Colonial courts enforced intra-Brahmin caste exclusivity in temple access.

Evidence

In Anandrav Bhikaji Phadke vs. Shankar Daji Charye (1883 ILR 7 Bom 323) the Bombay Court upheld the right of Chitpavan Brahmins to exclude Palshe Brahmins from worshipping at a temple, on the ground that such an exclusive right is one which the courts must guard, as otherwise all ‘high-caste Hindus’ would hold their sanctuaries and perform their worship only so far as those of the ‘lower castes’ chose to allow them (Naval 2004, 14). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1080

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core project: law as a mechanism that formalized and upheld caste hierarchy rather than dissolving it — echoed in AoC’s main argument about state complicity.