Sound of Scholarship: Why Ashoka shivers at the word ‘caste’

An image of Ashoka's administrative building | Photo courtesy: Arish Azmat

Ashoka was founded as one of India’s largest philanthropic efforts, a fact that the university does not ever let us forget. Despite this charitable endeavour aimed at ‘revolutionising Indian education’, there seems to be a consistent effort to sideline one of  India’s most daring questions: caste.

An analysis of the scholarship page on Ashoka’s website alone reveals this trend. You will not find a single mention of “caste” after a quick Control-F search of the page. Instead, the page relies on ambiguous language, claiming the university is accessible and affordable for students “from all walks of life.”

Furthermore, a sample 9-page financial form includes questions about the “make and model of your car” to all the “places visited on family vacation” to assess an applicant’s socio-economic status. However, it fails to ask the single most potent question of privilege in India: caste. And what an institution refuses to name, it can never hope to fix. 

What, then, is it truly achieving with its scholarships and affirmative action if not the upliftment of India’s most marginalised?

Ashoka awards scholarships at a significantly high rate, with 47% of students on financial aid, and affirmative action is seen as one of Ashoka’s most important goals. But what matters is how they interpret affirmative action. At its core, affirmative action is a corrective policy designed to counteract historical and structural disadvantages by actively including students from marginalised communities. 

Through this, a university acknowledges that diverse identities enhance and enrich an institution. In the Indian context, caste-inclusion becomes the cornerstone for any egalitarian institution. For instance, public universities implement affirmative action through caste-based reservations, acknowledging that diverse identities enhance and enrich an institution.

But, how does Ashoka side-track caste? 

There is a strategic language of merit, which omits any mention of social, historical or cultural context. The administration’s move to award the entire upcoming 2025-2026 class of Young India Fellows (YIF) scholarships–partial or full–is nothing less than commendable. 

However, the announcement of the same was rather sanitised. In their own words, they wish to make the fellowship “more accessible to exceptional and deserving individuals coming from all walks of life.” Whenever financial aid is mentioned, it is deliberately framed to emphasise that recipients are exceptionally bright and deserving while omitting any acknowledgement of their social history or context. 

The problem is that while students receiving financial aid are undoubtedly deserving, such a language of funding their education is antithetical to the ethos of affirmative action. The omission of student backgrounds not only strips affirmative action of its deeper purpose but also simultaneously perpetuates a sanitised caste-blind version of equity. This makes me wonder whether the administration is unwilling to follow affirmative action or simply fails to understand it. 

You can see the caste disparity at Ashoka in the results of demographic surveys. The Ashokan student body remains economically and socially homogeneous. A YIF 2019 survey (I can not cite a more recent one as there is none) suggests that 63.16% fellows reported their family income to be above Rs. 10 lakhs per annum, while the second highest income bracket was income groups above Rs. 30 lakhs per annum.

To put this into perspective, the median household income of a 4-member family in India is Rs. 39,450, according to the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS). Ashoka also has a dismal representation of disadvantaged sections (Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes/ Other Backward Classes), amounting to only 5.54% of the student body, as per the recent data submitted to the NIRF. 

What we intuitively know about Ashokans—that most of us belong to the highest economic and social strata—is repeatedly confirmed.

This aversion towards acknowledging caste extends to Ashoka’s broader institutional stance, which was seen in the blatant disregard and disapproval of an institutional caste census by founders and administration alike. 

Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder and trustee of Ashoka University, did not only disapprove of a census but even went so far as to tell the students to do it themselves.  The administration would not be doing it. “My advice to the protesting students - Ashoka is a small community. You want a census - do it yourself. Don't depend on the admin to do it,” he said on X (formerly Twitter). 

Ultimately, this reluctance to engage with caste illustrates a pattern: Ashoka’s administration consistently distances itself from any overt acknowledgement of caste or its implications. This is evident in its refusal to conduct a caste census, its deliberate omission of caste from administrative language, and, unsurprisingly, its dismal caste representation.

Ashoka’s omission of caste is not an outright denial but a quiet exclusion that coexists with its identity as a premier philanthropic institution—perhaps making it all the more disappointing. The university operates within a philanthropic bubble, offering what appears to be affirmative action but without addressing the deeper structural inequalities in India. 

A truly premier institution cannot exist without genuine affirmative action. And if affirmative action is not explicitly acknowledged, then Ashoka is not a philanthropic institution—it becomes little more than a hedge fund for corporations to showcase their CSR contributions.

More pertinently, by consistently sidestepping the question of caste, Ashoka risks robbing itself of its dream to be India's premier educational institute. As Dr B.R. Ambedkar wrote in his Annihilation of Caste, “Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.” 

Inarguably, caste is still an all-pervasive reality of Indian society. By running away from caste, the administration is just avoiding uncomfortable truths instead of confronting them head-on. Ashoka University has the opportunity to lead by example and fulfil its potential to truly revolutionise the private education sector. For that, however, it must face the monster.

(Edited by Madiha Tariq and Srijana Siri)