brief essay on caste discrimination

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Caste Discrimination Essay

People are categorised according to their place of birth, community, and place of employment under the caste system. The practise of caste discrimination in India has its roots in history but has undergone numerous significant alterations since then and now the practice has been banned and declared illegal by the government. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Caste Discrimination’.

100 Words Essay On Caste Discrimination

200 words essay on caste discrimination, 500 words essay on caste discrimination.

Indian society has long been heavily dominated by the caste system and became corrupt because of the nation's obsession with it. Originally, the caste system was intended to create distinct groups within our community in order to create social stratification and a separation of occupations. However, over time, this division took the form of a pyramidal structure, with the highest caste being linked to receiving the most respect. The rigid adherence to traditions, customs, and certain beliefs like superstitions or reincarnation and the deeds of previous lives was what made this patriarchal system toxic. All of this led to the treatment of Dalits and other members of the untouchable caste with cruelty and oppression.

In Indian society, the caste system has existed for a very long time and has a strong foundation. The Hindu community was divided into four main castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Shudras. Apart from this, there exists tens of thousands of sub-castes and communities. Instead of fostering a sense of respect for all professions, the caste system ultimately became a tool for discrimination. In the Indian caste system, people began constructing a ladder or pyramid structure to represent the degree of respect that should be accorded to each caste. The group of persons connected to the caste "shudras," subsequently known as the "untouchables," was the most persecuted and disadvantaged caste.

They were later given the name "Harijans" by Mahatma Gandhi. The scenario of the caste system in India has altered due to social reformers such as Dr. Ambedkar and Raja Rammohan Roy, as no caste discrimination is now permitted. They actively fought for the rights of OBCs, STs, and other caste groups. But despite their struggles and development of society, the caste system continues to have a negative impact on people's attitudes. It is essential to raise awareness, particularly in rural areas, to encourage people to get over their fixation on the caste system and to end all forms of caste-based discrimination by speaking out against them.

Indian society has a caste system that has existed for thousands of years. Ancient scriptures also make a categorical mention of castes. Eventually, this sort of segregation gave way to greed, which led to the higher castes oppressing the lower caste. Over time, the caste system changed and produced worse social ills.

However, as of now caste-based unfairness and prejudice are illegal in Independent India according to the law. Additionally, the government established a reservation system or "quota" for those from ST, SC, and OBC families in order to make up for the injustice done to lower castes or scheduled tribes in the past.

Even though the goal of the quota system was to give jobs and education to those who needed them and belonged to the socially backward classes, people soon began to abuse it for unfair means, such as obtaining reservations or opportunities for employment or education when they didn't need them and came from wealthy families.

Our worth should never be determined by our birth. We ought to be judged on how well we behave and how much we contribute to society through our employment.

Ancient Caste System

The ancient caste system divided the Indian society into four main castes and provided an account of their duties and ranks as mentioned below-

Brahmins | The highest position in society was granted to Brahmins. They portrayed well-known characters like the priest and the instructor. They were revered and worshipped by everyone else. Brahmins were regarded as the protectors of the society who set the rules for religion. As outlined in the sacred texts, they had a duty to uphold that order.

Kshatriyas | After the Brahmins, came the Kshatriyas. In ancient times, both of them had a friendly relationship. Kshatriyas played the parts of landlords and warriors. They served in the kings' and princely states' armies of India and were renowned for their bravery and valour.

Vaishyas | The Vaishyas were those who worked in commerce and other occupations. They were small traders, goldsmiths, and merchants. They served as society's primary producers of goods and communities. Following the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, Vaishyas held a strategically significant position in society.

Shudras | Shudras were people who worked as labourers, artisans, and other menial jobs. They were not allowed to participate in the ‘upnayan sanskar’ or the Vedic studies initiation ceremonies held at that time in order to become full members of the religious society.

While the first four classes were described in ancient literature, a fifth one known as ‘Dalits’ or ‘untouchables’ evolved from the Shudra caste. Other castes regarded Shudras who worked as sweepers, washers, shoemakers, and foragers as untouchables and thought their labour to be unclean. The untouchables experienced severe social, economic and educational discrimination. They were barred from attending religious events and even from sitting in front of ‘upper’ caste individuals.

The purpose of the caste system was to maintain order in the society but unfortunately, it eventually turned into a justification for harassing a certain community, depriving it of its basic rights and honour. As the rightful citizens of the largest democracy in the world, it is our obligation to ensure that all citizens, regardless of caste or other distinctions, enjoy equal freedom and position.

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The Constitutionality of Prohibiting Caste Discrimination

Guha Krishnamurthi is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. He thanks Kevin Brown, Charanya Krishnaswami, Chan Tov McNamarah, Alex Platt, Peter Salib, Joe Thai, attendees of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law Comparative Constitutional Democracy Colloquium for helpful comments, and the editors of the Law Review Online.

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The problem of caste discrimination has come into sharp focus in the United States. In the last few years, there have been several high-profile allegations and cases of caste discrimination in employment and educational settings. As a result, organizations—including governmental entities—are taking action, including by updating their rules and regulations to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on caste and initiating enforcement actions against alleged caste discrimination. Most prominently, the City of Seattle became the first U.S. city to amend its local antidiscrimination ordinance to add caste as a protected category.

In response to such government action, questions have arisen about the constitutionality of prohibiting caste discrimination. Opponents principally argue that recognizing caste discrimination violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment because governmental entities demean religions, like Hinduism, in doing so. In this Essay, I explain that governments can recognize and remedy caste discrimination consistent with the First Amendment. Remedying caste discrimination does not require disparaging any religion. Insofar as it is necessary to contextualize and remedy instances of discrimination, governmental entities may reference religion, but as a constitutional matter they should refrain from unnecessarily disparaging religion. As with other forms of discrimination, our Constitution empowers the government to protect individuals from the effects of caste discrimination.

Introduction

Over the last three years, the issue of caste discrimination has come into sharp focus in the United States. In the summer of 2020, there was a high-profile case of alleged caste discrimination arising out of Silicon Valley. An employee of Cisco Systems, Inc., hailing from a Dalit background, alleged that he had been paid less, deprived of opportunities, and denigrated due to his caste status. Dalits were once referred to as “untouchables” under the South Asian caste system ; they were and are subject to grievous caste-based oppression in India and elsewhere in the subcontinent. The California Civil Rights Department (CRD), formerly the California Department of Fair Education and Housing, brought a case on behalf of the employee and the issue is still being litigated .  Subsequently, numerous individuals have shared their stories of being subject to caste discrimination in employment, educational settings , social settings , and beyond . As a result, scholars have written about the ability of current law to address claims of caste discrimination. And we are seeing more cases of alleged caste discrimination coming to the courts.

Several organizations have taken steps to recognize caste discrimination and to pave pathways for remedies. Universities, including Brandeis University , Brown University , the University of California at Davis , and the California State University system , have added caste as a protected category to their antidiscrimination codes. The Santa Clara Human Rights Commission held public hearings to consider adding caste as a protected category. The City of Seattle became the first U.S. city to add caste as a protected category to its local antidiscrimination ordinance. And, most recently, the California State Legislature is considering proposed legislation S.B. 403 that would ban caste discrimination statewide.

By and large, the public response to these systemic changes has been positive. There is overwhelming consensus that caste discrimination is morally wrongful and socially harmful, and that recognizing and remedying instances of caste discrimination is appropriate. And, as noted, many institutions have pursued this through explicit changes to their antidiscrimination policies and rules.

That said, with respect to governmental action, some objectors have expressed concern that explicitly recognizing caste as a protected category may cause constitutional problems . 1 Specifically, objectors argue that recognizing caste discrimination violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause.

In this Essay, I address these putative constitutional violations. I begin by observing that caste is a distinct category and so there is good reason to recognize it separately from religion. With that in mind, I examine how legislation and other government action prohibiting caste discrimination may be pursued in accord with the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause.

I.  Caste Discrimination: Reasons for Special Recognition

Caste is a structure of social stratification that is characterized by hereditary transmission of a set of practices, often including occupation, ritual practice, and social interaction. There are various social systems around the world that have been described as “caste” systems, of which the South Asian caste system is most prominent. Across these systems, including in South Asia, caste is often related to concepts of ritual purity and pollution, and serves as the basis for discrimination, and indeed severe oppression.

Charanya Krishnaswami and I , as well as other scholars, have argued that caste discrimination may be cognizable under Title VII under race, national origin, and—in the appropriate factual case—religion. But those arguments are still untested in the courts, and the comparatively unique nature of the category of caste does suggest that there is value in recognizing caste with particularity, since it may otherwise escape recognition under our current legal frameworks.

Notwithstanding arguments that caste may be covered under existing legal frameworks, there are good reasons to recognize caste discrimination with particularity. The nature of caste as a category is distinctive: it does not squarely fit within race, spans various religions, and is not generally considered an ethnicity. Thus, caste discrimination might not be based on the commonly understood categories of race, color, national origin, or ethnicity. Furthermore, caste status may cross religious lines, and instances of caste discrimination might be unrelated to one’s religion. However, caste is a complex that does involve, inter alia, ancestral and endogamous relations, historic occupation, religious background, and native language. These facts may obfuscate its fit within recognized categories of antidiscrimination law.

Moreover, recognizing caste with particularity would obviate putative arguments reducing caste to socioeconomic status. The implication of such arguments is that because socioeconomic status generally does not receive protection under antidiscrimination law, neither should caste. Setting aside the question of whether socioeconomic status should be protected, caste is simply not reducible to socioeconomic status. Even if one can change his or her socioeconomic status, that will often not impact his or her caste status—which is notoriously rigid. Caste is an immutable characteristic, just like those traditionally protected by antidiscrimination law.

II.  Recognizing Caste Discrimination Does Not Offend the Establishment Clause

Some of those who object to explicitly recognizing caste discrimination contend that this recognition reaches a constitutional dimension, raising concerns that sound in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause. In my review, I have not yet found these concerns fully articulated. 2 Thus, I describe these concerns in the most charitable, developed way that I can, noting where there are gaps.

With respect to the Establishment Clause, the objectors’ argument appears to be that, in the course of recognizing caste discrimination, the government makes statements—whether in a statute or in the course of enforcement actions—that Hinduism involves caste at some core or innate level. These statements, the objectors claim, are false and denigrating of Hinduism, and consequently are an Establishment Clause violation .

A. The Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause Jurisprudence

The Establishment Clause forbids “government speech endorsing religion.” This means that “when the government speaks for itself it must carefully avoid expressing favoritism for a particular religious viewpoint.” However, “[t]he Establishment Clause does not wholly preclude the government from referencing religion.” Indeed, in Stone v. Graham (1980), the Supreme Court observed that “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like” in public schools. A prohibition on all reference to religion by governmental entities would “raise substantial difficulties as to what might be left to talk about . . . [and] it would require that we ignore much of our own history and that of the world in general.” Instead, the Establishment Clause requires that the government espouse neutrality between different religions.

We find ourselves at a moment of flux in the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence. Under the longstanding test from Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), “a government act is consistent with the Establishment Clause if it: (1) has a secular purpose; (2) has a principal or primary effect that neither advances nor disapproves of religion; and (3) does not foster excessive governmental entanglement with religion.” In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), the Supreme Court abandoned the Lemon test in favor of a test that looks to “historical practices and understandings.” It is not yet clear what that test means, but the opinion may suggest that the Court is generally less inclined to find that government action violates the Establishment Clause.

Relevant here as well is the Court’s decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018). That case concerned a baker who refused to provide a wedding cake to a gay couple. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission determined that the baker violated Colorado’s antidiscrimination law and gave the baker specific orders on how to comply. On review as to whether this violated the baker’s Free Exercise rights, the Supreme Court ruled against the Commission on the basis that the Commission’s statements expressed a hostility toward religion. Indeed, the Court noted that it may have ruled for the Commission had it expressed neutrality toward religion. Here too, the full import of the Supreme Court’s holding is difficult to discern, but it appears that the Court signaled a sensitivity to and vigilance for government hostility to religion. 3

One way of resolving the latent tension in the Court’s recent cases, where the Court is seemingly both expanding and contracting the capacity for government action to engage with religion, is to understand the Court as willing to give the government more breadth in its conduct touching on religion so long as the government does not engage in hostility toward religion (or particular religions). Admittedly, this is speculation, hoping for consistency.

Government actions, such as legislation or enforcement actions, that prohibit caste discrimination as part of civil rights laws will likely stand under the Court’s current jurisprudence. Though the exact contours of the Kennedy test remain to be decided, it appears that the Court has expanded governments’ abilities to engage with religion, beyond the strictures of the Lemon test.  Ultimately, it seems likely that when government entities act to prohibit discrimination, including caste discrimination, they may reference religion where necessary, but comments that disparage religion might run afoul of the Establishment Clause. Consequently, the more that government entities make statements about religious beliefs, such as about Hinduism, the more they incur constitutional risks.

B. Caste and Religion

As an initial matter, we should observe that prohibiting and remedying caste discrimination, in employment and places of public accommodation, for example, does not require the government to make denigrating statements about any religion, including Hinduism. (And, though not religions, the government need not make any denigrating claims about Indian culture or South Asian culture, either.) The government need not determine the genesis of the concept of caste in order to recognize that there are, in particular societies and communities, extant social orderings of caste. Indeed, caste discrimination occurs in various religious communities in South Asia, not just Hinduism. Thus, it is not true that recognizing caste discrimination per se denigrates Hinduism in particular.

Now, government entities considering prohibiting caste discrimination have in fact made statements that the caste system has relationships with Hinduism. Most prominently, the California CRD referred to caste as a “strict Hindu social and religious hierarchy” and the City of Seattle recited that caste was a “religiously sanctioned social structure of Hinduism.” Objectors contend that these statements convey that caste is an inextricable or foundational part of Hinduism. These statements, they contend, are both false and unconstitutionally derogatory of Hinduism. This appears to be the strongest basis for the Establishment Clause challenge, for the government does violate the Establishment Clause if it disparages any religion, including Hinduism. 4

As a factual matter, historically the institution of caste has had relationships with Hindu religious tradition and practice. Whether such relationships are fundamental to, or a perversion of, Hinduism are separate questions. As noted, governmental entities need not take a position on them. There are plausible readings of the statements by the California CRD and City of Seattle that suggest they have not done so—rather their claims may simply convey that, as a historical matter, there have been relationships between the institution of caste and the Hindu religion, the predominant religion of South Asia. But objectors disagree: they maintain that these statements wrongly imply that caste is fundamental to Hinduism, and as a result they unconstitutionally tread on religion.

Thus, the question remains whether the government action of making such statements about Hinduism in the course of legally recognizing caste discrimination is constitutional. In the absence of further guidance from the Court, we can first consider how such government action would have fared under the Lemon test. That is, because the Court in Kennedy arguably expanded the ability for government action to engage with religion, if this government conduct passes muster under the Lemon test, it a fortiori should stand under the Kennedy test.

C. Applying the Lemon Factors

On the first Lemon factor, the government action has a secular purpose—to ensure that individuals are not discriminated against on bases that relate to core features of their identity. It is the same secular purpose that animates government action against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, and sex.

On the second factor, such action does not have a principal or primary purpose of disapproving of religion—as said before, it is to eradicate a form of invidious discrimination. To be clear, on certain sets of facts, it might be that some governmental entity is primarily intending to disparage a particular religion, and if so, then that action may fail the Lemon test. But the mere fact of prohibiting caste discrimination does not evince such intent.

This brings us to the third factor, whether there is an excessive entanglement with religion. Both the California CRD and the City of Seattle have made putative statements of historical fact about the relationship between the caste system and Hinduism—that caste is a “ strict Hindu social and religious hierarchy ” and a “ religiously sanctioned social structure .” We needn’t seek to resolve the factual accuracy of the statements—which will inevitably be contentious. Importantly, however, the fact that some individuals disagree with or take offense at the government’s statements cannot be enough to render the government speech an Establishment Clause violation. Given that matters of religion are contentious, that would render any government reference to religion unconstitutional. But as the Court held in Stone v. Graham (1980) that is not the case—the Court there held that religious matters may be constitutionally referenced in appropriate settings by government actors. Thus, there is a strong argument that government entities can reference what they understand to be the relationship between discrimination and religion. And since the Kennedy test is arguably broader than Lemon in permitting government action, there is a strong argument that government action here is a fortiori permitted.

At the same time, the references to Hinduism here are not without constitutional risk. As noted, the Supreme Court held in Masterpiece Cakeshop that in enforcing antidiscrimination laws that may conflict with religious beliefs, government enforcement authorities must express neutrality toward religion. Here, it is possible that a court might rule that these statements do express hostility toward religion. Indeed, the fact that these statements do not appear to be necessary to effectuate prohibitions on caste discrimination may bolster such a determination. That said, insofar as government reference to religion is necessary to explain caste discrimination, either in general or in a particular instance, a court is unlikely to hold such government action unconstitutional, because the government does have a compelling interest in preventing invidious discrimination , and thus the government action will meet strict scrutiny.

D. Applying “Historical Practices and Understandings”

Finally, we can ask how the Court’s appeal to “historical practices and understandings” in Kennedy may bear on these questions. With respect to the argument that prohibiting caste discrimination is per se an excessive entanglement with religion, “historical practices and understandings” suggest that governmental action prohibiting discrimination is appropriate. The Reconstruction Amendments ( Thirteenth , Fourteenth , and Fifteenth ) allow government regulation prohibiting discrimination under race and lineage. Moreover, in Bob Jones University v. United States (1983), the Court rejected the argument that antidiscrimination regulation—there against racial discrimination—violates the Establishment Clause if it disfavors religions with beliefs against “racial intermixing.” Thus, government action prohibiting caste discrimination should not run afoul of the Establishment Clause. With respect to government statements about religion in antidiscrimination laws, we simply do not have much data. On my review, no case citing Kennedy has addressed this question. Ultimately, the question is likely to be governed by the aforementioned principles—that the government may reference religion, but not with hostility. And on that front, government actors would be wise to avoid any unnecessary references to religion.

To be clear, this may not be without cost. That is, by avoiding references to religion, a government entity may fail to fully contextualize and historically ground the nature of the discrimination. Consequently, among other things, this may hinder the government’s ability to educate and to recognize dignitary harms. That is a trade-off, between avoiding constitutional risk and pursuing educational and dignitary goals, for government actors to weigh. 5

III.  Recognizing Caste Discrimination Does Not Impair Free Exercise

Next, the objectors argue that by legally prohibiting caste discrimination, the government is prohibiting individuals from practicing their religion freely. This claim is not usually made to complain specifically about the prohibition on caste discrimination—there is broad consensus that caste discrimination is wrongful. Rather, complainants are claiming that caste discrimination is rare , that regulating caste discrimination as if it were common is a misrepresentation of Hindu culture, and that such regulation may have unintended effects that bring improper scrutiny of Hindus and potentially infringe on religious practice.

The problem is that it is unclear what legitimate religious practices might be infringed upon. As noted, most objectors are not asserting that they have, or should have, a legal right to engage in caste discrimination. But it is not at all apparent how prohibiting caste discrimination infringes on any religious beliefs if the religious adherents are not aiming to discriminate on the basis of caste. The onus is on the objectors to articulate how prohibitions on caste discrimination would specially infringe on their rights to religious practice. Indeed, the consensus view among Hindu adherents is that caste discrimination is not legitimately part of Hindu practice. But then why would banning caste discrimination impose on Hindu practice?

It is worth noting that prohibitions on discrimination are generally limited in their scope—confined to the areas of hiring, employment, housing, and places of public accommodation. Such legislation does not prevent private citizens from associating as they wish in their private lives.

Moreover, there are generally exceptions in civil rights legislation, like the ministerial exception and the bona fide occupational qualification exception, for religious entities to discriminate on otherwise prohibited bases in religious matters. For example, one concern might be about how prohibiting caste discrimination impacts hiring clergy. That is, certain castes are associated with religious ritual practice, and priests and clergy are often hired based on their familiarity with that ritual practice. In hiring clergy, religious institutions may hire, by intention or by practice, only from particular castes. This is true in certain Hindu sects, as well as in other religious sects across the subcontinent. The prototypical example is that a Hindu temple may hire a priest, who traditionally will be from a set of castes. That said, current law expressly contemplates this scenario and immunizes the religious entities from liability. And without such exemptions for religious entities, any such legislation will likely be unconstitutional , at least insofar as it applies to religious entities. Further still, most recently, the Supreme Court, in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023), has set forth a First Amendment limitation on public accommodation laws, holding that the government may not compel an individual to engage in expressive conduct with which he or she disagrees. Thus, while public accommodation laws remain generally constitutional, they cannot force individuals to provide services involving expressive conduct they find disagreeable.

Insofar as claimants are arguing that civil rights laws regulating behavior in the scope of hiring, employment, housing, places of public accommodation, and the like infringes on religious freedom, these claims are legally incorrect and will fail. Consider the analogy to, say, race discrimination: a claimant who asserts that civil rights laws prohibiting race discrimination in employment prevent the claimant’s free exercise of their religion because that religion requires or endorses race discrimination. This claim would lose, as it has before . Indeed, a contrary result—holding that recognizing caste discrimination in the scope of civic and public behavior infringes free exercise rights—would threaten all civil rights protections, and that is an absurdity.

To this point, the Supreme Court’s words in Bob Jones University are instructive: the government’s “fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education” outweighs the interests of religious exercise that perpetuate such discrimination. Thus, with exceptions that allow for religious exercise and free speech, the Supreme Court held in 303 Creative , that public accommodation and antidiscrimination laws are constitutionally valid and indeed “vital . . . in realizing the civil rights of all [those protected by the Constitution].”

In light of current precedent and barring a sea change in antidiscrimination law, complaints that legislation and other government action to eliminate caste discrimination burden free exercise will fail as a matter of constitutional law. Laws against caste discrimination—like laws against discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin—do not offend free exercise, and the overriding interest in eliminating discrimination outweighs any contrary claim of religious exercise. 6

After several high profile accounts of caste discrimination in the United States, governmental entities are taking action, including by bringing cases alleging, and passing legislation prohibiting, caste discrimination. This Essay has detailed how governmental entities can act against caste discrimination without violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause. Caste discrimination, like all forms of invidious discrimination, is a scourge. And as with other forms of discrimination, our Constitution empowers the government to protect individuals against the effects of caste discrimination .

Guha Krishnamurthi is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. He thanks Kevin Brown, Charanya Krishnaswami, Chan Tov McNamarah, Alex Platt, Peter Salib, Joe Thai, attendees of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law Comparative Constitutional Democracy Colloquium for helpful comments, and the editors of the Law Review Online .

• 1 These objectors also raise concerns that calling out caste specifically has the potential to denigrate Hinduism, (East) Indians, and South Asians more broadly, at a time when there is rampant anti-Hindu bigotry and anti-Asian racism. I think these are serious concerns, but they are possible to address. In general, I believe it is possible to recognize and remedy caste discrimination without perpetrating other forms of bigotry and discrimination. Here I focus on the constitutional arguments.
• 2 The most fulsome articulation is in the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) complaint.
• 3 The Supreme Court recently decided 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023), where it considered the same antidiscrimination law at issue in Masterpiece Cakeshop . 303 Creative concerned whether Colorado, through its public accommodation law, could compel a website designer to design wedding websites for gay couples. While affirming the general constitutionality of public accommodation laws, the Court held that such laws are limited by the First Amendment. Specifically, the government cannot, pursuant to such public accommodation laws, compel individuals to engage in expressive conduct with which the putative speaker would disagree.
• 4 It is not clear that these statements about the relationships between caste and Hinduism are necessary for legally recognizing caste discrimination. If they are unnecessary, then the Establishment Clause challenge could be obviated by simply removing these statements. That said, these statements—or ones like them—may be necessary to contextualize caste discrimination, either generally or in specific instances. In that case, we still must resolve the legal question.
• 5 I thank Chan Tov McNamarah for pushing me to address this point.

Professor Vikram Amar raises another issue rooted in equal protection. He contends that California’s S.B. 403, which would prohibit caste discrimination, arguably singles out South Asians for regulation. He analogizes to a hypothetical statute that says: “It shall be unlawful for Black employers, and all other employers, [to do X].” He contends this would be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, and, similarly, so might S.B. 403.

The analogy occurs to me as inapt. S.B. 403 does not single out specific discriminators based on their traits. Anyone who discriminates based on the putative victim ’s trait—namely caste—is subject to liability. Moreover, as Professor Amar acknowledges, the term “caste” is defined in the statute in a general way, not specific to South Asia. The draft bill did state: “Caste discrimination is present across South Asia and the South Asian diaspora, as well as around the world.” Professor Amar suggested that even this amount of focus on a particular people may render the statute unconstitutional. Since that time, the draft bill was amended to delete that language. But because the language did arguably motivate the proposed statute and is present in the legislative history, it may bear on future assessments of the statute’s validity and so it is important to address Professor Amar’s point.

More ‘can and must be done’ to eradicate caste-based discrimination in Nepal

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Shocked over the killing last weekend of five men in Nepal, who had planned to escort home one of their girlfriends from a higher caste, the UN human rights chief on Friday stressed that ending caste-based discrimination is “fundamental” to the overall sustainable development vision of leaving no one behind.

“It is distressing that caste-based prejudices remain deeply entrenched in our world in the 21st century, and I am filled with sadness for these two young people who held high hopes of building a life together despite the obstacles presented by their accident of birth” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, referring to the couple at the centre of the tragedy.

Last Saturday, a 21-year-old man from the ‘untouchable’ Dalit caste, known as Nawaraj BK, and his friends, traveled some 32 km from Jajarkot district, to Western Rukum district, the home of the man’s girlfriend, who belongs to a higher social caste.

They intended to escort the young woman back to their home district, reportedly at her request, but were attacked and chased into a river. Five men, four of whom were also Dalits, were later found dead, while another is still missing.

🇳🇵 #Nepal: UN Human Rights Chief condemns Dalit killings, incl. 5 men and a 12-year old girl. Shocked by incidents of caste-based discrimination & violence that have taken place during #COVID19, @mbachelet calls for an independent investigation 👉 https://t.co/s0M8KoShyP pic.twitter.com/tllawTFg55 UN Human Rights UNHumanRights

“Caste-based discrimination remains widespread, not only in Nepal but other countries, and often leads to serious harm and, as in this case, even loss of life”, lamented Ms. Bachelet. 

Dalits under attack

Nawaraj’s case is not an isolated one.

Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables”, have suffered for generations of public shaming at the hands of upper-caste Hindus and continue to face widespread atrocities across the country, with any seeming attempts at upward social mobility, violently shut down.

In a similar case, disturbing reports have also emerging about a 12-year-old Dalit girl who was killed in a separate attack in the village of Devdaha, in the Rupandehi district in southern Nepal.

She is said to have been forcibly married to her alleged rapist from a dominant caste. The girl’s body was reportedly left hanging from a tree on Saturday.

The High Commissioner called for an independent investigation into the attacks, underscoring that the victims and their families have the right to justice, truth and reparations.

Searching for justice

The killings have triggered outrage in Nepal, prompting the federal Ministry of Home Affairs to establish a five-member “high-level investigation committee” to look into the incident. 

On Tuesday, police reportedly filed a complaint against 20 alleged perpetrators. 

“Despite constitutional guarantees, impunity for caste-based discrimination and violence remains high in Nepal”, according to the UN human rights office ( OHCHR ). 

And while the country has taken “big strides to address this scourge”, she maintained that “so much more can and must be done, to eradicate this blight on society”.

The Nepali Parliament’s Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee has asked authorities to immediately investigate two cases of gang-rape of Dalit women, as well as other caste-based cases involving murder, enforced disappearances and forced abortion.

Although Nepal is party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination , the Committee tasked with monitoring the treaty observed that despite the abolition of “untouchability” in Nepal, Dalits continue to face deep-rooted discrimination, including issues surrounding inter-caste marriages.

Discrimination at every turn

And the risks for this vulnerable caste has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Monday, the parliamentary committee directed the Government to investigate all incidents of caste-based discrimination and violence during the coronavirus lockdown. 

Dalits in Nepal and other countries experience discrimination at every level of their daily lives, limiting their employment and educational opportunities, the places where they can collect water or worship, and their choice of who to marry, says OHCHR.

Structural barriers and discrimination force Dalits to continue low-income and dehumanizing employment, such as manual scavenging, disposing of dead animals, digging graves or making leather products.

• discrimination

Caste Discrimination Exists in the U.S., Too—But a Movement to Outlaw It Is Growing

I n late January, California State University added caste to its non-discrimination policy. With more than 437,000 students and 44,000 employees statewide, it is the largest academic institution to do so. But it is not alone. Brandeis University was the first to take this step in 2019. University of California, Davis, Colby College, Colorado College, the Claremont colleges, and Carleton University followed suit. In August 2021, the California Democratic Party added caste as a protected category to their Party Code of Conduct. And in December 2021, the Harvard Graduate Student Union ratified its collective bargaining agreement, which included caste as a protected category for its members.

What is caste? How is caste discrimination expressed? And why are protections against caste discrimination an urgent issue in the U.S.?

Caste is a descent-based structure of inequality in which privilege works through the control of land, labor, education, media, white-collar professions and political institutions. Some seventy years after independence from colonial rule, the specter of casteism continues to haunt South Asia. The unequal inheritances of caste shape every aspect of social life, from education to marriage, housing, and employment. Caste discrimination still plagues all South Asian societies, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. To this day, oppressed castes are subject to stigma on the basis of perceived social and intellectual inferiority, and often consigned to the most exploitative segments of the labor market. This is especially true of Dalits, which is the broad term for the community that occupies the bottom rung of the caste ladder and suffers the unique stigma of untouchability. Dalits continue to face pervasive violence, humiliation, and exclusion. The coronavirus pandemic has only amplified the practice of ‘untouchability’ through the segregating and shunning of stigmatized groups.

The ugly realities of caste inequality and discrimination also shape the lives of South Asian communities in the diaspora. In the U.S., two recent lawsuits have exposed the pervasiveness of caste dynamics far beyond the borders of South Asia.

The first lawsuit was filed in June 2020 against the software company Cisco Systems. Brought by the California Department for Fair Employment and Housing, it alleges that the company failed to address caste discrimination against an employee from the Dalit caste by two supervisors from more privileged caste backgrounds.

The second was filed in May 2021 against the Hindu trust BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha), a nonprofit that since 2009 has had the status of a 501 (c)(3) organization. It was brought by lawyers representing a group of Dalits who claim that they were brought to the United States under the R1 visa for religious workers and forced into underpaid, exploitative construction work on a Hindu temple in New Jersey. Both lawsuits reveal practices of caste discrimination and exploitation within America’s racially stratified workforce.

These lawsuits reflect long-standing trends within U.S. immigration. The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act legalized a preference for professional class migrants, such as doctors and engineers, from all over the world, even as it sought to undo the racial prejudices of the immigration laws that it replaced. The shift in immigration policy ensured that South Asians from dominant castes—the ones with privileged access to education and white-collar professions—were overrepresented in the United States in comparison to the South Asian population at large. The caste inequities of Indian education have allowed these groups to use their privilege to immigrate and succeed professionally.

The highly selective character of the professional South Asian American population has therefore created the conditions for caste bias and discrimination in hiring and promotion. This is especially the case in the U.S. technology sector, which has significant privileged caste representation. Although the first to be made public, the experience of the Dalit employee in the Cisco case is not uncommon. Following the filing of the case, Dalit tech workers employed in some of the biggest companies have come forward to attest to rampant caste bias. Most feel compelled to conceal their caste identities and pass as non-Dalits in workplaces that they share with members of more privileged castes. They experience these workplaces as minefields where colleagues from privileged castes might probe their backgrounds to find out their origins and where a misstep can lead to exposure and stigma. These workers indicate a clear preference for non-South Asian supervisors whose ignorance of caste ensures fairer treatment. While such testimonies provide an important starting point for understanding the employment experiences of oppressed castes in the U.S., more data on caste demographics is needed to reveal the scale of the problem.

These lawsuits underscore the need for adding caste to the existing set of categories that are protected against discrimination under federal law. The legal recognition of caste as a protected category will destigmatize caste identification and ensure that vulnerable caste groups do not feel threatened when revealing their identities. Most importantly, making caste a protected category would recognize a form of discrimination that deeply affects marginalized South Asian caste groups—highlighting prejudices that have been invisible for too long.

However, there are some South Asian Americans who argue that the legal recognition of caste discrimination would be harmful to South Asians in the U.S. One of the most prominent groups that has come out against adding caste to U.S. anti-discrimination law is the Hindu American Foundation (HAF). HAF contends that doing so will “single out and target Indian Americans for scrutiny and discrimination.” In her testimony at an April 29 public hearing on a proposal to recognize caste discrimination in Santa Clara, California, HAF Executive Director, Suhag Shukla, characterized caste as “a stereotype.” She asserted that if caste were added as a protected category, it would be used to “uniquely target South Asians, Indians, and Hindus for ethno-religious profiling, monitoring, and policing.” HAF also opposes the legal recognition of caste on the grounds that doing so will “target” the Hindu religion.

But caste is not a mere stereotype about South Asian societies. It is a lived reality that promotes unequal access to life, livelihood, and the capacity for human flourishing. Furthermore, caste must not be conflated with a nationality, ethnicity, or religion. Scholars have long shown, and human rights reports document , that caste exists across all South Asian nationalities, ethnicities, and religions. Testimonies at the Santa Clara hearing also confirmed this reality by attesting to casteism among South Asian Christians, Muslims, and Hindus alike. Spurious arguments about “Hinduphobia” should thus not be used to shield caste from scrutiny.

HAF’s arguments assume that dignity and rights are a zero-sum game. Extending protections to oppressed castes will not scapegoat Hindus, Indians, and South Asians any more than extending protections to women scapegoats men. To the contrary, acknowledging the realities of caste discrimination and any actions for accountability and justice that follow upon it would only expand the commitment to equal rights, inclusion, and dignity.

Opponents of making caste a protected category also argue that it would force South Asian Americans and their children to think of themselves in terms of caste identity. At the Santa Clara public hearing, for instance, several individuals speaking against the proposal testified that, as Americans, they no longer identify as members of castes. Privileged castes in the United States may well insist that they do not see or believe in caste. They may well believe that caste classification would impose an identity that they do not claim. But just as race-blindness does not erase racial privilege or disadvantage, caste-blindness does not erase caste privilege or disadvantage. Indeed, the claim to being caste-blind is itself an expression of privilege. As is clear from Dalit testimonies, oppressed castes do not have the luxury of caste blindness.

Caste and race cannot and should not be conflated. Yet, a broad parallel may be drawn between the experiences of racial minorities and oppressed caste groups in the U.S. While members of South Asian American communities rightly draw attention to the long history of racial exclusion and discrimination they have experienced in the U.S., those of privileged caste backgrounds simultaneously resist acknowledging the abiding ugliness of caste discrimination within their communities.

Unfortunately, it is this very history of racial discrimination that is now being wielded against protections for oppressed castes. HAF even contends that making caste a protected category would perpetuate colonial violence. In his testimony in Santa Clara, HAF Managing Director, Samir Kalra, stated that caste is a “British created legal category” and an identity “that was forced on South Asians.” He and other HAF members insist that caste is a colonial invention that was and could again be used as a weapon of white supremacy. But caste is a power difference that existed well before colonialism and did not end with it. As noted in a recent scholarly article, caste has long been “ a total social fact ” in South Asian societies. The Indian Constitution recognizes the deep history of caste inequality and has enacted various laws to combat and correct it. The Cisco and BAPS lawsuits demonstrate that caste inequality and discrimination have been carried by South Asians to the United States. Should different rules apply here simply because South Asians are a racial minority?

The same South Asian American groups that equate caste protections in the US with “Hinduphobia” also oppose any criticism of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, the political movement that has captured state power in India. For instance, HAF’s founder, Mihir Meghani, is the author of “Hindutva – the Great Nationalist Ideology,” an essay that was published on the website of India’s ruling party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. After the election of Narendra Modi in 2014, HAF has also lobbied U.S. lawmakers to adopt pro-Indian Government positions on the abrogation of the special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and on the Citizenship Amendment Act, a discriminatory law targeting Muslims.

But just as caste protections are not anti-Hindu, neither is criticism of Hindutva. Hindutva is an authoritarian political ideology aimed at transforming India from a secular democracy to a Hindu majoritarian country where Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities are relegated to second-class citizenship. Under the current Hindu nationalist government in India, there has been a precipitous rise in religious and caste violence targeting Muslims, Christians, and Dalits and widespread crackdowns on dissenters who are languishing in prison without due process. South Asian American groups like HAF are thus engaged in a form of double-speak: they weaponize religious and racial minority protections in the U.S. while defending majoritarianism in India.

By twisting anti-discrimination protections for oppressed castes into racial and religious discrimination, those who oppose making caste a protected category distract attention from the pressing problem of caste in America. This defense of minority rights might appear progressive but we must recognize it for what it is: a defense of caste privilege by diasporic South Asians who are its beneficiaries. As a minority within a minority in the U.S., oppressed castes must get the recognition and protection they deserve.

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Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action pp 1–17 Cite as

Caste and Gender

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Intersectionality is a praxiological tool that helps understand complex and cumulative discrimination along several interlocked and coproduced axes of power, domination, and hegemonies. On the Indian subcontinent, the genealogy of this concept may be traced back to the resistance to the caste-gender complex especially as part of anti-caste movements from the late nineteenth century. The challenge to Brahmanical supremacy by Phule, Savitribai, Tarabai, Ambedkar, and Periyar among a host of others, notably women in Ambedkarite and self-respect movements, was predicated on freeing women from the thraldom of patriarchal family and kinship practices. This resistance has a continuing and cascading presence. In opening out of the field of intersectionality through translocational positionalities and to transnational and diasporic contexts, this essay investigates the proliferation of caste discriminatory practices and exclusions in culturally and historically rooted ways in different locales. A key aspect of the caste-gender complex is the deployment of deeply embedded practices of structural violence and atrocity – hostile environments – especially sexual assault and humiliation, which may only be grasped adequately through an intersectional approach. The constitution of India, in setting out the nondiscrimination protections, provides the possibility for an elaboration of justice, mindful of the long history of combatting the realities of caste through intersectional approaches to resistance.

• Hostile environments
• Bhanwari Devi
• Savitribai Phule
• Abrahmani-gender complex
• Analogous discrimination
• B.R. Ambedkar
• Radhika Vemula

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Kannabiran, K. (2022). Caste and Gender. In: Deshpande, A. (eds) Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4016-9_30-1

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Caste and Race: Discrimination Based on Descent

In 2001, Dalit non-governmental organisations pushed for the inclusion of caste-based discrimination in the United Nations conference on racism and other forms of descent-based discriminations. How did the Government of India respond to the internationalisation of casteism? Why did Dalits want casteism to be treated on par with racism in the first place? Did they succeed? And above all, is caste the same as race?

History,  wrote  Kanthi Swaroop and Joel Lee, has taught us that epidemics are provocateurs of “extraordinary collective action,” which, more often than not, translate to “scapegoating and mass violence” against the marginalised. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a case in point. The pre-existing marginalisation and discrimination faced by Dalits, especially Dalit women, are increasing during the pandemic with several states witnessing a rise in caste-based atrocities.

Smita M Patil  noted  that just five months into the lockdown, there were 81 caste-based atrocities reported in Tamil Nadu. Multiple cases of caste-based atrocities against Dalit women were also reported in Uttar Pradesh, with one such incident making  headlines  for how the state government handled the crime.

On 29 September 2020, India once again failed Dalit women and girls in upholding their rights and safety; we have lost another young life to a savage, brutal gang rape and murder. This barbaric incident occurred on 14 September in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and once again exposed the harsh realities of caste-based sexual assault faced by Dalit women and girls in this country.

V A Ramesh Nathan and Vimal Thorat   wrote that in  Hathras  itself, between August and September 2020, “more than six atrocities were reported in the district against Dalit women and minor girls.”

Every case reveals that the state machinery has turned a blind eye towards the cases through its apathetic response, violated rights of victims to access justice and has nullified human dignity. In the Hathras case, the victim’s brother mentioned that no arrest was made by the police even after 10 days of the incident being reported.

Atrocities against Dalits continue to be underreported, underestimated and sidelined. Even in 2001, Shiv Visvanathan  wrote  how the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report ranked India as a “progressive” country as “growth in information technology” was a factor it considered in its ranking system but atrocities against Dalits was not.

For every Dalit atrocity (sic) , maybe there is a story of mobility or a happy narrative on electoralism. But, the politics is clear. The way one tells the story is the way of one’s political choices. But, there is another question. Is internationalising caste only ‘political mischief’? Is it a form of disgust for the nation or can one love one’s country and still go to the UN.

But why internationalise caste? As Visvanathan wrote, in Indian politics, there is “little” space for Dalit discourse. He explains further: 

Maybe what Dalit discourse needs to do is distinguish between a Dalit and a Mandalist perspective on caste exploring similarities but more importantly differences. One is forced to manoeuvre for international attention because only external politics might be able to leverage current paradigms.

The “international attention” that Visvanathan was referring to is the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance , where Dalits  claimed  that caste should be treated like race as “caste is race in India.”

A S Narang  explained  that the Durban conference, as the event came to be called, was the third UN World Conference to focus on the issues of racism, xenophobia, and religious and ethnic intolerance. The first two conferences, held in Geneva in 1978 and 1983, focused on “ending apartheid in South Africa,” and the Durban conference was about developing strategies to combat “contemporary forms of racism and intolerance.”

In the previous conferences, India considered itself the “official advocate condemning racism, colonialism, apartheid,” a role that Visvanathan  wrote , was “threatened” from within when Dalit groups claimed that “caste should be treated like race.”

As the conference focused on the various manifestations of racism, Dalit groups stood up against caste-based discriminations and, in Ambrose Pinto’s  words , “attacked the present fundamentalist and fascist Hindu government that is bent upon perpetuating the caste system in the name of Hindu revivalism.” The government in  question  was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government.

Why did Dalit activists want caste to be legally seen as an element of race? Is caste-based discrimination the same as racism? Is casteism an element of racism? Or is caste “race plus”? This reading list looks at the multiple debates on the issues of caste and race that were featured in the pages of EPW before, during and after the 2001 Durban conference.

Caste is Race

As a member state of the United Nations, India signed agreements to eradicate discrimination on the basis of race, descent, and occupation. Thus, wrote Pinto, it was only natural that the issues of caste-based discrimination be raised and addressed in the Durban conference. 

Dalit groups have refused to accept that caste is restricted only to India. Caste is prevalent all over south Asia especially in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Burakumin in Japan and Korea, Osu of Nigeria and similar ‘untouchable’ communities in other west African nations have also been experiencing discrimination. The UN therefore should discuss the issue. 

Documenting cases from across Pakistan, Haris Gazdar wrote that oppressed communities in Pakistan, as well, face everyday discrimination and exclusion. Yet, Pakistani society remains silent about caste-based discrimination.

“Caste” after all implies some legitimised “system” of the division of labour. The Oxford English dictionary calls it “any of the hereditary Hindu social classes; any exclusive social class”. The common translation in Pakistani languages is zaat, which is not about social class but related to ‘nasal’ (lineage), or quite literally, race.

In his article, “The Race for Caste,” Visvanathan wrote that Dalit non-governmental organisations (NGOs) believed caste-based discrimination has the same implications as racial discrimination. He mapped out the similarities between the Dalit experience in India and the apartheid in South Africa.

Untouchability is a “hidden apartheid” and what marks the similarity is the link between deprivation and distance. Segregation is a key characteristic of both. Fundamental to the grammar of “distance” are the notions of pollution, dirt, “touch.” Any form of closeness is repulsive or defiling. A defiance of segregation leads to violence.

A host of articles from July 2001 agree that caste and race are, if not the same, similar. Pinto recounted that several legislative measures relating to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes also equate caste and race.

The different definitions of caste adopted by the several decisions of the Supreme Court of India show that for the purposes of treating caste as a prohibited ground of discrimination, caste is race in the Indian context (K C Vasant Kumar vs state of Karnataka, 1985 (Supp)1 SCR 352). In the said decision, caste is even identified as a race or unit of race, as per the definition of caste accepted by Justice Venkataramaiah in the said case.

Besides, Visvanathan argued that caste is like race because of the lived experiences of Dalits—casteism “feels” like racism. But Visvanathan was also aware that only “narratives of feeling” would not do.

Not in a world of lawyers and bureaucrats. One must seek the right term. The caste/race equation is weak till they discover the third term in the legal text—descent. 

A life saving term. Descent is about blood and blood lines. It is hereditary. It is through descent that caste becomes synonymous with race.

Caste is Race Plus

Pinto, in his article, “UN Conference against Racism,”  explained that the central focus of the conference was on “descent- and occupation-based discrimination.” Caste, he wrote, is by descent as “it is the children of SCs/STs and other marginalised communities that are compelled to do all kinds of menial jobs like scavenging, sweeping, bonded labour, etc.”

But, Pinto also mentioned that several academics and representatives predominantly from the Dalit community hold that casteism is “worse” than racism. They made it clear that “caste is race plus” since caste was “inflicted by birth, sanctified by religion, [and] glorified by tradition.”

Further, Anand Teltumbde noted how a system where hierarchical superiority of people is based on the lightness of their skin means that “casteism easily transforms into racism abroad” with Whites being “quasi-Brahmins” and Black being “Dalits.”

P Thirumal, while reviewing Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Lies That Divide Us , wrote that Wilkerson also related caste and race as having a primary relationship with each other. “Caste and race are interchangeable in terms of their potential for human wrongdoing or evil.”

Whether biological, social, psychological, or spiritual, the immutability of caste to penetrate the varied dimensions of being is more elaborate and orders the cultural unconscious in ways that escape the fleshiness of thought.

Wilkerson, Thirumal wrote, goes a step further and holds that caste is not solely based on religious texts and social practices, but it is the “air of superiority” that is at play when dominant castes interact with the lower castes.

Race stands for a mode or attribute of caste and the latter remains the more encompassing, generative and invisible infrastructure that tacitly guides one’s orientation towards ideas, people, and objects.

Or as B R Ambedkar had put it, “caste is a state of mind.”

Caste is Not Race 

What was the government’s reaction to Dalits internationalising the issue of caste and comparing it to race? Pinto  reported :

[D]alit groups across the world backed with support from some international human rights organisations had fought a battle for the inclusion of caste into the official charter on race as a form of descent-based discrimination. They had lost their battle then due to the hostile attitude of the Indian government though they had succeeded in introducing the clause of caste discrimination in the United Nations NGO declaration.

The Indian government believed caste was “purely an internal matter” and that the international community had “no business” getting involved. Its “hostile attitude” has been pointed out by several authors. Some have called it “ hypocritical ,” stating that discrimination is discrimination and it must be acknowledged; others have called it “ dishonest and immoral ,” stating that caste-based discrimination fits perfectly in the conference’s focus on descent-based discrimination; still others have called it “ nefarious ,” stating that the agonising oppression faced by Dalits in India is no different than the racial violence faced by victims of the apartheid in South Africa. Above all, it was  believed that the violation of human rights “cannot be an internal matter of any country,” and since the UN is a “world government,” it has the  authority to put pressure on a state.

Pinto noted that “internal matter” aside, the Government of India held the position that caste is not race since caste is a social construct while race is a biological one. The extent to which this belief permeated Indian politics can be  seen in this line from Mohan Rao’s article, “‘Scientific’ Racism: A Tangled Skein.”

Ideas of race have also insidiously entered the construction of communalism in our country, while ideas of eugenics, the “science” of race, inform a number of policies related both to population programmes and reservations for the Dalits and back-ward classes. 

Moreover, Visvanathan noted that race being “biological” was not an old notion long forgotten, but one that has stuck around till fairly recently.

Eleven major universities in America taught race as a respectable scientific subject till the 1920s. Race has been interwoven with science over the last 50 years.

However, Teltumbde wrote , the very idea of humanity being divided on the basis of physical appearance is a social construct and not a scientific one. The very notion of race is “bogus.”

The idea of biological “race” has been discredited—the US government’s Human Genome Project has shown that there is no distinct genetic basis to racial types. Overwhelming scientific evidence exists to prove that race is not biological.

Pinto also noted that Ambedkarites and progressive Dalit academics have “never equated race with caste” which, according to Teltumbde, is because the caste system “defied” racial categorisation. But the “pseudo-scientific” notions of race and caste were still supported by the state for its national agendas. Rao continued : 

It is therefore not surprising that in India today Giriraj Kishore can proclaim that the life of a cow is worth that of five Dalits. It is not surprising simply because deeply anti-democratic, anti-poor and anti-women views wrapped in pseudo-sciences can indeed be freely and shamelessly aired.

Caste is an Element of Race

In May 2020, the death of George Floyd due to extra-legal police brutality brought debates on racism in the United States to a fever pitch. Smriti Singh  wrote how the words “I Can’t Breathe” came to symbolise the “suffocating” racial discrimination meted out by the establishment and the state towards the Black community.

One hundred and fifty-five years ago, slavery in the US was abolished. However, the 155 years of being colour-blind have not helped the deeply entrenched racial biases and prejudices that still shape the institutions of the state, judiciary, media, medicine and civil society. Slavery might have been abolished, racism might have been outlawed, but the institutions and structures that represent the US have yet to remove the Caucasian-coloured glasses through which their land appears free.

As Singh notes, the structural character of the American establishment is White. Can the same be said for India? Is the structural character of the Indian establishment Brahminical?

In 2015, months after the Charleston mass shooting where nine African-Americans were murdered during Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (EAME) Church, Anupama Rao questioned the parallels,  connecting , as we have discussed before, the killings of Blacks in America to the caste-based atrocities faced by Dalits in India. 

Does the conjoint logic of exclusion and spectacularisation that has historically structured the lives of African–Americans bear any resemblance to the political life of caste in India today? Might we speculate that racial injustice in the US, though it is distinct from the peculiar character of caste, also shares something with it, namely, that the repetitive structure of violence against African–Americans, or Dalits is not merely instrumental, but also symbolically overdetermined and purposive in character?

At the time when “Black Lives Matter” became the battlecry for racial justice in the West, in India, “Dalit Lives Matter” became its demonstrative equivalent. As Ujithra Ponniah  wrote , “Closer home, Dalit Lives Matter, though in its nascent stage, is enabling conversations that do not end up ghettoising the caste identity around Dalits.”

As we have seen before, even Wilkerson, in her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent , argued that race is built on the origins of caste. R Srivatsan recapitulates her arguments in his reflections on the book, writing that “race is a skin phenomenon, but caste is an infrastructure.” 

For her, race is a skin affair (“skin” also puns into a metaphorical sense meaning surface and not depth), but I think it should be conceptualised more precisely as a marker of difference, a rather obvious one. And if marking the other is one essential part of a caste stru­cture that generates/foments/condones/normalises oppressive conduct, colour of skin is one simple, direct, primitive signifier of caste just as birth or religion or gotra would be other non-obvious ones. 

P Thirumal’s review of Wilkerson’s book also ended on an appreciative note. “The replacement of Whites by dominant castes required exemplary creativity and forethought.” 

But this stand has been contested.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, reviewing Wilkerson’s book, wrote that, if race is like caste, it may be because, in fact, it is caste that descended from race.

Even in American and British anti-discrimination and equality laws, caste-based discrimination is not explicitly mentioned. In their provisions, caste is treated as an aspect of race.

Charisse Burden-Stelly, in her critique of Wilkerson’s book,  argues that the caste analogy for explaining race is “convenient” as it can be used as a “shorthand” for any form of subjugation.

As Anupama Rao reiterates Wilkerson’s argument in her review of the book, laws against racial discrimination deprived the term “racism” of “analytic purchase,” and as a result, the term was now denied and feared. Therefore, by renaming race as caste, systemic racism is rendered “unfamiliar” and made available for inquiry.

This begs the question, does not naming the enemy or renaming the enemy render it less unscrupulous? Does it undermine the grotesque horrors of what a people were subjected to, and are continued to be subjected to, by comparing it to another form of descent-based discrimination?

In his concluding passage of reviewing Wilkerson’s book, Srivatsan wrote that instead of merely seeing caste as skeleton and race as skin, we need to understand how, throughout history, the dialectic concepts of discrimination, exploitation and oppression have worked in tandem. 

Learning to unravel the tight braids of race as a form of describing difference and caste as a power hierarchy in our history may perhaps free the concept of race as a scientific category with a benign intent of describing more precisely propensity to illness, health, etc. This would permit critical evaluation of its validity without confusing it with immediately with caste oppression. For this to happen, the problem to be solved by the history of civilisation of course is this: how to signify difference without fear, resentment or arrogance?

The Debate of Decent-based Discrimination 

Coming back to the Durban discussion, until 2001, while committees under the UN stated that, in theory, caste would come under the purview of the Durban conference, they never actually used the word “caste.” Pinto  explained why. 

One of the major obstacles for gaining international recognition to the Dalit cause is the language of the UN. Being dominated by the West, the language, concepts and terms of the UN bodies have been europo-centric. The need is not only to bring the caste issue into the UN, but to put pressure on the UN to change its language so that the UN becomes representative of all countries and people. 

But in 2002, that changed. The United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) “strongly condemned” the practice of caste. Pinto believed this was due to the success of Dalit groups, using the publicity they received from the Durban conference, associating themselves with other discriminated groups from across the globe and fighting for their rights.

Teltumbde, however,  believed that “quibbling” over racism or casteism “only serves to deflect focus on discrimination” and that basic issues concerning human lives cannot and should not be “prevented from being internationalised.” 

It is not important to know in which precise way the human rights of certain people are being structurally violated; the issue is that they are violated.

A week before the Durban conference began, Pinto wrote that the Government of India “may scuttle the attempts” to raise the issue of caste in the UN conference. He was right. In conclusion, he wrote:

While Africans and Palestinians may demand compensation from colonisers what the Dalits in India need to assert is compensation from their caste masters who have oppressed them for centuries and continue to do so in the name of god and religion. 

Read more: 

• World Conference against Racism | A S Narang, 07 July 2001
• Caste, Race and Human Rights | M N Panini, 01 September 2001 
• World Conference on Racism | Samir Amin, 08 December 2001  
• Curry Bashing: Racism, Violence and Alien Space Invaders | Michiel Baas, 22 August 2009
• Important Similarities, Strange Differences: Caste, Race and Durban |  Kalpana Kannabiran, 10 July 2010

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CASTE BASED DISCRIMINATION IN MODERN INDIA A Brief Overview of Human Rights and Constitutional Protection

The Hindu social order, particularly its main pillars: the caste system and untouchability, presents a unique case. As a system of social, economic and religious governance it is founded not on the principle of liberty or freedom, equality and fraternity, the values which formed the basis of universal human rights, but on the principle of inequality in every sphere of life. It leaves no difference between legal philosophy (law) and moral philosophy (morality).

Related Papers

International Journal on Minority and Group Rights (2010) Vol.17 327-353

Annapurna Waughray

India’s Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables) number around 167 million or one-sixth of India’s population. Despite constitutional and legislative prohibitions of Untouchability and discrimination on grounds of caste they continue to suff er caste-based discrimination and violence. Internationally, caste discrimination has been affi rmed since 1996 by the UN committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as a form of racial discrimination prohibited by the International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, and since 2000 as a form of discrimination prohibited by international human rights law. India’s Dalits have also pursued minority rights and indigenous peoples’ approaches before international forums. Yet the Dalits do not readily meet the internationally-agreed criteria for minorities or for indigenous peoples, while in India they are not classifi ed legally as a minority, enjoying a constitutional status and constitutional protections in the form of affi rmative action provisions distinct from those groups classifi ed as minorities. Th is article is concerned with the characterisation of the Dalits in international and Indian law. In particular it focuses on India’s provisions on Dalits and minorities respectively, examining the origins and limitations of the Scheduled Caste category (the constitutional term for the Dalits) and the relationship between Scheduled Caste status and religion. The article addresses arguments for the extension of Scheduled Caste status to Muslim and Christian Dalits (currently excluded from the constitutional category on grounds of religion) and concludes by endorsing calls for re-examination of the domestic legal categories encompassing victims of caste discrimination and of the legal strategies for the elimination of such discrimination, while arguing that internationally caste discrimination might be more effectively addressed by the conceptualisation of caste as a sui generis ground of discrimination as in India.

Dr Karthik Navayan Battula

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

17001 ADABHUTA MISHRA

The law is an instrumental part of one’s life and has been very much impactful on the concept of caste system in Indian society. The modern India has a wide range of history to be considered dating back to the creation of Indian laws and regulations in 18th and 19th century. The caste and it’s interaction with Law and development of legal culture and it recognises and regulates the caste system through the legislative policy making and the Executive directions along with judicial interpretation of customs and usages which is important component of law under Art. 13(2) of Indian Constitution. Courts has developed different doctrines and conventions to tackle the different cases of caste and it’s intrinsic conflicts. The contribution could also be given to the founding father of the law development in the British times who have laid the foundation to develop the statutory and extensive framework for it’s modification of caste system in 1930s. The legal development and description on c...

As a system of hereditary social stratification, caste is associated primarily with South Asia, particularly India, but it also exists in South Asian diaspora communities including in the United Kingdom. Discrimination based on caste affects around 167 million Dalits – formerly ‘Untouchables’ – in India alone. In the United Kingdom it is estimated that there are at least 200,000 people of Dalit origin, possibly many more. Government-commissioned research suggests strongly that discrimination and harassment based on caste also exist in this country. This thesis discusses the legal regulation of caste discrimination in India, in international human rights law and in the United Kingdom. In order to contribute to an understanding of how caste can be conceptualised legally and how caste discrimination can be regulated legally, the thesis examines how the concept of caste and the phenomenon of discrimination and inequality on grounds of caste have been defined, constructed and addressed b...

rajakumar rajakumar

European Yearbook of Minority Issues, Vol. 8 (2009) 413-453

This article provides an insight into the paradox of caste discrimination in India in the twenty-first century. Focusing on the Dalits, it outlines the nature and extent of caste discrimination in India today, maps the legal approach in India to its elimination, assesses the effectiveness of official policies and considers the prospects for eradication of this age-old and entrenched form of discrimination.

Raja Hanuman

Rakesh Chandra

Untouchability is an ignoble feature of Indian society. On the one hand, it symbolizes inequality; and on the other hand, it is violative of the principle of human dignity. Every human being is born free and equal. No human dictat can cause a schism on the basis of such concepts like untouchability between two human beings. Although many social reformers tried their hand to reform the social traditions, yet legal reforms could be taken after the independence when we got a new Constitution of free India. Article 17 of the Constitution specifically deals with untouchability. Our Supreme Court in her various judgments clarified the law regarding the abolition of untouchability. Besides that, there are separate statutes like Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 which provide legal safeguards to ensure abolition of untouchability. This paper enumerates the legal provisions and the Apex Court Judgments to showcase the spirit of the founding Fathers enshrined in our constitution.

International Journal of Research

Edupedia Publications

Under-educated, severely impoverished, and brutally exploited, Dalits struggle to provide for even their most basic daily needs. Dalits must also endure daily threats to their physical security from both state and private actors. The violence by upper-caste groups against Dalits have two major causes: the “untouchability” and discrimination upper-caste community members practice on a daily basis and the desire of upper-caste community members to protect their own entrenched status by preventing Dalit development and the fulfillment of Dalits’ rights. A review of the political, social, economic, and cultural status of Dalits in India shows the State Party to be in violation of its obligation to respect, protect, and ensure Convention rights to all individuals in its jurisdiction. India routinely denies Dalits the rights and privileges that many of its other citizens take for granted. An attempt has been made in this paper to high light the issues and problems of India as a country that has failed in its duty to eliminate caste discrimination and ensure the full enjoyment of the fundamental rights and equality before the law of Dalits guaranteed by Article 5. A review of the political, social, economic, and cultural status of Dalits in India shows the State Party to be in violation of its obligation to respect, protect, and ensure Convention rights to all individuals in its jurisdiction.

Thimira Nirmal

In Sri Lankan social system the caste system played a major role in ancient era. But when it comes to the contemporary society caste system and caste based discrimination identified as a threat to the human rights. However with the social and the economic developments; the importance of the caste has been rapidly decreased but even today it has not eliminated from the society. Therefore the purpose of this research is to understand and to analyze the local and the international legal provisions which help to eliminate the caste based discrimination.

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Laws Against Caste-Based Discrimination: History And Evolution

Evolution of laws against caste-based discrimination.

• Equal citizenship and fundamental rights outlawing untouchability as a social construct.
• Unrestricted exercise of equal rights, safeguarded by sufficient constitutional remedies.
• Defence from discrimination.
• Enough legislative representation for the underprivileged classes. They must be able to use universal adult suffrage to choose their representative.
• Sufficiently represented in the services.
• The legislative branch and the executive branch should be held accountable for failing to adequately fund the depressed classes' access to education, clean water, employment opportunities, and other opportunities for social and political growth.

Current Legislations In The Indian Legal System

Protection of civil rights act 1955, scheduled castes and tribes (prevention of atrocities) act in 1989, prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation act 2013.

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616
• https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1916229
• https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/texts/6899.html
• https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-indias-caste-system-195496
• https://socialjustice.gov.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/The%20Scheduled%20Castes%20and%20Scheduled%20Tribes.pdf
• https://www.livelaw.in/supreme-court/supreme-court-scst-act-desirable-to-outline-caste-related-utterances-in-fir-or-chargesheet-229535
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/3023430

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How caste discrimination impacts communities in Canada

Associate Professor, Department of History, University of British Columbia

Postdoc, Harvard Kennedy School | Associate, Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Disclosure statement

Anne Murphy and Suraj Yengde received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, with additional support from an anonymous donor to the Department of History at the University of British Columbia, in support of the "Caste in Canada" project.

University of British Columbia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

University of British Columbia provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

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Many perceive caste to be a phenomenon that only exists in India. Yet, it is a part of Canadian society, and an issue that many in South Asian diasporas are contending with.

The late British Columbia-based poet and activist Mohan Lal Karimpuri described caste as a system of high and low, a form of “social, economic, political, religious inequality” that takes away the power of the many and puts it in the hands of the few. It is the hierarchical ranking of people in accordance with an ascriptive identity, associated with family, lineage and hereditary occupation.

Those who are Dalit, like Karimpuri, are among the most marginalized by dominant castes, and historically systematically excluded in social, economic and cultural terms. Dalits are most vulnerable in India where violence and exclusion remain pervasive. In 2022, Amnesty International stated that “ hate crimes including violence against Dalits and Adivasis [Indigenous Peoples] were committed with impunity .”

But caste does not only exist in South Asia. In recent years, it has been formally recognized as a potential grounds for discrimination in the United States and Canada in diverse contexts in places like Seattle, Wash. and Burnaby, B.C. .

The Toronto District School Board , the Ontario Human Rights Commission , Harvard University and the University of California, Davis have recognized casteism as a form of discrimination.

In 2023, California lawmakers passed a bill that would explicitly ban caste discrimination in the state. However, it was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom who said it was “unnecessary,” arguing that caste discrimination was already banned under existing laws.

To truly understand what caste means and its impact, the stories of those who experience caste discrimination must be heard. All too often, the experiences of those marginalized within the caste system are treated as an addendum or aside to dominant caste narratives, and casteist perspectives persist in the public domain and remain unquestioned.

Lack of visibility

In 2020, we initiated the Caste in Canada project in partnership with Dalit civil society leaders in B.C. The project documented the lives of Canadians of Dalit ancestry through in-depth oral history interviews. We interviewed 19 people from an array of backgrounds impacted by caste. Fourteen of these interviews are now available on the project website.

One recurrent theme in the interviews was the issue of visibility. University student Vipasna Nangal, for example, expressed concern about how many Dalits mask their caste identity in Canada as a way of avoiding stigma.

As she notes, “ in order to resist something you have to acknowledge it… and so you can’t have resistance without having visibility .” Caste, therefore, is something that needs to be talked about and not hidden. The limitations of masking caste identity are eloquently addressed in the interview with journalist Meera Estrada. She poignantly describes the pain involved in pretending not to be Dalit and her own personal journey towards publicly acknowledging her identity .

Participants in the project voiced this as a common concern: that only by making the stories of Dalits more visible and accessible can we create domains for the recognition, and then obliteration, of caste and casteism, and the possibility of moving past caste divisions, for all.

Challenging the social acceptability of casteism

Another important theme was the need to challenge the social acceptability of casteist discourse. Several participants emphasized the pervasiveness of casteist discourses in popular contexts, such as in music, where dominant caste perspectives are celebrated.

Participant Rashpal Singh Bhardwaj, founder of the Ambedkar International Social Reform Organization (AISRO), described the organization’s work with local radio stations to discourage playing music that celebrates dominant caste identities on the radio.

Caste discrimination is a part of the life experiences of many in Canada, both as a result of experiences in India, but also here in Canada. Participants Gurpreet Singh and Kamaljit described how people of South Asian heritage in Canada try to discover each other’s caste backgrounds — and the exclusion this entails.

It is, in short, a part of Canadian society, working on multiple levels and complicating our understanding of diversity in the Canadian context.

Tackling caste

Given that caste is a continuing problem both in India and abroad, it is no surprise that Dalit Canadians have organized extensively to address discrimination. In B.C. there are several organizations, such as our project partner, the Chetna (“Awareness”) Association of Canada , represented in our interviews by its executive director, Jai Birdi — who played a key role in the project, and speaks in his interview about how to respond to caste discrimination with power and resilience — and Manjit and Surjit Bains , Ambedkarite Buddhist activists.

Other important organizations include AISRO and its members Rashpal Singh Bhardwaj , Jogender Banger , and Kamlesh Ahir whom we interviewed for the project. There is also the Ambedkarite International Co-ordination Society , represented in the project by Param Kainth , who also speaks eloquently about the importance of the teachings of the Buddha for Dalits.

As the titles of these organizations make clear, they are inspired by India’s towering leader and architect of the Indian constitution, B.R. Ambedkar , who campaigned for the rights of South Asia’s diverse Dalit communities. His life and activism provide the model for millions of Dalits around the world as they seek to remake the world without caste. With the Caste in Canada project, we work with our Dalit colleagues to do the same in Canada.

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• Indian Dalits
• Caste system
• South Asians

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Essay on Caste Discrimination

Students are often asked to write an essay on Caste Discrimination in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Caste Discrimination

Understanding caste discrimination.

Caste discrimination is when people are treated badly because of the social group they are born into. This system ranks groups and gives some more power or respect than others. It’s like being picked last for a team, not because you’re not good, but just because of your last name.

Where It Happens

This unfair treatment is most common in some parts of the world, like India. Here, the caste system has been around for a long time. People from lower castes, like the Dalits, often face this discrimination in jobs, education, and in society.

Effects on People

When someone faces caste discrimination, it can hurt their feelings, make it hard for them to find good jobs, or go to school. It’s like being told you can’t play a game even though you want to and are able to.

Fighting Against Discrimination

Many people and groups are working to stop caste discrimination. They teach others why it’s wrong and help those who have been treated unfairly. It’s like standing up to a bully in the playground so everyone can play together.

Also check:

• Speech on Caste Discrimination

250 Words Essay on Caste Discrimination

What is caste discrimination.

Caste discrimination is when people are treated unfairly because of the caste they are born into. Castes are like groups in society, and some people think certain groups are better or worse than others. This unfair treatment can happen in schools, jobs, and even in public places.

In some countries, like India, caste has been a big part of society for a long time. People from lower castes, often called Dalits, face many problems. They can have trouble getting good jobs, and kids might be picked on in school. Sometimes, they are not allowed to use the same wells or temples as people from higher castes.

When people are treated badly because of their caste, it hurts their feelings and can make their lives very hard. They might not get the same chances as others to do well in life. This can mean they stay poor or don’t get the respect they deserve.

Fighting Against Caste Discrimination

Many people and groups are trying to stop caste discrimination. They say everyone should have the same rights and opportunities, no matter what caste they are from. Laws have been made to protect people from being treated badly because of their caste. But even with laws, changing how people think and act takes time.

Caste discrimination is wrong because it judges people by the group they were born into, not by what they can do or who they are as a person. Everyone should be treated fairly, and we all have a part to play in making sure this happens.

500 Words Essay on Caste Discrimination

Caste discrimination is a form of unfair treatment of people based on the caste they are born into. Caste is a system that splits society into different levels, and it has been a part of many cultures, especially in India. The caste system decides what job you can do, who you can marry, and how other people see you.

The Roots of the Caste System

Long ago, society was divided into four main groups called varnas. These were the Brahmins (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (farmers and merchants), and Shudras (laborers). Over time, these groups got split into many smaller ones called castes or ‘jatis’. This system became very strict, and people were not allowed to change their caste or mix with other castes.

How Caste Discrimination Happens

Caste discrimination can happen in many ways. Some people might not let others from different castes into their homes or eat with them. In schools, children from lower castes might be made to sit separately or even face harsh words from others. At work, people from higher castes might get better jobs or pay, even if they are not more skilled.

The Pain of Being Left Out

Being treated badly because of your caste can hurt a lot. It can make people feel sad, angry, or even hopeless. It is not fair for someone’s future to be limited just because of the family they were born into. Everyone should have the same chance to learn, work, and be happy.

Many people and groups are working hard to stop caste discrimination. They teach others that no one should be treated differently because of their caste. Laws have also been made to protect people from this kind of unfair treatment. For example, in India, there are laws that help people from lower castes get into schools and jobs.

What We Can Do

Everyone can help fight caste discrimination. We can start by treating everyone the same, no matter what caste they come from. We can also stand up for others if we see them being treated unfairly. It’s important to learn about and respect each other’s differences.

Caste discrimination is wrong and hurts our society. By working together and treating everyone with respect, we can create a world where your caste does not decide your future. Let’s aim for a place where every person has the same opportunities to succeed and live a happy life.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Cashless Society
• Essay on Cashless Economy Boon Or Bane
• Essay on Cash Flow

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Essay on Casteism in India for Students and Children

500 words essay on casteism in india.

India is a country which is known to be very cultural throughout the world. However, the culture rooted deep in the country also has various problems. We are a country that has a prevalent problem of Casteism. Casteism refers to discrimination based on the caste of a person. It is a great social evil that needs to be done away with. It is responsible for stopping the country from developing. Furthermore, it also causes oppression which is very bad for society.

Impact on Life

Basically, the religious and social circles dictate Casteism in India. Mostly, people living in rural areas are facing this problem tremendously. This problem is centuries old and needs time to be abolished completely.

During the early times, the villages were segregated on the basis of their caste. They were made to live in separated colonies. Even the place for buying food or getting water was segregated from those of the upper castes. For instance, the highest caste i.e. Brahmin never touched anything which belonged to a person of a lower caste. Moreover, they were denied entry into temples as they though them to be impure.

When we look at the present scenario, the impact may not be as severe as in the early periods, but it is still worrying. The people of the upper caste are very much looked up to and given access to all amenities. Whereas, on the other hand, the people of lower caste are not given such respect in certain areas even today. Sometimes, they don’t even get the same rights.

Furthermore, inter-caste marriage is considered such a taboo. It is almost a crime to marry someone you love from the other caste. While the people in urban areas have broadened their thinking, rural ones have still not. The villagers still do not believe in this concept and it also gives rise to honor killings.

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A Social Evil

Casteism is a great social evil that must be fought against. We need to get rid of this unjust system. Moreover, it only exploits the lower caste sector and mends out ruthless treatment. The lower caste people are working hard and making a place for themselves in society today.

We need to abolish this social evil right away for a progressive India. Just because a person is born into a lower caste family, does not mean it will determine their value. Caste is nothing but a concept with no reference to the worth of a person. Therefore, we must not discriminate on the basis of a caste of a person.

The government also tries to help the lower caste people through their reservation system. As they do not get equal opportunities, the government ensures they get it through the reservation. However, it also has its negative points. It kills the opportunity for deserving people and hampers the growth by barring actual talent.

FAQs on Casteism in India

Q.1 How does Casteism impact life?

A.1 Casteism impacts the quality of life of a person. It deprives them of equal opportunities. Further, it also discriminates against them and makes them feel isolated from society. People don’t feel like they belong when we discriminate against them. Moreover, people also kill others in the name of honor killing due to Casteism.

Q.2 How is Casteism a social evil?

A.2 Casteism is a social evil which hinders the growth of a country. You see it is a very regressive concept that determines a person’s worth based on their value, giving no attention to their talent and qualifications. It also causes violence and hatred amongst communities.

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Caste Discrimination (Essay Sample)

Caste discrimination.

The caste system is one of the forms of social and economic governance based  on customary rules .   The caste system involves dividing people into social groups known as castes mostly determined by birth.  This system is maintained using rigid economic penalties  in case of any deviations . There are four main classes referred to as the Varna  and people are classified according to their personality, profession, and birth .

The Brahmana  is the superior group that includes educators, and spiritual leaders including the high priests. While kshatriya are individuals working in public service like lawyers , police officers, public administrators and those working in military and law enforcers. The Vaishya are engaged in commercial activities and  include business people. The shudra are semi  skilled and unskilled laborers. Anyone who falls outside the caste system are  lesser human being and are called the untouchables. These groups of individuals are assigned the most dirty  and hazardous jobs   and face a lot of stigmatization  for the society. The caste system is not only practiced in India but in other parts of Africa, the Middle East and Pacific regions. The age-old tradition has been the main cause of social discrimination resulting in inequality in many countries  .

The caste system has resulted  a lot of discrimination since the society is divided into different compartments. Those from the higher castes exploit the lower caste   more so the shudras and the untouchables who are forced to perform menial task with little pay.  The children from lower caste remain slaves  forever had are not granted any opportunity to excel in life. With more than 165 million people  living in discrimination on, exploitation and violence, there has been a growing concern on how to handle the hidden apartheid in Indian and other countries practicing segregation . Caste discrimination continues to dominate in marriage ,employment and social interaction . For instance , the Dalits who are of the lowest caste are not permitted to drink from the same well  to go to the same temple. They cannot wear shoes in the presence of the upper caste . The Untouchables live in constant fear  of being humiliated in public . When they violate some of these rules, they are  paraded naked and beaten by the upper caste . By walking through the upper caste neighborhoods  can be life threatening  and it is an offense.

The caste system  is still a plague in  many societies  and has become an influential factor in politics . Politicians encourage such exploitation  for their own gain . Discrimination against the lower class  is prevalent   and is the main cause of backwardness witnessed in most Asian countries. Even though many social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy  and Dayanand Saraswati have made efforts to end caste discrimination,  many Indians are yet to abandon this old tradition . The Indian Constitution makes caste discrimination to be illegal . The prevention of Atrocities Act  is among the many efforts that made it illegal to parade people naked in the streets  like before or force people to eat feces or take away their land.

There are several laws meant to protect the lower class in India more so the Dalits, many of these laws are not enforced in many regions.  Discrimination is still rampant in rural areas where most people reside. There are the underlying religious principles of Hinduism that are still dominant in many areas, hence it is not easy to eliminate caste discrimination. Even though the caste system has been weakened, the practice still exists in rural population, making it difficult to  root out caste discrimination.