be less visible in cities, data on wealth gaps and under-representation in elite sectors show that caste remains a key driver of power and inequality.,
- Blaming the oppressed for "perpetuating caste" by demanding their rights is the ultimate victim-blaming. The system persists because it protects the structural power of those at the top, not because those at the bottom seek dignity.
Comments
Post a Comment