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Race and caste have historically been studied as comparable systems of stratification, but that comparison has also been a subject of critique. In fact, since the sixties, there has been an active decline in the practice of identifying similarities between the two systems (Beteille 490). Drawing upon Andre Beteille’s argument, “inequalities of caste are illuminated in the same way as those of race by consideration of gender,” this paper argues that reimagining Othello as Omkara works not just because race and caste work as ‘cultural equivalents’ but because, at the core of it, there are shared masculine notions of gender that align Othello with Omkara, in the same way Othello’s mind works in tandem with Iago’s insinuations. It is gender, rather than race, that allows a ‘faithful’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s play.
Dr. Kavita. “Decoding Masculinities: Reimagining Othello as Omkara.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 4, August 2026, pp. 41-52. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n4.3.
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