Despite constitutional rights guaranteeing equality and decades of anti-discrimination legislation, caste remains a crucial factor that determines access to education, civic space, dignity, who one can marry or love, what one’s religion is, and even death when it comes to India. The wave of strong anti-caste movements and events that the country experienced in 2025 forced it to confront its everyday systems of exclusion. Resistance erupted in a wide range of social venues, from student-coordinated demands for legal reform to community demonstrations on streets, temples, gravesites and honor killings.
This list brings together eight anti-caste movements and anti-caste personalities that have made headlines in 2025, proving that caste oppression still exists and how a mass movement is changing and challenging the issue.
1. Demand for a law against caste prejudice at universities
Portrait of Rohith Vemula
Activists, students and civil society groups gathered in Bengaluru to demand the passage of the Rohith Act, a bill that specifically addresses caste Discrimination in higher educational institutions with the aim of eliminating caste discrimination on campus. The need was highlighted by the caste-based discrimination that led to the death of Rohith Vemula in 2016. Dalit and Bahujan students are still socially isolated, academically biased and mentally strained. Their desire is to take on more responsibility than the existing SC/ST laws provide and ensure that learning spaces are inclusive and comfortable for all.
2. Ambedkarite lectures on campus canceled
The cancellation of the Ambedkarist anti-caste talks at IISER in Pune sparked widespread criticism as the institute canceled the events following objections from a student organization citing procedural and administrative concerns. But the students, faculty members and anti-caste activists viewed the move as an act of censorship and an attempt to silence Ambedkar supporters’ thoughts and discussions on caste discrimination in academia. The incident sparked nationwide discussions about academic freedom, institutional casteism and the ever-shrinking space for anti-caste discourse at elite colleges in India.
3. Dalit families from Tamil Nadu protest against separate roads
In Tiruvannamalai, about 200 Dalit families protested against a new road that removed them from the main public road for mainstream castes. They alleged that the road was an intention to divide them in the name of development. They demanded equal access to social areas instead of being marginalized. The issue highlighted the persistence of discrimination based on space, planning and daily mobility, as well as the presence of caste-marked dignity and access even today.
4. Dalit groups struggle to have dignity at funerals
(Photos – Prasanth Shanmugasundaram, 101Reporters)
Dalit communities in some parts of Tamil Nadu protested against being denied the right to shared burial and cremation grounds in 2025. They had to walk for miles to bury their loved ones or bury them in different and separate areas. Community members went on hunger strikes and filed lawsuits alleging that they had been discriminated against since birth and even after their death. Denial of burial sites is one of the worst forms of caste violence, activists say.
5. Even in 2025, access to the temple will be denied, the Supreme Court denounces discrimination
Madras High Court
In May 2025, the Madras High Court condemned the denial of entry of Dalits to the temple in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. Dalits were not allowed by their ruling castes to enter a Mariamman temple. The court reminded them that all religious spaces are open to the public and governed by the Constitution. There were protests at the site and the incident raised awareness about how caste exclusion is practiced in ordinary worship even decades after independence was achieved.
6. Anil Kumar brings the caste census back into the limelight
Source: ytcventures.com
Anil Kumar of Rajasthan, a young leader of the Bhim Army (also leader of the Azad Samaj Party), became an influential figure in the caste census Dalit rights in 2025. He organized demonstrations in Jaipur, submitted memoranda to the government and spoke about everyday caste violence with concerns such as water supply, land rights and dignity. His leadership demonstrated the emergence of a new generation of Dalit politics: a fearless, well-organized and untouched one. His work revived the caste and justice debate.
7. The killing of Thamaraiselvan sparks anti-caste anger
The murder of a young Dalit man, B. Thamaraiselvan, in Tamil Nadu proved to be one of the key events of the Anti-Caste Movement 2025. On November 10, Thamaraiselvan, a real estate website manager, was shot dead by an armed gang in front of a special inspector and his family at their home. It was immediately viewed by activists as a crime based on caste. Demonstrations forced police to enforce the SC/ST Atrocities Act. His murder showed how daily disputes can quickly escalate into caste killings. The case became a call to tighten anti-atrocity laws.
8. The effect of caste love revealed through Kavin’s honor killing
In 2025, Tamil Nadu was shocked by the murder of Kavin in an alleged honor killing. Kavin had a caste relationship and his murder showed how inflexible and violent caste rules remain when it comes to love and marriage. There were demonstrations across the state demanding punishment for the defendants. The story of Kavin became a picture of how following love without caste distinctions can lead to young people losing their lives even today.
Overall, these scenes in 2025 point to a very sinister fact: that caste discrimination is not a problem of the past, but a functioning organism that dictates institutions, infrastructure, religion, family and state authority. At the same time, these struggles are a form of resistance. Under pressure to enact a Rohith law, in demonstrations on burials and access to roads, in protests against temple exclusion or in murder and honor killing campaigns, the anti-caste assertion is becoming more visible, more organized and more prominent in politics.
Social justice cannot only be achieved through laws, as these movements show us, but it is achieved through the courage of the masses, their collective memory and their mass resistance.
This is by no means an exhaustive or representative list. Suggestions to add to this list are welcome in the comments section.
Dharanesh Ramesh hails from Coimbatore and is a PhD candidate in Gender and Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. Based on the belief that stories shape structures, his studies and work explore the intersections of gender, caste and public policy from an intersectional feminist perspective. He is particularly interested in understanding how power, privilege and politics interact to define inclusion and justice in everyday life. Dharanesh is naturally curious and often turns to drawing, painting, photography and writing as an extension of his reflective practice. His work seeks to bridge thought and experience, analysis and art in the pursuit of justice and representation.
