r/dalitwithabmw

Reservation-category students: just don't reveal your caste in college

I'm saying this from my own experience, especially to SC/ST and other students who come through caste-based reservation.

When I joined engineering in first year, I noticed something that I didn't really understand at the beginning. A lot of students, especially those who came through general merit, were already frustrated about reservation. Their mindset was basically: "I got a better rank, but this person got a better college with a lower rank because of reservation."

I'm not saying every general-merit student thinks like this. But you will find people who genuinely carry that feeling, even if they never say it directly to your face.

In college, everyone can be friendly. They'll talk to you, sit with you, joke with you and act completely normal. You may never hear someone say, "I don't like you because you're SC/ST." But that doesn't necessarily mean caste or reservation never enters their thinking.

That's why my advice is simple: don't casually reveal your caste in college.

If someone asks, "Bro, what's your category?" you don't have to answer. Just say something like, " say medium level caste only or I don't really discuss that stuff" and move on. There's no reason to tell your entire friend group your caste just because someone casually asked.

And please don't go around showing your caste certificate to friends. Your caste certificate is an official document. Give it only to the college/official person who actually needs it for admission, scholarship, verification, etc.

I'm saying this because I personally experienced something that made me rethink some of my friendships.

In third year, two of my general-merit (close ) friends were discussing an internship opportunity and joined it without telling me. I was literally sitting in front of them. I asked them normally, "Bro, can you share that internship link with me also? I want to apply."

The response wasn't exactly welcoming. They brushed it off like it was nothing. Maybe they had their own reasons, and I can't prove that their behaviour was because of my category. But after that incident, I started looking at the friendship differently.

That experience taught me something: being friendly with someone and actually helping them when an opportunity comes up are two different things.

Maybe I'm wrong about some people. Maybe some of them genuinely didn't care about my caste. And I've also met people from general merit who were completely normal and supportive. So I'm not saying "all general-merit students are like this."

I'm saying you don't know what's going on in someone's mind, so why voluntarily give them information that they don't need to know?

Your caste is relevant when you're applying for a government scholarship, reservation benefit, admission, document verification, etc. Give the information to the proper authority when required.

But your random classmate doesn't need to know.

Just keep it private. "Say medium level caste or I don't discuss my caste/category" is enough.

Also, I'm not making this post to say reservation is perfect. There are genuine problems with the reservation system and there are valid arguments about how it should be reformed. But that is a separate discussion.

The bigger point is that caste-based thinking is still present in India and its modern discrimination in college . Even if the government changes reservation rules tomorrow, people's mindset won't magically change overnight. It will probably take generations for caste to become irrelevant in people's thinking.

Until then, if you're a reserved-category student entering college, especially engineering or medical college, my personal advice is:

Study hard. Make friends normally. Don't be ashamed of your category. But don't unnecessarily announce your caste to everyone either.

You don't owe your classmates that information.

Keep your caste documents private, submit them only where officially required, and judge people by how they actually treat you over time.

That's just my experience and my warning to juniors. Maybe your experience will be completely different, and honestly, I hope it is.

Other category people may say : then why not to remove reservations? I dont wanna answer this question and my post is only to alert my fellows juniors here , govt should think and reform as per the current situation of India that's it