Caste rules were enforced with violence and seclusion stricter than Jim Crow

Evidence

In some communities, to prevent inbreeding, each endogamous caste is divided into exogamous gotras. Exogamy is then policed with as much ferocity as endogamy—with beheadings and lynchings that have the approval of the community elders. Each region of India has lovingly perfected its own unique version of caste-based cruelty, based on an unwritten code that is much worse than the Jim Crow laws. In addition to being forced to live in segregated settlements, Untouchables were not allowed to use the public roads that privileged castes used, they were not allowed to drink from common wells, they were not allowed into Hindu temples, they were not allowed into privileged-caste schools, they were not permitted to cover their upper bodies, they were only allowed to wear certain kinds of clothes and certain kinds of jewellery. Some castes, like the Mahars, the caste to which Ambedkar belonged, had to tie brooms to their waists to sweep away their polluted footprints, others had to hang spittoons around their necks to collect their polluted saliva. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 44

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Varna-jati structure pairs hereditary occupation with violent policing of pollution (similarity 0.80)
• Caste discrimination persists inside non-Hindu religious communities. (similarity 0.79)
• Ambedkar declared caste inequality must be rooted out, not merely untouchability (similarity 0.79)
• Ambedkar framed caste as a sickness endangering all Indians beyond Hindus (similarity 0.78)
• Caste contamination has infected Sikh, Muslim, and Christian communities (similarity 0.78)
• Ambedkar located caste reproduction in control of women’s sexuality (similarity 0.78)
• Ambedkar saw caste itself, not just untouchability, as the target of annihilation. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Indian anticaste thinkers linked caste and racism over a century ago #expands (0.55)