The British Raj deliberately stoked caste and communal divides to legitimize rule

Evidence

It had drained the wealth of a once-wealthy subcontinent—or, shall we say, drained the wealth of the elite in a once-wealthy subcontinent. It had caused famines in which millions had died while the British government exported food to England. None of that stopped it from also lighting sly fires that ignited caste and communal tension. In 1905, it partitioned Bengal along communal lines. In 1909, it passed the Morley–Minto reforms, granting Muslims a separate electorate in the Central as well as Provincial Legislative Councils. It began to question the moral and political legitimacy of anybody who opposed it. How could a people who practised something as primitive as untouchability talk of self-rule? — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 155

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s goal: how caste divisions were exploited and institutionalized before annihilation thinking could scale.