Europe’s weak classes kept military, political and educational weapons that India’s caste system denied.

Evidence

It is true that even in Europe the strong have not shrunk from the exploitation—nay, the spoliation—of the weak. But in Europe, the strong have never contrived to make the weak helpless against exploitation so shamelessly as was the case in India among the Hindus. Social war has been raging between the strong and the weak far more violently in Europe than it has ever been in India. Yet the weak in Europe has had in his freedom of military service, his physical weapon; in suffering, his political weapon; and in education, his moral weapon. These three weapons for emancipation were never withheld by the strong from the weak in Europe. All these weapons were, however, denied to the masses in India by the caste system. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 928

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s work on institutions—what institutional conditions enable the weak to organize vs. what systematically disables them.