UGC Rules Halted as Caste Discrimination Persists in IITs - FrontlineFor a Better Read, Install the Frontline AppBookmarksSectionsFeaturesEssentialsPublished : Oct 14, 2026 08:00 IST - 4 MINS READCOMMentsThe March 15 issue of Frontline this year was also about caste in higher education; about how the furious protests by dominant castes forced the Supreme Court to halt the UGC regulations that sought enforceable rules against caste-based discrimination in colleges and universities. The cover image we used was a riff on the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s famous 1893 painting The Scream. In our artist’s interpretation, the screamer was from the dominant castes, outraged about a regulation that would make casteism punishable. It was based on real-life incidents, when members of Rajput, Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaishya associations poured into the streets in violent protest, dismembering effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shouting caste slurs, and displaying a rage that quickly suspended the proposed regulations. In the great irony of our times, it was not the withdrawal of the regulations that drew outrage. The fury was directed instead at the image, which used the janeu and tuft to indicate dominant caste status. The irony multiplies when one considers that today more and more Thakurs and Brahmins flaunt swords and sacred threads to declare caste pride, seeking bizarrely to counter the Dalit or tribal student’s declaration on an application form for reservation. One had not realised that one would have to start from scratch so soon, again patiently explain the difference between an oppressed person reclaiming a persecuted identity and a powerful person flaunting theirs.It is this exhibitionist victimhood of the powerful, this reversal of persecution, this appropriation of outrage that tells us how strongly caste continues to endure. In the prestigious IIT Bombay, Sahil Wakode, a second-year Dalit student, died by suicide onSeptember 18. That makes it 3 suicides in IIT Bombay and 10 across all IITs this year. Privileged Indians like to believe that caste ends at the gates of the IITs, that equality marches in on a reserved seat. In reality, inequality starts there. Students begin to be judged and slotted on the basis of JEE rank, branch of study, English fluency, body language, fashion sense, and more. Hearing derisive comments about “quota students” or being excluded from elitist student clubs erodes the confidence of students who have already fought a system that grudges them classrooms, shoes, moustaches, even cremation grounds on their way here, students who believe a ticket to IIT means the end of discrimination and find it is not. In fact, as a recent campus survey found, caste discrimination is the primary cause of mental health problems among reserved category students.Even 75 years after reservation, caste has not, as we naively believed, receded graciously into history. In fact, 75 years have become too much for the castes who have monopolised education, land, and power for centuries. They are beating their breasts, martyrs to the cause, forced to become NRIs and join bhajan clubs in San Jose, where they militate to maintain their caste privilege. If the anti-reservation discourse is more blatant today, it is because of the rise of Hindutva under the aegis of the RSS and the BJP. Hindutva draws deeply on the Dharmashastras, especially the Manusmriti, which mandates the four-tier caste system. Fusing religious dogma with social duty, it has a stranglehold on the conservative Hindu’s imagination. When religion is sought to be made the sole marker of social identity and personal pride, as the Hindutva project does, it becomes far harder to separate deep spiritual essence from perfunctory rituals and superstitions. Everything acquires the urgency of religious decree, whether amulet or anklet, fasting or feasting or ostracising a Dalit classmate.As Ambedkar said long ago, it is this socio-religious sanction that gives caste its unique power and longevity that formal legislation is unable to dislocate, especially when the law’s enforceability is undermined by state and citizens. As when the Supreme Court speedily halted the UGC regulations earlier this year. With all their limitations, the UGC regulations, both 2012 and 2026, took tentative steps forward: defining discrimination, creating an equal opportunity office, mandating sensitisation programmes, making discrimination punishable. That even these timorous reforms were aggressively rejected must make us pause. We must ask why we insist on the right to shun someone using a marker as random as the accident of birth. And when we allow something as despicable as caste to persist, we must ask what gives us the right to claim civilisational exceptionalism.CONTRIBUTE YOUR COMMENTSNew Story TitleAuthor NameJuly 17, 2024`; storyList.appendChild(newStoryItem); createDots(); dots = document.querySelectorAll(".dots .dot"); observer.observe(newStoryItem); } function removeStoryItem() { if (storyItems.length > 0) { storyList.removeChild(storyItems[storyItems.length - 1]); createDots(); dots = document.querySelectorAll(".dots .dot"); } }});]]>+ SEE all StoriesKey Questions & Insights(AIⓘ)1 /Sign in to Unlock member-only benefits!Bookmark stories to read later.Comment on stories to start conversations.Subscribe to our newsletters.Get notified about discounts and offers to our products.${ ind + 1 } ${ device }Last active - ${ la }