More than 240 million people in South Asia live a precarious existence, shunned by much of society because of their ranks as untouchables or Dalits at the bottom of a rigid caste system.

Scholars of caste—India’s longstanding, religiously-based system of social hierarchy—will gather at Brandeis to open the third annual conference on social exclusion in South Asia on Friday, April 28.

The caste system, as it actually works in India is called jati. The term jati appears in almost all Indian languages and is related to the idea of lineage or kinship group. There are perhaps more than ...

The list includes Harvard, Brown, the University of Minnesota, Brandeis and the entire California State University system ... South Asia at Rutgers who co-chaired a university task force on caste ...