Political propaganda must be taken with a boatload of salt. A Dalit organization&#x27;s claims is something like KKK&#x27;s claim. People of all castes and religion get lynched and burned and maimed all the time in the lawless parts of India for all reasons.<p>However if we look at impartial research such as by James Tooley who was studying history of Education system in India, he points out that literacy and education levels in even the tribals and so called &quot;low castes&quot; in India was reasonably close to &quot;so called higher castes&quot; and most certainly higher than the peasants in United Kingdom. It is a fascinating book in itself and borrows heavily from another book of same title written by Gandhiji&#x27;s disciple Dharampaal.<p>Beside the third book is a comprehensive survey of all caste related laws, judgements and  British Census reports in India and shows pretty big holes in &quot;discrimination&quot; and &quot;privilege&quot; arguments.<p>Here is the essay by Dharampal who notes the British Census in one of the provinces (Madras). It compares schools, school going people in England and Madras which were of comparable size. Turns out that enrollment in Madras is actually higher than that of England and lower castes dominated the students.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.esamskriti.com&#x2F;essay-chapters&#x2F;Indigeneous-Education-in-the-18th-century-1.aspx" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.esamskriti.com&#x2F;essay-chapters&#x2F;Indigeneous-Educati...</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00ELPRLC0&#x2F;ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00ELPRLC0&#x2F;ref=dp-kindle-re...</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;The-beautiful-tree-indigenous-eighteenth&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B0000CQAWU" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;The-beautiful-tree-indigenous-eighteen...</a>
[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Falling-Over-Backwards-Arun-Shourie&#x2F;dp&#x2F;9350293552&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Falling-Over-Backwards-Arun-Shourie&#x2F;dp...</a>