Caste, race, and slavery

On comparisons between race in the United States and caste in India, and to forgotten assumptions behind the legal categories

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caste, race, slavery, comparative science of cultures, Anglo-Hindu law, Enlightenment evolutionary thought

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While diving into the background ideas about caste and race as legal categories, a researcher will discover an important disagreement between scholars: For some, caste is certainly connected with race, whereas for others, caste and race are separate concepts which refer to distinct realities. The aim of this article is twofold: To consider the validity of several characteristics which are ascribed by many authors as common to caste and race, and to analyse background assumptions that enabled the comparison between caste and race as such. The important question, connected with both these aims is about the emergence of the idea that the ancient “Hindu nation” was divided into two peoples, and castes as a system are reflecting the original division in modern India. We will closely examine comparisons made between the advent of Aryans in India and slavery in the United States and Africa. Finally, we will reconsider the European ideas of human evolution and equality of men, which served as a contrasting board for explanations of caste as a form of slavery.

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Associate Professor (docent) Martin Fárek, Ph.D. is currently member of the Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Humanities and Pedagogy, Technical University Liberec, Czech Republic. He taught in the Departments for the Study of Religion at Charles University in Prague and at the University of Pardubice. He works within the international research team in Comparative Science of Cultures with focus on relations between Europe and India. Fárek authored or co-authored 41 scientific publications, the most recent is co-edited book Western Foundations of the Caste System (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017 and 2020). Fárek regularly speaks at prestigious conferences, for example those organized by the European Association for the Study of Religions. He took part in several European projects, including the role of University of Pardubice academic coordinator for Svaagata.eu, Erasmus exchange project which brought more than one hundred Indian students and staff to eight European universities. He has co-organized and led several university delegations to India, conducted research with his Ph.D. students there, and has helped to develop ties between people of Europe and India in other ways. In 2019, Fárek was chosen as a delegate of the Czech Republic for the Kumbh Mela Global Participation Program, organized by the Government of India and Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

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Farek, M. (2023) «Caste, race, and slavery: On comparisons between race in the United States and caste in India, and to forgotten assumptions behind the legal categories», Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 13(1), or. 58–88. doi: 10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1330.