Title: India and the Paradox of Caste Discrimination
Abstract: Like an octopus, caste has its tentacles in every aspect of Indian life.It bedevils carefully drawn plans of economic development.It defeats legislative effort to bring about social reform.It assumes a dominant role in power processes and imparts its distinctive flavour to Indian politics.Even the administrative and the academic elites are not free from its over-powering influence.So how can it be ignored as a social force? 1 This description of the role of caste 2 in India, written in 1968-21 years after Indian independence 3 and 18 years after the adoption of a constitution heralding a society free from poverty, inequality and discrimination 4 -was echoed some 35 years later in Myron Weiner's observation that caste is still very much alive as a lived-in social