Coverage
Political representation in legislatures, bureaucracy, judiciary, media, corporate India; local-body governance.
In focus
Three years after Darshan Solanki's death, another Dalit student has died at IIT Bombay, and the institute's first account again centred on the student. Students want many of the same reforms.
… there was a vaccine to cure Covid, and similarly, the Rohith Act is a cure for casteism.
Posts reserved for Scheduled Castes in India's 45 central universities that stood vacant on 1 April 2021.
Each state built its case on its own commission's evidence after India's Supreme Court allowed the split in 2024. Federal records count Dalits in central jobs, not which Dalit communities hold them.
A census produces data. Data by itself does not produce equality.
Lok Sabha seats reserved for Scheduled Castes since the 2008 delimitation, up from 79.
A satirical party with a Dalit founder helped push India's education minister out, with Ambedkar's book held high and "Jai Bhim" among its slogans. Dalit writers disagree on what that means.
I come from a Dalit family. That is why Dr Ambedkar has had such a profound influence on my life. If I am sitting in Boston today, it is because he secured for us the right to equality and the right to live with dignity.
West Bengal's OBC reservation in state government posts, after the May 2026 notification restored the pre-2010 list of 66 classes.
When the Cockroach Janta Party's founder said he was Dalit, replies on X called him "against Merit". The same argument ran through India's year, from campus rules to an exam scandal.
Somebody who does not have access to money does not have access to 'merit'.
Students at a government college in Tamil Nadu questioned, on camera, a youth body's caste column that India's model donor questionnaire lacks. No reported explanation says what it was for.
The fear in the Brahminical establishment is that a Dalit can enter this so-called prestigious institute with a voice and assertion. Their deepest insecurities were exposed in the way this case was handled.
Sanamdeep Singh's family kept his body in a Sangrur mortuary for five days to press for Atrocities Act charges. Police removed them and oversaw the cremation, citing decay.
Students at a government college in Tamil Nadu questioned, on camera, a youth body's caste column that India's model donor questionnaire lacks. No reported explanation says what it was for.
The Dalit M.Ed. student says faculty harassed her and held her marks down. The national commission that took up her case can demand answers, but has no power of its own to punish.
Untouchability has never needed anyone to announce a motive. India's Scheduled Castes commission went looking for one in Haldwani.
Telangana says it is testing an allegation against a former chief minister. The notices have gone to Dalit families who have farmed Erravalli's assigned land for 60 years.
Three years after Darshan Solanki's death, another Dalit student has died at IIT Bombay, and the institute's first account again centred on the student. Students want many of the same reforms.
India abolished untouchability in 1950. Surveys, audits and Dalit testimony show it moved into the rental interview, the hiring shortlist, the marriage market and the kitchen.
A satirical party with a Dalit founder helped push India's education minister out, with Ambedkar's book held high and "Jai Bhim" among its slogans. Dalit writers disagree on what that means.
Census 2027 asks everyone outside the SC and ST lists to write in a caste. Who sorts those answers, and which Dalits the list leaves out, is still open.
Ambedkar called Indian democracy a "top-dressing" on undemocratic soil. In West Bengal's 2026 election, a roll revision struck about 9.1 million names, and Matua voters say what lay beneath.
The Supreme Court froze the campus rules Rohith Vemula's mother fought for, over whether caste discrimination runs one way. Ambedkar explained in 1936 why rules alone keep losing.
The Supreme Court froze the 2026 campus equity rules, but the 2012 rules, anti-ragging rules and the Atrocities Act still apply. What each gives you, and where to complain.
Dalit seats follow the Scheduled Caste count and a freeze that lifts after this census, not the new caste question. What else the count changes depends on what the state publishes.
When the Cockroach Janta Party's founder said he was Dalit, replies on X called him "against Merit". The same argument ran through India's year, from campus rules to an exam scandal.
A 2024 court ruling struck down OBC classifications made in 2010–2012 and called for a fresh, commission-led study. West Bengal's new BJP government restored the pre-2010 list before that study began.
Oxfam India and Newslaundry's 2022 count found general-category journalists in 191 of 218 leadership posts. Dalit journalists who built their own newsrooms explain what that does to the news.
