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Savarna structures and the politics of silencing: Producing the outcaste


The casteist structure of Brahminical society works powerfully through the production and circulation of outcaste.

The casteist structure of Brahminical society works powerfully through the production and circulation of the outcaste. 

The outcaste, as the outside of the caste structure, is the subject of myriad forms of hate, mistreatment, and abuse in savarna society. 

The normative structure of caste society makes these forms of violence normal, producing them as the necessary instruments of disciplining to retain social order. The social order is one that serves the power and control of Brahmin men within the structure of the community.

A wide range of communicative strategies from social boycotting, to threats of boycotting, to stopping access to community resources are deployed as strategies of maintaining caste power and control. 

Powerful examples of these forms of violence are visible in community norms around issues of common resources such as drinking water. Outcaste households are denied access to community water in one example of caste violence. 

There are serious consequences for violating these normative diktats of  savarna society including physical violence and murder for using community water sources.

The production of the outcaste is a key resource in the communicative infrastructure of Savarna society. One dies in their jati (caste) when she/he challenges the hegemony of the caste structure.

Amidst the recent spate of violence and hate I experienced from the diaspora Hindutva community for publishing the white paper "Cultural Hindutva and Islamophobia," one of the most powerful registers articulated in the communicative structures of hate was the notion of or the threat of out-casting me from the diaspora Hindu community. 

Framing an empirically-based white paper critiquing the majoritarian fascist nationalism of Hindutva as Hinduphobic, the community conversations turned toward strategies of expelling me from the community.

Social media posts rife with hate called for me to be removed from the diaspora. Other posts called for family friends to boycott me. Yet other posts called for boycotting me from Hindu community functions. These articulations of erasing me from spaces of access to community-cultural spaces are integral to the workings of savarna society.

These strategies of excluding me voiced in social media posts are rife with strategies of producing the outcaste. They are reminders of the repressive structures of power and control that circulate in the diaspora to silence voices of critique. 

The threat of the production of the outcaste is a strategy of producing silence. Through silence, the patriarchal savarna structure retains its hegemony.

It is a strategy of erasing critiques of the violence perpetrated by Hindutva. It is a strategy meant to reproduce the Brahminical caste structure in the diaspora by silencing dissent. Ultimately, it is a strategy to reproduce the fascist impulses at play in India in silencing academic voices here in the diaspora.

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