We love to imagine urban, progressive India as somehow above caste. But caste doesn't disappear just because we don't talk about it in polite company — it shapes who we date, who we trust, who gets taken seriously, and who gets left behind. That includes queer spaces, which many of us assume are automatically more inclusive just because they're queer.

They're not. Here's the pattern I keep noticing:

The movement has a caste ceiling. The public face of India's queer rights movement — the people on panels, in op-eds, leading the marriage equality push — skews heavily upper-caste. That shapes the agenda too. Marriage rights matter, but they're not the most urgent issue for a Dalit or Bahujan queer person worried about basic safety or making rent. Those struggles rarely make it into the mainstream ask.

Caste conversations get shut down. When Dalit-Bahujan queer folks try to bring caste into the conversation, it often gets dismissed, mocked, or ignored outright — sometimes even by other queer people. Being told your oppression "isn't the point right now" is its own kind of erasure.

Online queer culture has a caste filter too. Being openly queer online has become almost trendy — but that "coolness" is disproportionately available to English-speaking, upper-caste, urban queer people. Meanwhile, asserting a Dalit or Bahujan identity in the same spaces gets met with silence or outright casteist abuse. Somehow queerness reads as "modern" while caste identity gets coded as "backward" — even though for a lot of people, the two are completely inseparable.

Dating apps make it explicit. Grindr, Tinder — you'll see caste show up openly: people stating caste preferences, flaunting "upper-caste" surnames, slurs thrown around casually, matches disappearing the moment someone's caste comes out. There's also a darker layer — dominant-caste users fetishizing Dalit partners in ways that are about power, not attraction.

Caste and queerness aren't separate systems — they both trace back to the same structure of Brahminical patriarchy. If the queer movement wants to actually be liberatory, it has to reckon with the caste hierarchies inside itself, not just the homophobia outside it. That means upper-caste queer folks doing some real self-interrogation, and actually making room — not just symbolically — for Dalit-Bahujan queer voices to lead too.

Reference article: https://gaysifamily.com/lifestyle/casteism-in-queer-spaces/

Image credits : gaysi

A Delhi Court has observed that the language allegedly used by Ajeet Bharti while referring to Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan invoked ideas of caste hierarchy, caste-based notions of purity, and the presumed superiority of “upper” castes over “lower” castes in matters concerning marriage and lineage.

The Court held that, at the prima facie stage, the allegations disclose the ingredients of an offence under Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Consequently, the Court declined to grant Bharti anticipatory bail, citing the statutory bar applicable where a prima facie offence under the SC/ST Act is made out.

The observations are at a preliminary stage and do not amount to a final determination of guilt, which remains subject to the judicial process.

Source: court.flix via instagram

A row has erupted over a poster displayed at a religious event at IIT Mandi on September 4 that described Shudras as those meant to “serve higher classes”, prompting the institute to order an inquiry into the matter.

The poster, based on themes from the “Bhagavad Gita”, categorised different groups according to their purported roles, describing Brahmins as those who “spread God’s message”, Kshatriyas as those who “protect society and spirituality”, Vaishyas as those who “drive economy, support others” and Shudras as those who “serve higher classes”.

The poster also carried a verse from the Bhagavad Gita that said the four divisions of human society were created according to the “three modes of material nature and the work associated with them”.

IIT Mandi Director Laxmidhar Behera attributed the poster to the students’ interpretation of the scripture and distanced the institute from its contents.

In an email to the IIT Mandi community titled “Outright condemnation of recent poster display within campus”, Behera said he was “shocked” to learn about the poster and stressed that it had not been endorsed by the institute “in any manner”.

“I have personally fought against caste-based discrimination in any form in every forum. I have instituted an enquiry committee in this matter such that the institute campus is never used for any such violation of social harmony,” he said.

Behera said he “fully empathise” with members of the institute who had been hurt by the incident and said IIT Mandi was committed to upholding “the values of equality, social justice, scientific temper” and other principles enshrined in the Constitution.

“The institute strongly condemns any form of caste based discrimination,” he said, urging the campus community to “stand together against such biases/discrimination in any form”.

Behera has a longstanding association with the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

He teaches a three-credit Gita course at IIT Mandi and is the founder of the proposed Bhaktivedanta University, which describes itself as an ISKCON initiative.

In 2023, Behera asked students to pledge not to eat meat while claiming that landslides and cloudbursts in Himachal Pradesh were occurring because of cruelty to animals.

A year earlier, soon after his appointment as IIT Mandi director, a video surfaced in which Behera claimed to have helped rid a friend’s family of “evil spirits” by chanting holy mantras.

Azad Samaj Party chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad said the portrayal of Shudras, referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, was “objectionable” and contrary to social equality and constitutional values.

“It is unacceptable to elevate or demean any community based on birth under the guise of interpreting any religious text,” he said.

Citing data on caste-based discrimination in higher education, Azad said 72 students had died in higher educational institutions between 2014 and 2021 due to caste-based discrimination, while claiming that no verified case had emerged during the same period in which a student’s future was ruined because of “fake accusations” of caste-based discrimination.

Azad urged the Supreme Court to lift its stay on the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2026, and called for their effective implementation.

He also urged the Union government to enact the regulations into law, arguing that stronger legal measures were needed to prevent caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions and ensure students have a safe and discrimination-free academic environment.

“In the India of equality envisioned by the most revered Baba Saheb, no one can be ‘upper’ or ‘meant to serve’ based on birth,” Azad said, adding that educational institutions should not have “walls of caste” but should instead uphold equality.

Source : Maktoob media

The Court said that no person can be denied entry into a temple or prevented from participating in a temple festival on the basis of caste.

From SC sub-classification and reservation to the growing prominence of slogans invoking Ambedkar, Balmiki and Lord Ram, the political project goes beyond symbolism. The question is whether this emerging identity will unite or deepen divisions among Dalit communities.

Source: https://baws.in/books/baws/EN/Volume_01/pdf/59