Podcast Summary: Upper Caste Liberalism with Ravikant Kisana

Podcast: New Books Network | CAST Pod
Host: Ajanta Subramanian
Guest: Ravikant Kisana (Dean, School of Liberal Education and Languages at Dalgotias University)
Date: March 16, 2026
Book Discussed: Meet the Savannas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything

Overview

This episode of the CAST Pod, in partnership with New Books Network, features a probing conversation between host Ajanta Subramanian and Ravikant Kisana about his new book, "Meet the Savannas." The discussion lays bare the unique place of upper-caste groups (Savarnas) in India’s late-modern polity: their performance of modernity, the strategic ignorance they maintain about caste privilege, and the structural mechanisms by which they uphold advantage. The conversation is nuanced, unflinching, and marked by sharp wit, exploring not only the contours of the "Savarna" identity but also its centrality to India’s enduring inequality.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining ‘Savarna’ and the Rationale for Scrutiny

• What is a Savarna?:
  • Ravikant details India's Varna system as a pyramid: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), Shudras (servants). "Savarna" denotes those within the Varna pyramid (esp. the top three) as opposed to "Avarna" (historically excluded groups, i.e., Dalits, Adivasis).
  • "Even within the four groups with a Varna, you have a tier which is at the bottom. Right. So the three groups above them can be technically called dwij savarna... So when we say Savarna, we are broadly talking about these three varnas of the priests, the warriors, the trading." (Ravikant, 06:06)
• Why Focus on Savarnas Now?:
  • The book addresses post-2000s India, focusing not on deep antiquity but the transformation (and failures) of the ‘India Shining’ generation (11:49).
  • Savarnas, especially urban, intergenerationally educated elites, have disproportionately shaped—and failed to deliver—the post-liberalization Indian project.

2. The ‘Cosplaying’ of Modernity & Mediocrity of Elites

• Savarna Modernity is Performative, Not Substantive:
  • Ravikant says, "Savarna modernity is actually a cosplaying of modernity. It's not modernity in itself... It's not in knowledge producing culture, it is fundamentally a knowledge performing culture." (18:38)
    • Elites project an image of innovation, cosmopolitanism, or progressivism, but rarely drive deep societal transformation.
  • The ‘glass floor’ analogy: The poor can see elite life but the elites rarely ‘look down’ or recognize their own insulation (26:06).
• Notable Anecdote:
  • On COVID-19’s “great migration” of workers home: “While this is playing out, the elites in India are actually quite comfortable...People are baking things and making dalgona coffee while the poorest ...are walking home.” (14:25)
    • The affluence of the few is “bankrolled off the backs of the marginalized people in the basement.” (22:45)
  • On student insularity: “One of the students in my class...said, well, the problem is...we have way too many people. So...do we throw them in the Arabian Sea? And he didn't say no.” (17:50)

3. Performance, Aesthetics, and the Social Reproduction of Caste

• Who is the Performance For?
  • The ‘cosplay’ is both an internal competition and a filtering mechanism—an intricate dance of cultural capital, especially language, leisure, ‘taste’, that distinguishes and excludes (27:45; 35:53).
  • Social media and meme culture further reinforce status boundaries—caste-coded slurs like "chapri" exemplify this (37:53).
• Social and Institutional Insularity:
  • Elite campuses and institutions carry “no legal barrier” but employ price, cultural codes, and unwritten rules to filter out marginalized groups (30:40).
  • Despite the proliferation of savarna-written books “about” marginalized people, there is little change in representation or power-sharing inside academia or elite spaces (40:04).
  • “What they write, they write really, really well...But my yardstick to assess savarna scholars is slightly different...[It’s] not just a written word, I look at their practice...How many scholars have you taken? How many of your PhD students...have come from these communities?” (41:09)

4. Marriage, Endogamy, and the Boundaries of Alliance

• Marriage as Core to Caste Reproduction:
  • Despite the veneer of modernity or cosmopolitanism, marriage remains firmly endogamous. “The circle of acceptable partners has not expanded...The more you climb up in cultural capital...the forms of exclusion become subtler and subtler.” (52:40; 56:40)
  • Temporary youthful rebellion (inter-caste romance, radical politics) usually gives way to parental absorption via marriage.
• Institutional Pedigrees as New Kinship:
  • “IITian identity” can function like institutionalized kinship but caste remains foundational—being an IITian adds to, but does not supplant, Brahmin/Bania identity (51:10).

5. Change and Continuity: From “Castelessness” to Caste Pride

• Shift in Elite Self-Perception:
  • A generational change from ‘performing’ castelessness in the early 2000s (to gain western approval, to signal liberalism) has given way to open caste pride, even among Gen Z on social media (63:31).
  • “People who are talking about scientific rationality and Marx in college are now in their 40s talking about how the Veds are so divine and so on. So that shift doesn’t just happen like that.” (65:51)
  • This is not solely a product of Hindu Right politics, Ravikant argues; rather, the right-wing is a “cousin formation” of the urban-liberal Savarna elite (74:02).

6. Internal Contradictions and Fragility of the Savarna Cohort

• Savarna Unity is Functional, Not Organic:
  • Internal rifts and tensions (e.g., between Bengali Brahmins/Kayasthas and Marwaris in Calcutta; among Thakurs/Rajputs and Banias) exist but “when it comes to policy unity...these sort of things, then they all sort of come together.” (81:04; 82:18)
  • Ravikant highlights the importance of contextually-rooted ethnography—even within ‘Savarna’ there are overlooked complexities (81:45).
• Access and Power:
  • Elite housing complexes, universities, networks become de facto caste-enforced fortresses, closed to outside scrutiny (87:19).

7. The Possibility (or Impossibility) of Transformation

• Moments of Caste-Crossing Coalition are Rare and Ephemeral:
  • Cites the fleeting 2007 alliance between Brahmins and Dalits in UP as a moment of promise but one that did not last (88:23).
• Bleak Prognosis:
  • The failure to deliver on ‘development’ has shifted popular demands toward immediate welfare, increasing the cost of electoral politics; the result, Kisana warns, could be state bankruptcy or a slide toward authoritarianism (90:45).
  • “You think things are bad now. We will look back on this and these are probably the good old days. It might get really, really bad, really quickly. But nobody has ever accused me of being an optimist.” (93:51)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Savarna modernity is actually a cosplaying of modernity. It's not modernity in itself."
  — Ravikant Kisana (18:38)
• “It's the affluence and the wealth of this elite class...bankrolled off the backs of the marginalized people in the basement.”
  — Ravikant Kisana (22:45)
• “When it comes to the question of political unity, policy unity, social praxis, then they all sort of come together.”
  — Ravikant Kisana (82:18)
• "People who are talking about scientific rationality and Marx in college are now...talking about how the veds are so divine..."
  — Ravikant Kisana (65:51)
• “No one has ever accused me of being an optimist.”
  — Ravikant Kisana (93:51)

Major Timestamps

• 02:55: What and who are Savarnas?
• 09:35–18:38: The story of post-2000s India, ‘India Shining,’ and subsequent failures
• 26:06: The ‘glass floor’ and insularity of elites
• 35:53: Who is the audience for Savarna performance? The filtering function of culture
• 40:04: The paradox of prolific savarna scholarship with little impact on social practice
• 51:10: Marriage, endogamy, and other axes of caste reproduction
• 63:31: The shift from castelessness to explicit caste pride
• 81:04: Fractures and alliances within the savarna cohort
• 88:23–93:51: Political coalitions, the changing social contract, and prospects for transformation (or crisis)

Tone

Wry, incisive, unsparing, yet deeply informed and often personal. Kisana brings a sharp ethnographic eye, weaving together autobiography, structural critique, and anecdote with the goal of making the invisible operations of power visible—even (and especially) for those invested in not seeing them.

Conclusion

Ravikant Kisana’s "Meet the Savannas" uses the lens of critical caste studies to incisively interrogate the blinkered mediocrity, performative liberalism, and self-protective ignorance of India’s upper-caste elites. The conversation situates the enduring structural power of Savarnas in contemporary India within both a historical context and the lived present, concluding with a sobering reflection on the narrowing possibilities for substantive social transformation. An essential listen/read for anyone seeking to understand the undercurrents of India’s so-called modernity.