Another shameful incident has brought the caste inequalities in an otherwise modern India to the fore. Parents rioted outside a school in Uttar Pradesh after discovering that the cook who prepared food for their children under the mid-day meal scheme was a Dalit.   The Government middle school in the newly created Ramabai Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh has 191 students, nearly half of them who belong to so-called upper castes...

Hundreds of Dalits, under the banner of Punjab Dalit Chetna Manch, laid siege to the District Administrative Complex (DAC) and burnt the effigy of the district administration for its alleged anti-Dalit approach. Some protesters tried self-immolation, while some youngsters climbed up the rooftop of the DAC threatening to jump, but heavy police force, led by SP (City) Sukhwant Singh Gill and DSP (City-II) Swarandeep Singh managed to persuade the protesters...

Tension prevailed in the Surya Nagar area of this Haryana district Tuesday after stray incidents of violence following a dispute between the members of the Dalit and Jat communities, police said. 'Yesterday (Monday) night a buffalo, belonging to a member of Dalit community, collided with a vehicle that was owned by a Jat youth. At that time there were some heated arguments but the situation was somehow controlled,' a police...

Haryana to hold judicial inquiry into Dalit attack    Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Thursday said a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the incident of arson attack on the houses of Dalit (Balmiki) community in Hisar district's Mirchpur village. The Dalits of Mirchpur were targets of violence by the dominant upper caste members April 21. As many as 150 Dalit families were driven out of the village after an...

Amitabh Bachchan says that if ever asked about his caste by Census enumerators, his answer would be: Caste – Indian. That, of course, would do little more than stoke the media's bollywood feeding frenzy yet again. Shyam Maharaj is no Bachchan. Nor is his brother, Chaitanya Prabhu. But they and the followers of their fraternity will likely throw up far more complex answers — and questions — if Census enumerators...