Sangeeta Kumari Nag
Inter-caste love in Indian society has always been a source of discomfort and resistance. It is never merely personal, but it is social, political, and deeply unequal. Such love challenges the very foundation of the caste system and asserts the demand for equality. Dhadak-2 portrays this inter-caste love story with great intensity. Though it is a remake of Pariyerum Perumal, this bold attempt by Bollywood deserves appreciation, as the film too presents inter-caste love not merely as romance but as a profound challenge to Brahmanical patriarchy and caste-based inequalities. Through this, the bitter truths of society are exposed, and the narrative resonates with Ambedkar’s vision of caste annihilation. More than a month has passed since the release of Dhadak-2, and numerous opinions have emerged; yet, the perspective of a Dalit woman on inter-caste marriage remains largely absent. Reading Dhadak-2 through the lens of Dalit women is essential because without their voices, the realities of inter-caste marriage remain incomplete. Viewed in this light, the movie’s love story raises some questions that need to be understood and thought about beyond mere viewing: Why does Neelesh, a Dalit boy, feel drawn to Vidhi, and why does Vidhi, an upper-caste girl, feel attracted to Neelesh?
The attraction between Neelesh and Vidhi can be understood through the lens of caste based privilege and social conditions. When a Dalit boy enters university with his dreams and aspirations, he encounters symbols of success everywhere: fluent English, affluent families, confidence, and mainstream appearance. This constant comparison with his own marginalized reality fosters an internalized sense of inferiority. When an upper caste girl like Vidhi, who embodies social privilege, being wealthy, educated, beautiful, articulate, and acknowledges him, gives attention and treats him like a friend, it becomes more than a moment of confidence for Neelesh. It offers a brief reprieve from the longstanding worry of being considered inferior. Vidhi’s friendship and acceptance become a mirror, reflecting the value, recognition, and dignity that society has historically denied him. This experience awakens in Neelesh not only the feeling of love but also revives the dream of equality he often considered impossible. This validation naturally generates emotional and intellectual attraction. For someone marginalized, this experience of social acknowledgment and equality is transformative, restoring both confidence and mental balance.
On the other side, Vidhi’s attraction to Neelesh is not merely a matter of personal preference. It is a reflection of the structural inequalities produced by caste and patriarchy. In upper caste families, girls are rarely granted equal status. Their opinions are often ignored, their questions dismissed or mocked, and they are denied the respect and freedom automatically afforded to men. Caste’s strongest weapon is control over women’s freedom. In upper-caste households, daughters are often confined to being merely obedient daughters, a ‘cultured’ and dutiful daughter-in-law, and a wife devoted to serving their husbands. Dr. Ambedkar pointed out, while critiquing Manusmriti, ‘Manu made women subject to the authority of men throughout their lives from birth to death.’ (The Rise and Fall of Hindu Woman,1916). Patriarchy itself has its roots in these upper-caste families and social structures, where women were forced to remain under male authority at every stage of life. Their independent identity is suppressed.
In one scene, Vidhi explains why she broke up with her ex-boyfriend because of his toxic masculinity and male arrogance. A Brahmin girl rarely questions within her own high caste society, where patriarchy normalizes male dominance as tradition. But with the Dalit boy Neelesh, she finds the courage to reject it, as his absence of caste pride and patriarchal entitlement allows her to experience equality, respect, attention, and acknowledgment that she has rarely experienced in her own household. Naturally, an upper caste girl is drawn to this respect, sensitivity, and sense of equality, which makes her feel emotionally and intellectually connected. It is this experience of equality, respect, and freedom from hierarchy that creates genuine attraction.
When caste and patriarchy come into play, a few Brahmin women challenge patriarchal norms and break the walls of caste hierarchy and accept men from lower castes. because such relationships give them a sense of security, respect, and equality that they rarely experience within their own privileged social circles. A girl like Vidhi feels the kind of respect, value, and autonomy with a Dalit Man in a way she might never feel with an upper caste man. This is not just the story of Neelesh or Vidhi, but the truth of today’s time, where Dalit men fall in love with upper caste girls, and upper caste girls with Dalit men. Such relationships point toward a new direction, breaking the bonds created by caste and patriarchy.
But here arises a deep, urgent question: What about women from oppressed castes themselves? Where do they stand in this narrative of resistance?
Dalit Women’s Invisible Struggles
If Dalit men can welcome upper caste women with full respect and dignity, will upper caste men accept a dalit women in the same way? Can they empower her abilities and confidence without making her feel inferior? Will they stand by her purely out of love, even in defiance of their families and society? Most crucially, can a Dalit woman expect to receive the same honour, respect, and social recognition in an upper-caste household that an upper caste woman often receives in a Dalit household?
Here begins the systematic invisibilization of Dalit women. Social debates and emotional investments essentially center on Dalit men and their inter-caste stories. When the discourse on inter-caste marriage narrows itself to the pairing of Dalit men and upper-caste women, the lives of Dalit women disappear from view. They remain absent in discussions on caste annihilation and are sidelined in social reform narratives. Upper caste families never take their struggles seriously. Dalit men often reduce caste resistance to their own inter-caste unions, and patriarchy compounds this neglect by dismissing Dalit women’s lived realities as secondary. Gradually, Dalit women are pushed further to the margins, erased from both national and global discourses. Dhadak-2 is a fresh example of this, where passionate debates rage around inter-caste love and caste conflict, yet Dalit women’s struggles remain invisible. In most movies based on inter-caste love stories, the real struggles of Dalit women are pushed aside, while the narrative glorifies the experiences of upper-caste girls.
This situation raises one more important question: How can Dalit men reimagine love, respect, and solidarity in ways that recognize Dalit women as equal partners in the fight for dignity and justice in the anti-caste struggle? This silence is not accidental, but it is the most dangerous form of erasure. To ignore Dalit women is not just a gap in discourse, but it is an active perpetuation of caste patriarchy.
Opportunity and Neutral Identity Dilemma
Often, Dalit Men are attracted to the education, confidence, and appearance of upper caste women. However, they forget that the qualities they admire are the result of the very social privileges and resources that Dalit men themselves are still struggling to attain. Dalit women also undergo similar struggles. Yet, they do not get as much scope to explore and excel compared to Dalit men. If Dalit women are provided with guidance, opportunities, and support, they too can excel academically, intellectually, and socially, contribute to their community, and reach their full potential.
In this context, today’s society stands at a point where, in Brahmin and other upper-caste families, generation after generation of highly qualified men and women have already emerged. Education, social privilege, and economic security have given them a stable intellectual and professional foundation. In contrast, Dalit families are still struggling, generation after generation, for education, dignity, and social mobility. Therefore, when a Dalit youth, through hard work, reaches the university, it is not just a personal achievement but it is a collective triumph and a ray of hope for the family and the community.
However, when that same Dalit intellectual marries a woman from an upper-caste family, its impact goes far beyond personal choice and reaches the social level. This act, often unintentionally, limits the scope of collective progress within his own community. When children born from such marriages grow up, they gain easier access to education, jobs, and other limited resources, while those same resources remain difficult to access for other Dalit children, who are in much greater need of them. Children from Inter-caste marriages benefit from both the father’s reservation-based identity and the mother’s privileged background. When the mother comes from an educated upper-caste family, her cultural capital and the intellectual environment of the household provide the child with an academic advantage from the very beginning. This advantage takes them further ahead in the race for opportunities. Consequently, inequality deepens, as opportunities are taken away from real Dalit children who have nothing but struggles and limited resources. Thus, the true beneficiaries of reservation are often sidelined, and the collective advancement of the Dalit community is further weakened.
From an Ambedkarite perspective, such alliances represent only individual upliftment, not collective upliftment. Another reason is that the next generation is born into a “neutral identity”. The father is Dalit, the mother is Brahmin. Society neither fully accepts them as “Dalit” nor as “Brahmin”. As a result, they can neither deeply experience the pain and struggles of the Dalit community nor fully enjoy the privileges of the Brahmin community.
The direct consequence of this is that the next generation’s caste consciousness becomes diluted or neutral. And once this neutrality is set in mind, the Ambedkarite movement does not receive the kind of new leadership and depth it needs. The radical edge of the movement weakens, an edge that can only remain sharp when the new Dalit generation stays deeply rooted in their history, struggles, and collective experiences.
True upliftment of the community happens when these Dalit intellectuals choose life partners from within their own community. When a Dalit intellectual marries a woman from his own community, he not only brings dignity and respect to his own family but also to her and her entire family. His achievements and intellectual growth then function as a new kind of social capital, guiding both families and the broader community in a new direction. This does not merely restore dignity to one family but also shows the next generation a path of struggle and intellect, thereby strengthening the process of collective liberation. Therefore, Dalit men must understand that their struggle should not be limited to “having equal relationships with upper-caste women”. Otherwise, the entire claim of “love and equality” remains limited and one-sided, benefiting only upper-caste women.
Inter caste marriage can act as a sharp sword against the caste system, but when it is one-sided, its impact remains incomplete. Unless lower-caste women can also live their lives with the same respect and dignity, the goals of inter-caste marriages are essentially meaningless. In such a situation, the problems, struggles, and social status of those women remain erased. Babasaheb Ambedkar clearly stated that “Caste is a notion, it is a state of mind. It is a disease of the mind” (Annihilation of Caste,1936). This mindset impacts everyone- Dalit women, Dalit men, and society at large. As long as this mindset persists in society, inter-caste marriage alone cannot fully break the chains of caste.
For example, just two months ago, on 27th July 2025, in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, a Dalit software engineer Kevin Selva Ganesh was killed by his girlfriend’s brother simply because he was in an inter caste relationship. Just last month, on 6th August 2025, in Bihar’s DMCH, a nursing student Rahul Kumar was shot dead by his father-in-law for marrying across caste. The caste society continues to produce heinous crimes like honour killings even today in the name of the caste. These are not isolated incidents but reflect the deeply rooted and persistent casteist mindset in India, which threatens lives, dignity, and freedom, whether for men or women.
The strongest evidence of this mindset is visible in popular culture, where the masses turn fictional and illogical films like “Saiyaara” and “ Mahavatar Narasimha” into super hits and blockbusters, but films that confront harsh social realities like “Phule” and “Dhadak-2” are often declared flops and disasters. This clearly shows that caste mentality is the power that does not want to accept the real truths of society and prevents it from being exposed. And as long as this casteist mindset continues to exist, no matter how many inter-caste marriages take place, these marriages alone will never be able to annihilate caste. In fact, as long as this mindset does not change, a Dalit Intellectual marrying a Brahmin or any upper caste girl will not liberate society, but will only continue to obstruct the upliftment of his own community.
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Sangeeta Kumari Nag is originally from Behera village in Kalahandi District, Odisha, and was raised in Koraput. She is pursuing
her PhD in the Department of History at Sambalpur University, focusing on education and social transformation in Koraput district, with wider interests in Dalit and tribal Histories, Ambedkarite thought, and the role of education in social change.
