I am not a hindu but I have lived all my life surrounded by them, in village and towns and metros. The shudras or scheduled caste people were treated like scum when I was young. Now, at least they are accepted as humans but caste hindus and even dabang muslims still consider it their privilege to humiliate them and treat them as sub humans.
Those telling casteism is not part of hinduism should know that Vedas have advised inhuman treatment for shudras, Lord Rama killed Shambooka only because he was a shudra.... meaning the caste discrimination was prevalent during Ramrajya.
Its the beauty of hinduism that they realised their mistakes and reformed themselves. I have never come across such a religion that is so open to criticism and correction and perhaps thats the reason it has survived under thousand years of non-hindu rule. Now there is a section of people who want to put a curtain on realities. Casteism is the biggest bane of hindu society.
As regards to reservations, people forget that in 1932 Gandhi and Ambedkar arrived at Poona Pact to guarantee reservations for untouchables. This was done to prevent another partition. In my opinion the reservatin to other backward castes or classes are political in nature. Reservations can not be a cure for economic backwardness. For SC/ST its an imperative measure to bring them in the mainstream society from being sub humans. Those who say that constitution divides the society in castes they should realize that unreserved castes such as brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya are also divided into castes. Constitution is only working to reduce the social parities between different castes.
