Friday, June 18, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Selected CEIs can raise quota for ST, SC students

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/722349_Selected-CEIs-can-raise-quota-for-ST--SC-students

Selected CEIs can raise quota for ST, SC students

STAFF WRITER 15:24 HRS IST
New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Certain central educational institutions will
now be able to give reservation to more ST and SC students than what
is stipulated under law.

With the Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh today, clearing a proposal to amend the Central
Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, these
universities could get exemption from implementing 27 per cent quota
for OBCs in admission as required under the Act.

These universities, most of which are located in the North-East, will
be able to continue with 15 per cent reservation for STs even though
the CEI (Reservation in Admission) Act stipulates 7.5 per cent
reservation for them.

The Cabinet approved certain amendments to Sections 2,3,4 and 5 of the 2006 Act.

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[ZESTCaste] Scolded for rash driving, youths kill one

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Scolded-for-rash-driving-youths-kill-one-/articleshow/6056115.cms

Scolded for rash driving, youths kill one
TNN, Jun 17, 2010, 11.24pm IST

RAJKOT: A 52-year-old dalit man died after 14 people belonging to the
Rajput community beat two persons mercilessly in Katariya village near
Limbdi taluka in Surendranagar district on Wednesday night. Narsinh
Manga died while being taken to hospital, while Prakash Gohil, 26, is
still battling for life.

A complaint in this regard was registered at Panshina police station.
According to sources, Vijay Mahipat and Vikram Mahipat were passing by
the Dalitwas area in the village. They were allegedly driving rashly
following which some elders of the place, including Jetha Mavji
reprimanded them. The duo left without saying a word, but returned
later with dozen others and vandalised shops in the area.

Police officials said, the men were armed with axes, sticks, iron
pipes and other weapons. In the attack on the shops, Gohil and Manga
received severe injuries. Deputy superintendent of police G Bhagda is
investigating the matter.

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[ZESTCaste] No regrets, says accused in honour killing case

http://sify.com/news/no-regrets-says-accused-in-honour-killing-case-news-national-kgqrnyghejb.html

No regrets, says accused in honour killing case

2010-06-16 17:13:24
Last Updated: 2010-06-16 18:09:22


New Delhi: A day after two young lovers were tortured to death to
protect the family's 'honour' in Delhi, the alleged main perpetrator
of the crime was remorseless and defiant.

"I have no regrets... I would punish them all over again if given
another chance," said Omprakash Saini, uncle of the deceased girl.

Omprakash and the girl's father were arrested on Tuesday.

Girl's father, uncle held for honour killings in Delhi

Omprakash, who was produced before mediapersons at Ashok Vihar police
station, revealed his niece's lover, Yogesh Kumar, 21, was a Dalit
from the Jatav caste.

He claimed the Saini family had gone through ''difficult times'' due
to the ''illicit'' relationship. As for his niece Asha, he said it was
unethical for a ''woman to possess love for any other man after she
had been engaged to a Sonipat boy''.

Omprakash claimed he was sleeping on the ground floor while his niece
and wife were asleep on the roof.

"Around midnight, Asha insisted that her aunt to go to the downstairs.
As she gave no apparent reason, my wife came down and woke me up. I
went out to find that boy outside my house. Mera dimaag ghoom gaya (I
lost my mind). No gentleman comes to meet a friend at midnight...I
asked Asha's parents to come over," he said.

Honour killing takes place in Delhi

After the couple was caught by the girl's uncle, they were tortured.

"During interrogation, the accused said they flogged the couple and
stuffed cloth in their mouths to muffle their cries. They were, in all
probability, tied up before electric shocks were passed through their
hands and feet. The actual cause of death will be ascertained after we
receive the post-mortem report," said DCP (northwest) N S Bundela.

Asha, 19, and Yogesh, 21, were beaten with steel rods before being
electrocuted.

Besides Omprakash and Suresh Kumar Saini, Asha's father, a manhunt has
been launched for the girl's mother Maya, Omprakash's wife and son
Sanjeev, all of whom have gone into hiding.

Omprakash claimed societal norms dictated his actions.

"Yogesh, our next door neighbour at Gokalpuri, had no meaningful
employment and he belonged to a low caste. His friendship with my
niece was found out two months ago. We met his sister and it was
settled that he would discontinue the relationship. We decided to
marry off Asha in Sonipat to save our family honour," said the Sadar
Bazar-based trader.

Delhi couple found murdered, honour killing suspected

"However, my niece did not approve of our decision. My younger brother
(Asha's father) was apprehensive that if she continued to live in
Gokalpuri, it would be difficult for her to control her emotions.
Fifteen days ago, she came to stay with us,'' he added.


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[ZESTCaste] Bihar couple tracked down to Punjab, killed

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Bihar-couple-tracked-down-to-Punjab-killed/articleshow/6061448.cms

Bihar couple tracked down to Punjab, killed
I P Singh, TNN, Jun 18, 2010, 07.14am IST

MAHERU (PHAGWARA): A young couple from Bihar, on the run from their
homes for defying their families and marrying out of their caste, were
allegedly tracked down and killed in a farmhouse in Maheru.

The Punjab police on Thursday registered a case against the girl's
father, Arvind Sharma, charging him with murder. The police said they
would send a team to Bihar to look for Sharma.

The boy, Kamlesh (23), belonged to the Yadav caste while the girl,
Khushboo (20), was from a Brahmin family. Police sources say the
girl's father had allegedly threatened to kill them and they suspect
that it is a case of honour killing. Kamlesh belonged to Paharpur
village in Jehanabad district of Bihar and the girl was from a
neighbouring village.

They were killed in their sleep on the roof of a room in the field
where they worked for the last eight months. Other farm hands here,
who were acquainted with the couple, said Kamlesh and Khusboo
apprehended trouble and feared that they could be killed.
SSP Ram Singh said the victims' throats were slit and there was no
other sign of robbery, raising suspicion that it was honour killing.
He said the couple had a court marriage nearly three months back.


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[ZESTCaste] Caste rules

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Caste-rules/articleshow/6056389.cms

Caste rules
M B MARAMKAL, TNN, Jun 17, 2010, 10.20pm IST

MYSORE: Karl Marx seems to be right in dubbing religion as `the opium
of the people'. For, in India, every election has castes and
communities playing vital role in influencing the voters. And the
election to the legislative Council from the South Graduates
constituency scheduled for Monday is no exception. Despite the
candidates addressing the voters as an intellectual lot, they are
secretly trying to woo them on the basis of castes.

In a voters strength of 89,000, Vokkaligas dominate the list with the
numbers crossing 23,000. They are followed by SC and OBC voters with a
strength of about 15,000 each. Lingayats account about 13,000 and
Brahmins follow them with 10,000 voters.

However, in this multi-cornered contest, the real fight seems to be
between the BJP, JD(S) and Congress with couple of independents.
Though independents may not win the elections, they will definitely
eat away into the votes of other party candidates.

While the BJP has fielded G Madhusudan, a Brahmin and two-time winner
from this seat, the JD(S) has re-nominated sitting legislator K T
Srikantegowda, a Vokkaliga, to take on Congress' Javagal Manjunath, a
Lingayat.

Basically, the constituency is considered a strong hold of BJP and
JD(S), but the Congress is working overtime to prove that it has the
support of the educated class.

An added advantage for Congress candidate Manjunath is the presence of
large number of legislators and Parliament members in this
constituency, which comprises Mandya, Hassan, Mysore and Chamarjnagar
districts. All these leaders are trying to prick the conscience of
graduate voters by saying that unlike common voters, graduates have a
social responsibility to fulfill and it is their duty to mend the BJP
government.

On other hand, BJP leaders are trying to garner votes on the basis of
Yeddyurappa's performance. At the same time, they never forget to
puncture the spirit of JD(S) by saying the JD(S)' victory in 2004 was
by `default'. Now, the JD(S) is working overtime to consolidate the
support of Vokkaliga voters who outnumber the other community voters
individually. Whatever the strategies, the victory of a particular
candidate depends on the support of SC and OBC voters who constitute
1/3rd of the total voters.

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[ZESTCaste] Rising divorce rates, new tech options renew interest in same caste unions

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/16212401/Rising-divorce-rates-new-tech.html

Posted: Wed, Jun 16 2010. 9:45 PM IST
Economy and Politics

Rising divorce rates, new tech options renew interest in same caste unions

Families in India, abroad turn to matrimonial portals in the hope that
the community will thrive when children marry within the fold

Priyanka P. Narain

Mumbai: For six decades, like beacons of hope, Bollywood movies have
woven diaphanous dreams of a love so powerful that it knows no class,
caste or religion. Again and again, in countless songs, beautiful
looking actors and actresses have urged young lovers to overthrow all
shackles of social norms and rules.


"But real life is not like that," said Ketna Shukla, aunt of Tripti
Mishra, a Brahmin girl from Uttar Pradesh, who is searching for her
life partner on a matrimonial website. "Real life is about who you
will wake up with every day and whether you will be entitled to a life
whose rules, regulations and duties are familiar to you…giving a
daughter in marriage is not easy. Girls have to adjust to too many
things already. Tripti says she doesn't have anyone in mind and has
left the decision to us. If she had found someone, then it would be
different. But if we are going to look, we will want to make it easy
for her. Marrying within the caste will make it a little bit easy."

Hers is not a lone voice to argue that love, when nurtured in
familiarity, has a better chance of surviving. No studies have been
done to prove this theory, but it has many takers.

On Shaadi.com, a matrimonial website, about 83% of profiles have
listed their caste details and when the sub-caste option was activated
a few months ago, "more than 40% edited their profiles to specify
their sub-caste as well", said Valini D'souza, manager of corporate
communications for Shaadi.com portal.

Also Read previous stories in the series

Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of BharatMatrimony.com, an online
matrimonial forum that has at least two million profiles and special
interfaces that offer caste-based selection to 451 communities,
explained that many factors have conspired for a revival of interest
in caste-based marriages: the rising number of divorces, the
challenges of modern living, the impatience with differences and
unwillingness to change, and the tools of technology—telephones, the
Internet, jets and faxes—that expand choices and allow members to look
for spouses within their communities.

Step by step: Communities use different ways to help young people
choose their spouses from the same caste such as this matrimonial
gathering for Mudaliars.

And people are willing to use every technological option to ensure the
"right marriage" for their children.

For instance, when Shobha Mehta's son reached a "marriageable age" in
New York and asked her to find him a spouse, she sent word to her
relatives and friends in the old city of Jaipur, in Mumbai and Delhi.
For four months, she looked at "biodatas" of young girls of her
community on Shaadi.com, BharatMatrimony.com, exchanged emails,
juggled time zones and conversed with the parents over the phone
before flying out to meet the "short-listed" candidates. She never
looked at profiles outside her community.

And when she saw Shital, a shy, soft-spoken 19-year-old, she knew the
search had ended. "She had a gentleness to her. I just knew this was
it," said Mehta, fully aware that she had used every tool of modern
technology to find a match for her son in the oldest form of marriage.
"The children are happy. It is good that the Internet helped bring
them together. How does it matter how they came together, as long as
they stay married?" she asked.

It is this unsubstantiated fear—that divorce rates are rising because
of inter-caste marriages—that has led to a renewed interest in caste
marriages, said Janakiraman.

"It may or may not be true. But I don't want to take a chance," said
Balraj Oberoi, a 26-year-old Hindu Khatri from Hoshiarpur, who teaches
mechanical engineering for a living and is clear that he wants to
marry another Khatri. He refused to disclose the name of his college,
but said: "If I fall in love with someone, it's different. But if I
don't find someone like that, then I want to make sure that cultural
compatibility is there. After all, we want to live a peaceful life. If
the person comes from the same caste, you can take many things for
granted—lifestyle, culture, rituals, and customs—everything is the
same. Half the problems are solved. There are no nasty surprises
later."

Such as the one Pari, a Vaishnav Vania received when she married a
Punjabi man. "They had been dating each other for six years, when they
decided to tell their families," said Urvee Majmudar, a 25- year-old
first cousin of Pari, who is now looking for her own spouse on
Shaadi.com. "Both families agreed to the match and they got married.
After that, all the torture began. They are asking her to bring gold,
jewellery, cars, electronics and all sorts of things. They don't feed
her either—sometimes she comes to our home at night (on her way to her
job at a business process outsourcing firm) and eats with us. This is
in an educated family, in Mumbai, behaving like this. It makes me want
to cry. But seeing her, I have learnt my lesson. I am not seeing
anyone, but even if I was, I would not marry outside my caste. I just
don't want to risk being miserable in a strange way of living…"

Like her, young women, in India and abroad, say they are acutely aware
of the challenges of a social structure that is intensely patriarchal,
that already expects them to play many roles while juggling careers,
and that they simply do not want to make marriage any more challenging
than it needs to be. "Already, I am struggling with Indian and
American identities. There are different social expectations from me
inside my family and outside. Why on earth would I make it even more
complicated," asked 27-year-old Ashima Agrawal, a computer engineer in
Dallas, who says it would be nice to find an Agrawal man in the US.
"Then maybe we could relate to each other better, I think. Isn't it?"

This doubt gnaws at many second-generation immigrants, who struggle at
the time of marriage when they have to choose between identities:
marry a foreigner and drift away from the culture they came from or
marry an Indian chosen by their parents (mostly from the same
community) and become bound, ever more closely to their parents and
their way of life.

And to help these young people, caste-based organizations in the US,
the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe have "youth chapters" that
organizes galas, dances, dinners, picnics and parties, places where
young men and women of the same caste intermingle. "No one really
talks about it like that, but of course we hope it will lead to
marriages," said Harish Dhayal, chairman of the Association of Jats of
America.

Others, such as the Mahers, a warrior caste from southern Gujarat,
have set up a worldwide matrimonial portal for their community.

"From conversations in forums online, I noticed that young people lead
very busy lives and they don't have the time to meet like-minded
people in a traditional way. So, I decided to add a matrimonial option
to the Maheronline website," said Ram Odedra, a UK-based engineer, who
had created the website as a university project. The website has
around 4,000 profiles of Mahers, all of them looking to marry another
Maher. His website also helpfully details the "who can marry whom"
rules of the community, to ensure that Mahers do not inadvertently
marry the wrong Maher sub-caste.

There are many other communities like the Mahers —some set up
community portals online, some print magazines, some print newspapers,
some print directories and databases—and each word is a black thread
stitching together a community diaspora, here and there, in India and
the world. Candidly, community leaders admit that behind all the work
is a hope, the hope that the community will live when children marry
within its folds.

This is the fourth of a five-part series on the changing role of caste
in a globalized India.

Next: A guide to the contemporary meanings of caste

priyanka.p@livemint.com


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[ZESTCaste] The business of caste in India

 

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/14212328/The-business-of-caste-in-India.html

Posted: Mon, Jun 14 2010. 9:23 PM IST
Economy and Politics

The business of caste in India

Globalization has given new opportunities to some castes while it's
been less kind to others. But caste stays relevant as an economic
entity

Priyanka P. Narain & Pallavi Singh

Mumbai/New Delhi: Images of adventure reside in their collective
memory—journeys into the cobbled streets of Antwerp to compete with
powerful Hasidic Jew merchants for grubby stones, which, when polished
and cut, would sparkle and dazzle. The journey that transformed the
Palanpuri Jains from cloth and perfume traders into moguls of the
diamond empire was challenging: The language of Antwerp was strange to
their ears and its exotic meats forbidden to their vegetarian palates.
But during those days of mercantile entrepreneurship, this community
coped with challenges together and forged ties of kinship that "have
survived till today and have provided the basis on which we have built
this industry in India," says Rajiv Mehta, chief executive officer of
Dimexon Diamonds Ltd.

Far from the wealth and sparkle of Antwerp, for the community of Oriya
plumbers (mostly scheduled castes) living in the National Capital
Region, globalization has meant opportunities where there were none.
Hectic construction has created brand new suburbs of Gurgaon,
Ghaziabad and Noida, and helped Oriyas bring jobless kinsmen from home
villages, teach them the skills of the trade and offer them to a
construction industry that is booming around Delhi. Today, around 90%
of the city's plumbing business is run by Oriyas.

But to the Bunts of Karnataka—former warriors and landowners who
created the famous Udipi restaurant chains, established restaurants,
hotels and resorts—globalization has not been so kind. Raghu Shetty,
who set up the first catering business in Mumbai in the late 1970s,
says the community is unable to keep up with new Indian tastes. "The
culture of five-star weddings, glamorous family and business
events…and our job is not very rewarding. The children don't want to
run restaurants at street corners…you see all our old Udipis shutting
down. No one needs them any more."

These stories reflect the fact that there is no clear answer to the
question: How have community businesses adapted to India's growth in a
globalized world? There is little data to go by and anecdotal evidence
meanders in all directions.

Business legacy: Diamond merchant Pankaj Shah (wearing a garland)
leaving for his first trip to Antwerp in 1972. He had relatives in
Antwerp who ran brokerage firms through which he could buy the rough
diamonds he would select. Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint

But as the country debates the idea of a caste-based census and
policymakers grapple with the possible political ramifications of such
data-gathering, the relevance of caste as an economic entity remains
intact, says Tirthankar Roy, professor at the London School of
Economics and the author of Company of Kinsmen, a book that examines
how enterprise and entrepreneurial communities adapted to
globalization.

Claiming that economic cooperation was the basis of defining caste,
Roy says that "these (caste-based) groups are protecting access of
outsiders to assets—be it skills, people, capital…sometimes
successfully, sometimes not. They are guilds, rooted in blood, rather
than rules. The ties run so deep that if anyone breaks a business
rule, they can be excommunicated from the community."

And because of the efficiency of this economic model, many communities
have drawn inspiration from this idea over the ages, "and that is
unlikely to change. I see no reason why world markets would not help
caste-based community business to expand their business and strengthen
their ties. Of course, some communities will prosper, others may not.
For instance, the Marwaris—who had prospered in the last century as
the manufacturing community—did not do so well after. But I believe
the idea will endure," said Roy.

Also Read previous stories in the series

Diamonds are forever

Among the Palanpuris, diamonds have created a mutual dependence that
has not only endured but also thrived in a globalized world.

"Thirty years ago, when I was growing up, we were trained to think
that one day, we will also play with these shiny stones," says Mehta,
splaying imaginary diamonds on the table as he speaks. "You cannot
underestimate how much power that knowledge gives—you become a risk
taker, you are willing to put yourself out on a limb if it will expand
the business for your sons who are there with you. That kind of quick,
risky, urgent decision making can never happen in a corporate setup,"
explains Mehta.

Over the last 50 years, they have trained their sons in the art of
identifying diamonds among stones in the diamond bazaars of Antwerp.
Pankaj Shah, a diamond merchant, remembers his Antwerp trip of
1972—the time he began to choose rough diamonds that held most promise
of dazzling when polished.

"I was 20. My family thought it was time for me to learn. At that
time, relatives used to live in Antwerp and run brokerage firms. We
could select diamonds ourselves, but we could buy diamonds only
through a brokerage firm. So we stayed in homes of relatives. Since we
were Jains—there were no vegetarian restaurants in Antwerp at that
time—we ate in their homes. We simply selected the rough diamonds we
wanted to buy and the brokerage firm would complete the formalities
and export them to us." Those with no family lived in cheap,
hovel-like hotels, ate at common Jain kitchens and practised their
trade.

In an open world economy, Palanpuris have taken their business to
far-flung countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas and while "it's
hard to give exact figures in this industry, the Palanpuris have
retained 60-70% of the market…as long as the world needs diamonds and
succession remains intact, I think we will stay in the game," says
Mehta.

New opportunities

For the Oriyas, the last two decades have meant opportunity—to get a
job, to live in a city, to educate their children, to give them a
better life. Opportunities that they grabbed together, helping each
other along the way, each man pulling a few kinsmen out of a bleak
hole.

Like Niranjan Parida did.

On a January morning of 1993, a teenaged Parida boarded a Delhi-bound
train with a thousand rupees, without informing his family. He says he
ran away from his home to escape the purposelessness that had seeped
into his village, Ratnapur in Kendrapada district in Orissa, where the
only opportunity available was for daily wages. "That is not (what) I
wanted to do," says Parida.

His impulsive journey to the national Capital is not a lone migrant
story, but a chain of migrations of scheduled caste Oriyas who have
escaped the bleakness of Orissa's villages, curiously enough, for
plumbing jobs.

When Parida arrived, he knew no one and spoke little Hindi. He pounded
the streets for a job, slept on footpaths—till he happened to meet a
woman from his village. "Her husband was a contractor for plumbing
jobs in Delhi. She took me home and he trained me in plumbing," he
says.

Within months, he began to land contracts. Seventeen years later, thin
and blackened from working in the unforgiving Delhi sun, he makes
Rs10,000-12,000 per month. He also does what he insists people of his
community have traditionally done—bring people from the village for
plumbing jobs. "I brought almost a dozen people from my village here.
I train them and get them employed," he says.

But plumbing is not the only job that the community does. Chandrakant
Sahu, who speaks better Hindi than Parida, explains how the community
also helps Oriya kinsmen become electricians. When Sahu migrated to
Delhi from Orissa's Betali village, a relative got him a job at an
electrical shop. Now, "Parida suggests my name for electrical fittings
in the house where he is working. His good at his work, his
recommendation matters," he says, referring to a system where they try
to secure contracts for kinsmen. "We have a human network (that) helps
each other since we are emotional about our roots," he says.

Changing with the times

And yet, for the Bunts—who created the chain of Udipi restaurants,
took over the Irani tea houses, bought hotels, established catering
businesses, highway eateries and dhabas in the city to escape the
bleak poverty of their villages—the changing world has not heralded
similar good news, but nor has it broken the spirit of collaboration
among kinsmen.

For many reasons, the Shettys are finding it hard to stay afloat.
Jairam Shetty explains, "First, so many other communities—Gujaratis,
Marwaris and Punjabis—have come in and taken away our market. We could
not cater to all those tastes nor compete with the money they brought
in. Secondly, in the last few years, international hotels have come to
India. They serve international cuisines and tastes have changed.
Also, marriages have become very fancy. Finally, succession is a
problem since business isn't glamorous and the children do not want to
take over. We are just waiting until they are settled."

For those who built the business from the ground up, the change is
bitter-sweet. "We are happy that our children have more opportunity
than we did. That is what we wanted when we came to Mumbai. Our
community is still very strongly interconnected, only now we are
focusing on education and social issues. This business has brought us
so far—now it might be time to slowly move to better things as a
community together, supporting each other," says Raghu Shetty, owner
of Santosh Catering, and the uncrowned grandfather of the Bunts in
Mumbai.

Like many others, Shetty was a teenager when he left his ancestral
village near Mangalore for a better life in Mumbai. For 20 long years,
he worked in a little restaurant in Worli— washing dishes, cleaning
tables, then waiting at them and gradually, becoming a manager. "All
the while, I watched the chef. I learnt cooking, everything about it,
and when the time came, I started my own catering business in the
city," he says. Jairam Shetty, owner of Ajanta Caterers in Mumbai,
says: "This business is not very capital-intensive. We just needed a
supportive human network, and that we had."

That collaboration still exists, says 67-year-old Raghu Shetty. "We
want families of the community to do better with every generation. If
the catering work will not take us further, then it is time for us to
leave it behind and find another opportunity that will give our
children a better life," he smiles. "As long as the community supports
each other and stands as one, it will all be okay…"

This is the second of a five-part series on the changing role of caste
in a globalized India.

priyanka.p@livemint.com

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[ZESTCaste] THE CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS OF CASTE

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/17210457/THECONTEMPORARY-MEANINGS-OF-C.html?atype=tp

Posted: Fri, Jun 18 2010. 1:00 AM IST Published on page 4
Home

THE CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS OF CASTE

Satish Deshpande

People who read the pink papers are often perplexed by caste. There
are good reasons for this. An ancient, complex and adaptable
institution that continually discovers new sources of sustenance is
surely a worthy puzzle. But a more obvious reason for our bafflement
is that, for people like us, caste seems far from experience. It may
have been the homeland of our ancestors, but to us, it is just a
foreign country. Finally, in a moral climate where it is treated like
an embarrassing disease, we don't "get" caste because we don't want to
get it.

As a guide to the perplexed, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein offered a
robust rule of thumb: The meaning of a word, he said, is to be found
in its use. So one way to answer a question such as: What is caste in
21st century India? is to ask another: What does caste do in today's
world? The latter question has the virtue of bypassing definitional
debates and fast forwarding our encounter with the empirical world.
But as we set out on this voyage of discovery, we must remember that
we will mostly be meeting people who are, at first glance, very unlike
us.

In terms of its uses, caste today is at least four things: it is a
powerful idea; an important identity; a resilient form of community;
and a type of material resource or capital. Though these use-based
meanings of caste are closely related and sometimes morph into each
other, it is still helpful to think about them as being distinct.

As an idea, the heart of caste is hierarchy, which is itself defined
by notions of separateness and inequality. Caste is a relational thing
and it maps the world in terms of relations of graded inequality.
People must decipher this complex map and use it to locate themselves
in the world, and Indians internalize it effortlessly. The colloquial
Hindustani word aukaat best expresses the idea of caste; it is about
relative standing—about who is above or below us, and to what degree.

Unlike the abstract and mostly unspoken idea of aukaat, identity is an
explicit form of recognition, whether chosen, imposed or "found".
Caste remains an important form of contemporary identity and the most
visible arena in which it finds play is politics. However, one should
not be misled into thinking of "casteism" as having corrupted
politics. Caste identities long pre-existed modern politics; with the
coming of universal franchise, politics has entered caste to mobilize
its identities for electoral purposes. Given their relative numbers,
lower caste politics tends to be noisy and direct, while upper caste
politics is usually forced to be silent and devious.

Caste is also used to define community, or the boundaries and norms of
social intimacy that shape our personal lives. Caste as community is
most clearly present in the field of kinship and marriage. Caste
endogamy or marrying within one's caste is a remarkably resilient
practice as matrimonial advertisements continue to demonstrate even in
the age of the Internet. This sphere is crucial for the practices that
shape the structures of exclusion and inclusion so central to caste as
an institution. While some lines, such as those within the upper
castes, may have grown blurred, others— such as those separating
Dalits from all others—remain as sharp as ever, as shown by the
"honour killings" in recent years.

Last but far from least, caste is a crucial form of capital. Only
partially captured by the popular term "social capital", this aspect
of caste relates to the wide variety of skills, attitudes, knowledge
and networks that one acquires by virtue of membership in a
caste-community. The most visible form of this inheritance is, of
course, property of various kinds such as a lawyer or doctor's
practice or the good will accumulated by a neighbourhood shop. Because
these kinds of inheritances are mediated by the family, and because
they also have a class character, the caste element can often be
invisible.

Survey data show a puzzling gap in the levels of living across castes
even after the usual economic variables are controlled for. Within the
same occupations, at the same educational levels and in the same
geographical regions, there is often a 15-30% difference in per capita
consumption expenditure across caste groups. It is these differences
that caste-as-capital may help explain. Apart from intangible skills
or competences, an important element is the presumption of competence
or incompetence that attaches to individuals by virtue of their caste
membership and is, at least initially, quite independent of actual
ability.

These contemporary meanings of caste need to be contextualized in
terms of two further factors. The first has to do with the peculiar
history of caste as the only pervasive social institution that
independent India vowed to abolish. How precisely does one "abolish" a
way of life? Nehruvian India, led by well meaning upper caste leaders,
chose the path of caste-blindness, which meant constitutional
abolition of caste plus a ban on public discussion. This legal, oral
and moral ban remained formal—it was not accompanied by serious
attempts to abolish the substantive privileges and disprivileges of
caste. Caste inequalities continued unchecked and even worsened in
some spheres, while the rhetoric of a casteless society lost all
credibility and was rightly denounced as a fraud.

The second factor is a direct outcome of the first; this is the
widespread belief among the most privileged sections of the upper
castes that they have no caste. By the third generation, privileged
upper castes nurtured in a caste-blind society found that their caste
was a ladder they could safely kick away since it had already done
everything that it could for them. One of the crowning ironies of 21st
century India is that claims of being casteless are today the
unmistakable signs of an upper caste identity.

The author teaches Sociology in Delhi University.

This is the last of a five-part series on the changing role of caste
in a globalized India.

To read the stories in the series, go to www.livemint.com/caste


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[ZESTCaste] More seats for SC, ST students at central universities

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/More-seats-for-SC-ST-students-at-central-universities/articleshow/6060923.cms

More seats for SC, ST students at central universities
18 Jun 2010, 0301 hrs IST,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The government has cleared amendments to Central Education
Institutions (reservations in admission) Act, 2006 that will allow
certain
central educational institutions to give higher reservation to SC and
ST students than what is stipulated under law.

As per the clearance given by the cabinet on Thursday, these
universities could also get exemption from implementing 27% quota for
OBCs in admission as required under the Act and instead give higher
reservation to SC and ST students.

These universities, most of which are located in the North-East, will
be able to continue with 15% reservation for STs even though the CEI
Act stipulates 7.5% reservation for them. The CEI (Amendment) Bill
2010 will be introduced in the coming session of Parliament,
information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said.

In another decision, the cabinet allowed the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) to start an academy that will enable it
to award post-graduate and doctoral degrees from this year.

The CSIR will set up an Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research
(AcSIR). Currently, scientists pursuing research in any of the 37
laboratories of CSIR across the country have to register themselves at
different universities.

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