Address but Don't Overhype the Issue of Hindu Casteism to Peddle Anti-Hindu Bias

The executive summary of the "STATE OF WORKING INDIA, 2023," report prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment Social Identities and Labour Market Outcomes, Azim Premji University, mentions the following points. 

"In the early 1980s, Scheduled Caste workers were more than 5 times over-represented in waste-related work and over 4 times in leather-related work. 

This has declined rapidly over time, though it is not completely eliminated as of 2021-22. In the leather industry, the representation index declined sharply to 1.4 in 2021. In waste management and sewerage, over-representation of SCs decreased to 1.6 times in 2011."

Reminds me of this statement of Dalit entrepreneur Chandra Bhan    -

"When I saw a Dalit in Bahadurgarh manufacturing cranes with a polytechnic training, I thought India is changing. When I saw a Dalit in Khurja running the biggest sweet shop and people buying sweets from him, while knowing he is Dalit, I thought India is changing. Now Dalits in several parts of India are running good restaurants. People are eating there. So I thought India is changing. So I thought let us go with the change."

Indeed, as much as Dalits are conscious of the historical wrongs they have been - and some of them still are - subjected to (Karna being slurred for being a "sut-putra" and rejected by Draupadi from participating in the swayamvar on that basis in our lore shows how old this rot is), and without in the least undermining how grave some of the hate crimes against Dalits are even today and while acknowledging that a large minority of upper caste Hindus in urban India, especially in the slums, may still consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously believe in caste hierarchies, very many folks today, especially of the current generation and the preceding generation, are completely indifferent to caste (which is good, and the India of today isn't the same as what it was centuries or even decades ago), and there are staunch practising Hindus like Arya Samajis vehemently rejecting caste as a hereditary or hierarchical institution (I've even seen non-Arya Samaji mainstream practising Hindu Brahmin friends from small towns in UP and Rajasthan mingling with and eating from the same plate as their Dalit friends in hostel in my college days in Gujarat), and untouchability is fast disappearing from rural India too, with Dalit political assertion plus genuine broadening of minds of those coming back from the cities (for example, in my house in Delhi, the entire domestic staff used to drink tea prepared by our Pasmanda Muslim cook, who worked for us until recently, without any issues), among other factors.

For all those painting a picture of gloom and doom, here’s something to look at – inter-caste marriages have been on the rise in India (as you can see here and here), even intermarriages between non-Dalit Hindus and Dalits, and more and more young people are open to the same.

Surveys have even shown Dalit students outperforming others in some rural schools. The decreasing relevance of social stigma associated with caste can also be seen from how people from many communities (including the Patidars) are clamouring for the "backward" status to avail of the benefits in college education and government employment it entails, and some people have even faked Scheduled Caste certificates. It also must be noted that discrimination owing to the resentment over well-to-do but less meritorious people being beneficiaries of reservations cannot be equated with discrimination based on believing in casteism, a distinction many tend to blur, though discrimination in either case is unjustified.