As a child, I worked harder to hide it, every tiny nudge throwing me off balance, every new interrogation about caste assaulting my spirit. My civics textbook educated me about ‘The evils of the caste system’ but didn’t equip me to deal with its manifestations in my own classroom. It didn’t explain the stinging shame that pierced me every time one of my classmates or teachers called someone ‘Bhangi’—a slob. I didn’t even know I was ‘Bhangi’, but I knew it was something I, and not anyone else, should be embarrassed about.
