Introducing CasteCon26

CasteCon26 is being launched at a time when caste is once again projected as a primary marker of identity in Bharat’s public discourse, especially amid renewed demands for caste enumeration. It poses a critical question: does the repeated counting of caste genuinely reduce inequality, or does it harden social divisions that India must ultimately transcend? The initiative does not deny historical injustices but challenges the assumption that social justice must rely indefinitely on birth-based classification. By bringing together scholars, policy thinkers, and civil society voices, CasteCon26 seeks to reorient the debate toward dignity, opportunity, and civic equality. Its core argument is that a nation aspiring to unity cannot remain permanently organised around inherited identities.