AS we celebrate the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the main architect of India’s Constitution, next week (14 April), it is also time to ponder over the status of his major teaching about the annihilation of the caste system in the country.”
The caste-varna system has been central to the practices of Hindu society even before the term Hindu was coined. The Hindu scriptures did mandate strict ‘varna-jati’ rules, starting from the Vedas to the Manusmriti and others. Lord Gautam Buddha was the first major voice against this system, called a ‘revolution by Babasaheb. Following this, starting from Pushyamitra Shung, Buddhism was opposed along with the values it preached. This period, called counter-revolution, led to the restoration of caste-varna aggressively. Buddhism was wiped out from India, but it did flourish in many South and East Asian countries.
The next major opposition to the caste system was from the saints of the genre of Kabir, Raidas, Dadu and their likes. These saints upheld humanism in contrast to rituals and the primacy of the priestly class and talked of equality in society. Their articulation was very powerful, but they met strong opposition from the priestly class in alliance with the feudal lords, the major beneficiaries of the caste system. During the British colonial period, despite all the fallacies, opposition to this inhuman system gathered pace with the modern education system. The articulation of equality in modern times begins with Jyotirao Phule, who took on the prevailing opposition to education for the lower caste and succeeded in putting forward the education and equal status for Dalit-OBC. This got a boost from modern industrialisation and the struggle for equality got rooted in society.
The education for women initiated by Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule was the ideal foil to the struggle against the rigidities of the system, which saw women as subordinate to men. Fatima Sheikh stood rock solid with Savitribai to promote this process. The major leap in this march towards this process of striving for social justice came from Babasaheb Ambedkar. All his efforts, the movements for public drinking water (Chavdar Talav) and temple entry (Kalaram Mandir). Opposition to the religious sanction of caste was in the form of burning of the Manusmriti. Periyar Ramasamy Naicker’s movement for self-respect was a powerful one to shake the conscience of society. All these efforts ran parallel to the freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, culminating in the process of discussions in the Constituent Assembly for the country’s Constitution. Ambedkar becoming Chairman of the Drafting Committee was not just symbolic; it reflected the core role of this great leader for the values of equality.
The seeds of opposition to this process of social change towards equality were present in society. They were reflected first in the Hindu Mahasabha and then in the RSS. The Dalit-OBC movement was a major step that shook the rooted hierarchy of caste and gender, the core of RSS ideology. RSS came up in opposition to Dalits striving for equality in society; it found an external enemy in Muslims to consolidate its power gradually. Manusmriti was its central core and opposition to Islam and Muslims was the cover for its growth. It continued to consolidate itself through its training module, which was reached by young boys who became Pracharak (full-time workers and celibate) and Swayamsevak.
While the Constitution did provide for reservations for SC/STs, the subtle propaganda against it continued through word of mouth. This culminated in anti-Dalit violence in 1980 and anti-OBC violence in 1985, both around Ahmedabad. The implementation of Mandal supplemented the journey towards social justice. The Hindu nationalists responded by strengthening their Kamandal, Ram Temple, holy cow and love jihad in particular to distract from the process of Mandal implementation. Youth for Equality-type organisations supplemented the opposition to Mandal.
This process of affirmative action was not accepted by the entrenched elements, as the land reform process remained incomplete and clergy and landlords kept changing their form; they did not disappear. To dilute the process of reservations, caste-based, they brought in economic criteria for the same. The reserved posts in academia went unfilled by the biased selection committees, stating, ‘no suitable candidate found’. With the rise of Hindu nationalist ideology and thinking newer and newer elements are cropping up to halt the march towards social justice.
There was opposition to the long-pending demand for a caste census. It has been accepted now and with its results, we will come to know about the status of the caste and their plight. Another issue has been operating at a subtle level. This is the humiliation of SC/ST in educational institutions in particular and in society in general. These subtle insults to the deprived sections of society have manifested in an increasing number of suicides by Dalit/ST candidates. The institutional murder of Rohit Vemula had shaken a large number of people with humane values. A Dalit boy wanting to be a scientist was subjected to the worst type of treatment in Hyderabad Central University, leading to his suicide. Rohit’s act was formulated but remains unimplemented. The case of Payal Tadvi in Nair Hospital in Mumbai shook us as Dr Payal Tadvi was subjected to humiliation by her superiors regularly, forcing her to take her life. Darshan Solanki in Mumbai IIT was mocked by other students on various occasions, again leading to his committing suicide. These are just a few examples; there are dime-a-dozen cases of that nature.
In this light, the University Grants Commission notified (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, on January 13, 2026. It mandated strict anti-discrimination measures in all Indian educational institutions. This was to ensure equality, targeting caste, gender, and disability discrimination. Key mandates included establishing Equal Opportunity Centres (EOC), Equity Committees, 24/7 helplines, and appointing Equity Ambassadors. There was a massive opposition to this and the matter was taken to the court, which struck down the UGC’s mandate.
Today, when we remember Dr Ambedkar, we need to be aware that the major and subtle opposition to the process of march towards social equality comes from the well-entrenched RSS, which is spreading its retrograde agenda through multiple mechanisms. While RSS’s anti-Muslim agenda is more than visible, its anti-Dalit agenda is much more subtle and needs to be countered for the dream of annihilation of caste.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor of IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
