Homogeneity of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Impacts of Sub-Classification in India

This research examines the historical and contemporary trajectories of communities formerly stigmatised as “untouchable” and historically constituted through heterogeneous identities (Ati-Shudras, out-castes, Mahars, Dalits), later consolidated as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) under the Constitution of India (1950). It situates caste as a durable political economy of graded inequality, structured by ritualised hierarchies, occupational immobility, and asymmetric access to land, education, and state power. The study contrasts Brahminical normative–legal traditions (including the Manusmriti and Dharmashastra literature) with anti-caste emancipatory interventions associated with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, tracing how constitutional safeguards and redistributive policy instruments converted fragmented social groups into administratively and politically “homogeneous” categories for purposes of representation and welfare. Using econometric analysis alongside historical institutionalism and jurisprudential interpretation, the research assesses recent Supreme Court deliberations on SC/ST “sub-classification" (divide) and the possible extension of the “creamy layer” (income-cap) principle, evaluating their fragmental effects and constitutional implications. It argues that these interventions risk weakening substantive equality by reinforcing structural distortions within India’s federal and constitutional framework.