Book excerpt: Casteless India is an idea dreamt by the framers of our constitution. As far-fetched a dream, it may seem, the necessity of making caste an irrelevant denominator in the social, economic and political life of India cannot be overstated. Despite a number of reforms initiated by successive governments nationally and across states, the overall efforts seem half-hearted, rudderless and often working at cross-purposes with one another. This book is an effort to find the basis of the caste system, tracing it from its origin and dissecting its various facets so as to chart out a practical approach to uproot this social vice from our society. The objective of the book is to give a feasible solution, understanding the ground realities of the issue, based on a broad consensus that may be favourably acceptable to all sections of the society in order to build a truly egalitarian society.