Identity, Indian politics and caste census
Submitted by admin4 on 16 May 2010 - 10:57am.
By Asghar Ali Engineer,
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured the parliament that
caste will be included in the current census. This was after Yadav
leaders and OBC members of Parliament raised the issue and there was
heated debate. The question arises why is it or is not necessary to
include caste in counting people of India. Apart from caste even
religion has not been included which also raises doubts in the minds
of minorities. Maulana Madani, a Muslim leader and Rajya Sabha member
has threatened to launch an agitation if column of religion is not
included in the census form.
These are controversial issues. Some people feel why one should
include these caste and religion columns at all while counting people
of India. These are divisive categories and people should be counted
only as Indians. However, since there is reservation for Scheduled
Castes and Tribes only these two columns should be included. The last
caste census had taken place in 1931 during the British period.
In independent India the Constitution abolished caste and hence caste
as a category was not included in subsequent censuses. The question of
caste again became important when the recommendations of Mandal
Commission were implemented in 1990 by V.P.Singh Government. The exact
number of OBC was disputed. The Mandal Commission arrived at 52 per
cent figure for OBC through interpolation of 1931 data and the Supreme
Court also, in one of its judgments, had expressed its doubts about
Mandal Commission's figure of 52% in the absence of counting.
First let us throw some light on the need for counting or not counting
on the basis of caste. It is true caste is an anathema in a secular
democracy and must be abolished and our constitution rightly abolished
it. But what is reality? India is highly stratified, multi-layered,
multi-cultural and multi-religious society. This stark reality faces
us all in the society. The stratification has not diminished even a
wee bit. On the contrary it has been intensified several folds.
Inter-caste marriages lead to brutal murder, of all the people by
parents themselves or other members of the family. Even today, many
dalits cannot fetch water from village well; a low caste person cannot
contest post of Sarpanch and is murdered, if he does. For upper caste,
caste is not only an identity, it is a great prestige. This sense of
prestige increases if economic disparities increase, low caste people
continuously going down the scale.
Also, all our elections are fought on the basis of caste and communal
identities and castes and sub-castes come into play for political
aspirants. Tickets are given not on merit but on the basis of these
identities. Even those who were not aware of their sub-castes are
demanding their share on that basis. The case of Gujjars in Rajasthan
is a case in point. The Gujjars launched a prolonged agitation for
reservation in government jobs in which more than 40 persons lost
their lives and there was violence between Minas and Gujjars as Minas
with their tribal status were getting more jobs.
We are going to live with increasing stratification for a long time to
come. We can hide our head like ostrich in the sand of unrealistic
ideas or ideals we violate on every step. Our very culture is caste
culture and it is being reinforced by our ethos, our status symbols
and above all our politics. Despite our constitution having abolished
caste, in last sixty years no government can boast of a single
concrete step to mitigate, let alone abolish caste. And implementation
of Mandal Commission, tough a right step in the given political
condition, further enhanced the importance of caste in Indian
politics.
In view of all this not to count caste would indeed be defying our
socio-political reality. It would also help to find out exact number
of OBCs though by no means it is an easy task. The Census Commission
Report, reproduced by Indian Express in its Mumbai edition of May 9,
2010 shows, was quite a messy affair. Besides other factors, the
status of castes vary from region to region. But nevertheless counting
has to be done.
If it is indeed 52% or more, as being claimed, the 50% moratorium on
reservation in government jobs, presently imposed by the Supreme
Court, may have to be revised upward as in some of the southern states
where reservation for various caste categories has reached 69 per
cent. Not counting caste would be not only unrealistic but would
result in ever mounting problems.
The political culture of our society is leading to more and more
social contradictions. On one hand, we aspire to become egalitarian
society and the caste cultured negates this very aspiration. And what
is ironical we cannot become egalitarian without the help of this very
caste culture, at least in economic sense. In order to pull the
backward castes up we must know their numbers thereby reinforcing
caste identity.
Thus we are in this bind: we must do away with caste system to create
egalitarian society and our caste ethos and caste culture requires
that we count caste to do justice to them in terms of government jobs
thereby reducing economic gaps and fulfilling aspirations of backward
castes. There is hardly a way out. Thus caste will continue to play
contradictory role in our society for quite some time to come. Our
caste culture is so deep rooted that even an egalitarian society
cannot be created without its help although caste leads to
in-egalitarian social structure.
Counting Religion
Similarly there is another sensitive question of introducing column
for religion for which religious minorities, especially Muslims, are
demanding. Today of course there is no religion-based reservations at
all and the Constitution does not provide religion-based reservations
either. Constitution has given this concession only to Sikhs and
Neo-Buddhists who are supposed to be offshoots of Hinduism.
However, Justice Rangnath Commission Report which was submitted
subsequent to Justice Sachar Committee Report has recommended 10 per
cent reservation for religious minorities especially for Muslims and
some political leaders are demanding implementation of Justice
Rangnath Commission Report. Of course this is highly sensitive matter
and the Congress Government is highly hesitant to implement the
Rangnath Commission Report. Not only that it is even hesitant to table
it in Parliament.
Thus today since there are no religion-based reservations one does not
feel need to introduce religion column in the census but if it is also
introduced it will be much better. With greater democratization and
increased awareness minorities will agitate for conceding religious
based reservations and then there will be need for knowing exact
numbers of religious minorities as we need to know today exact number
of OBCs.
In a multi-religious and multi-cultural societies number of
contradictions are emerging including in western countries which are
also becoming increasingly multi-religious and multi-cultural. Western
democracy is essentially based on individual rights and this can work
very well, if the society is homogenous or monolithic, but it creates
serious contradictions if it is multi-cultural society.
In India we always had highly diverse and highly stratified society
and so paid heavy price through partition as the two communities could
not come to agreed arrangement for power distribution and now in
post-independence period new contradictions are emerging which were
suppressed (except in case of dalits which was solved through
reservation) as religion became principal contradiction at the time of
partition.
In western society as it is becoming multi-cultural due to immigration
from various former colonies new political as well as social problems
are emerging and political tensions contradictions causing grave
problems. In western concept of democracy voting right is strictly
individual but in multi-cultural society it becomes both individual as
well as communitarian.
An individual remains conscious of the religious or caste community
one belongs to and his/her voting is affected by considerations of
his/her community, justices or injustices done to it and this bring
pressure on the system. Also, since democracy supposedly is imbued
with egalitarian ethos and communitarian inequalities militate against
this egalitarian ethos, these contradictions often becomes explosive.
In a way, one must accept the fact that India, with its bewildering
diversity has been able to manage these contradictions more smoothly
than many other countries and many countries take India as a model in
this respect. However, this is not to say that there are no serious
problems of governance. There are and thus challenges of caste and
communal identities are to be taken more seriously.
These identities will continue to play contradictory roles both
regressive as well as progressive and would not fit into any neat
logic as many of us expect. Contradictions would remain very much with
us for long time to come. The socio-cultural complex that we have
inherited is very much part of our psyche and would continue to
influence our political behaviour along with our socio-cultural
behaviour.
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