What Do Animals Have to Do with Caste?

In Indian social geographical context, animals have been both the means and the effects of the production and reproduction of caste. Society may be seen as a multispecies ecosystem where animals hold a significant position in everyday life, rituals and human life events. They appear in people’s lives in multiple ways: social, economic or political. The association between humans and animals may result in doubly reinforcing oppressions or privileges through association with each other. While human–animal relations remain under-theorised in caste studies and caste remains the least discussed in animal studies, they are instrumentalised to maintain the typologies of caste. To consider broadly, in a caste society like ours, the cow becomes holy and a subject of protection, whereas the pig is considered polluting; at times, its sight is also deemed filthy and avoidable. These two animals, in particular, denote the contradictions between pure and impure. Notably, in the Hindu imagination, animals have an assigned caste identity. They are considered to inherently possess social qualities associated with their particular caste assignation.