I think you're oversimplifying this issue perhaps out of frustration, which would be totally understandable. If you look at numerous models around the world involving rehabilitation of segments of society that were systematically broken and oppressed for multiple generations you'll see that the picture is extremely complex.
I'll refer to the model I'm most familiar with, which is the Blacks in the US. Understandably many people angrily say that slavery no longer exists and blacks are just lazy or what have you and playing the victim card... but this isn't exactly true. Slavery may have ended but it inculcated some highly pernicious cultural qualities of which the effects are felt to this day. It also makes the community highly susceptible to problems, which is why it will take many generations and a lot of hard work from either side to resolve these issues.
This task will probably be a lot harder in India. What makes matters worse is that the political class are part of the problem instead of the solution because they institute piss poor populist policies for votes which increases the hostility between the upper and lower castes and is just counterproductive overall .
Blacks for all the ills that ail their society have not institutionalized Victimhood to such an extent as the Lower Castes of India,
where a word such as
DALIT which in all its connotations, implying victim hood is considered more respectable than some other
Title that simply indicates their Vocation e.g
Chamar (Which simply means Leather Tanner) .
I personally would much prefer being called a
Chamar or a
Mahar than a
Dalit , a symbol of emasculation, which lower castes of
today have taken a great liking to simply coz it absolves them of all responsibility for their own ills because with such identity as
DALIT the blame completely shifts to others and thus the responsibilty for correcting them too .
If i remember correctly Dr. BR Ambedkar the great icon of Scheduled Castes of this nation never endorsed such self defeating means towards empowerment.
in none of his speeches or writings did i ever come across this demeaning Title
The Blacks in America inspite of having suffered no less persecution have gained Political power today
while fighting only for equality never for compensatory sops.