The struggle for the emancipation of the Dalits has a long and rich history in Tamil Nadu. It was accelerated in the 1990s in connection with the widespread dissemination of Ambedkar’s ideas, which were accepted and further elaborated—especially by the Paraiyars and the Arunthathiyars. Despite this, the caste barriers among Tamil Dalits do not seem to have diminished. Based primarily on original sources in Tamil, this article sets out to answer the question of why this is the case. It compares the ideological production of the three major T amil Dalit castes (the Paraiyars, the Devendrars, and the Arunthathiyars) in relation to four respective spheres: designation, caste histories, caste heroes, and attitudes towards the question of caste. It explores the role which caste plays in their ideologies and their strategies of emancipation. Primarily, the article argues that there exists a growing divergence between the trajectories of the emancipation efforts of the three castes, with seemingly little prospect of mutual cooperation in the near future.