Understanding Existential Castes Through Atrocity Metrics
By Anand Teltumbde
14 November, 2009
Countercurrents.org
I make following five propositions:
• The classical caste system depicted by the four varna structure is
almost dead in India .
• The existent caste system in India is concentrated at the lowest
edge of the caste framework marking the division of caste and
non-caste people.
• While in urban areas the caste system operates as a system of
premium and discounts, its most insidious expression in the vast
countryside is caste atrocities.
• Caste atrocities are the best proxy measure of the operational
casteism and provide meaningful metrics to understand its contemporary
form and content. Ending them would effectively end the remaining
castes.
• Any attempt to present castes in a more complex manner amounts to
obfuscate their essential feature and only serves the interests of the
ruling classes.
Despite huge scholarly interest in castes since colonial times and
long history of anti-caste struggle, the discourse on caste still runs
in a stereotypical manner, taking them as amorphous continuum of
hierarchy, which is sourced from the Hindu dharmashastras. There is a
kind of romantic delight in amplifying the prowess of this vile
institution as defying the expectations of many, including the likes
of Marx, who expected that it would crumble under the onslaught of
capitalism and the forces of modernity.
The problem with this kind of understanding of castes is that it is
utterly useless in dealing with them excepting perhaps for academic
accomplishments and political opportunism. Firstly, such an amorphous
continuum is not amenable to break into the neat contending camps with
antagonistic contradictions, the resolution of which could be termed
as resolution of caste issue. Secondly, since this continuum is
supposed to exist with the religious authority of Hinduism, one is
misled to infer that unless Hinduism is destroyed, castes may not be
annihilated. Thirdly, the continuum, with its inevitable fluidity in
holding innumerable castes in hierarchy entails endless contention
between them and imparts it a kind of self-regulative perpetuity. And
fourthly, in dealing with them it impels people towards directionless
'social engineering' rather than aiming at revolutionary change that
this kind of deep rooted venom requires.
Castes are essentially hierarchy-seeking and hence pervasively
divisive. They cut across classes, tend to germinate reactionary
consciousness and hence cannot be used for articulating any radical
struggle. It is not to say that the caste struggles that have taken
place during the last century did not have radical content. They
indeed were waged with radical vision and even accomplished a
significant change in the lives of India 's shudras and ati-shudras,
the worst victims of castes. However, down the line, they entailed
rejuvenation of caste consciousness and enlivening of caste
identities, totally antithetical development as far as their avowed
objective of annihilation of castes was concerned.
In my analysis the main reason for this paradoxical result lay in
their lack of grasp of the essence of castes to begin with and the
failure to keep pace with their subsequent developments.
If we see through the brief history of encounters with castes, we get
varied conceptions of castes depending upon the intent of the definer:
Colonial rulers saw castes with their divisive potential and promoted
their conceptualisation in a manner in which India appeared sans civil
society and as a bunch of communities warring among themselves.
Towards this object, they built up huge information base through
district gazetteers from 1869, decennial census from 1871, provincial
statistics (1875) and encyclopaedic castes and tribes survey (1891)
that reinforced divisive consciousness among people. Anti-Brahmin
movement took castes as the contrivance of the outsider Aryan
conquerors, the ancestors of the present day Brahmans, for enslaving
native people and therefore targeted Brahmins and sought to discard
their customs and traditions. Dalit movement, particularly under Dr.
Ambedkar, while rejecting the racial theory of castes propounded by
the non-Brahmin movement and identifying the enemy in Brahmanism,
distinct from Brahman caste, along with capitalism as the contemporary
exploitative system, however came to the conclusion with regard to
castes that they were an integral part of the Hindu religio-cultural
structure and proposed renouncement of Hinduism to escape the caste
bondage. For the Communists castes were just a feudal relic, a part of
the superstructure, which would automatically vanish when the economic
base is changed through revolution. The contemporary Bahujanwadis (and
its offshoots such as Mulanivasis) look at castes as an asset to
mobilise the oppressed masses into a constituency of 85% to vanquish
the 15% upper castes.
All of these conceptualizations reflect varied degree of theoretical
confusion and miss out the essential character of castes. As a result,
while the non-brahmin movement and Dalit movement succeeded in some
degree in challenging the upper caste rule and alleviating caste
sufferings of the oppressed castes, they could not eliminate them
altogether. Castes have not only survived but have also grown in their
oppressive content.
Contrary to commonplace notion castes have been changing all through
history. One can easily note momentous changes in them during colonial
period, brought about by the imperatives of colonial rule. The
socio-cultural milieu of pre-colonial India principally shaped by the
family and kinship institutions that conditioned minds with a
religious and caste identity was severally impacted by the influx of
western liberalism, colonial culture and ideology. The early reforms
initiated by Warren Hastings, who was sent as the first governor
general of India by the British Crown in terms of Regulating Act of
1773, such as instituting private ownership of land and codification
of Hindu and Muslim laws according to their respective scriptures, had
vastly strengthened the upper castes. Integration of India into a
single politico-administrative unit and consequently institution of a
civil service, army, judiciary, etc. variously impacted the
socio-economic structure of the Indian society. Implementation of
uniform criminal law significantly weakened the caste panchayats.
Besides these and such other administrative changes, the advent of
capitalism during colonial times wrought significant changes in the
caste system.
It is true that unlike Europe capitalism in India did not have to
contend with feudalism; rather it saw feudalism as an important ally
in its supply chain. What however should be noted is that the upper
castes, mainly banias and Brahmins, from which the early capitalist
class (entrepreneurs and managers) emerged, largely lost the ritual
sense of hierarchy among them, which was characteristic of castes. The
capitalist culture certainly had a debilitating impact on the caste
culture and traditions of these communities leading to obliteration of
ritual notion of caste and promotion of social osmosis among them. The
capitalist class comprising entrepreneurs and managers belonging to
banias and Brahmins, and other business communities like Parsis,
Khojas and Bohras, largely overcome the classical caste hierarchy and
came closer as a class. They would however promote caste divide among
the lower castes, to keep their feudal allies in supply chain pleased
and to discipline the working class in their own establishments with
its fatalistic ideology and divisive ethos.
After independence, the bourgeois landlord state that came into being
in India adopted the modernist constitution. The constitution created
an elaborate structure of protective and development measures for the
dalits and tribals, the people technically outside the purview of the
caste system. The state settled for modernization because the feudal
classes also saw prospects for their advancement through it. The
Nehruvian modernist Project, significantly comprising Land Reforms and
Green Revolution, immensely enriched the traditional farming shudra
castes firstly by making them owners of land and thereafter bringing
them huge productivity gains. The erstwhile upper caste landlords
shifted to the urban areas leaving the villages under the lordship of
the shudra rich farmers. With their economic empowerment coupled with
their numerical strength achieved by consolidating all the middle-band
shudra castes, they soon became an important element in the political
sphere.
In the context of castes, Green Revolution brought in capitalist
relations in the countryside through development of cash economy and
markets for agricultural inputs/ outputs and credit. On the positive
side for dalits, it broke the backbone of the balutedari system but on
the negative side, it abolished many of their traditional vocations.
Without any alternative means of livelihood, the dalits were
increasingly pushed to work on the shudra farms as landless labourers.
In absence of the traditional upper castes in villages, the baton of
Brahmanism was wielded by the neo-rich shudra castes sans cultural
sophistry of the former. They expected dalits to pay them obeisance as
they did to the upper castes in yesteryears. However, the
consciousness gained by dalits through their movement conflicted with
this expectation and contributed to building up grudge against them,
which could precipitate into atrocity with slightest provocation.
The shudra castes today dominate the political establishment of the
entire country and are fast coming up in entreneurship too. Although
the vaishyas and Brahmins may be very visible as leading the
capitalist establishment because of their first movers' advantage, the
shudra castes are fast catching up. The Gounders in Tamilnadu, a
traditional farming caste, creating a world's biggest knitwear
industry in Thirupur or the Nadars dominating the fire cracker
industry in Shivkasi and dominating the transportation industry, or
Marathas in Maharashtra controlling the sugar cooperatives and
education sectors or Patels in Gujarat becoming big businessmen and
industrialists are just a few examples. With their advancement in the
economic and political scale the ritual status of the shudra castes as
a classical inferior caste group has almost vanished.
The rise of the shudras has led to the emergence of regional political
parties by 1970s, which made politics fiercely competitive and
impelled parties to increasingly make use of caste and communal
identities. It culminated into formation of the first coalition
government at the centre in 1977 which changed the complexion of
politics permanently thereafter. The very discourse on backwardness of
the backward castes, reflected by Mandal Commission also is a product
of this process. This discourse could be clearly seen as responsible
for opening the floodgates of caste identities in the name of
backwardness. It is not that there are no poor or backwards among the
shudras. India where 78 percent people subside on the earning of about
40 cents a day and suffer various deprivations is naturally fraught
only with poor and backward people strewn across the castes and
communities. Caste however is not about secular poverty and
backwardness; it is about the socio-cultural, quasi-racial prejudice
against certain people.
Thus, there is no socio-cultural prejudice among the castes within the
formal caste system. If there is not enough intercaste transaction
among them, it is partly because of the cultural drag and partly for
the class difference. The caste prejudice however exists only against
dalits. The existent caste system therefore reduces to the divide
between dalits and non-dalits. While it is pervasively experienced by
dalits, its most menacing manifestation is seen in the form of
atrocities on dalits in rural areas.
The empowerment of the shudra castes and relative disempowerment of
dalits in countryside coupled with the latter's cultural assertion has
been responsible for caste clashes and caste atrocities. While dalits
were always wronged, the phenomenon of caste atrocities could be
marked by the increased power asymmetry between dalits and shudras in
villages by the late 1960s. O ne of the first grave atrocities took
place on 25 December 1968 in Keezhavenmani in old Thanjavur district
in which 44 dalits, mostly women and children were massacred by the
landlords and their henchmen. It was followed by spate of atrocities
all over the country. Initially, as even in Keezhavenmani, the
atrocities came as a consequence of class struggle waged by the
communist parties, firstly the parliamentary parties and later the
naxalites. After Keezhavenmani, it was Purnia in Bihar which saw the
first caste massacre in 1969. Then there were spate of killings all
over Bihar over three decades. It only stopped when Dalits began to
retaliate with the help of naxalites by the late 1990s.
Atrocities mirror the intricacies of social dynamics vis-à-vis caste.
As for instance there has been a qualitative difference between
atrocities earlier and now. Earlier, atrocities were committed as a
routine with an assumption of absolute right over Dalits, with no
sense of wrongdoing. Now atrocities are committed with a sense of loss
of that right, with a sense of being wronged. Earlier, atrocities were
committed in arrogance as Dalits would not speak out; now they are
committed in vengeance against Dalit assertion. Earlier, atrocities
were the manifestation of contempt for Dalits, today they are the
manifestation of resentment against the privileges Dalits get from the
state.
There has also been a difference between the nature of atrocities
earlier and now. Earlier, they were committed as an integrated part of
the interaction between Dalits and non-Dalits and hence tended to be
casual, more of humiliating in nature than of physically damaging.
Today, they are far more violent and are in nature of vengeance or
punishment. They are therefore not only humiliating but also
physically destructive; far more brutal than before. Earlier,
atrocities were mostly committed by individuals, in a huff of rage.
Now they are committed collectively, somewhat in a planned manner, in
a mode of demonstrative justice; teaching a lesson to the entire
community. The increasing number of atrocities against Dalits in
recent years has been alarming enough but this change in their
intensity also is noteworthy.
Atrocities, data on which incidentally are maintained by the
government, can serve as the best proxy measure for the existent
casteism. The intensity of atrocities, the area in which they take
place, their frequency, their time series growth and even the data on
the subsequent process of justice delivery system provide good metrics
to understand castes and caste dynamics and for strategizing combat
against them. Many a myth gets exploded in their wake. For instance,
the myth that only the upper (brahmanical) castes are the oppressor of
dalits and in corollary the shudra (backward) castes are their allies;
the myth that economic development dampen castes, the myth that the
caste atrocities are the correlate of feudal economy, the myth of
representation logic dearly upheld by Dalits that if their caste-men
are represented in administration, the latter would take care of their
interests; the myth that atrocities are committed only on the weakest
of dalits, the myth that there exists a vibrant anti-caste Dalit
movement that is vigilant about the dalit interests, the myth that the
formal political opposition represents contradiction among the ruling
classes (castes) and which helps dalits in fighting their oppression,
the myth that political action of dalits is leader-centric, the myth
about the independence of judiciary and impartial media; the myth that
there exists a sizable progressive civil society, which is against
casteism and the greatest myth of state being the friend of Dalits or
at least impartial mediator between Dalits and others, had all
crumbled at Khairlanji, as variously in other atrocity cases. It held
out mirror before us and showed us what needs to be done. All
atrocities unambiguously exposed that casteism is no more confined to
civil society; it is well supported by the state apparatus, implying
thereby that the anti-caste forces necessarily have to deal with the
state too.
Given the obscure origins and the resilience of the caste system, the
viable strategy for combating caste could be seen in curbing its
manifestation. In contemporary times, atrocities being the most
dominant manifestation of castes, the strategic focus should be to
arrest atrocities. As seen before, the root cause for atrocities is
the growing power asymmetry between dalits and non-dalits in villages.
It may be interesting to recall that more than seven decades ago Dr.
Ambedkar, while explaining the rationale behind his declaration to
renounce Hinduism to his vanguard activists in 1936 had exclusively
focused on the issue of atrocities and diagnosed exactly the same
thing. He proposed the solution in terms of supplementing
dalit-strength by merging dalit community with some existing religious
community through mass conversion. Although his religious conversion
in 1956 did not confirm to this prescription, the futility of
communitarian solution or religious conversion is not difficult to
see. In the then communally charged atmosphere, it might have been
thinkable to speak in terms of communitarian solution, but today when
the classes have sprouted out of the bellies of each caste, they would
be utterly useless. The power asymmetry between dalits and non-dalits
can be effectively overcome only by their class unity with others,
transcending the caste idiom. While it may appear as the distant dream
to many today for historical and other reasons, it is the only
effective solution to the caste problem worth pursuing. The initiative
in this respect shall have to be taken by the Left forces. The
beginning can always be made if they join dalits with ideological
clarity in retaliating atrocities. As the experience in Tsunduru and
the Gaya-Aurangabad belt indicated, retaliation is the only effective
way of curbing the atrocities and in turn castes. The shockwave
created through it can not only deter the perpetrators of crime but
also detach the oppressed masses of the shudra castes from them. The
same can also impel desired cultural change and accelerate class unity
of the oppressed masses across castes.
Contrary to commonplace view, the problem of castes has become much
simpler today than ever before. The existential castes are confined to
a divide between dalits and non-dalits, quite like the racial divide
between blacks and white or the class division between capitalists and
proletariat. No time in history, castes rendered themselves as easy
for combating against as they do now. The historical project of
annihilation of castes is accomplishable now, provided the forces
swearing by it are ready to act.
Dr. Anand Teltumbde is a Mumbai based human rights activist and writer
on the issues related to peoples' movement.
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