The Incongruity of Caste and Science

Why in News?

Recently, a poster was displayed at IIT-Mandi that assigned hereditary social duties to different varnas, including service to supposedly “higher” groups. Its appearance at an institution of scientific learning raises questions about the persistence of caste hierarchy despite constitutional safeguards, educational expansion and scientific progress.

The controversy raises a broader question: How can institutions committed to scientific inquiry prevent the reproduction of inherited social hierarchies?

Prevalent caste hierarchy treats inherited identity as a basis for assigning unequal duties and rights. Constitutional democracy instead recognises individuals as rights-bearing persons and citizens.

What scientific research tells us about caste?

• Indian populations have histories of shared and mixed ancestry: The Reich et al. study in Nature (2009) identified extensive mixed ancestry among studied Indian populations. Its ancestral categories were population-history models, not biological equivalents of present-day varnas. Genetic variation provides no basis for assigning hereditary social duties.
• Endogamy has helped produce present genetic patterns: A 2013 study covering 73 groups estimated major ancestral mixing approximately 1,900-4,200 years ago, followed by increasing restrictions on intermarriage. Genetic differences therefore partly record the consequences of social boundaries; they do not establish that those boundaries were biologically ordained (predetermined).
• Endogamy has health implications, not implications of superiority: A 2017 study of over 260 South Asian groups identified strong founder events in numerous communities, relevant to understanding recessive disease risks. Such findings support accessible healthcare and genetic counselling, without ranking or stigmatising communities. 
• Social context can influence measured performance: In a Hoff-Pandey experiment involving 642 schoolboys, caste differences in maze-solving performance emerged when caste identity was publicly revealed, although no such gap appeared when it was undisclosed. This context-specific finding challenges the assumption that observed achievement necessarily reflects fixed ability.

Genetic ancestry, environmental influences and epigenetic regulation are distinct processes. None of these differences establishes hereditary entitlement to social authority or particular occupations.

Caste as a society and social-justice problem: 

• It restricts occupational freedom and social mobility: The problem extends beyond division of work to the hereditary assignment of workers and their social status. It limits individual choice and can transmit occupational disadvantage across generations. E.g., the persistence of manual scavenging illustrates this connection: 2021 government data showed that 42,594 of 43,797 identified manual scavengers with available caste information (about 97%) were SCs. This is evidence of the enduring association between caste and degrading labour.
• It reproduces unequal educational opportunities: School quality, household resources, language exposure, books and professional networks influence achievement. Consequently, formally identical examinations operate within unequal social conditions. E.g., AISHE 2021-22 recorded SC enrolment in higher education reached 66.23 lakh in 2021-22, a 44% increase since 2014-15. This figure demonstrates both progress and continuing gaps.
• It connects caste reproduction with patriarchy: Endogamy preserves caste boundaries through marriage and kinship. Its enforcement can involve restricting women’s mobility and marital choice, making caste and gender disadvantages mutually reinforcing. Findings from IHDS-II, conducted in 2011-12, indicated that only about 5% of marriages were inter-caste. This historical evidence demonstrates the strength of caste boundaries within family formation.
• It undermines dignity, belonging and fraternity: Discrimination can operate through humiliation, segregation, social exclusion and assumptions about competence. Admission to a university or appointment to a job therefore does not automatically guarantee equal treatment within it.

Constitutional Safeguards and Policy Measures: 

Constitutional safeguards: 

• Preamble: Social justice, equality of status and opportunity, and fraternity assuring individual dignity.
• Article 14: Guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws.
• Article 15(1): Prohibits specified discrimination on grounds including caste.
• Article 15(2): Protects access to shops, public restaurants, wells, roads and other public facilities.
• Articles 15(4) & (5): Enable special provisions for educational advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, SCs and STs.
• Article 16: Guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment; permits reservations for inadequately represented backward classes and, subject to constitutional requirements, promotion reservations for SCs/STs.
• Article 17: Abolition of untouchability.
• Articles 21 and 23: Protection of dignity and liberty, and prohibition of forced labour.
• Article 46: Promotion of educational and economic interests of weaker sections, particularly SCs/STs, and protection against social injustice.
• Articles 330, 332, 243D and 243T: Reserved political representation for SCs/STs in legislatures and local bodies.
• Articles 338, 338A and 338B: Constitutional commissions for SCs, STs and backward classes.
• Article 51A(h): Scientific temper linked expressly with humanism, inquiry and reform.

These provisions combine formal equality, which prohibits discrimination, with substantive equality, which addresses disadvantages obstructing equal opportunity.

Laws and Policy Measures: 

• Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955: Penalises enforcement of disabilities arising from untouchability.
• SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989: Addresses specified atrocities through penalties, Special Courts and provisions for victim protection, relief and rehabilitation.
• Manual Scavenging Prohibition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013: Prohibits manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, and provides for rehabilitation of identified manual scavengers.
• Affirmative action: Reservations in education and public employment address historical exclusion and inadequate representation within the applicable constitutional framework.
• Targeted support: Scholarships, hostels, educational assistance and livelihood rehabilitation seek to improve access and reduce inherited disadvantage.
• Social integration and enforcement assistance: Government support includes assistance for eligible inter-caste marriages and implementation of civil-rights and atrocities laws.

Important Judicial Interventions: 

• Neil Aurelio Nunes v. Union of India (2022): The Supreme Court recognised how social networks and cultural capital influence competitive success. It explained that affirmative action helps realise substantive equality; examination performance cannot be understood in isolation from opportunity.
• Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018): Protected consenting adults’ marital choice and prescribed preventive, remedial and punitive measures against honour-based violence.
• Sukanya Shantha v. Union of India (2024): Struck down caste-based prison practices, including discriminatory allocation of labour and segregation; demonstrating that public institutions themselves can perpetuate caste hierarchy.

Why does caste discrimination persist despite these safeguards?

• Social norms survive legal reform: Constitutional prohibition does not automatically transform family practices concerning marriage, status and social interaction.
• Economic dependence discourages resistance: Dependence on employers, landlords or dominant local groups can make reporting discrimination costly through possible loss of work, credit or social support.
• Institutions reproduce inherited prejudice: Administrative routines and discretionary decisions can sustain unequal treatment. The prison-discrimination judgment illustrates why institutional rules require scrutiny.
• Formal access can coexist with informal exclusion: Reservations facilitate entry, while unequal mentoring, networks and everyday treatment can affect progression and belonging.
• Inherited advantage becomes normalised as merit: Unequal preparation and cultural capital may be overlooked when success is attributed entirely to individual effort.
• Modernisation changes caste’s expression: Caste preferences can persist in urban and digital settings. A 2019 study of over 313,000 matrimonial profiles documented continuing caste preferences on an online platform.
• Coercion weakens individual autonomy: Social boycott, threats and violence can enforce caste boundaries even where the law protects personal choice.

Way Forward: 

• Make institutional equality measurable: Assess access, recruitment, mentoring, progression, completion and grievance outcomes through disaggregated data with privacy safeguards.
• Strengthen accountability: Ensure accessible complaints, independent inquiries, time-bound action, legal assistance and protection against retaliation.
• Combine affirmative action with sustained support: Provide timely scholarships, affordable hostels, academic assistance and mentoring without stigmatising beneficiaries.
• Reduce economic dependence: Improve livelihood opportunities, mechanise hazardous sanitation work and ensure effective rehabilitation of affected workers.
• Protect marital choice: Implement court-directed safeguards against honour-based violence and provide practical protection to threatened couples.
• Integrate scientific and constitutional literacy: Teach the limits of biological explanations alongside equality, dignity, anti-caste thought and critical inquiry.
• Build everyday fraternity: Encourage shared learning, transparent institutional practices and equal recognition of contributions across social backgrounds.

Equal citizenship does not depend on proving that everyone is biologically identical. The task of social justice is to ensure that inherited identity does not determine dignity, rights or the opportunity to develop one’s abilities.

UPSC Mains PYQs: 

Q. “Why is caste identity in India both fluid and static?” GS-I, 2023

Q. “Caste system is assuming new identities and associational forms. Hence, caste system cannot be eradicated in India.” Comment. GS-I, 2018

Practice question: 

Q. “Constitutional safeguards have expanded opportunities, but caste continues to structure social relations and institutional practices.” Examine the reasons and suggest measures to achieve substantive equality.