This article discusses from a critical education perspective what it is like to be a Dalit (former untouchable) student studying at an elite university in India. Much writing on exclusion and discrimination in higher education is focused on power relations such as gender, race, ethnicity and religion. This article broadens this focus to consider how caste shapes the experiences of those positioned at the very bottom of the caste hierarchy in higher education, and offers an innovative perspective on how caste in contemporary India, and particularly in elite contexts, has parallels with the stigma and prejudice that LGBT students suffer. This article departs from mainstream scholarship on Dalits in higher education by focusing not on numbers or reservations policy, but on the inner lives and struggles of Dalit students and how they cope with both institutional and social environments that devalue their identities. 'The Dalit Closet' reveals the immense pressure to hide one's identity and pass at an elite institution, while at the same time prove oneself academically in the face of pervasive anti-Dalit stereotypes of intellectual weakness. In this study, Dalit students, whether open or not about their identity, are sharply critical of the dominant ideology of merit that surrounds the policy of 'reservations' in India, and are well-aware of the structural and cultural disadvantages of their caste identities, in comparison to the life-long caste privilege of their upper-caste peers. The 'Dalit Closet' reveals the limitations of the current reservations policy from the perspective of Dalit students, and discusses measures that can be taken to promote a genuine culture of inclusion at Indian universities.