It recently organized a meeting where Dalit businessmen pitched ideas to Tata Motors, one of India’s biggest car companies. Mr. Kamble, the Dalit contractor, said that of the 10 companies that attended, 4 had signed deals and 4 more were in negotiations. “There was a time when people like us could not even approach a company like Tata Motors,” he said. “Now we go meet them with dignity, not like beggars. We are job givers, not job seekers.”

The group has persuaded the government to embrace contracting preferences for Dalits like the ones that have helped businesses owned by women and minorities in the United States. It also seeks to persuade private companies to embrace affirmative action policies that would create more jobs and business opportunities for Dalits.

Few Options for Women

Despite the success of men like Mr. Khade, a Dalit entrepreneur is still much more likely to be a poor woman who has no choice but to start a small, low-profit margin business because so few other options are open to her, said Annie Namala, a researcher and activist who has worked on Dalit issues. A survey completed this year of Dalit women entrepreneurs in Delhi and Hyderabad found that most made less than $100 a month from their businesses.

“These are basically survival enterprises,” Ms. Namala said. “These women would prefer a steady job, but no jobs are available so they start a small business and work very hard with very little return.”

Despite gains for some Dalits, a recent paper from the Harvard Business School that used government data from 2005 found that even after the economic liberalization, Dalits “were significantly underrepresented in the ownership of private enterprises, and the employment generated by private enterprises.”

Even for those who have had wild success in business, social acceptance has proved harder to attain. While wealth insulates them to some degree from lingering caste prejudice, barriers remain even for rich Dalits.

Names often reveal a person’s caste, so one Dalit businessman who installs solar water heaters changed his last name because he worried that upper-caste people would not want a Dalit installing an appliance associated with personal hygiene in their homes.

Even Mr. Khade, with all his wealth and newfound status, does not want to offend potential upper-caste clients. His business card reads Ashok K, leaving off the last name that reveals what he is: a Dalit.