The Politics of Caste
Jul 6 2008 | Views 130 |
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Tags: jawaharlal nehru social interchange secular institutions sociology university democracy and quota row
Tags: jawaharlal nehru social interchange secular institutions sociology university democracy and quota row
The founders of modern India, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and his
generation genuinely believed that democracy and development should
bring out a new social order that would free all Indians from the
shackles of poverty, illiteracy, ill health, ignorance, superstition
and of course caste.
After sixty years of freedom, the poor as a percentage of the total
population decreased to some extent, literacy improved substantially,
and health care is available for more number of people, ignorance and
superstition plunged into a downward trend.
But, caste and its identity are on far stronger footing now than
earlier. However, caste as such is not practiced as was prevalent a
hundred years ago, but in a much more assertive manner in pursuit of
better educational qualifications and more remunerative career
opportunities.
According to Andre Beteille, professor emeritus of Sociology,
University of Delhi,
"Caste was in the past mainly a matter of religion and ritual of
social inclusion and exclusion on grounds of purity and pollution…The
emerging middle class was the first to free itself from the manifold
restrictions imposed by the rituals of caste… The new educational
system played an important role…
"Firstly, by promoting new ideas, beliefs and values and, second, by
its association with open and secular institutions, in which social
interchange could no longer be regulated by ritual rules and
restrictions….The expansion of the economy , particularly in recent
decades, has led to the emergence of a multitude of new caste-free
occupations or occupations that have no specific association with any
caste as was the case in the past with occupations such as those of
carpenter, blacksmith, potter, barber and washer man…
"Thus in many fields of activity caste has been in the decline…but,
there is one field, that of politics, in which caste has held its
ground, or even increased its hold… The mobilization of support on the
basis of caste and community has now become a universal feature of our
political life. All parties engage in the practice and they all seek
to defend it by the appeal to equity and justice….When they talk about
social justice, they now mean parity between castes and communities,
not equality between individuals and households…
"The competition for more degrees and better jobs is a competition
between castes, but it is a competition within the same social
class…The same middle class, which a hundred years ago took the first
tentative steps to break away from caste, is now in the forefront of a
political movement whose inevitable outcome will be to strengthen the
consciousness of caste."
In every state in India today, every regional political party and even
the segments of national parties are being dominated by one caste or
the other. With the policy of protectionism and reservations, there is
increased demand for specific quotas in education and employment from
all backward castes and the sub-castes in SC & ST. There are also
demands from many other caste groups for inclusion into the BC, SC, ST
or Minority categories only for the purpose of enjoying the benefits
of reservation.
The vote bank hungry politicians have made it a point to appease all
non-upper caste groups with the carrot of reservations. They are not
at all; bothered about the vast majority of people from all castes who
live below the poverty line.
However, the results of all the general elections held for Lok Sabha
as well as state assemblies do not show any tangible correlation
between dominant caste groups in the constituency and the caste of the
winning candidate. There are various other issues and factors that
contribute to the success of a candidate or party in the elections.
The Congress party still makes all winning combination calculations
based on the support of one caste or the other. This appeasement
policy has inadvertently encouraged caste groups within the party
itself, the competition among them threatening the very unity of the
party. The Congress party appears to be still a prisoner of an
obsolete policy, which states that if you take care of the various
amenable caste groups, then they will take care of the victory of the
party candidate in the elections.
By dividing the electorate into sterilized caste and sub-caste groups,
the Congress party is only losing its winning edge. No single caste
group can provide 30 to 35% vote share to make its candidate win. The
Congress can improve its winning chances only by strengthening its
party cadre at the grass root level and championing the cause of those
who are below the poverty line, who belong to all castes.
The Hindutva parties, with a blatant anti-muslim stance, somehow seem
to be giving a message to the electorate that all castes are part of
Hindutva and the parties do not indulge in discrimination or
appeasement on grounds of caste. Even BSP, which started as a specific
caste focused party, is now following a policy of bringing in all
castes and religious communities into the party organizational fold.
The electoral results of UP,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka
show that the winning candidates received the nod from a wide cross
section of all castes. The candidate's win did not depend on the
strength of caste segregation or that of the dominant caste group.
The best way for Congress is to discard the appeasement of
disadvantaged caste groups or minorities and concentrate on the
disadvantaged individuals and households, irrespective of caste and
minority status.
Deen Kumar
© Deen Kumar., all rights reserved.
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