Caste did not disappear in India. It only learned how to hide.
Caste Before Class challenges the popular belief that reservation is only about poverty and that caste no longer matters. The book argues that inequality in India is not just economic but deeply social, inherited, and invisible to those who benefit from it.
While some are born with networks, confidence, language, and acceptance, others are forced to constantly prove their “merit.” Ignoring caste in the name of merit does not create equality—it protects privilege.
This book examines:
Why caste cannot be reduced to income
The real purpose of reservation
How merit often ignores unequal starting points
How politics and media shape the reservation debate
Caste Before Class does not deny misuse, but it refuses to let misuse erase justice. It questions systems, not communities.
This book is not written to comfort beliefs.
It is written to confront them.