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On Monday 26 May, Subro Saha will defend his PhD dissertation ‘Reading Caste: Entanglement, Embodiment, Agency’. In his research, Saha approaches caste – not only as a social and political phenomenon, but also as a ‘reading problem’. He also introduces the concept of ‘aesthetic reading’ as a new method for understanding caste more deeply.

Caste as a ‘reading problem’

Saha explores how habits of reading influence our understanding of caste, and what consequences these interpretations have. He demonstrates that the way caste is represented – in literature, history, and media, for example – is shaped by social, political, and cultural norms. To gain better insight into these dynamics, he proposes ‘aesthetic reading’ as a new interpretative approach to show how acts of reading don’t remain limited only within the printed letters of a text but become part of our everyday understanding.

For Saha, reading is not merely a means of acquiring information, but a critical and active engagement. By viewing ideas and practices as shaped by complex constellations of textual narratives, histories, and socio-political forces – both dominant and marginalised – he reveals the underlying (and often invisible) structures at play.

Hidden histories

Aesthetic reading entails subjecting texts and their relationship with everyday practices to critical analysis, examining multiple layers of meaning while leaving space for interpretation, imagination, and reflection. The reader actively searches for underlying meanings, connections, and forces that may not be immediately visible. In doing so, one uncovers the complex entanglement of hidden narratives, histories, and power relations embedded within our everyday practices and ideas.