Ambedkar defined caste as an enclosed, endogamous class distinct from race and class

Evidence

It was while he was there, under the tutelage of John Dewey (of ‘Deweyan liberalism’ fame), Edwin Seligman, James Shotwell, James Harvey Robinson and A.A. Goldenweiser, that he wrote his original, path-breaking paper on caste, “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development”, in which he argued that caste could not be equated with either race or class, but was a unique social category in itself—an enclosed, endogamous class. When he wrote it, Ambedkar was only twenty-five years old. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 297

Categorization

• DEFINE: Ambedkar’s core definition: caste as enclosed, endogamous class, unique and irreducible to race or class.
• XREF: Direct precedent for the theory later expanded in Annihilation of Caste; the reader following caste-annihilation origins should note this earlier formulation. — connects to: Sub-castes prove caste cannot rest on racial purity.; Eugenics gained popularity in India by justifying caste endogamy as racial purity. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1070; Ambedkar borrowed the biological term endosmosis as a political metaphor for group interaction (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 297

Broader Connections

• Hindu castes share race rather than being racial divisions #expands (0.65)