Untouchability was abolished by the Constitution of India. Article 17 is very clear about it. Legally, there should be no place for untouchability in modern India.
But the uncomfortable question is: has it really disappeared from society?
I don’t think it has disappeared completely. It has changed its form.
The old untouchability was visible. People were stopped from entering temples, using common wells, sitting with others or even walking through certain places. It was cruel, direct and easy to identify.
Today’s discrimination is often different.
It is more educated. More polite. More indirect.
Nobody may openly say, “I will not sit with you because of your caste.”
Instead, somebody may say, “We are comfortable with our own community.” Nobody may openly say, “Your caste is inferior.”
But when the question of marriage comes, suddenly caste becomes extremely important.
This is what I mean by sophisticated untouchability.
It doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it whispers. And perhaps that makes it even more difficult to challenge.
We Have Changed Our Language
Today, hardly any educated person would proudly call himself casteist. We say we believe in equality. We say caste does not matter to us. But then certain questions arise.
Would caste matter if our son or daughter wanted to marry someone from another caste?
Would caste matter while renting out a house? Would it matter while choosing a close family relationship? Would our behaviour remain exactly the same after knowing someone’s caste background?
These questions are more important than public declarations.
It is easy to say, “I don’t believe in caste.”
The real test comes when caste enters our personal space.
Many people have no problem studying with someone from another caste, working with them, eating with them or travelling with them.
But marriage?
There the old walls often suddenly come back.
We call it tradition. We call it family pressure. We call it compatibility. We say, “Society will not accept it.” But who is society?
Society is us.
This is how discrimination continues. Nobody wants to accept responsibility for it. The individual blames the family. The family blames the community. The community blames tradition. And tradition continues.
The Marriage Question
Marriage perhaps exposes the caste system more clearly than almost anything else. India is becoming modern in many ways. We use the latest technology. Our children study abroad. We talk about globalization, artificial intelligence, democracy and individual freedom.
But when a son or daughter chooses a life partner, caste suddenly becomes a major issue in many families.
This contradiction should make us think. We may be modern professionally but traditional socially. A person can be highly educated and still carry very old prejudices. Education alone does not automatically remove discrimination. Sometimes education only gives discrimination more sophisticated language.
Instead of saying, “That caste is unacceptable,” we say, “There may be adjustment problems.” Instead of saying, “We don’t want them in our family,” we say, “Our cultures are different.” Sometimes these concerns may be genuine. But sometimes they are simply caste prejudice in respectable clothing.
Untouchability Has Become Less Physical and More Psychological
Earlier, untouchability often meant physical separation.
Today the separation may be psychological or social.
You can work with us. You can study with us. You can sit beside us. You can be our colleague. But perhaps not our relative. Perhaps not our son-in-law. Perhaps not our daughter-in-law. This is a strange kind of equality.
It allows a person to enter public space but not private space.
And that raises a difficult question: do we really consider the other person equal, or do we simply tolerate them?
Tolerance and equality are not the same thing.
Equality means accepting another person as having the same human worth.
Housing and Social Life
Caste discrimination in housing is also not always direct now. A landlord may not say anything about caste openly. He may simply say the house is already occupied. Or that only certain families are preferred. Or that society rules do not allow it.
Sometimes food habits, surname, village, occupation or community become indirect ways of identifying social background.
There may not be any written rule.
Still, everybody understands what is happening. That is the problem with modern discrimination. It is often difficult to prove. There is no offensive sentence. No public insult. No signboard. But the exclusion is still there.
Schools and Universities Are Not Always Free From It
Education should be the strongest weapon against caste prejudice.
But educational institutions are also part of society, and society enters the classroom.
Students may face caste-based jokes.
Some may be mocked because they belong to reserved categories.
There is sometimes an assumption that a reserved-category student has achieved less or deserves less respect.
This is unfair and psychologically damaging.
A student should not have to prove again and again that he or she deserves to be present in an institution.
Reservations can certainly be debated as a policy. Every policy can be discussed and reviewed.
But that debate should never turn into humiliation of individuals.
A person is not a reservation category. He or she is a human being.
The Word “Merit” Merit has also become a complicated word in conversations about caste. Of course merit matters. Hard work matters. Ability matters. But we should also ask whether everybody starts from the same point.
One child may grow up with educated parents, private tuition, good schools, books, English exposure, financial security and professional guidance.
Another may be the first person in the family to enter higher education. If both reach the same examination hall, can we honestly say their journeys were exactly the same? Recognising social disadvantage does not mean denying individual effort.
It only means being realistic.
Merit should not become another word used to insult people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Person Who Says “I Never Think About Caste”
Sometimes people proudly say, “I never think about caste.”
That can be a very good thing.
But it can also mean that caste has never created difficulties in their own life. People who suffer because of caste are often unable to forget it because society repeatedly reminds them.
A privileged person may have the freedom not to think about caste.
A disadvantaged person may not have that freedom.
This difference is important. Privilege often feels invisible to the person who has it.
Caste Without Mentioning Caste
One does not always have to ask directly, “What is your caste?” People find other ways. Surname. Village. Family background. Occupation. Marriage network. Sometimes even accent and food habits.
India has developed a very sophisticated social intelligence for identifying caste without openly mentioning it.
Once identity is understood, behaviour may change.
Again, nothing may be said directly.
That is why modern caste prejudice can be very difficult to confront.
Digital India, Old Thinking
We are living in a highly technological India. Money moves through phones. Artificial intelligence is entering classrooms and offices. People communicate across continents within seconds. But technology cannot automatically modernise the human mind.
Caste abuse has also entered social media.
WhatsApp, Facebook and other platforms sometimes carry caste-based jokes, insults and stereotypes.
Even matrimonial websites often organise people according to caste preferences.
So we can become digitally modern and socially old at the same time. Progress in technology should not be confused with progress in thinking.
Children Learn It From Us
No child is born understanding caste hierarchy. Children learn it.
They hear adults talking. They observe which marriages are accepted and which are opposed. They notice how domestic workers are treated.
They listen to caste jokes.
They hear conversations about “our people” and “their people.”
So caste is passed from one generation to another not only through direct teaching but through daily behaviour.
This is where schools have a very important role. Teaching Article 17 in a civics class is not enough. Children should experience equality inside school. A teacher cannot teach constitutional values in the classroom and practise social discrimination outside it.
That contradiction destroys the lesson.
Constitutional Morality and Social Morality
Our Constitution is much more progressive than many of our social habits.
The Constitution tells us that dignity belongs to every citizen.
But traditional society often asks about birth, caste, community, family and social status before deciding how much respect a person should receive.
This conflict still exists.
Democracy is not only about elections. Democracy should enter our homes. Our marriages, our schools, our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, our religious spaces.
If equality exists only in government documents but not in personal relationships, then our democratic journey remains incomplete.
We Must Also Admit That India Has Changed It would be unfair to say that nothing has improved. India has changed enormously.
People from communities that were historically excluded have entered universities, administration, politics, medicine, law, education and many other areas.
Inter-caste friendships are common. Inter-caste marriages are increasing. Many young Indians genuinely reject caste discrimination. A large number of families are more open-minded than previous generations.
The Constitution, social reform movements and education have brought major changes.
This progress should be acknowledged.
But acknowledging progress does not mean pretending that caste prejudice has vanished. Both things can be true at the same time.
We have moved forward. And we still have a long distance to travel. The More Difficult Casteist to Recognise The openly casteist person is easy to identify.
The more difficult case is the educated, polite and otherwise decent person who believes sincerely that he is not casteist but still practises caste boundaries.
He may oppose untouchability but object to inter-caste marriage. He may support equality but laugh at caste jokes. He may respect a colleague but feel uncomfortable accepting that colleague into the family. He may speak against discrimination but make assumptions about someone because of reservation.
This is perhaps the real challenge before modern India. The battle is no longer only against open untouchability. It is also against unconscious hierarchy. And that battle has to take place inside us. We Need to Ask Ourselves Difficult Questions
Instead of asking, “Am I casteist?” — because almost everyone will say no — perhaps we should ask ourselves some more uncomfortable questions.
Would caste influence the person I want my child to marry?
Would I treat someone differently after knowing their caste?
Would I rent my house to everyone on equal terms?
Do I make assumptions about a student’s ability because of reservation? Would I be comfortable if caste completely disappeared as a social identity? Do I believe in equality only in public, or also inside my own family?
These questions are not meant to accuse.
They are meant to make us think.
Social change begins when people are willing to examine themselves.
Conclusion
The old untouchability was crude. The new untouchability may be educated. It may speak softly. It may live in comfortable homes.
It may hold university degrees. It may post messages about equality on social media. It may publicly condemn discrimination.
And still, somewhere during a marriage discussion, it may quietly say:
“Everything is fine, but caste is also important.” That sentence tells us how far we still have to go. Untouchability should not be understood only as refusing physical contact with another human being.
Whenever we treat people as socially less acceptable because of birth, whenever we create invisible walls around marriage, housing, friendship or dignity, some form of the old hierarchy continues.
The Constitution abolished untouchability legally.
But laws can only do part of the work.
The remaining work belongs to families, schools, communities and individual human beings.
India will truly defeat untouchability not merely when people of different castes can sit together, eat together and work together.
It will happen when caste stops deciding how much dignity, intelligence, respect or belonging we give to another human being.
The old wall was visible.
The new wall is often invisible.
But an invisible wall is still a wall.
Arshid Qalmi is an educator, school counsellor, mental health advocate and writer with a strong interest in education, adolescent wellbeing, social issues and human dignity. He works at Govt. High School Aripal, Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir.
Email: aqalmi303@gmail.com
