when confronted with the Asian region. Asia did not quite fit the European imagination of races. The caste system of south Asia defied racial categorisation. It is in this sense that B R Ambedkar had denied the equivalence of race and caste. But the essence of both, casteism and racism, lay in discrimination on the basis of descent. By this understanding, Indian elites, notwithstanding their brags, become inveterate racists. Their racism not only manifests in their behaviour with dalits but also in their relation with Blacks abroad. The Indians, despite enriching themselves in Africa over generations are known to avoid any social contact with the local population. Casteism easily transforms into racism abroad: the lightness of skin corresponding to the hierarchical superiority of people. Whites then become quasi-brahmins and blacks, dalits.
