Although the conditions of life in Indian cities differ significantly
from those obtained in rural areas, cities are not free from the
travails of caste and untouchability. In urban areas, discrimination
expresses itself in more subtle forms and in limited job choices that
push untouchables into menial tasks. In a city like Hardwar, on the
banks of the Ganges, physical segregation is evident in the fact that
the upper-caste dwellings are closer to the pure water of the river,
while the lower castes are relegated, depending on relative degree of
purity, to locations farther away from the river (Lipner, 1994:116–17).
Kancha Ilaiah has commented that the movement from rural to urban
locations does not change the socioeconomic relations because of the
pervasive character of caste. “We had hoped,” writes Ilaiah, “that the
decolonized Indian capital would make caste dysfunctional by giving
us equal rights in politics, in economic institutions, cultural institutions,
educational institutions and administrative institutions. But that
has not happened. The migration from rural to urban centers has not
changed our socioeconomic relations as caste discrimination has been
built into every structure”