Understanding the Caste System and Its Maintenance: Brave New World’s World State and Ambedkar’s Stratified Hindu Society in Annihilation of Caste

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World contains and resembles a caste system found in Hindu society. While in Hindu society, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras comprise the caste system, in Huxley’s text, there are Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. With regard to the stratified Hindu society, in Annihilation of Caste, Dr B.R. Ambedkar exposed the viciousness of the caste system and how it stabilized the privilege of those in power to the detriment of the rest. Hence, with Ambedkar’s views regarding caste, the author of this article wishes to understand the caste system in Brave New World and how it is maintained. In other words, the purpose of this article is to investigate how the caste system, as seen in Brave New World, undermines individual reason and, with the fear of excommunication, absence of meaningful relationships, and love for one’s social privilege, maintains a system of graded inequality.