This criticism purely deals with the author and the way he depicts the caste situation in India.The protagonist Balram Halwai is described to be of a confectionary caste which makes sweets, This caste is given affirmative action in India”s caste based reservation system but is not a a “Lower caste” it is in fact a socially well positioned caste that is economically poor. Since Indians sacrifice sweets to temples the Halwai caste is considered a pure Job for which very few people are discriminated against.
Second clue that the author is clueless about caste in North India is by the fact Halwais never use Halwai as their surname, Most of them use Sah,Shaw, or Sae (all are variations of the word merchant in sanskrit), This surname is common to almost all artisan/merchant castes of Bihar.
Third is the fact that people would care enough about caste to discrminate against a halwai in Delhi and would ask if halwai is lower or upper caste. (Most people in Delhi would know halwai as a proffesion and not as a caste as normal merchant castes do the work halwais do in eastern parts of India.
The protagonist is from Gaya bihar which is a part of terai and since Indian govt does not calculate economic indicators by caste I will use a proxy of terai region in nepal which is culturally extremely similar to the region the protagonist hails from, The literacy rates of Halwais may not be on par with upper castes but it is on par with castes that are not discriminated against at all in urban settings. For example goldsmiths have a lower literacy rate than Halwais. And the literacy rate for halwais is on par with Chetrees (warrior caste of nepal).(67% vs 71%).
[https://nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Population%20Monograph%20V02.pdf](https://nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Population%20Monograph%20V02.pdf)
All of these things combined show that the author does not have a firm grasp of caste system in bihar and how People discrimiated against lower castes, In the book the employer literally asks balram halwai if Halwai is a lower or upper caste. Most caste discrimination arises in India due to in caste nepotism or discrimination against lower castes because their proffession is seen as impure. Their is almost no High caste solidarity or Low caste solidarity.
I would also like to add that I am from the caste of halwais that the protagonist belongs from and this is not some upper caste person turning his head away from realities in India
Most people from lower caste even when directly asked say they face little discrimination.
According to pew research only 13% of OBC’s (category of castes balrama belongs to) say they have face discrimination due to their caste. If people from the caste when directly asked say they face little discrimination how can a man who cant get the surnames of the protagonist correct be praised worldwide for showing the prevalence of casteism in India.
by TA778898