Annihilation of Caste is a polemical yet rigorously reasoned intervention in which B. R. Ambedkar presents a radical critique of the caste system and of Hindu society more broadly. The text originated as a speech that Ambedkar was invited to deliver at a reformist conference of caste Hindus, but it was rejected because of its uncompromising arguments. Ambedkar begins by explaining this context to underline a key point: Hindu reformers are willing to criticize certain social evils but are unwilling to confront the foundations of caste itself. From the outset, Ambedkar makes clear that his critique is directed not merely at social practices but at the religious and ideological structures that sustain caste hierarchy. Ambedkar’s central argument is that caste is not a simple social division or an occupational arrangement, as it is often presented, but a system of graded inequality. He directly challenges the claim that caste represents a division of labour. Instead, he argues that caste i...
In The Dutiful Daughter, Lila Abu-Lughod reflects ethnographically and reflexively on her fieldwork among the Awlad ‘Ali Bedouins of Egypt, showing how her anthropological knowledge was produced through her lived experience as an adopted daughter within a Bedouin household. Rather than positioning herself as an external observer, Abu-Lughod foregrounds how her everyday conduct, emotional discipline, and moral comportment were central to her acceptance in the community and to the possibility of doing ethnography at all. She recounts how, upon being taken in by a family, she was treated as an unmarried daughter whose behavior directly affected the family’s honor. This position came with concrete expectations: she was required to dress modestly, limit her interactions with men, and seek permission for movement outside the household. Abu-Lughod describes instances where she wanted to travel independently or pursue interviews freely but was prevented from doing so because such ac...