Research on classroom discourse identifies classrooms as safe spaces that shield learners from social and political issues. Since there is a need to accommodate and address issues of social inequalities and power relations in classrooms, this paper extends culturally relevant pedagogy to discuss casteism in tertiary-level classrooms through a caste-based pedagogy. For this, the paper discusses real-life instances of caste-based discrimination in India and suggests a framework for its discussion through a conglomeration of Tomlinson’s principles of material development and Revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Nevertheless, recent research on materials and language teaching-learning practices advocates an approach where learners are exposed to social concerns and utilise the classroom environment as a space where they can critically engage with such issues. Accordingly, this paper critiques safetyism in textbooks and classroom discourses, and endorses the spirit of culturally relevant pedagogy to suggest that teachers should encourage learners to engage in ideologically challenging activities. The local realities of a country, when brought inside language classrooms, can be used as the lens through which learners can interact with a sensitive yet culturally relevant topic in classrooms and extend their discussions onto global scenarios where discriminatory practices around gender, religion, class, colour, and race abound.