Caste logic made hereditary criminality appear natural to British authorities

Evidence

65 By the beginning of the twentieth century, huge sections of the population, mostly itinerant, were labelled criminal under the Criminal Tribes Acts of 1871 and 1911. Seeing criminality as hereditary was a logical outcome of the caste system. If people could be born scholars, weavers and cobblers they could also be born thieves and thugs. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1089

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader mechanism of caste being a birth-ascribed system that predisposes any fixed social categorization, and echoes how caste logic extends to law enforcement.
• SEED: A possible essay angle: how the logic of a birth-based social system made stigmatizing entire itinerant communities as hereditary criminals seem rational to colonial administrators.