Caste: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

Wilkerson shares an anecdote about a man who’d been born to the highest caste in India—the Brahmins—but experienced an awakening. As a child, he’d been anointed in a Brahmin ritual with a sacred thread that hung around his neck and draped across his shoulders and chest. This was his initiation into Brahmin manhood, and he was to wear the sacred thread at all times and replace it only if it became frayed or polluted. When the man, as a young boy, watched his father refuse to punish a Dalit, he was crushed when his father fled the village because of the shame he faced for failing to uphold the caste system.

Years later, the young man could no longer see the Dalit as subservient people who belonged at the bottom of society—he began to admire them and loathe the caste system. He saw his own superiority as an illusion, and he began to feel a great sense of shame of his own. Eventually, he ripped off the sacred thread, calling it a “poisonous snake around [his] neck.” With his “fake crown” discarded, he felt he could truly begin his life’s journey.