Is caste still real for young India? And is reservation still the answer?
In Episode 01, Part 01 of The India Projekt, young Indian men from different backgrounds sit down together for an honest, unfiltered conversation on one of the country’s most debated topics: caste and reservation.
6 Gen Z Indians talk about how caste still shapes lives today, from classrooms and college admissions to jobs, relationships and social media. Is reservation still needed? Is merit fair? What does equality really mean in modern India? No scripts, no sides chosen for you, just real people sharing real experiences and perspectives.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Watch Part 2 here: [Soon]
At The India Projekt, we believe India grows stronger when we listen to each other, especially when we disagree. Different voices, one India.
Tell us in the comments: do you think reservation should continue, change, or end? Keep it respectful. Every view is welcome here.
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The views expressed in this video are the participants’ own and do not represent The India Projekt or Indus.X. This conversation is meant to encourage open, respectful dialogue.
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0:00 Introduction to the topic
1:07 Show and participant intro
2:06 Lightning round on caste
5:42 Reservation necessity
7:57 Caste Politics in India
10:05 Surnames and impressions
12:30 Inter-caste marriage debate
15:30 Deep dive into reservation
42:19 Closing and part 2 highlights
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*A note on female representation:* We hear you! We put out an open call for this topic, but only men signed up to participate. We understand that, as we were just starting out, we hadn’t yet built the credibility to encourage more women to join. We’re serious about making all our formats more inclusive, and your love and support in these early days will help us get there.
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This is going to be a long post, so bear with me. Honestly, why is becoming a priest being treated as the ultimate aspiration for the so-called “lower castes”? Would that alone end casteism? There's an uncomfortable truth we rarely acknowledge, the tendency to look down on someone exists even within marginalised communities. People often find someone they consider beneath them in the social hierarchy. You risk becoming what you claim to hate. As the saying goes, “Everyone is honest until they get an opportunity to be corrupt.” I've come across certain data sets about caste-related atrocities, I found that majority of the incidents involved intra-community conflicts and perpetrators from OBC, SC and ST communities themselves. The data deserves careful scrutiny, but the possibility doesn't surprise me, the human tendency to establish hierarchies isn't exclusive to any one community. So why should we condemn casteism selectively, depending on who practises it?
On reservation, we must ask, "who benefits, and who gets left behind?" If relatively established families repeatedly access its benefits while the most disadvantaged remain excluded, shouldn't we examine how opportunities can be distributed more equitably? Historical discrimination is real, and economic criteria alone cannot address every form of social exclusion, but neither should we ignore inequalities within reserved categories.
My goal is a genuinely meritocratic India without abandoning social justice. Provide quality education, scholarships, coaching, nutrition and other support to disadvantaged students, irrespective of caste, religion or gender, so that circumstances don't determine their potential.
India cannot aspire to become a global powerhouse while compromising on competence. We have already seen talented Indians take their skills abroad, as global competition intensifies, we need a generation that is intellectually capable, knowledgeable and prepared to lead. We must not aspire to become a mediocre society by lowering standards in the name of representation. The answer is to bring disadvantaged students up to a competitive standard through meaningful support, not to confuse representation with competence. Merit must matter, and genuine disadvantage must be addressed. Nobody should lose an opportunity because of their caste, but nobody should be denied a fair chance simply because they lack resources either. The goal should be to dismantle caste hierarchies, not perpetuate resentment between communities. Social justice should expand opportunity and strengthen merit, not force us to choose between the two.
Casteism definitely exists in society whether it is your self proclaimed pandits who doesn't let you enter into temples or puting fake sc st cases and stealing jobs by applying for the reservation
I hate that the people who say they are for caste reservations cant even accept that the people who dont want it and say it causes resentment because of it and not because they are discriminatory. Guys, you can't keep believing 100% of UC people are casteist.
Kavi is just totally brainwashed with leftist ideology. Its sad to see a mind that could have pursued productive issues fall
Meeeeeet ky kr rh mera bhaiiii ghum thoda Indiaa
The casteists in this panel say we agree for everything but …but.. but..
Thank you for this TIP the India projekt.
Meet is definition of upper caste gaze. Touch some grass bro
16:53 banger argument 👏👏👏👏 shabaash bete
Politicians in India have no real intention of eliminating the caste system or religious divides because these social fractures directly benefit their electoral prospects. Just as they exploit Hindu-Muslim tensions to consolidate power, political parties keep caste identities alive to secure predictable vote-banks. By keeping the public divided along identity lines, politicians can rely on emotional rhetoric to win elections while avoiding accountability for core governance issues like economic growth, employment, and public infrastructure."
the debate is great but the guy who is in the 3rd is just a guy who percives things that he has himself experienced and he does not generalise things
28:00 who is this person?
Kudos on the initiative, looking forward to a lot more conversation among the young and even cutting across ages
Damn, my dream is to be as ignorant and privileged as Meet. Must be such an easy life. 🙇♂
Good video 👍
Guy on the very left, im sorry to say, just came off as too condescending. Just talk like a normal person…
In our Maharashtra there is very famous temple in Pandharpur of Lord Vithala and all priest in the temple, are from lower cast ! So this is bullshit, ST SC and OBCs peoples want to stuck in the past
There are many temples in jharkhand where priest comes from sc/st category.
Excellent discussion
you should have taken a andhra pradesh or telangana person most of the questions are mainly for people here
Notice how all the north indian guys showed green flag lol
best time to break the curse
Reservation needs to go. Only merit should exist. Also, reservation doesn't give you dignity. You can't expect dignity for yourself when you didn't work for it and came through reservation. Reservation and dignity are polar opposites. You accepted tag of dalit meaning aka broken then don't expect respect for broken and useless. The sc/st should be changed to include all castes. So sc/st can't abuse it.
wish i could participate, cause as a financially low background brahmin i aint gaining any adv lol.
Finally some sensible debates without screaming or presenting biased opinions like our beloved mainstream news channels. Kudos to the team too, expecting great content from you guys.
Let's goooo. We needed this. Open discussion on many topics face to face 👍👍👍
I think reservation has not worked well because the same people have been benefiting from it for generations. We should have a rule where if someone avails of a reservation benefit, their next generation shouldn't benefit from it, as they have already been socially and economically uplifted. This would allow other members of their own community to benefit, gradually making everyone socially and economically equal so that reservations could eventually end, especially since there hasn't been substantial growth in the overall upliftment of these communities over the past 75+ years.
34:00 the argument is tooo flawed at this point , there has been a constant increase in the non general cutoff over the years , it is small , but its like 4-5 percent a year not ignorable and actually a positive sign
one more here , dalit become a priest is already a reality with reforms withing hinduism , and even in north india there are rising examples of dalit priests and i am very happy about it , so pls drop this bogus statement , or infact continue it , cuz it will only help strenghten the community as a whole
the mallikarjun kharge case has been debunked already bro , the people who held the ceremony were dalits , generals , obc all of them , and the ceremony was done not because of the identity of kharge , but because of the acts performed there, beer botlle gutka spits anti hindu sloganeering , with video proofs , so baseless propaganda is easy to identify on the internet
well atleast we are here having a discussion on such topics as compared to such topics being a taboo , we need to rationalize reservations one way or the other , rationalizing reservations wont snatch any opportunities from anyone , it will give it to the right people , like the poor people within the same community who dont even know they have something called reservation , they need to be pushed further , the argument that creamy layer is setting an example for other communities within same Group is so flawed , because the same creamy groups discriminate within those identified communities , the world is far from an ideal place and rationalizing it will only help the real oppressed of the society
No country in the world gave 70% reservation in education, jobs & promotion along with age relaxation and cut off reduction.
This country will never become developed with such kind of policies. 0:41
Call ajeet bharti
24:56 here’s the proof
* Mahavir Mandir, Patna (Bihar): Dalit priest Phalahari Suryavanshi Das was appointed in 1993.
* Kali Mata Temple, Lakhna (Uttar Pradesh): Reported to have a long tradition of Dalit priests.
* Shiva Temple, Valanjavattom (Kerala): P. R. Yadukrishna, from the Pulaya Scheduled Caste community, was appointed a priest in 2017
25:34 how's dignity is correlated to caste reservation u can't change people mindset by giving reservation on the basis of caste that's just create hatred in our society lol
What a pointless debate. One side: Reservation is good Caste is bad. Other side: Caste is good Reservations are bad. Its a never ending debate.
These guy be saying anything to justify this caste reservation system
Like dude u can't justify anything,if any discrimination happens to u go nd punishment them acc to laws nd saying all this to justify reservation because u are scared of competition lol
Bro u love in uae ye and i remember my hindi teacher had a sift spot for my brahmin friend
Reservation and diversity policies become destructive when identity starts to matter more than competence. A country cannot run its universities, civil service, medicine, engineering or institutions on permanent group entitlement. People should be helped when they are genuinely disadvantaged, especially early in education, but the end goal must be meritocracy.
That is also where this debate is missing something. If the poorest people are still trapped at the bottom while better-off members of reserved groups repeatedly capture the benefits, then the system is not achieving upliftment. The speakers themselves raise exactly this problem.
From a Hindu perspective, birth should not permanently determine status anyway. Varna should reflect guna and karma, qualities and work. So remove inherited superiority, help people overcome genuine disadvantage, then let ability, character and performance determine how far someone rises.
Equality of opportunity is necessary. Equality of outcome enforced through permanent identity quotas is not.
the guy with high powered glasses and long hair is so out of touch with reality and clearly comes from a privileged background. all his arguments are armchaired opinions and same with the Arush guy whos just blurting out statistics and facts in an episode where youre supposed to express your own novel opinions and thought process, if we wanted to know the stats or fact per se, i would rather go read the newspaper or articles
There should have been Women on this panel, they would've added so many layers to the discussion.
merit >>> caste nonsense
"who cleans our sewers" bro said that as if all the GC people are sitting in bungalows getting served by waiters.
I am smashing the subscribe button so hard that the next part pops out 😭
Plzz these type of debates are much needed in this country 🙏🏻🙏🏻
simple solution :
general-category students/person should experience what it is like to be a Dalit person. Visit a village and try to find a place to live or a place to study. In a city, apply for jobs and attend interviews. Then share your experiences.
Similarly, Dalit students/person should try to understand the experience of general-category students by applying for college admissions or government entrance examinations under the general category, wherever they are eligible.
Then, everyone understands
10:17 "especially in metropolitan cities"… you've already lost the argument…
my perception:
1. Divyansh, the most sane and well informed abt casteism and reservation
2. Arush, bro u need to work on ur public speaking ( i suck too) he was fumbling alot i think he could've put his thoughts well if he had confidence like divyansh
3. Meet, one line i have to say "ignorance is a bliss"
4. Kavi, at first i thought he is impossible to talk with they way he smirked but i was wrong, though his remarks were superficial nd don't hold much weigh, also he said if all OBCs and SCs come together we will become Like china, LMAO that's nothing but spewing venom against UCs in other way.
5. Tejas, idk why but i felt he already has notion against UCs, his Tshirt reminds me of Kamra
6. Adarsh, agreed to his points mostly, loved when he pointed out how everyone drifted away from topic.
now my POV
1. Yes their is caste prevalence but not in a way we think, see anyone who holds power be it from any community favors someone, (in group favoritism) e.g. when their was SP party in UP, in police constable jobs there were favoritism for Yadav's.
2. yes i'm for reservation but it does need reforms, we need to introduce creamy layer
3. yes caste has been politicised more, like we see any crime happened against any women what's the need for mentioning their caste it's bcoz politicians wants to secure votes of them
4. NO Intercaste marriage should be promoted but it's not only solution and also we have seen some uneducated fellow from SCs larping over UCs women it will only create negative image, let people decide whom they want to get married
5. reservation did not create caste or casteism, so how can it keep alive caste, but it does create aversion for SCs
conclusion; reservation shouldn't scrapped but it does need reforms, bcoz it has notbeen very much effective, like we should be more focused on everyone from any community should get quality education so that they wouldn't need reservation in future