Caste, Citizenship, and Social Justice in Modern India: Re-reading Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Through Inclusive Education Implementation in Rural Schools

Abstract

This article revisits B. R. Ambedkar’s thoughts on caste, citizenship and social justice in order to make sense of the tension-ridden practices of inclusive education in contemporary India. Inclusive education is mandated in India through the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act), and it is reinforced through Article 24 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD); however, everyday practices in rural elementary schools may still reveal discrepancies between rights language and educational access as it is lived.Drawing on policy implementation theory, street-level bureaucracy, and governance and institutional capacity perspectives, the article develops a qualitative case-study analysis of a selected district context, using a triangulated evidence base: policy and scheme documents, reported stakeholder accounts in prior studies, secondary analysis of accessibility and schooling constraints, and an Ambedkarite interpretive framework. Ambedkar’s diagnosis of caste as a graded social order and his insistence on social democracy provide a lens to understand how administrative capacity shortfalls and frontline discretion can reproduce unequal citizenship in schools. Findings are presented across three domains: (1) governance arrangements that fragment responsibility across district, block, and school levels; (2) capacity constraints that disproportionately affect rural schools (infrastructure, specialist support, multigrade teaching); and (3) discretionary routines by teachers and school leaders that can enable localized accommodation but also normalize exclusion. The article argues that inclusive education implementation must be treated as a social justice project shaped by caste-coded institutions, not only a technical compliance agenda, and proposes policy recommendations to strengthen rural capacity while reducing harmful discretionary gatekeeping.