A plan to set aside places at some of India's best-known professional colleges for low-caste Indians has bitterly divided the country. Angry students at elite institutions across the country have been taking to the streets in protest and doctors at major hospitals have gone on strike to show solidarity.
Business leaders and teachers have joined the students in decrying the move saying that it would lead to a drop in academic standards.
But the move also has the support of millions of low-caste Indians who have faced years of social discrimination and are poorly represented in leading professions.
In recent years, low-caste Hindus - who form a significant percentage of the population - have also grown politically influential, particularly in north India.
It is one reason that no political party - from left-leaning socialist parties to centre-right parties such as the Congress and the BJP - can afford to ignore them.
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News India Dalits Hindhus Congress Education Caste system Untouchables
