“Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy”; these were the prophetic words of BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution. As India marks his 135th birth anniversary, his dream largely remains unfulfilled. After nearly eighty years of independence, India is still fragmented and layered, where caste hierarchies have transformed but not disappeared. Castes have taken on political and social dimensions and have consolidated their presence as identities that define the present-day political scenario of the country. Political parties, for their part, have often supported caste structures rather than making concerted efforts to dismantle them-distributing tickets on the basis of caste, allocating influential........

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