J Sai Deepak | Caste discrimination is reality

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27.6K views • January 29, 2026

J Sai Deepak | Caste discrimination is reality
#jsaideepak #castediscrimination

0:00 One sad truth is that car's
0:02 discrimination is still there as much we
0:04 may dislike it and we may justify it
0:05 that the world system is not exactly
0:08 discriminatory feeling of anyone's
0:09 superior feel. How do we see all this
0:11 reconcile all this with the sad truth
0:13 that cast discrimination and even
0:14 castbased violence is still there.
0:16 Second is we have freedom of expression
0:17 in our constitution which should be
0:19 there in every civilized society.
0:20 >> We don't.
0:22 >> Yeah, I agree. But how do we reconcile
0:25 that to the fact that in the name of
0:27 freedom of expression we say Lord Ram
0:29 was a misogynist. In the name of freedom
0:31 of expression we say Swami Veanandan was
0:33 a Hindu supremacist. In the name of
0:35 freedom of Kashmir say Kashmir Hindu
0:38 and this is a hyper toxic nationalist
0:41 movie which was meant how do we
0:43 reconcile these things?
0:44 >> So when you speak of cast discrimination
0:46 typically the conventional narrative is
0:48 a one-way street. I'm saying open up the
0:50 conversation. There is all sorts of
0:51 discrimination going on at multiple
0:53 levels by a lot of people. Talk about
0:56 that because according to us and the
0:57 Supreme Court says even if there is one
0:59 instance of discrimination, it must be
1:00 treated as discrimination because
1:02 individual rights is the star in the
1:03 constitution of rights in the in the
1:04 constitution is the Supreme Court's
1:06 position in Sabrimala judgment. Okay.
1:08 How many instances of reverse
1:09 discrimination has the Supreme Court of
1:11 the Indian state taken cognizance of?
1:14 Everyone who speaks of cast
1:17 discrimination and even someone like me,
1:18 I'll be very blunt about this. Have you
1:20 ever seen me make an argument against
1:23 article 17 which abolishes
1:24 untouchability? Never. Never.
1:29 I have not even sought to bring any
1:30 justifications to say no this article
1:32 needs to go. Have you seen me make an
1:35 argument against article 252b which says
1:37 that the entry of formally duplicous
1:38 classes into Hindu temples must be
1:40 abolished. Did I say that? I've never
1:42 made that statement. In fact, have you
1:44 ever seen me make a single statement or
1:46 argument against the existence of the
1:48 SCST atrocities act? The only time I
1:51 actually took a position and it's on
1:53 public record UCC lecture Bangalore when
1:56 they tried to boycott me as part of that
1:58 lecture a boy from perhaps the Dalith
2:01 community asked me a question. What is
2:02 your position going to be on this? Will
2:04 the uh will the uh BJP government in the
2:07 in the garb of bringing the UCCC affect
2:09 our rights? At that point I said of all
2:12 the governments the BJP government does
2:13 not have the guts to do it. Nothing of
2:14 that sort will happen. Your rights will
2:16 be fully protected because when the
2:18 Supreme Court specifically inserted
2:20 safeguards within the SCST atrocities
2:23 act to prevent its abuse, this
2:25 government legislated it out.
2:26 >> Yes.
2:27 >> Okay. Therefore, I said I have not even
2:31 ex I mean presented a position remotely
2:33 challenging the existing of that
2:34 legislation existence of that
2:35 legislation despite the Supreme Court
2:38 taking cognizances of multiple instances
2:40 of abuse. Cast discrimination is a
2:43 reality. I'm not pixelating it. I am not
2:47 pixelating the fact that it actually
2:49 happens across the board. I have never
2:51 even denied it when I wrote the piece
2:54 that even if if the formulation of cast
2:56 is a western construct. So what I
2:59 actually have the email specifically
3:00 saying I told the Indian Express that
3:02 you mistitled the whole damn thing
3:03 because that that my question was my
3:05 title was not cast as a western
3:06 construct. I said cast as a western
3:08 construct. So what does it change
3:10 anything on the ground? That was the
3:11 question that I was asking. So therefore
3:13 I said the problem starts with official
3:17 fixation of the structure completely and
3:20 branding it for life. That means once
3:23 you enter a certain category you're
3:24 stuck with that for the rest of your
3:26 life.
3:27 when in fact the movement and mobility
3:30 of jatis has been different prior to its
3:32 official fixation by the British man.
3:34 That's where I was coming from. Now
3:37 let's assume for a moment you say but
3:38 still cast discrimination or varnati
3:40 discrimination existed before. Allow me
3:42 to say this discrimination of all forms
3:45 has always existed. The fact that you
3:47 choose to focus your discriminatory lens
3:50 exclusively on cast gives the distinct
3:52 impression that all of the social
3:54 structures are free of discrimination.
3:56 So gender discrimination exists yes or
3:59 no it happens now both ways thanks to
4:00 498A right now in such a situation shall
4:04 we destroy the concept of genders
4:06 altogether
4:08 but the left is already doing it is what
4:09 I've said that's what they saying right
4:13 religions also discriminate against each
4:14 or between each other for the most part
4:16 what do you want to do every identity
4:19 will create the concept of them and us
4:23 then you should have a fundamental
4:24 problem with the concept of identity
4:26 itself.
4:28 Let's start by saying therefore there's
4:30 no concept of family also because then
4:33 my family your family what are you
4:35 expected to do? I would have expected
4:37 the Indian state to hit the reset button
4:40 on the manner in which Indian social
4:43 structure has been represented by the
4:44 colonial establishment in 1947 and
4:47 change the whole damn thing by saying
4:49 present facts don't pixelate anything
4:51 but don't magnify or exaggerate
4:53 something
4:55 that is the position you should have
4:56 taken and that goes with the caveat
4:59 certainly have the atrocities act
5:01 certainly have the provision with
5:02 respect to abolition of untouchability
5:03 certainly have the provision with
5:04 respect to entry of formally dipl
5:06 classes into temples have all of that I
5:08 will even go to the extent of saying so
5:10 for whatever period reservation as a
5:13 formula if it is meant to actually
5:15 address certain grievances retain that
5:17 but don't expand it beyond that but what
5:19 has happened over the years after the
5:20 mandal commission it has only seen the
5:22 mundalization of the Hindu community not
5:24 consolidation of the Hindu community
5:27 it hasn't you can't speak of
5:30 annihilation of cast on the one hand and
5:31 constantly speak of expansion of the p
5:33 of reservation on the other hand and you
5:35 can't say that reservation will be given
5:37 exclusively on birth basis but you have
5:38 a problem with vanashma on the birth
5:40 basis these arguments don't fly that
5:43 means you will pick and choose a certain
5:44 argument to hit out in a certain system
5:46 but you will retain everything else that
5:48 you get by by way of for benefit thanks
5:50 to the very same system that can't
5:51 happen
5:53 that can't happen that means you're
5:56 therefore saying the existing status quo
5:59 works fantastically for me because a
6:01 certain piece of literature helps me
6:02 constantly guilt trip you and the
6:04 benefits that come out of the guilt
6:05 tripping will continue in the
6:06 constitutional form. How fair is this?
6:10 The very same set of people don't get to
6:11 talk about cast annihilation because
6:13 their entire electoral arithmetic starts
6:15 and ends with jati. The day you stop it,
6:17 you get to pontificate to others. But as
6:20 long as you're pontificating to us on
6:21 jati and you're also having jati based
6:23 calculus for electoral tickets and
6:24 ticket distribution and how how do
6:26 people vote, you don't get to speak of
6:28 samajikna and social justice at all.
6:30 You're the last person who should
6:31 pontificate the rest of us on the
6:32 subject. I am never going to say don't
6:36 uh don't speak of discrimination. I've
6:38 never said that. I will never say that.
6:41 Go for a military measures. But
6:43 somewhere strike a balance. Somewhere
6:45 strike a balance. Today you've skewed it
6:47 so much that the Hindu community is now
6:50 fighting like rats within itself amongst
6:52 itself as opposed to focusing on
6:54 external challenges. And that battle has
6:56 proven itself to be the most important
6:58 and dangerous battle in the elections of
7:00 2024 which according to me is a
7:02 reflection of the future path of the
7:04 Congress party. I said this before
7:06 that they have realized that this is the
7:08 weak link. And then we had genius is
7:11 basically saying that's why we saying
7:12 jati go you tried pitting jati against
7:15 chinduta jati won
7:18 you should find a way to blend both.
7:20 Why? Let's take the answer of what the
7:21 other gentleman said. I'll explain this.
7:24 Jati is a uh is a is a phenomenon of the
7:27 subcontinent of the Indian subcontinent
7:29 because we have all been Hindus at one
7:30 point, right? And therefore the Jati
7:33 identity continues. What happened during
7:36 the colonial period is the exaltation of
7:39 the Jati identity at the expense of the
7:41 Hindu identity. Exaltation of the local
7:44 identity at the expense of the
7:45 Sanskritic identity. Therefore leading
7:47 to jati based movements and therefore
7:48 leading to regional movements and
7:50 shamanistic movements like the Dravenous
7:51 movement. the same fault line has
7:53 expressed itself in two different ways.
7:56 Therefore, the point is if the other
7:59 communities also have jati
8:01 there is a very famous uh preacher from
8:04 Pakistan who speaks on a regular basis
8:05 and apparently Amir Khan is a great fan
8:07 of this man and they met in Makkah also.
8:10 Uh this gentleman never see no no not
8:13 engineer this guy never stops saying
8:15 that I'm a descendant of Priya Chahan.
8:18 He never stopped saying that that we are
8:20 Rajputs
8:21 that NASA identity continues to exist
8:23 even there. You you're telling me that
8:25 there are no cast based churches in Ka
8:27 or in Andhra Pradesh or in Talangana. Of
8:28 course they are there but why is it that
8:30 they are not suffering from divisions?
8:33 Because they are not focusing on
8:35 internal divisions when they're looking
8:36 at everybody else outside.
8:39 We have chosen to consciously air
8:41 internal divisions in public. Fine. Go
8:44 ahead. Deal with it. But what you're
8:45 doing is you're creating enemies within
8:47 and alienating insiders while constantly
8:49 welcoming the outsider. And you don't
8:52 have a clear sense of who the out group
8:54 is. They do.
8:56 They know who does not belong to the
8:58 Muslim identity. They know who does not
9:00 belong to the Christian identity.
9:01 Whereas we are the one saying
9:05 Hindu
9:07 DNA basis.
9:10 Huh.
9:12 Fundamental philosophy of psychology. A
9:15 community is created both by the
9:16 definition of the in-group and the
9:18 definition of the outroup. Who belongs
9:19 and who does not belong. You have
9:22 modeled it fully. Don't hold the
9:24 community responsible when you continue
9:25 pushing the very same policy even after
9:27 75 years. You have created a political
9:31 and an economic incentive to continue
9:34 exalting the local at the expense of the
9:36 national and the civilizational. That is
9:38 the story of postindependence bat
9:41 >> about this question of discrimination
9:43 whether there is cast discrimination. I
9:45 do believe that is a it is um it is more
9:47 a narrative than uh fact-driven and um
9:52 uh I would suggest anyone who's
9:54 interested in this question to explore
9:55 its nuances to read this paper by Sophia
9:58 Patan and Duncan Jali. It is called is
10:01 there a case for cast discrimination in
10:03 India and what the numbers tell us and
10:05 um I'm quite certain that anyone who
10:07 reads the paper will be surprised by the
10:10 findings. Thank you.