"'So there you are: that's the jadoo of the colonies. A boy who's crawled up through the hawse-holes can become as grand a sahib as any twice-born Company man. Every door in Calcutta thrown open. Burra-khanas at Government House. Choti hazri at Fort Williams. No BeeBee so great as to be durwauza-bund when he comes calling. His personal shoke might be for Low-Church evangelism, but you can be sure the Bishop always has a pew waiting for him. And to seal it all, Miss Catherine Bradshaw for a wife- about as pucka a memsahib as ever there was, a brigadier's daughter'" (Ghosh, 76).
This was one of the most explicit passages Ghosh writes regarding class mobility. Tellingly, it is said by Serang Ali, a person of such low caste that Burnham doesn't acknowledge except to ask Zachary is he would 'vouch' for him. Burnham began his career as a low-level seaman and in seeing his own greater capabilities he was able to shrewdly manipulate and utilize connections, going from being the commander of a slave/prisoner ship to running his own fleet. Ghosh satirizes Burnham's piety by saying that although evangelism is at best a garden variety Christian off-set religion, Burnham is still a formidable presence in it (which matters most). The principle idea behind the caste system being that social class provides the framework for personal morals and responsibilities is one that Ghosh seems to mock. Burnham's transformation seems to be more aligned with varna, in that his sheer will power and savviness transcended his social rank as the son of menial laborers. Also, his mocking tone stems from that he is observing that this is a trademark of the colonies and implies he believes that Burnham is undeserving of his status.
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