Ambedkar: Castes in India

On May 9, 1916, Ambedkar presented a paper on caste at an Anthropology Seminar at Columbia University. Two important features of caste he noted in his presentation were commensality (who eats with whom) and connubium (who marries whom). Commensality and connubium remained central not only to Ambedkar’s conceptualization of caste, but also to his idea of annihilation of caste. Although Ambedkar does not cite Weber, his conceptualization of caste as cultural circumscribed by commensality and connubium is typically Weberian.