There's not much to misunderstand, actually. The caste system is a highly discriminatory and unfair classification of people based on their birth. For a major p

There's not much to misunderstand, actually. The caste system is a highly discriminatory and unfair classification of people based on their birth. For a major part of Indian history, it was the upper castes that abused it. But since independence, politicians from both higher and lower castes have managed to keep it running for their own gains. Consider these lyrics: "They cut me out for a baking bread, but I had other dreams instead". Now imagine a system designed to completely ignore your dreams and force you to bake bread for now and future generations! And you are not even in chains! Your guess about not airing the laundry in public is pretty close. "caste awareness" is ingrained from a young age, and you can't lose those circuits even if you yourself don't agree with them. A lot of people, especially higher caste, "understand" at a logical level that this is all wrong, but find it very difficult to change. So discrimination continues in all social spheres, but it's covert. The silver lining is that there are also those who have distanced themselves from that system, and their number keeps increasing.