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Caste Based Discrimination And Caste

Decent Essays

INTRODUCTION:

Since last two-decade higher education in India has been witnessing an increase in enrollment number across social groups such as first generation, female, rural and the lower caste students. This has changed student demographics in academic disciplines. Due to diverse students’ group on college campuses, the higher education institutions are facing diversity, social justice and discrimination issues. Caste-based discrimination is one of the issues which is pervasive across the institutions in India (Neelakandan & Patil, 2012; Nambissan, 2006 & 2009; Patwardhan & Palshikar, 1992). The lower caste students have been experiencing discrimination from primary education to higher education institutions. Caste-based discrimination is under researched (Thorat & Kumar, 2008) topic, thus nature of discrimination and its impact on academic outcome of the lower caste students demand comprehensive studies through various theoretical perspectives. In the paper, caste-based discrimination in higher education is studied and classified through “Microaggression” theory (Sue et al., 2007). The caste is an identity status and a caste identity is one of the most significant social identity in Indian society and it is a fundamental identification character of an individual. In the theory of microaggression, an identity plays a crucial role between a recipient (subordinate) and a perpetrator (dominant). The paper encompasses social identity theory (Harro, 2013; Smith, 2005) to

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