Caste as an economic system destroys efficiency because stigma makes workers despise their occupations

Evidence

There are many occupations in India which, on account of the fact that they are regarded as degraded by the Hindus, provoke those who are engaged in them to aversion. There is a constant desire to evade and escape from such occupations, which arises solely because of the blighting effect which they produce upon those who follow them, owing to the slight and stigma cast upon them by the Hindu religion. What efficiency can there be in a system under which neither men’s hearts nor their minds are in their work? As an economic organisation caste is therefore a harmful institution, inasmuch as it involves the subordination of man’s natural powers and inclinations to the exigencies of social rules. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 862

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Weber’s Protestant ethic debate and general economic rationalization literature — division of labor by social rule rather than aptitude.