Caste oppression is policed horizontally, by each oppressed group against those below

Evidence

The exponential decay of the radioactive atom of caste means that Brahminism is practised not just by the Brahmin against the Kshatriya or the Vaishya against the Shudra, or the Shudra against the Untouchable, but also by the Untouchable against the Unapproachable, the Unapproachable against the Unseeable. It means there is a quotient of Brahminism in everybody, regardless of which caste they belong to. It is the ultimate means of control in which the concept of pollution and purity and the perpetration of social as well as physical violence—an inevitable part of administering an oppressive hierarchy—is not just outsourced, but implanted in everybody’s imagination, including those at the bottom of the hierarchy. It’s like an elaborate enforcement network in which everybody polices everybody else. The Unapproachable polices the Unseeable, the Malas resent the Madigas, the Madigas turn upon the Dakkalis who sit on the Rellis; the Vanniyars quarrel with the Paraiyars who in turn could beat up the Arundhatiyars. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 133

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The enforcement-network model — oppression implanted in everyone’s imagination so every class polices those below it — fundamentally reframes why caste persists.
• XREF: Parallels to any colonial or hierarchical system of divide-and-rule; resonates with James C. Scott’s ‘Seeing Like a State’ work on legibility and control.