Well here is an interesting read to answer this “We have a chief justice from Dalits” thing:
Cook out: The Caste Paradox - Edit Page - Opinion - Home - The Times of India
*“I have a problem. The maid we got has been disapproved by the family because she comes from a lower caste. What should one do?” a friend SMSed. “I just don’t understand how it matters!” I retorted in irritation. ''Please relax or else give up the idea of having a maid in the house." I probably gave him the impression of not empathising enough with his peculiar plight, so he never filled me in with any details on the fate of that teenager. I spoke to him a few days later and he said, among other things, “You know, it’s a landmark for our country that we have our first woman Speaker in Parliament, and to top it all”, he continued to gush, “she comes from a Dalit family.” I thought yes, of course. I ultimately put forth the obvious question, **“But what about your maid?” “Oh, you know, mom wouldn’t have allowed her to enter the kitchen. For two days she sat doing nothing. So, we had to ask her to leave. Her mother came that evening and took her away,” he broke the oh-so-expected news. **
This was, to use the cliche, one of the examples of the great Indian paradox of casteism. And my mind hovered to other paradoxes we keep encountering every day. The paradox of racism when our students in Australia are attacked, it sparks up a huge racism and ethnicity debate, while if we target Biharis in Maharashtra, it’s standing up for the rights of Marathas. Of course, there is always the great debate over what is truly feminist: ensuring reservation for women in Parliament or rejecting gender-based quotas. There was a bigger paradox in waiting, though. I visited a bureaucrat who happens to come from one of the scheduled castes a couple of days ago. Incidentally, the same friend was with me, comfortably sipping tea and sharing snacks from a common plate. While we were sitting and chatting, the cook turned up and it was obvious that he came from an upper caste, as he was being addressed as Panditji. Clearly, a Dalit had no objection in employing an upper caste cook. I wondered on my way back why it is that while it’s fine to be a Dalit Speaker or chief justice or president, it’s still not acceptable to be a Dalit and get employment as a cook.
*