Caste networks adapted into modern capitalism as entrepreneurial infrastructure

Evidence

S. Gurumurthy, co-convenor of the Hindu right-wing Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, talks of how caste and capitalism can coexist: “Caste is a very strong bond. While individuals are related by families, castes link the families. Castes transcended the local limits and networked the people across [sic]. This has prevented the disturbance that industrialism caused to neighbourhood societies in the West, resulting in unbridled individualism and acute atomization.” He goes on to argue that the caste system “has in modern times engaged the market in economics and democracy in politics to reinvent itself. It has become a great source of entrepreneurship”. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 464

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects directly to ‘Grafting & Growth’ article’s theme of social/institutional structures adapting rather than dying; caste is a self-reinforcing network that reinvents under new economic systems.
• XREF: Echoes the social-capital literature the reader has studied (Coleman, the diamond bourse extralegal institutions): group ties substituted for legal institutions in sustaining economic coordination.