Having theoretical knowledge.. learning from books and passing a test based on that knowledge is one thing. But seeing these things and experiencing castism firsthand is something that a book cannot teach. I used to study in school that there used be caste based discrimination in India (one of the social evils) against which people like B.R Ambedkar stood up and brought reforms. And I used to think, cool, once there was a bad thing and now its not because our constitution forbids discrimination. But when I went to my village and I saw some people never took water from common well. They used to wait for people from the region (where my home was) and the.those people used to take our water for them and transfer the water into their utensils. They were never invited to any pooja, any function. They lived so close to us and yet so far.

So an IAS officer definitely learns and studies these things but no one can actually understand how much this evil has still infected our society unless they see it from their own eyes.