Fiza Pathan’s award-winning short story ‘Caste Metal’ is only 24 pages long but carries such a powerful, impactful message that it has become a popular read this year 2025.
Fiza Pathan wrote and published this short story in 2019 to enter an American short-story contest, where she won third place. It remains one of Pathan’s most cherished stories and can be summarized as a brutal, powerful, impactful, and exceptional read like no other. Readers of ‘Caste Metal’ are especially moved by the stark truth in this story about the atrocities faced by lower castes during India’s pre-independence era.
Most Western readers cannot understand how they remained unaware of such atrocities in a country they seem to love. Whether it is Indian food, cuisine, Indian restaurants abroad, the Indian Bollywood industry, Bollywood movies, OTT shows on various online platforms and theaters overseas, Indian dressing styles, or Indian celebrities like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shahrukh Khan and his internationally famous Pathaan movie, or A.R. Rahman and his music from his days with the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire – Western readers believed they almost knew everything about India, but they were mistaken.
In fact, Fiza Pathan realized that Western readers generally know very little about India’s deeply rooted caste system compared to other aspects of the country. Even after reading books like Arundhati Roy’s bestselling ‘The God of Small Things,’ which discusses the lower-caste perspective, or titles like the recent bestseller ‘The Age of Vice’ by Deepti Kapoor, a 2023 release following the pandemic’s trauma, Western readers remain largely unaware of the reality behind India’s caste system. They especially lack an understanding of what it meant to be a lower-caste person before Independence, until figures like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Periyar, Arigay Ramaswamy, and others sparked a renaissance that enlightened and elevated the status of lower-caste individuals in India—whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise.
Fiza Pathan is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning author of more than 24 books, and her fan base is mainly overseas in the USA, Britain, Germany, and other countries. Through her many interactions with readers, fans, and fellow indie authors, she has noticed that they have limited knowledge of the Indian Caste System, especially regarding the significance of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, or Babasaheb, as the Messiah of the Dalits and the Dalit Bahujan movement.
To inform Western readers about this large community of beautiful people we classify as SCs, STs, OBCs, Dalits, Shudras, Adivasis, and Tribals, she wrote the short story ‘Caste Metal,’ which tells the harrowing tale of Cacchar, a Shudra boy, who educated himself to read Sanskrit because he was a genius, and how he was punished for it.
This story is significant in the personal life of the award-winning author Fiza Pathan. Even during her school years, her teachers often told her that she had below-average intelligence. Later, in her 30s, Fiza learned from her first IQ test that her IQ was 133. However, she always believed that she was a below-average student because of the harassment and constant humiliation she faced at school. Her despair was so deep that when she joined St. Andrew’s College in Bandra West—a place of hope in her life—she repeatedly refused to take the IQ test or any other tests. This was true even after her professors, especially Sharmila Ma’am from St. Andrew’s College, who liked her very much and suspected she was far from having below-normal intelligence, encouraged her to do so.
Over the years, Fiza Pathan became an international bestselling author at 24 and received more than 70 international awards within a decade. One of her awards is the inaugural Bronze Examiner Pen Award 2024, presented to her by The Examiner: A Catholic Newsweekly during their 175th Anniversary Celebrations, for her Catholic journalistic efforts, literary achievements, and recognition at a young age. Pathan later founded her own publishing company in 2016 and now serves as the Director of Fiza Pathan Publishing (OPC) Private Limited under the imprint ‘Freedom with Pluralism.’ She is currently a qualified International Board Teacher with specialties in English, History, Global Perspectives, TOK, CAS, and Individuals and Societies, covering the IBDP, IGCSE, MYP, and PYP levels. Her primary expertise lies in the IBDP, AS and A Level, and the IGCSE in English, History, and Global Perspectives. Pathan is also pursuing her Master’s or MTS in Theological Studies at Pontifex University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
After all this, Fiza Pathan still felt that she had below-average intelligence. All because of the mental and emotional abuse she faced at school. Therefore, she could feel the pain and trauma of a helpless and vulnerable boy like Cacchar, who was punished for what he should have been glorified or awarded. This has been a common theme in Fiza Pathan’s fiction, such as ‘Nirmala: The Mud Blossom’ and ‘Amina: The Silent One’, where genius is rewarded with degradation, humiliation, shame, punishment, and severe forms of abuse. But just like these characters emerged from the ashes to create their own destinies towards their respective objectives or goals in life, so also Fiza Pathan as well as her character Cacchar trample down the many societal enemies that try to cow them down and become the creators of their own destinies towards complete emancipation not only for themselves but for other vulnerable individuals as well, especially children, women and those who are voiceless in society.
Today, Fiza Pathan is on her way to becoming a Consecrated Virgin for Christ, or a lay religious. She wishes to dedicate her life not to the powers that be but to those who are victims of the powers that be, however difficult that proposition may seem. She especially wishes to do so through her writings and literary output and is glad that her ‘Caste Metal’ of all her short stories or shorts happens to be a beloved favorite of most of her readers, fans, and colleagues.
If you are interested in checking out Fiza Pathan’s short story ‘Caste Metal, ’ you can do so here.
If you are interested in more book reviews, book analysis, short story analysis, poems, essays, essay analysis, and other bookish content, you can visit Fiza Pathan’s blog at insaneowl.com. If you would like to buy books written by Fiza Pathan, check out the products page or Amazon. There are many great options to choose from. Happy reading!
Copyright©2025 Fiza Pathan
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