India, May 21 -- The third edition of the Prof. Surendra Gopal memorial lecture at the Patna Museum on Wednesday stressed the need to confront caste-based discrimination as a structural and continuing form of marginalisation, with noted historian Prof Sunita Sharma called for a historically informed and socially responsive understanding of caste in contemporary India.

Delivering the keynote address on the topic "The Caste System in Indian History", Prof Sharma, a former sectional president of the Indian History Congress and an author with a special interest in gender studies, said caste discrimination remained embedded in "graded hierarchies" that shaped access to dignity, resources and institutional power.

"Constitutional equality cann...