People normally try to upgrade themselves socially.
But the Brahmins of Rajasthan - top dogs in the Hindu caste system - want to lower themselves to qualify for affirmative action.
The Rajasthan Brahmin Mahasabha has launched a campaign demanding that the government reserve a certain number of government jobs for those among the state's 7 million Brahmins who are poor.
'We are not all well off. Yes, we have social prestige, but you can't feed your children with that. Some of us have no land, no jobs, no income,' said Mahasabha president Bhanwarlal Sharma.
While the lower castes were becoming increasingly prosperous thanks to government job quotas, Brahmins left to fend for themselves were becoming paupers, Mr Sharma said.
Brahmins rank at the top of the caste hierarchy. At the bottom are dalits, who along with many other castes benefit from government jobs and university places reserved for them as part of India's attempt to remedy the injustices of the rigid caste system.
For centuries, the higher castes oppressed the lower castes, depriving them of education and, as a result, a share of the nation's wealth.
