STUDENT LEADERSHIP IN LONDON 47 In the Indian context, even more important is the factor of caste. For, in spite of much social change and "modernization" there is hardly any organization—economic, political, administrative and educational—in which caste considerations do not* play some and at times a major role. Many observers and analysts of the university scene in general and the student community in particular have highlighted the impact of caste on university affairs and on student politics in India5. TABLE III CASTE COMPOSITION OF STUDENT LEADERS Caste Number Percentage Brahmin 75 (42.6%) Kayasth 20(11.4%) Kshatriya 47 (26.7%) Vaish 34 (19.3%) T76 (100.0%) 93.6 Scheduled and Backward 12 6.4 188100.0 The caste composition of the student leadership also conforms to the country's wider political leadership picture: .the student leadership, to be precise, was monopolized by the upper caste Hindus (93.6 per cent), chiefly the Brahmins (42.6 per cent). There are two reasons for this, namely, the student-power structure, like the wider power structure, still continues to be highly elitist, and, secondly, upper caste students are economically and numerically dominant. The scheduled caste student leaders did resent this fact. They also angrily mentioned the continued harassment of scheduled castes, especially Harijans, by upper caste Hindus. This harassment, it must be pointed out, is largely a rural problem but it is by no means confined to any particular region or state. Harijans, landless workers and their kith and kin in particular, have been subjected to indescribable atrocities in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Recently in a village in South Arcot district of Tamil Nadu, a road was constructed for the exclusive use of Harijans to save the caste Hindus from pollution! It must however be stressed that what is most frequently described and analysed as caste conflict is in reality class conflict in that the upper castes are also the owning classes and the lower or scheduled castes like Harijans belong to the have-not, non-owning and exploited classes which include the landless labourers in the countryside.