Kathmandu, Aug. 12 -- One evening 20 years ago, Laxman Ramtel headed to Bhaktapur from Godavari to meet up with his friends.

When he arrived, Ramtel saw that one of his friends was shaving his beard. Thinking he too could use a shave, he attempted to borrow his friend's shaving equipment. But another one of his friends stood up abruptly to stop him, proclaiming: "Dalits are not supposed to use the same blade as Brahmins and Chhetris."

His friend's words hurt Ramtel deeply. "I was humiliated and heartbroken that day," he recalls. "I came back home and wept all night."

Many years later, a priest came around to his neighbourhood in Godamchaur on the southern outskirts of Kathmandu Valley, where Ramtel was born and raised, to tie the holy ...