Abstract

Odours, because of their proximity to bodies and because of their surreptitious nature, can be very potent sources of understanding how power is organised and sustained. Caste, a system of hierarchical arrangements, can also be thought of as a system of sensory ordering of bodies, spaces, and objects. It is through this sensorial ordering that caste produces and retains its ability to classify, create boundaries and thus rank bodies and objects in a relative relationship with each other. In this essay, I examine the relationship between caste and odours through three ideas. First, the essay interrogates how odours derive their meaning from caste norms. Second, because of the relational nature of odours, examining caste from this perspective reveals how the interaction between different caste bodies is structured. Lastly, the essay interrogates odours as the sites of resistance within the caste discourse.