People of lower castes who seek to raise their position in caste hierarchy may do so through non- formal processes as that of sanskritisation.
In the words of Srinivas whose identified the process and formulated the concept of sanskritisation,
“The Caste system is far from a rigid system in which the position of each component caste is fixed for all time. Movement has always been possible, and especially so in the middle regions of the hierarchy. A low caste was able, in a generation or two, to rise to a higher position in the hierarchy by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism, and by sanskritising its ritual and pantheon. In short, it took over, as far as possible, the customs, rites, and beliefs of the Brahmins and the adoption of the Brahmanic way of life by a low caste seem to have been frequent, though theoretically forbidden.” – This process has been called “Sanskritisation”.
Dalits, in their own way, have contested the subordinate position assigned to them in the religious and social domain of society. Jyotiba Phule who belonged to the peasant caste developed a large dalit following. He chiefly organised the ‘shudras’ in Maharashtra challenging Brahmin superiority on several counts that had wide mass appeal.
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He reinterpreted puranic mythology from the perspective of the socially distressed. Pilule’s writings included violence on women and their oppression as a form of exploitation in patriarchal settings. Many activists belonging to low castes were drawn to the anti-Caste, anti-Brahmin, even anti-Hindu ideology of the kind that Phule advocated.
The non-Brahmin movement nationwide voiced protest against Brahmin exploitation and centralisation of resources. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) better known as Babasaheb entered the area of politics claiming the heritage of non-Brahmins.
Ambedkar constituted the Bahishkrut Hitakarni Sabha in which educated Mahar boys and few upper-caste Hindus were members. The Sabha held conferences of which the one at Mahad in Konkan concluded with a struggle to drink water from the town tank.
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In 1935, Ambedkar proclaimed that he was born a Hindu but would not die a Hindu and founded the Independent Labour Party that launched struggles and agitation against caste based oppression and Brahmin domination.
He united the dalit forces to come together in order to function as a political alternative that would fight atrocities on dalits forcefully as also provide a forum for economic and social liberation of dalits. There were several others as Ramabai, Tarabai, Periyar and others who led the march against dalit oppression. A large number of dalits converted to Christianity or Islam in order to escape the humiliation and exploitation of being the lowest in the caste hierarchy.
Like dalits, the tribal communities also launched several movements to protest and safeguard their interests. The better known among them are those for establishing political autonomy e.g. Jharkhand Movement, for asserting their customary rights of land and forest, and for socio-cultural rights e.g. Gonds of Madhya Pradesh claiming Kshatriya status by reworking their social and religious institutions in line with high caste Hindus.