11: A Brahmin woman’s tryst with Savarna fragility

For Priya, a Brahmin in the diaspora, critical anti-caste thinking came through reading Dr Ambedkar's work, forcing her to question the trauma inflicted by her community for generations, as well as her own complicity in maintaining it. What helped her as she discovered a systemic understanding of caste was self-examination and a desire to learn more, as well as a safe space to ask questions in.

As many within the Indian diaspora take steps towards undoing casteism, savarna fragility (faux outrage to hide structural privilege) of the savarna castes
continues to be a potent hindrance. For Brahmins and other upper-caste communities, the journey towards understanding caste bias is complicated, especially when most of them are fed with sanitized versions of glorified caste history while growing up.

Priya recalls how moving to the US later in life put her at a crossroads between holding on to memories, traditions, and also letting go of processes that perpetuate caste hierarchy. It's a combination of two things, she says, "One is the discomfort of being questioned around your identity which is the only thing you have had grown up in those spaces, and second, as an immigrant, you want something that anchors you to your ancestors, to the life that you have left and moved into."

In this episode of Caste In The USA, host Thenmozhi Soundararajan takes a deeper look into what drives savarna fragility both in India and within Indian communities in the US, and how overcoming it is a very real possibility.