The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Perspective

A Tribune Special
The caste conundrum

The caste system has no political future in India, but the political class is determined to perpetuate it for narrow partisan ends, says Devendra Panigrahi

Illustration by Kuldeep Dhiman

The Centre bowed to the wishes of the political class for a caste census. Hardly any discussion had taken place either in Parliament or elsewhere. Obviously, electoral compulsions had an overriding bearing in deciding the issue.

The caste census aims at ascertaining the numerical strength of each caste and sub-caste groups, notably from the lower caste orders. It will not even ascertain the creamy layer among the rich OBCs and Dalits. The head count sought is merely a numbers game. The idea is to demand higher percentage of reservations in all the public domain institutions.

Notable studies have shown that caste conservatism was in the process of dying, especially during the Nehru years and after. Nicholas Dirks in his classic study, Castes of Mind Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton University Press, 2001) laments that the process has now been reversed and in contemporary political scenario, it has become fashionable to claim backwardness. It is a kind of “vested interest” which seeks “to redeem the tragic past of India” (p. 279). The caste census also, it is feared, may lead to manipulation of caste data.

Caste census is bound to accentuate caste consciousness and caste solidarity at the expense of notions of common citizenship, nationhood and modernity. There are inherent perils in the mechanism of dominance of a caste-based social order which may threaten a plural, secular and liberal democratic polity.

With the dawn of Indian independence, an overwhelming majority of educated middle class Indians believed that caste was harmful for national growth. That caste militated against the concept of nationality. It was generally accepted that the caste denoted social inequality and was a relic of the feudal past which we aspired to destroy and outgrow it. It created humiliating distinction between man and man and pitched one caste group against the other.

It had all the ingredients of creating eternal discord into the body politic of India. In the nationalist discourse, it was agreed as an axiom, just as Jinnah’s two-nation theory turned out to be divisive which brought about religious divide among Indians leading to the Partition of India so also would caste divide society in bits and pieces and promote social cleavages difficult to bridge.

Gandhiji led a powerful movement against untouchability declaring if “the curse” of untouchability goes the caste system also would fall apart. In the aftermath of the communal award of August 4, 1932, Gandhiji and Dr B.R. Ambedkar crossed swords on the question of untouchability. Dr Ambedkar insisted on separating from Hindu social order on the issue, but after agreement with Gandhiji reservation of seats for the depressed classes was agreed upon and the same provision was incorporated in the Indian Constitution after Independence.

It was Dr Ambedkar who desired that the above special provision may not be continued after 10 or 20 years. Also he asserted: “Caste has nothing to do with religion. It is a custom whose origin I do not know and do not need to know for the satisfaction of my spiritual hunger. But I do know that it is harmful to both spiritual and national growth.” (Harijan, July 18, 1936 (see Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 63, p.156 and p.155).

Jawaharlal Nehru also attacked caste system as “the symbol and embodiment of exclusiveness”. He said that “the average Hindu today is a poor representative of his faith for he has lost that traditional freedom of thought and background that enriches life in many ways” (The Discovery of India, Signet Press 1946 p. 459). Even Swami Vivekananda was disgusted with the orthodox Hindu community whom he said their religion has become a “touch me not” religion.

What happened in Uttar Pradesh schools, from where high-caste Hindu children were withdrawn since they would not partake of meals cooked by dalits is simply disgraceful and unacceptable. However, why did the UP government not invite applications from all caste groups and select cooks from all castes rather than only from dalits? Mr Sharad Yadav, the Janata Dal (United) leader, mentions that “almost in all schools dalit cooks were appointed”.

The institution of caste evolved over time. Significantly, the extreme form of untouchability as experienced in later centuries, generally believed to have been propounded in Manusmriti (about 1-2 century A.D.) was not prescribed either by Manu or by “such human authors as Atri, Utathyatanya, Saunuka, Bhrigu, Vasistha...” who wrote out the Manusmriti, according to Bharat Ratna P.V.Kane, author of History of Dharmasastras (Vol I, p.326).

Professor Kane also observed that “the description of Manu as the son of Brahma and the primeval promulgator of law is mere camouflage or disguise” (Ibid). In Chapter II, Part I, p.175, he further asserts on the authority of Atri Smriti (part of Manusmriti) “there is no taint of untouchability when a person is touched by an untouchable in a temple, religious processions and marriages, in sacrifices and in all festivals… also when the country is engaged in battle or when the village or town is on fire”. In other words, temple entry was permitted and participation in religious festivals, marriage ceremonies etc. by untouchables were not forbidden and their physical contact was not considered polluting.

Several powerful currents of social reform and Bhakti movements were ushered in ever since the birth of Buddhism (Fifth Century B.C.).

Buddhism did not approve of the caste system as embedded in Hinduism. The founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev ji, preached the first tenets of the religion to fire converts, most of whom were untouchables. He sat with them sharing their meals. Later the concept of langar was evolved. It emphasises cooperative cooking and service and partaking of meals together irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Considered the humankind’s acceptance of universal brotherhood, such practices are worthy of emulation in colleges and schools and community centres run by the authorities.

The entire millennium after 1000 A.D. witnessed teachings of great saints and saint poets, who spread the message of oneness of God, devotion to the ultimate reality declaring that nobody was low or high in the kingdom of God. Not one of them as well as other reformers of the nineteenth century supported the caste system.

Recently, Mr Sharad Yadav upstaged the argument on caste census giving quite confusing signals. He accuses his own political class of doing nothing to eradicate the ‘disease’ of caste. He also bemoans the fact that “no university in the country even has a specialised department of caste studies”. Clearly, instituting caste studies would further promote casteism.

Though the caste system cannot be eradicated, most observers are optimistic that a lot of extenuating circumstances would help weaken it. It may remain a private affair of the families. Ultimately, the caste system has no political future though the political class is determined to preserve it forever for its own benefit i.e. to capture power.

The reasons for such optimism are as follows: The younger generation, in the 18-40 age group, comprising about 50 per cent of India’s population, does not subscribe to the rigours of the caste-based social order or the concept of caste itself. Also more than 35 per cent of Indian population now live in metropolitan cities, towns and urban centres. Studies have shown (Andre Betille et al) that their lifestyle changes in the urban areas and the hold of caste in the conduct of their lives is minimum. This debilitating process in the caste order is likely to continue at a faster rate.

In the wake of increasing urbanisation and industrialised development of society, the social transformation would go beyond the pale of caste.

In the new world of hope and opportunities unleashed by economic reforms, globalisation, multi-national ventures, the younger generation, most of whom are educated, are not going to be satisfied with home-made, caste-based occupations. The energetic and entrepreneurial middle classes are bound to grasp the new vistas of knowledge and opportunities to grow and flourish. They have already taken the lead in ushering in economic growth and have contributed to transforming the political economy of the law. The caste system is bound to be weakened in the process.

The growth of liberal, scientific and technological education would eventually transform the collective consciousness of the modern educated younger generation. We should not underestimate the power of knowledge and the efficacy of liberal values which such education imparts.

Indians are great travellers both inside and outside India. Travels are a great educative experience. Caste hardly matters when they travel in trains, surface transport or by air.

The entire universe is shrinking due to the unprecedented scientific and technological innovations. The material or physical world is a modern one, implying that it is a world of scientific, technological and engineering achievements, which will ultimately “penetrate the veil of appearances”. India as a nation has no choice but is bound to look beyond caste.n

The writer, a former Professor of History in Delhi University, is the author of India’s Partition: The Story of Imperialism in Retreat (Routledge London/New York). He is currently working on Social Roots of Indian Nationalism: Beyond Nationalist Discourse

Why a casteless, egalitarian society still a far cry
by Manjit Singh

WHY has caste suddenly become so significant to our debates? Is it that the caste system is under severe strain or is it reasserting with a new force derived from the modern institutions? Though these questions have no easy answer, they are at the centre of debates in academics and politics.

No nation can emerge as a strong nation without having discipline among the fellow citizens, a necessary pre-condition for development. Discipline can emanate either from the moral order embedded into the social fabric or it could be imposed from outside with the iron hand of law.

Disciplining through moral order is not only cost-effective but also works better than the system of penalties and deterrence imposed from outside as moral order regulates people from the soul, and not simply their external actions. However, the binding force of moral order works only when people feel equally empowered to the entitlement of social and cultural space, even if not supplemented by economic equity.

When the spiritual moral force, often propagated through the institution of religion and supremacy of communitarian principles over the individual predilections work in tandem, they end up welding into a strong social system.

If the institutionalised religion, a most common source of uniting people on egalitarian principles, takes precedence over the social system, the role of moral order takes a centrestage. But if the religious order is hijacked by the political institutions, it ends up building a theocratic state, and to that extent religion loses its original purpose.

On the other hand, if a hierarchical social order appropriates religion for its legitimacy, it ends up building a segmented social system far stronger than any religion, state apparatus, or even economic order. The evolution of the Indian caste system is a typical example of the latter.

Historically, in India, the political system, in conjunction with the prevailing religious system, appropriated the detailed social division of labour in such a way that not only the labour is deemed to be degrading but the toiling people themselves are made to believe as lesser human beings. Since the harsh work is defiling, as the belief defends, it ought to be paid much less than the actual social value of labour power.

Consequently, the material ground prepared for the perpetuation of hierarchy ends up emerging into race like endogamous segments of society called castes. Caste in the present form, therefore, epitomises an amalgamation of social, economic, cultural, political, and moral order. The internal social fragmentation in India leaves ample space for parasitic development sans moral pressure of society on the citizens.

The Constitution of independent India, based largely on the western values of enlightenment, though upheld the primacy of individual over the collective or communitarian ethos, it also recognised caste, tribe, and religious (minority) rights, at least till they dissolve into the individual rights. The communitarian social structure is recognised so that the state, through its targeted policy, could empower the castes, tribes and other social conglomerations left far behind at the fringes of development.

However, the Indian political elites, like their predecessors, found it handy to manipulate the levers of caste to reach to Parliament. They developed vested interest in defending jealously the social scaffoldings of caste instead of vanishing it through the state’s protective measures.

The present vacillation of political elites, before finally deciding for the inclusion of caste in the ongoing census, can be appreciated through the growing conflict between the constitutional objectives of individual rights and targeted development policy of the state, based on caste and other social identities.

Apparently, though there is political contestation on the inclusion of caste counting through census, no political elite has come up with the concrete road map as how to purge caste out of the Indian social structure. Counting caste suits perfectly to those political parties that are largely organised on caste/ communitarian basis as the rampant poverty among the ranks of the lower and lower middle castes or tribes camouflages the wealth amassed by their caste leaders as co-sharer of the Indian economic development.

The national parties, on the other hand, were jittery as the caste census is going to unleash new intra-party contestation for political power. Undoubtedly, if the detailed data on caste is collected, and the same is compared with the corresponding economic status, the nexus between caste and class is going to be settled once and for all.

However, there is no answer to the real question that once the economic and educational backwardness of the dalits, the tribes, some sections of minorities and the backward classes is proved after the census how far the fresh impetus to reservations is going to achieve the constitutional objective of egalitarianism. If the past experience of 60 years is any standard of measuring empowerment of the dalits and tribes through reservation, the rate of empowerment through the state measures of reservation is far below the rate of their disempowerment through the secular process of market in the ‘fast growing’ economy.

Already pushed to the wall, a large number of marginalising castes and communities though tend to flock together but only to be lured by some political elite, does not matter whether from the same or different caste, with a fresh hope of new lease of life. The disillusioned ones end up joining rebellions like the Naxalites while others die an unnatural death.

Alas! India would not have inherited a fragmented soul that gives free hand to the powerful elites who manipulate the system to their own narrow ends. The bane of fragmentation is one of the important causes of rampant corruption where the ‘other’ is treated as mere object and not as a fellow citizen.

Only time will tell how far the biometric and socio-metric (caste) census are going to weld Indian citizens into a formidable nation with mutual respect and trust and how quickly it translates into egalitarian development.

The writer is Professor of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh

OPED

The endgame in Afghanistan
Some painful compromises may have to be made
by Sankar Sen

The war in Afghanistan seems to be reaching an endgame. General Mchrystal’s famous surge appears to be petering out. The Western forces’ operations in Mazra and Kandahar have come to a halt.The offensive at Helmand province designed to clear the area of Taliban fighters and hand it over to the Afghan army and police has not been successful. The Army and the police forces trained by NATO troops have proved inadequate to the task.

There is also widespread public disenchantment in the West with the ongoing war in Afghanistan. In the US, many Democratic Senators have shown their impatience with the continuing presence and rising casualties of the US troops in Afghanistan. The exit strategy of foreign forces is based on the assumption that the trained Afghan police and army will be able to take over the burden from their western counterparts. But the fighting capability of the local troops fails to inspire confidence and raises questions about the fate of the foreign troops after they go back home.

Another problem for the US and allied forces is that it was assumed that better governance will persuade the Afghans to reject the Taliban and help the Karzai government to turn the tide against Mullah Umar and other extremist leaders. This goal has not been fulfilled. Karzai is presiding over a thoroughly corrupt administration and by hanging on to power after rigged elections, he has alienated the people.

However, a precipitate American withdrawal from Afghanistan will create serious problems and open a Pandora’s box. It would also weaken the governments in many countries with significant Islamic minorities and provide an additional momentum to Jihadi Islam. It would raise questions about the US’ ability to define or execute its proclaimed goals.

The US is now largely depending upon Pakistan to help find an honourable exit. It needs the Pakistan army more than ever to impose a satisfactory political solution so that American troops can be brought home. It is seeking a political process of reconciliation brokered by Pakistan. The Pakistan GHQ now believes that the balance of power in the region is tilting towards Pakistan for the first time since September 11.

Regardless of some Congressmen’s call for a get-tough approach to Islamabad, there is no alternative to a strong US alliance with Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of supplies vital to the US-led effort in Afghanistan flow through Pakistan. The US is now negotiating with Russia and the Central Asian Republics for new supply routes, but they are geographically complex and would come with great logistical costs.

Hamid Karzai is now seeking reconciliation with the Taliban. However, the Taliban leader Mullah Umar has made it clear that he will talk to the Karzai government only after the foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan. He feels that the Taliban victory is round the corner.

Pakistan’s goal is to gain “strategic depth by installing a government in Afghanistan in which the Taliban will be an important component”. It hopes to have its proxies in place in the new set-up. Pakistan is keen on pushing India out of Afghanistan as it feels that an alliance between India and Afghanistan will effectively encircle it. Pakistan has used terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, in a big way to carry out operations against the Indian targets in Afghanistan. In a recent article in the New York Times, Alisha J. Rubin has given the details of operations carried out by these terrorist groups against the Indian targets in Afghanistan.

However, there are problems with any Pakistan-sponsored solutions. Pakistan can deal with the Pashtuns and the Taliban core, but there are the Taziks and the Uzbeks who mistrust Islamabad and will fight a government in Kabul which they view as a tool of Pakistan. Other neighbouring countries which have significant interests in Afghanistan like India, Russia, Iran will not accept agreements sponsored by Pakistan.

Further, Washington wants to pursue a strategy of military escalation before the withdrawal. It is preparing for last shot military operations that will serve as a basis for a dignified withdrawal. The appointment of General Petraeus as an allied commander in Afghanistan has reaffirmed this approach. Petraeus is firmly opposed to reconciliation before gains are made by stepping up campaigns in the Taliban heartland. In the counter-terrorist operations now being planned, the US will use powerful weaponry to kill the Taliban leaders and their core supporters. The Haquanni faction which the Pakistani army and the ISI have been cultivating with the hope that they will have a say in the power-sharing arrangement in Kabul when the US forces quit Afghanistan may get the rough end of the stick.

There is mounting evidence including the controversial WikiLeak documents, a report from London School of Economics, an expose by Sunday Times (both released this year) as well as the statements by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that Pakistan is playing a double game in Afghanistan. Chances of an organised withdrawal would be possible only if a political settlement is worked out with the regional powers’ consent.

Interestingly, Afghanistan has become an international issue whenever an outside power has tried to achieve unilateral dominance. This has invariably prompted other parties to establish a countervailing influence. Regional powers such as China, India and Russia would be more threatened than the US by an Afghanistan hospitable to terrorism. For India, in particular, Afghanistan encouraging or even tolerating the centres of terrorism will pose major threats.

If the reconciliation programme is to succeed, it has to overcome opposition to such plans from Afghanistan’s non-Pashtuns. According to the realists including veteran diplomats, some painful compromises may have to be made. Direct election of provincial Governors may be introduced by which the South could be handed over to the Taliban and the North to the Uzbek, Hazara and Tazik warlords. It will indeed be a strategy of ‘Divide and Go’.

The writer is Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi

Profile
Islam doesn’t preach violence, says Wahiduddin Khan
by Harihar Swarup

Wahiduddin Khan

The book, 500 Most influential Muslims of 2009, published by Georgetown University, Washington DC, has named noted Islamic scholar, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan as “Islam’s Spiritual Ambassador in the world”. His approach, the book pointed out, is “popular among Indians, both Muslims and non-Muslims”.

The Maulana is an Islamic spiritual scholar who has adopted peace as the mission of his life. Known for his Gandhian views, Wahiduddin considered non-violence as the only method to achieve success.

He has been honoured recently with the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award. He is also the recipient of Demiurgus Peace International Award by the Nuclear Disarmament Forum AG. The award, under the patronage of the former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was given to acknowledge his outstanding achievement in strengthening peace among nations.

Born in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, the Maulana was educated in a traditional seminary. From his early years, he showed a voracious appetite to modern knowledge, spending hours in the library everyday.

His extensive research led him to conclude that the need of the hour was to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of the post-scientific era.

Having lost his father, Fariduddin Khan, at the age of four, Wahiduddin was brought up by his mother, Zaibunnisa Khatoon, and his uncle. Sufi Abdul Hamid Khan arranged for his education.

He has been quoted as saying that becoming an orphan very early in life has taught him that, to succeed in life, one has to take such situations as challenges and not as problems. Being an advocate of result-oriented and positive action, he explained that treating such situations as problems could only yield negative results.

“All you can do in this state is either try to fight to remove them or lodge complaints or protest against them. On the other hand, if you take such situations as challenges, you can positively and constructively work to overcome them yourself”, he reportedly observed. Wahiduddin’s success in life is largely due to the implementation of this and other such principles, which he has derived from Islamic scriptures.

Since his family was involved in India’s freedom struggle from the very beginning, Wahiduddin became a staunch nationalist. After graduation in 1944, he started interacting with people to begin his life. As it happened, the people he came across had received modern, English-medium education. He was shocked to realise that though he had completed his education, he was not able to respond to questions put to him.

His elder brother wanted him to join the family business. However, having realised that without studying English and modern science, his education would be incomplete, the young Maulana immersed himself in learning English and then went on to study innumerable books on science and contemporary thoughts. Western writers and philosophers, particularly Bertrand Russell, greatly influenced him.

He dispels the notion that Islam is a religion of violence, a notion that has gained currency in the present times because Islam is being misrepresented and, therefore, misunderstood. Upon completion of his research in 1955, he published his first book Naye Ahd Ke Darwaze Par (On the Threshold of a New Era).

His next book Ilme Jadid Ka Challenge (Islam and Modern Challenges) was later published as God Arises. This book is accepted as the standard Islamic position on modern thought and has been incorporated in the curricula of universities in over six Arab countries. It has been translated into English, Arabic, Malay, Turkish, Hindi, Malayalam and Sindhi.

Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Wahiduddin felt the need to convince the people of the need to restore peace and amity between the two communities so that the country might once again tread the path of progress.

To achieve this, he went on a 15-day Shanti Yatra (peace march) along with Acharya Muni Sushil Kumar and Swami Chidanand, addressing large groups of people at 35 places from Mumbai to Nagpur.

On Record
‘Traditional medicines best for chronic diseases’
by Shubhadeep Choudhury

Dr H. Sudarshan

Dr Hanumappa Sudarshan, 60 years, is a social worker and tribal rights activist from Karnataka. A doctor by profession, he is well known for his contributions to the uplift of the forest dwelling tribes (mainly Soligas) in the Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka.

He is also a recipient of the Right to Livelihood Award from Sweden (considered the alternative Nobel Prize) and the Padma Shri. He graduated from Bangalore Medical College and became a doctor in 1973. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Indira Gandhi Open University.

After becoming a doctor, he joined the charitable health institutions of Ramakrishna Mission which took him to the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh, Belur Mutt in West Bengal and Ponnampet in Karnataka. In 1980, he started the Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) for the integrated development of the tribals. He is also the founder and Honorary Secretary of the Karuna Trust, which is dedicated to rural development in Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh. In an interview with The Tribune he shared his experience of working among tribes.

Excerpts:

Q: At a conference in IIM, Bangalore, you said that the Caesarian method of delivering a child had been seldom used in your hospital. Is this method used in city hospitals only to extort money from the patients?

A: In my three decades of work with the tribes in the forests, there were only two caesarian deliveries. Tribal women give birth to their children in squatting position which helps in normal delivery. The gravitational force also helps in the delivery when the mother is in that position. While an obstetric table diminishes these natural advantages, it is convenient only for the doctors and nurses.

Q: You have a fair degree of confidence in indigenous medicines. How effectiveness are these?

A: Traditional medicines are quite effective in treating chronic diseases like jaundice, tuberculosis, etc. For ailments such as sickle cell anaemia, prevalent among the Soliga tribals, allopathic medicines are used.

Certain ailments, which the Soligas never contracted in the past, are now reported in the area due to their changing lifestyle and visits made by them to non-tribal localities in search of work. Allopathic medicines are used for these new varieties of ailments as well.

Q: What prompted you to take up voluntary work among tribes instead of joining a city hospital?

A: As I child I had the misfortune of experiencing the problem the villagers often face due to shortage of doctor. I went to a village in Karnataka with my father. He suddenly fell seriously ill in the night. He literally died in my arms the same night. We tried very hard but could not arrange a doctor to see him. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings also inspired me to work among the underprivileged sections.

Q: Besides Karnataka, in which other states is your organisation active?

A: Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar islands. We try to provide healthcare in remote Arunachal areas. We have a centre in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Myanmar. In Meghalaya we have just begun our work.

Q: Is not the Changlang area frequented by Naga militants (NSCN-K) as a transit for going to Myanmar and returning from there?

A: Yes. They use that route.

Q: What is the story of your brush with forest brigand Veerappan?

A: Veerappan did not like my presence in the Karnataka forests. The police told me that I was on his hit-list and he might even kidnap me. I offered to stay with Veerappan in the forest as long as he wanted. However, I made it very clear that no ransom would be ever given for my release if I were kidnapped. Veerappan eventually gave up and stopped giving me trouble.