Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Thursday came down heavily on the culture of branding people who do not follow a particular set of norms "anti-national", reported NDTV. "One issue that keeps coming up in India is people being branded 'anti-national' for not toeing a certain line," the 82-year-old economist said at a London School of Economics event organised to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar.

"I would say caste is anti-national because it divides the nation. We want to be national, not anti-national, for which it is important to eliminate all divisions," Sen said. Speaking of the Dalit icon, who he referred to as a "great social revolutionary and an intellectual powerhouse", Sen said, "It is through education we can truly bring about change in the world. That is the vision which Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us for a united nation." Ambedkar was a student at LSE from 1916.