In ‘Castes in India’ Ambedkar provides a pioneering analysis of the origin and development of caste in India. The chapter begins by defining what caste is and explaining its origins from Ambedkar’s perspective, as well as examining the role caste plays in the oppression of women. Ambedkar's causal explanation of women's oppression marks a departure from other significant political works of the time, including Gandhi’s, which largely neglect the oppression of women as a critical form of social inequality. Ambedkar’s ‘Castes in India’ serves as a vital corrective to the traditional canon in political philosophy due to the valuable insights it offers.
Dr. Ambedkar's study of the caste problem involves :
(1) in spite of the composite make-up of the Hindu population, there is a deep cultural unity;
(2) caste is a parcelling into bits of a larger cultural unit;
(3) there was one caste to start with and
(4) classes have become castes through imitation and excommunication