History Main / TypeCaste

* ''Literature/ThePeshawarLancers'' is set in an AlternateHistory where meteor strikes rendered the Northern hemisphere largely uninhabitable, so the European governments moved the majority of their populations to their imperial holdings. By 2025 India is the center of the [[UsefulNotes/BritishEmpire Angerez Raj]] and the British, now known as ''sahib-log''[[labelnote:Translation]]"ruling people"[[/labelnote]] are viewed as a jati of their own and part of the Kshatriya varna.

* ''Dilli 6'': A Dalit woman in the movie is shunned by a higher caste man that she loves because of her caste. She is not allowed to touch anyone who is higher caste in case she "pollutes" them. She is also subject to harassment by the local police officer. The movie ends with the higher caste man reciprocating her love and bemoaning the foolishness of caste segregation and meaningless rituals.

* ''Swades'': The protagonist finds that Dalits were segregated and not allowed into school in the village that he was educating. He is able to better their condition by the end though.
* ''Ambethkar'': In this biopic of Dalit rights activist Bhimrao Ambethkar, the titular character is shown being subjected to near unending verbal and sometimes physical abuse in India due to his status as a Dalit. He receives this abuse even after getting [=PhDs=] from Oxford and Columbia. Even Gandhi goes on a hunger strike to get Ambethkar to not push so hard to outlaw caste discrimination.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/{{Strikebreaker}}": Ragusnik reminds the sociologist Lamorak of the Untouchables in ancient India. This compares the story's FantasticCasteSystem to the Dalit castes. Both the Dalit and the Ragusnik perform sanitation services for their society.
%%* ''A Fine Balance'' by Rohinton Mistry
%%* ''Literature/TheGodOfSmallThings''

%%* ''Thillai Govindan'' (1901)
* ''Literature/ThePeshawarLancers'' is set in an AlternateHistory where [[ColonyDrop meteor strikes]] rendered the Northern hemisphere largely unihabitable, so the European governments moved the majority of their populations to their imperial holdings. By 2025 India is the center of the [[UsefulNotes/BritishEmpire Angerez Raj]] and the British, now known as ''sahib-log''[[labelnote:Translation]]"ruling people"[[/labelnote]] are viewed as a jati of their own and part of the Kshatriya varna.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Raj's parents set him up on a date with an Indian woman whom he knew as a child. He remembers her as, "The little fat girl that used to kick me in the samosas and call me untouchable." In another episode, Raj is criticized for using the world "lackey", to which he replies, "Oh, I’m sorry, is that politically incorrect? In India, we just call them untouchables."
* Comes up quite a bit in ''Series/{{Mahabharata}}''. Dronacharya refuses to instruct Karna in archery because he is an adopted son of a chariot driver and not a Kshatriya of noble birth. Karna instead goes to train under Parashuram who wants to train non-Kshatriyas in warfare so they can fight against [[EvilAristocrat corrupt royals]]. But when Karna displays an incredibly high tolerance for pain, Parashuram assumes he is actually a Kshatriya and curses him. Later, the Pandava princes repeatedly insult Karna as “the charioteer’s son” and Princess Draupadi refuses to marry him for that same reason. Dronacharya is scorned by other Brahmins for seizing territory to rule and behaving like a Kshatriya warrior instead of a Brahmin. Later on, Dronacharya is called out by multiple kings in the Kurukshetra War for participating in it, instead of remaining in his role as a teacher.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Apu has casual sex with a random Indian woman at a party. He promises to "tell everyone [she was] untouchable", presumably to defend her reputation. His mother also says in another episode that their family is Brahmin (it has become more common in modern times to have real Brahmins as {{Asian store owner}}s and other poor professions).

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Tau species is made of five genetically-different castes all working together ForTheGreaterGood (or so they claim, whether they actually strive for these ideals depends on the edition and the narrator): The Fire Caste are the warriors, the Water Caste are diplomats and merchants, the Air Caste are the pilots, the Earth Caste are the builders and engineers, and the Ethereal Caste are the leaders.
** In theory no caste is actually above another (the Water Caste envoy isn't going to tell the Air Caste pilot how to do his job, the Ethereal follows the directions of his Fire Caste bodyguard, etc.), but it's been repeatedly hinted the Ethereals use a form of mind control to ensure the compliance of the other castes (although there have been several cases of Tau going against the Ethereals' wishes).
** Marriage and reproduction is done by genetic screening to determine which coupling will produce the best children, after which the children are raised communally.
[[/folder]]

* Sudra, servants.

* ''Literature/ThePeshawarLancers'' is set in an AlternateHistory where [[ColonyDrop meteor strikes]] rendered the Northern hemisphere largely unihabitable, so the European governments moved the majority of their populations to their imperial holdings. By 2025 India is the center of the [[UsefulNotes/BritishEmpire Angerez Raj]] and the British, now known as ''sahib-log''[[labelnote:Translation]"ruling people"[[/labelnote]] are viewed as a jati of their own and part of the Kshatriya varna.