Hegemonic Inheritance and the Intergenerational Reproduction of Caste through the Architecture of Humiliation in Select Dalit Testimonios

Abstract

This research paper explores how caste is systematically reproduced across generations by cultural, institutional and psychological processes or mechanisms that can be called the “architecture of humiliation”. The study is based on the “Savarna consciousness” as hegemony and the “spontaneous consent” of social structures and the idea of “cultural capital” created by Pierre Bourdieu. Using a textual analysis of selected Dalit testimonios, the paper explores the space of segregation in the basti as a first site of reproduction, the pedagogy of humiliation in schools and the paradox of religious institutions. The results show how the “inferiority” and “psychological burden” of “passing” are being passed on from generation to generation. The results illustrate how “inferiority” and the “psychological burden” of “passing” are being transmitted from one generation to the next. .