On Surplus Men and Women; Enclosing Classes into Castes to Devalue Lower Caste Women

Ambedkar in his seminal paper Castes in India, has explained in great detail how brahmins were the first to create an enclosed class of themselves and turn into a caste which led to other classes to turn themselves into Castes as well and thus emerged the system of castes which was honoured because it was practised.

Ambedkar argued that the problem of surplus men and women was at the centre of imposition of endogamy.

While Ambedkar only delineated the origin of caste, I would like to take his argument further to make a point that clear demarcation and compartmentalisation of classes into castes created a relative scarcity of women belonging to upper castes and thus inflated their relative value in the Hindu social order as compared to the lower caste women, where endogamy was not as prevalent as among the upper castes. This relative value leads to a perceived desirability and value because of restrictions imposed on their sexuality.

The scarcity and exclusivity associated with closed social groups can make higher-class women seem more valuable simply because they are less accessible, increasing their perceived worth.