From DU Classrooms to Airlines: The Many Faces of Caste in 2025 India
What’s changed in caste India? Not enough. From classrooms to cockpits — we trace the rot.
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"People are educated now, they don’t believe in caste anymore."
"In cities, caste doesn’t even matter."
"Where are Dalits or backward castes being oppressed today?"
"Caste is just a Western construct."
That’s what many people believe, until a professor at Delhi University opens up:
'I faced caste-based discrimination at DU. I still don’t have an office. I had to go to the High Court just to take a leave. And now, my entire career has been tarnished. No matter what you achieve, even if you win the biggest award in the world, caste will still make sure you’re seen as lesser.'
Caste Discrimination Today
In recent days, multiple incidents of caste-based violence and discrimination have surfaced across India. From being assaulted for taking a wedding procession through an upper-caste locality to being humiliated with caste slurs, caste discrimination is far from gone.
Some still call caste a colonial relic, a 'Western construct.' But how deep does this 'construct' run in modern, educated India?
A Legacy of Discrimination
In January 1913, a young man returned to India after studying abroad and took up a job at the Baroda Secretariat. But instead of handing him files, the peons threw them at him from a distance because they were afraid to touch him.
His name? Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
112 years later, India is free. We’ve seen Dalit and Adivasi Presidents. But caste discrimination hasn’t vanished.
The Pilot's Complaint
A 35-year-old Dalit trainee pilot working with IndiGo has filed a police complaint against three senior officers at the airline’s Gurugram office for caste-based harassment.
According to the FIR, during a meeting on 28 April 2025, he was subjected to caste slurs for 30 minutes:
"Abey ch***ya Chamar… You are not fit to fly an aircraft, go back and stitch slippers. You don’t even have the worth to be a watchman here."
He alleges this went beyond verbal abuse, salary cuts, threats of retraining, and eventually being forced to resign. Despite approaching the ethics panel and senior management, no action was taken.
IndiGo, in a statement, denied the allegations and reiterated its zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination.
Caste in Academia
DU Professor Dr. Ashok Kumar, Associate Professor at the Physics & Astrophysics Department, and ranked among the university’s top 5 scientists, was denied promotion and declared “Not Found Suitable.”
He believes his Scheduled Caste identity played a role.
And data backs that fear: IIT Bombay’s faculty is 91% from unreserved categories, with only 0.88% from ST backgrounds. In seven IITs, ST faculty makes up less than 1% of total staff.
At IIM Indore, more than 97% of faculty are from the general/unreserved category not a single SC/ST professor.
Caste in Religion & Society
In Etawah, UP, a Yadav preacher was beaten for giving a sermon in a Brahmin locality.
In Jabalpur, MP, a Patel woman was barred from delivering a Bhagavad Katha, locals said she’d have to marry a Brahmin to do so.
In Etah, a Dalit groom’s wedding procession led to stone-pelting for passing through a Thakur locality.
In Odisha’s Ganjam district, two Dalit men accused of cow smuggling were brutally assaulted, heads half-shaved, forced to crawl on knees, eat grass, and drink drain water, after refusing to pay a ₹30,000 ransom.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Think it’s just a few incidents? Think again.
According to the NCRB:
2018: 42,793 cases against Dalits
2022: 57,582 cases — a 13% increase over the previous year
Caste issues will not disappear by declaring it dead. It will vanish only when representation becomes real: in education, employment, religion, and public life.
Until then, every incident, every number, every voice tells us one thing, caste discrimination is alive, and it is everywhere.