Is caste disappearing in urban India? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Approach · directive: “illustrate”
What it asks · Weigh signs of caste weakening in cities against its persistence, and conclude whether caste is disappearing or changing form.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Take a position: is caste disappearing in urban India
- Illustrate: where caste has weakened in cities, with examples
- Illustrate: where it persists or has changed form, with examples, and conclude
Open with · Early sociologists expected urbanisation, industry and education to dissolve caste; urban India shows a more complex picture.
Cover
- Weakening: anonymity, mixed workplaces, public transport and eateries reduce ritual rules of purity and pollution.
- Mobility: education, reservation and new occupations create a middle class among historically marginalised castes.
- Marriage: inter-caste and love marriages are rising among educated urban youth, though still a small share.
- Persistence: matrimonial advertisements by caste, caste-based housing discrimination and residential clustering.
- Occupational residue: sanitation and manual scavenging work is still done mostly by Dalits; campus discrimination cases continue.
- Transformation: caste turns from hierarchy into identity and interest group — associations, networks and electoral mobilisation.
Close with · Caste is not disappearing in urban India; it is becoming less visible and more subtle, demanding stronger anti-discrimination measures.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2026, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 315 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Early sociologists expected cities, factories and schools to dissolve caste. Urban India shows that caste has weakened as ritual hierarchy but survives as identity, network and discrimination — it is changing form, not disappearing.
Where caste has weakened
- Anonymity and interdependence: crowded trains, canteens, hostels and offices make rules of purity and pollution unworkable; nobody asks the caste of a restaurant cook.
- Occupation delinked from birth: IT, services and the gig economy recruit on credentials; reservation and education have produced a Dalit and OBC middle class of professionals, officers and entrepreneurs.
- Marriage and choice: inter-caste and love marriages are more common among educated urban youth, and courts protect couples' choice.
Where caste persists
- Marriage remains endogamous: the India Human Development Survey found only about 5% of marriages inter-caste, no more common in cities; matrimonial columns and apps sort by caste.
- Housing: studies in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities document landlords refusing Dalit and Muslim tenants; residential clustering by caste is visible in every metro.
- Labour market: Thorat and Attewell's 2007 correspondence study found applicants with Dalit names got fewer callbacks from private firms for identical CVs; sanitation and manual scavenging remain overwhelmingly Dalit occupations.
- Campus and workplace: the deaths of Rohith Vemula (2016) and Payal Tadvi (2019) exposed caste harassment in elite institutions.
Caste transformed
- From hierarchy to identity: caste associations, hostels and business networks channel capital and jobs; electoral politics mobilises caste blocs even in cities, and the caste-census debate shows its salience.
- Sociologists' reading: M.N. Srinivas saw urban caste turning into horizontal solidarity; Dipankar Gupta argues hierarchy has weakened while caste identity has hardened.
Caste in urban India is less visible but not less real: it has moved from the temple and the well to the matrimonial site, the rental market and the hiring shortlist — which is why anti-discrimination law and diversity data, not urbanisation alone, must finish what the city began.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.