We’ve all heard this repetitive phrase. “India is the world’s largest democracy.” However, the scratch beneath the surface, unlike the republic, is seen to be similar to the territory. Although numerically in a minority, it is run by a small number of high-ranking Indians who continue to control almost every institution of power and influence in the country.
They control everything from sports stadiums to corporate boardrooms to universities, to what we see and what we think. From cricket to films, publishers, policy making, and corporate employment for literary awards, I read this article. The reins are firmly in the same hand. They control scripts, syllabus and pay. Whether it’s bureaucracy, big corporations, book fairs or book awards, the shows are run by the same people.
They don’t just run the institution. They manufacture opinions and agreements to remember Chomsky. All headlines, all history textbooks, and all curriculum units somehow reflect their worldview. They’re not just the system. They are teeth system.
If that sounds exaggerated, try a quick test. In this age of AI, Gemini, Grok, and infinite databases, it doesn’t take much time to verify. Let’s do some basic exercises.
Who received all the Bharat Ratnas, Sahitya akademis, or Gyanpeeths? Who is celebrated as our great writer, poet, and literary critic? I come from the so-called Hindi belt, so let’s consider that public realm as a starting point. You don’t even need to make me a name. You already know them. Gorgeous, undoubtedly – but overwhelmingly superior.
Where are the voices of Canon, school silavi, or Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs on parliamentary floors?
Does anyone currently directing Bollywood’s biggest films decide what to write our mainstream history (left, right, or centrist – that doesn’t matter), published by the Elite English Press, or count as “national literature”? Who will win grants at global cultural events, be invited to the Jaipur Literary Festival, or represent India?
In the YouTube era, who runs the most followed “alternative media” channels? Think of what is known as the platform of truth, or those who have a smooth interview series with politicians, journalists and intellectuals. Many people do important jobs – and I’m a real fan of some – but again, where did they come from? What is their social location? There are few exceptions. The cores remain the same.
Now, think about the most famous stand-up comedians and satirists. Witty, sharp, socially recognized, yet again, narrow social profile. Or look at influencer culture: Who is the most followed IAS/IIT coach? Same story. Who will win? Indian talentbecome a rebirth singer and land it as a classic dancer or on the TEDX stage? Again and again, at the top there is the same dominant caste: Brahmin, Banias, Kayasta, Kshatriya.
Yes, there are exceptions. There is always. But they are often tokens and hold up to suggest that the gate is open. They prove the rules. They become symbols of inclusion in deep, inequality, exclusive, caste-bound structures.
Let’s go further. Who leads our universities, research institutes, and large scientific labs? Who controls the higher ranks of bureaucracy and the military? Who holds the position of co-secretary or foreign secretary? And who runs India’s biggest business – both at home and at the world? Who is the biggest entrepreneur, startup guru, big billionaires, and rising stars? Who manages startup funding and venture capital?
We are very good at watching and other things. We try to do that in caste too. If you ask a middle class man in the upper city about his caste, you’ll hear, “Oh, that’s from the past.” Read a book written by a senior scholar, and you find the same: “Oh, that’s the structure of the UK.” Moving through the spectrum finds responsibility for Mughal and Muslim rulers. Some may reject it entirely or find profits in it for greater social benefits. Maybe some Gandhi.
one of the oldest texts in the Paris Canon contains an impressive dialogue in which a Brahmin asks another Brahmin, “Are you a Brahmin?” Sitting in a US graduate school where South Asian research departments are dominated by Sabarna scholars, I once joked with a friend about the modern equivalent of that equivalent. Suttanipāta Dialogue. (After all, 99% of Indian professors in the South Asian department here come from the same caste group. It doesn’t take more than a minute to verify this. Ask GoogleBaba or AI). So I said, imagine this academic version (this is true, not a hypothesis): Edited by Guha Subaltan Research Contributions from Chakrabarty, Chatterjee, Mukherjee, and Banerjee later taught at the seminar by Tiwari, Pandey, Aggarwal, Bose, Ghosh, Thapar, Sharma, Subrahmanyam and Iyer. In his papers in Kulkarni and Dixit in Dalits, he was ultimately criticized by Gupta, Goel, Mittal, Singhal, Kansal, Jindal and Tayal.
Therefore, if these hierarchies have never crossed your mind – if they have never plagued your sense of justice and equality, or if you think that is all for their merit, you are probably one of the beneficiaries of the caste.
