Mathangi Krishnamurthy, 1-800-WORLDS: The Making of the Indian Call Centre Economy

segregation based on caste, she does not enlarge on the agency of caste networks, which are not limited to only preserving and protecting upper caste–self but also broadening the scope of creating an organic solidarity, which encourages and promotes caste differentiation and nepotism. The book discusses the extent of class inequalities but inadequately contemplates on the cultural and ideological lenses of caste used to justify notions of merit. Thus, this book is useful in understanding the dimension of caste within the framework of sociology of education but fails to capture the different worldviews that enter spaces like IITs, especially today. A growing number of students come from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, and their bringing new forms of articulations of caste subjectivities, be it Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle or Chinta Bar in IIT Madras, needs to be examined. The book leaves scope for addressing these questions: Are these organisations truly and only non-Brahmin collectives? How are the notions of merit changing in spaces like IIT Madras from an up-down approach of investigating caste articulations? How does an institute like IIT Madras aim to achieve a secular image while, in its various functions, apparently downplaying reservation and multiculturalism as an equalising process? The book’s engagement with the reservation policy and the counter responses from upper castes give valuable insights in scrutinising the claims of merit and competence but fails to address the issues of self-respect and subaltern agency in shaping subjectivities of caste. The book’s highlight remains in tracing the claims of meritocracy by upper castes, from colonial to contemporary times, in the contexts of engineering education and jobs: It explains the transformation of markers of caste and class superiority and morality.