FOCUS
Census 2011 & the Caste Cauldron
Census in India is a stupendous task. Lakhs of enumerators filling millions forms with dozens of columns is no mean task. India’s census discontinued collecting data on castes since the 1931 census. But now under pressure from some quarters the government is having second thoughts on putting the wheels back to 1931. In all likelihood, one of the columns in those millions of forms will seek your caste. Strange while all political parties and every progressive section of our society agrees that caste divides our society, every politician in our country, cutting across party line, some way or other, supports the idea of enumerating caste.
The arguments in favour of that exercise are while so many of the programmes of the government are based on backwardness of some or the other castes, how can the benefits of those programmes be delivered on the basis of data going back to 1931. How can affirmative action be effective unless the data is up-to-date? Has not the Mandal Commission Report played havoc since it had depended on ante deluvian census information for arriving at its conclusions?
The census provides an opportunity to bring the information up-to-date. Census is a very important exercise for any country, more so for India with our sprawling anti-poverty programmes and philosophy of inclusive development. If development has to be inclusive, we need to know who are excluded. And, that is the crux of the problem. Apparently, the arguement has merit.
India’s founding fathers had the vision of a seamless India, not an India divided at various levels by castes – what Louis Dumont called homo hierarchicus. They saw merit in providing special provisions in the Constitution for the erstwhile untouchables, now called the scheduled castes and the tribals, now called the scheduled tribes. Even these provisions were to continue only for limited period. Expediency of vote-bank politics undid the founding fathers’ dreams. The special provisions of the Constitution continue. In additions taking advantage of different provisions of the Constitution each state government has been making special provisions for other castes – the backward castes. The caste virus has made our body politic decapitating sick! Caste is getting more entrenched – we have caste hostels, caste cultural bodies, caste associations and newsletters – indeed, the country is a caste cauldron!
The honour of being the villain d piece in independent India’s politics of caste indisputably goes to the Raja of Manda. V P Singh forced the Mandal Commission Report on a politically turbulent India with the narrow agenda of stemming the opposition from his detractors in his own coalition.
A limited provision for reservation for the most downtrodden, the SC and ST was allowed to perpetuate, adding in the process a number of castes as backward. Political parties of all hues, not just the Congress, but also BJP, JD, SP, RJD etc, have influenced the course of perpetuity of this caste based reservation in education and in government jobs. This craving by the political parties for reservation has not stopped at castes alone, now it is threatening to include religion based reservation as well.
Neither genuine affirmative action nor commitment to serious inclusive development drives the politicians to larger reservations. The degeneration of our system to sectarianism and vote-bank politics is taking the country down the road to this malady. Indeed, post-Mandal, caste is the ruling currency of political business in India. Now, the political parties smell an opportunity in the census, and here they are making common cause for inclusion of caste in the enumeration.
The lack of clarity about caste names, and the eagerness of some political alliances like the Yadav trio to enlarge their footprint through the instrument of caste will add further confusion. Classification of backward castes is not uniform across states. What may be a backward caste in Maharashtra may not be so in Karnataka. Therefore, will this enumeration be the precursor of pan-indianisation of backwardness? That may help the Yadav trio to stamp around the country with their brand of politics; but will it help development – inclusive or otherwise?
The insistence of the Yadav trio that OBC population has increased hugely since 1931, and therefore the Census 2011 must include caste, has found approval from across the political spectrum. The last caste based Census took place in 1931, by the then British rulers, probably to promote their well orchestrated policy of divide and rule. But in free India, it is the political compulsion to protect caste-ridden turfs of each political party that foments this demand, and it may as well be sustained. The culmination of this was the appointment of Mandal Commission, which in turn led to what we see today - the politics of reservation.
The stated objective of reservation has been the empowerment of the marginalised sections of our society. In reality it has only served to divide the society. Reservation did bring about empowerment to some extent. But those who benefited from the policy by and large promoted the interest of their own families. Look at Jagjeevan Ram and his family, or Lalu Prasad and family or Mulayam Singh and his family. Yes they have also promoted the interest of their friends and cronies. Yes there are thousands of such well off families who milked the reservation cow. The Supreme Court called them the creamy layer. As they moved up the social ladder they did not help their fellow caste men and women whose socio-economic reach was not long. If only those who enriched and empowered themselves had taken up the visionary leadership of their communities to promote its socio-educational and economic betterment, the continued saga of reservation for all these 60 years would not have been there.
This counting of heads on the basis of caste is highly regressive purely on human development terms. Reservation debases the individual who benefits from it by making him feel that he did not really deserve what he got. It nurtures a sense of deprivation. Should not the children of these castes enabled and empowered to secure employment on their own merit and not courtesy reservation? Is not getting something by merit that brings dignity to them? Should not our policies directed at creating that merit amongst them?
But creating merit, capacity building and enabling the young of these castes to get whatever they should get by their own merit and right does not offer the political meat. This lack of political meat is, indeed, the impediment for a truly beneficial policy, and consequently to the overall growth of this country. Affirmative action steals the dignity from the ‘beneficiary’, dwarfs them in their own eyes, divides society, and drives the country to live in the past. The way forward is to provide the infrastructure and motivation to those who belong to these castes to use that infrastructure, enable them to earn merit, ensure that they secure employment on their own merit and make them look really tall. Indeed, that is a tall order to the political pigmies of today.
Writing for IPA service, columnist Amulya Ganguli says "Sonia Gandhi’s honeymoon with the middle class may be coming to an end. The reason for the break is her decision to persuade the government to include caste in the Census enumeration. In a fatal moment of recklessness, she has shown that her intention is not to consolidate India’s place in the 21st century, but to take it back to an earlier age".
If the stand of the premier political party is so brazen, what can we talk of other opportunistic political Lilliputians?
Caste has long been the bane of India’s majority community. From Swami Vivekananda, to Rajaram Mohan Roy to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, all tried to eradicate this malaise. If many from this community have converted to Christianity, Islam or other religions, it is only because of caste humiliation. But politicians, starting with Congress itself, lent credibility to this pernicious practice by endorsing it for political and electoral gains. The unambiguous decision of the party leadership to persuade the government to include caste in Census enumeration has only added to the murky scene of retaining caste as a vote bank for a long time to come.
The clamour by the Yadav trio and the throw of the white towel by the Congress leadership shall surely give fillip to the illiterate and crude Khap Panchayats. These panchayats are trying to emerge as a law unto themselves, especially the Haryana types. They have made a virtue of killing young couples that dare to marry out of caste or within the same sub-caste. The state government has only thrown its blind eye to this barbarity. When the Jats of Haryana burnt down the entire Dalit colony in Mirchipur village, Rahul Gandhi visited the spot, and Sonia Gandhi reportedly admonished the state Chief Minister. Nothing really happened. On the contrary, now you have this educated, urbane MP, young Navin Jindal of the Congress, who had the temerity to announce that they would seek an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to give effect to the ‘Khap Chaap’. This was pure and simple vote bank politics.
Of course, in the census of India, there is a social relevance of collecting caste data. Kalyani Shankar, a columnist asks "Is there a need to resume caste based Census or will it result in more social conflicts and disorder? Will counting of castes help in the reduction of inequality? Will it be diversity in unity or unity in diversity?" Yes, these questions can be answered only after the collection of data which can be humongous by any standard.
The demand for a caste based Census came reportedly from the Backward Classes Commission to identify OBCs. Besides, the social Justice Ministry too had reportedly initiated such a move. Now, the Women’s Reservation Bill, if it has to have a quota within quota, caste enumeration shall be the only basis. Sociologists would want these details for the study of social order and its evolution over a period. Another important aspect of the need for caste data is its utility in case there is any upward revision of reservation of 50% limit. It is claimed that an authentic OBC list would go a long way in making the court see the point, should the government think on those lines. In fact that is the objective of the Yadav trio to force the government’s hands in including caste details in the enumeration.
However, it is important to remember that after independence, our founding fathers were in favour of building a casteless society. They were men of vision. They had a vision of an egalitarian society. Then there were no Lalu Prasads, or Mulayam Singh Yadavs or their ilk. India’s first Home Minister Sardar Patel was totally against any such caste based Census, so was Pandit Nehru. Caste categorisation defies uniform definition, except what the Constitution refers to as "socially and educationally backward classes." It is claimed by the opponents of caste factor that during the last 6 decades, some castes have changed and some others have merged and new ones have emerged. The government was naturally reluctant to add caste to enumeration. The logistics of caste enumeration will be daunting. Home Minister Chidambaram too argued about the hugeness of the task and its equally disproportionate utility. With over 6000 castes and sub-castes, it would be nightmarish for enumerators to collect and collate the data, it was argued. To add to these difficulties, there could be misreporting and misrepresenting caste details to gain some possible benefits.
Now that the government has agreed to the inclusion of caste in Census 2011, for its own political compulsions, what happens when it is completed and compiled is anybody’s guess.
But, as Kalyani Shankar Says, "One thing is certain. It is bound to unleash new forces. New leaders may emerge and new equation may be established. Some caste may develop new assertiveness. The short comment is that the political parties are confusing the issue. Census is a great demographic exercise, which should not be confused with the social order". "Whether the collection of caste data will be socially divisive or help in the quest for equality is still debatable. More thoughts need to be given on how to use the data. The grounds on which Sardar Patel had scrapped such an exercise holds good even to-day… Clearly we need to go beyond castes, quotas and vote banks and look for a casteless society as it was the dreams of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru" she added.
I & C Feature
with inputs from V. K. Talithaya
Census in India is a stupendous task. Lakhs of enumerators filling millions forms with dozens of columns is no mean task. India’s census discontinued collecting data on castes since the 1931 census. But now under pressure from some quarters the government is having second thoughts on putting the wheels back to 1931. In all likelihood, one of the columns in those millions of forms will seek your caste. Strange while all political parties and every progressive section of our society agrees that caste divides our society, every politician in our country, cutting across party line, some way or other, supports the idea of enumerating caste.
The arguments in favour of that exercise are while so many of the programmes of the government are based on backwardness of some or the other castes, how can the benefits of those programmes be delivered on the basis of data going back to 1931. How can affirmative action be effective unless the data is up-to-date? Has not the Mandal Commission Report played havoc since it had depended on ante deluvian census information for arriving at its conclusions?
The census provides an opportunity to bring the information up-to-date. Census is a very important exercise for any country, more so for India with our sprawling anti-poverty programmes and philosophy of inclusive development. If development has to be inclusive, we need to know who are excluded. And, that is the crux of the problem. Apparently, the arguement has merit.
India’s founding fathers had the vision of a seamless India, not an India divided at various levels by castes – what Louis Dumont called homo hierarchicus. They saw merit in providing special provisions in the Constitution for the erstwhile untouchables, now called the scheduled castes and the tribals, now called the scheduled tribes. Even these provisions were to continue only for limited period. Expediency of vote-bank politics undid the founding fathers’ dreams. The special provisions of the Constitution continue. In additions taking advantage of different provisions of the Constitution each state government has been making special provisions for other castes – the backward castes. The caste virus has made our body politic decapitating sick! Caste is getting more entrenched – we have caste hostels, caste cultural bodies, caste associations and newsletters – indeed, the country is a caste cauldron!
The honour of being the villain d piece in independent India’s politics of caste indisputably goes to the Raja of Manda. V P Singh forced the Mandal Commission Report on a politically turbulent India with the narrow agenda of stemming the opposition from his detractors in his own coalition.
A limited provision for reservation for the most downtrodden, the SC and ST was allowed to perpetuate, adding in the process a number of castes as backward. Political parties of all hues, not just the Congress, but also BJP, JD, SP, RJD etc, have influenced the course of perpetuity of this caste based reservation in education and in government jobs. This craving by the political parties for reservation has not stopped at castes alone, now it is threatening to include religion based reservation as well.
Neither genuine affirmative action nor commitment to serious inclusive development drives the politicians to larger reservations. The degeneration of our system to sectarianism and vote-bank politics is taking the country down the road to this malady. Indeed, post-Mandal, caste is the ruling currency of political business in India. Now, the political parties smell an opportunity in the census, and here they are making common cause for inclusion of caste in the enumeration.
The lack of clarity about caste names, and the eagerness of some political alliances like the Yadav trio to enlarge their footprint through the instrument of caste will add further confusion. Classification of backward castes is not uniform across states. What may be a backward caste in Maharashtra may not be so in Karnataka. Therefore, will this enumeration be the precursor of pan-indianisation of backwardness? That may help the Yadav trio to stamp around the country with their brand of politics; but will it help development – inclusive or otherwise?
The insistence of the Yadav trio that OBC population has increased hugely since 1931, and therefore the Census 2011 must include caste, has found approval from across the political spectrum. The last caste based Census took place in 1931, by the then British rulers, probably to promote their well orchestrated policy of divide and rule. But in free India, it is the political compulsion to protect caste-ridden turfs of each political party that foments this demand, and it may as well be sustained. The culmination of this was the appointment of Mandal Commission, which in turn led to what we see today - the politics of reservation.
The stated objective of reservation has been the empowerment of the marginalised sections of our society. In reality it has only served to divide the society. Reservation did bring about empowerment to some extent. But those who benefited from the policy by and large promoted the interest of their own families. Look at Jagjeevan Ram and his family, or Lalu Prasad and family or Mulayam Singh and his family. Yes they have also promoted the interest of their friends and cronies. Yes there are thousands of such well off families who milked the reservation cow. The Supreme Court called them the creamy layer. As they moved up the social ladder they did not help their fellow caste men and women whose socio-economic reach was not long. If only those who enriched and empowered themselves had taken up the visionary leadership of their communities to promote its socio-educational and economic betterment, the continued saga of reservation for all these 60 years would not have been there.
This counting of heads on the basis of caste is highly regressive purely on human development terms. Reservation debases the individual who benefits from it by making him feel that he did not really deserve what he got. It nurtures a sense of deprivation. Should not the children of these castes enabled and empowered to secure employment on their own merit and not courtesy reservation? Is not getting something by merit that brings dignity to them? Should not our policies directed at creating that merit amongst them?
But creating merit, capacity building and enabling the young of these castes to get whatever they should get by their own merit and right does not offer the political meat. This lack of political meat is, indeed, the impediment for a truly beneficial policy, and consequently to the overall growth of this country. Affirmative action steals the dignity from the ‘beneficiary’, dwarfs them in their own eyes, divides society, and drives the country to live in the past. The way forward is to provide the infrastructure and motivation to those who belong to these castes to use that infrastructure, enable them to earn merit, ensure that they secure employment on their own merit and make them look really tall. Indeed, that is a tall order to the political pigmies of today.
Writing for IPA service, columnist Amulya Ganguli says "Sonia Gandhi’s honeymoon with the middle class may be coming to an end. The reason for the break is her decision to persuade the government to include caste in the Census enumeration. In a fatal moment of recklessness, she has shown that her intention is not to consolidate India’s place in the 21st century, but to take it back to an earlier age".
If the stand of the premier political party is so brazen, what can we talk of other opportunistic political Lilliputians?
Caste has long been the bane of India’s majority community. From Swami Vivekananda, to Rajaram Mohan Roy to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, all tried to eradicate this malaise. If many from this community have converted to Christianity, Islam or other religions, it is only because of caste humiliation. But politicians, starting with Congress itself, lent credibility to this pernicious practice by endorsing it for political and electoral gains. The unambiguous decision of the party leadership to persuade the government to include caste in Census enumeration has only added to the murky scene of retaining caste as a vote bank for a long time to come.
The clamour by the Yadav trio and the throw of the white towel by the Congress leadership shall surely give fillip to the illiterate and crude Khap Panchayats. These panchayats are trying to emerge as a law unto themselves, especially the Haryana types. They have made a virtue of killing young couples that dare to marry out of caste or within the same sub-caste. The state government has only thrown its blind eye to this barbarity. When the Jats of Haryana burnt down the entire Dalit colony in Mirchipur village, Rahul Gandhi visited the spot, and Sonia Gandhi reportedly admonished the state Chief Minister. Nothing really happened. On the contrary, now you have this educated, urbane MP, young Navin Jindal of the Congress, who had the temerity to announce that they would seek an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to give effect to the ‘Khap Chaap’. This was pure and simple vote bank politics.
Of course, in the census of India, there is a social relevance of collecting caste data. Kalyani Shankar, a columnist asks "Is there a need to resume caste based Census or will it result in more social conflicts and disorder? Will counting of castes help in the reduction of inequality? Will it be diversity in unity or unity in diversity?" Yes, these questions can be answered only after the collection of data which can be humongous by any standard.
The demand for a caste based Census came reportedly from the Backward Classes Commission to identify OBCs. Besides, the social Justice Ministry too had reportedly initiated such a move. Now, the Women’s Reservation Bill, if it has to have a quota within quota, caste enumeration shall be the only basis. Sociologists would want these details for the study of social order and its evolution over a period. Another important aspect of the need for caste data is its utility in case there is any upward revision of reservation of 50% limit. It is claimed that an authentic OBC list would go a long way in making the court see the point, should the government think on those lines. In fact that is the objective of the Yadav trio to force the government’s hands in including caste details in the enumeration.
However, it is important to remember that after independence, our founding fathers were in favour of building a casteless society. They were men of vision. They had a vision of an egalitarian society. Then there were no Lalu Prasads, or Mulayam Singh Yadavs or their ilk. India’s first Home Minister Sardar Patel was totally against any such caste based Census, so was Pandit Nehru. Caste categorisation defies uniform definition, except what the Constitution refers to as "socially and educationally backward classes." It is claimed by the opponents of caste factor that during the last 6 decades, some castes have changed and some others have merged and new ones have emerged. The government was naturally reluctant to add caste to enumeration. The logistics of caste enumeration will be daunting. Home Minister Chidambaram too argued about the hugeness of the task and its equally disproportionate utility. With over 6000 castes and sub-castes, it would be nightmarish for enumerators to collect and collate the data, it was argued. To add to these difficulties, there could be misreporting and misrepresenting caste details to gain some possible benefits.
Now that the government has agreed to the inclusion of caste in Census 2011, for its own political compulsions, what happens when it is completed and compiled is anybody’s guess.
But, as Kalyani Shankar Says, "One thing is certain. It is bound to unleash new forces. New leaders may emerge and new equation may be established. Some caste may develop new assertiveness. The short comment is that the political parties are confusing the issue. Census is a great demographic exercise, which should not be confused with the social order". "Whether the collection of caste data will be socially divisive or help in the quest for equality is still debatable. More thoughts need to be given on how to use the data. The grounds on which Sardar Patel had scrapped such an exercise holds good even to-day… Clearly we need to go beyond castes, quotas and vote banks and look for a casteless society as it was the dreams of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru" she added.
I & C Feature
with inputs from V. K. Talithaya
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