Ambedkar located caste reproduction in control of women’s sexuality

Evidence

67 Ambedkar argues in “Castes in India”, his 1916 essay, that women are the gateways of the caste system and that control over them through child marriages, enforced widowhood and sati (being burnt on a dead husband’s pyre) are methods to keep a check on women’s sexuality. For an analysis of Ambedkar’s writings on this issue, see Sharmila Rege (2013). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 491

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to endogamy as caste’s defining mechanism used throughout the main text of this book.