Transcript caste

India’s Society and
Social Relations
November 3, 2008
Main questions
• How diverse is India? Is it diversity or
inequality?
• What is the caste system? Does it still
exist?
• What is the relationship between
different religious communities in
India?
• What is the meaning of secularism in
India?
2
Deeper questions
• Is India a democracy? How much
inequality can a democracy tolerate
and still remain a democracy?
• How does India’s social fabric
compare with the US and Canada?
3
India’s society:
some basic facts
• 1. 3 billion people
• 8 different religious groups. 82%
Hindus,13% Muslims
• Hindus have a hierarchical social
organization, known as caste
• 122 recognized languages; many other
dialects
• 672 million voters, 230 parties
4
Basic economic facts
•
•
•
•
•
70% survive on agrarian incomes
80% live in under $2 a day
42 million live in slums
2 million are homeless
90 million are marginal workers
5
The tradition of caste
Brahmin
(producers of knowledge, particularly theology and
interpretation of religious texts
Khsatriya (ruling classes/ political elites/warriors)
Vaishya (business classes)
Sudra (manual and menial labourers)
Untouchables, now called Dalits (the downtrodden)
6
Traditional
role of caste
• prevent social mobility
• ensure a supply of manual workers
• prevent social equality
7
Caste in colonial India
• Fairly strong reformist movements started with
respect to the question of untouchability
• British referred to them as “depressed classes”
• Gandhi popularised the issue of untouchability by
calling them Harijans (the children of God). He
argued for the end to untouchability
• B.R Ambedkar argued for the end to caste
altogether (and if necessary, end to Bramhinical
Hinduism) . Read his seminal essay Annihilation of
Caste
8
Who was Ambedkar?
• BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR (1891-1956)
• Born into a Dalit family
• By virtue of his brilliance became a
Barrister at Law
• Was the first Law Minister of Independent
India; drafted the constitution; major
disagreements with Congress leaders,
Nehru and Gandhi
• Converted to Buddhism in 1956 (along with
thousands of other Dalits)
9
Ambedkar’s views on caste
• He disproved both dominant theses on caste
• The orthodox thesis that Sudras were born
out of the feet of ‘God’
• The modern thesis that they were non-Aryan
indigenous peoples inferior to the other
three castes who were of Aryan descent
• He argues that they are of the same ethnicity
and the Sudras were pushed to a lower
status because of their growing power and
conflict
10
Ambedkar’s philosophy
His two main thesis were:
• The issue is not only to accept inequality and
end discrimination, but to establish political
and social structures which are premised on
the fundamental equality of all
• Justice can not be given from above (i.e.
those who are privileged). It has to be
secured by those who were victims of
injustice
11
What happened at
Independence
• The constitution was drafted by Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar.
• It became illegal to discriminate on the
basis of caste or religion
• Untouchability was abolished by law
• Untouchables came to be categorized
as Scheduled Castes
More faces of discrimination
12
ST and OBC
• Another category of Scheduled Tribes were
also recognized by the constitution. These
are primarily indigenous communities known
as Adivasis
• A third category called the Other Backward
Classes (OBC) – communities listed by the
government who have suffered systematic
patterns of disadvantage but are not
included in the Scheduled Castes or Tribes.
They can be in any religion.
13
SC, ST, OBC
• Scheduled Castes (SC) 16.8%
• Scheduled Castes (ST)
8%
• Other Backward Classes 27% (or
more)
Even with conservative estimates, it
appears that more than 50% of India’s
population suffers systematic
disadvantage and depravation
14
Quotes from Ambedkar (1)
– It is mischievously propagated by Hindu scriptures that by serving
the upper classes the Shudras achieve salvation. Untouchability is
another appellation of slavery. No race can be raised by
destroying its self-respect. So if you really want to uplift the
Untouchables, you must treat them in the social order as free
citizens, free to carve out their destiny.
•
–
What you have lost others have gained. Your humiliations are a
matter of pride with others. You are made to suffer wants,
privations and humiliations not because it was pre-ordained by
the sins committed in your previous birth, but because of the
overpowering tyranny and treachery of those who are above you.
You have no lands because others have usurped them; you have
no posts because others have monopolised them. Do not believe
in fate; believe in your strength.
– From ambedkar.org
15
Quotes from Ambedkar (2)
• Caste cannot be abolished by inter caste
dinners or stray instances of inter caste
marriages. Caste is a state of mind. It is a
disease of mind. The teachings of the Hindu
religion are the root cause of this disease.
We practice casteism and we observe
Untouchability because we are enjoined to
do so by the Hindu religion. A bitter thing
cannot be made sweet. The taste of
anything can be changed. But poison cannot
be changed into nectar.
from ambedkar.org
16
Ambedkar on the Constitution
On the 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of
contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social
and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be
recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote
one value. In our social and economic life, we shall by reason
of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the
principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to
live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to
deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to
deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political
democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the
earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality
will blow up the structure of democracy which this Constituent
Assembly has so laboriously built up.
from ambedkar.org
17
Inequality across religion
• The British left a highly communalized
polity, scarred by the partition
• In India, the Muslim community found
itself depleted of its middle class (who
left for Pakistan)
• The community was left with a rather
sharp divide between its upper classes
and its lower classes
18
Situation of Muslims (1)
• The literacy rate among Muslims is
substantially below the national average
(59% as opposed to 65%). Only 3.4 per cent
of the Muslim population obtains graduate
degrees
• In the elite civil services, comprised of the
Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the
Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian
Police Service (IPS), Muslim representation
was at 3 %, 1.8 % and 4 %
19
Situation of Muslims (2)
• Muslims have the second highest levels of poverty
with 31 % below the poverty line. Incidence of
poverty among urban Muslims is the highest (31%),
followed closely by SC/ST categories 36.4%.
• Worker Population Ratio for Muslim women are the
least from among all communities, more so in urban
areas; the participation of Muslims in regular jobs in
urban areas is quite limited compared to even the
traditionally disadvantaged SCs/STs.
• Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute 40.7 per
cent of the total Muslim population. In the total OBC
population, Muslim OBCs have a share of 15.7 per
cent.
20
Structural Inequality
• Caste and religion-based inequality in
India are structural, i.e. they arise from
underlying social, political and
economic structures (rather than
factors such as lower access to
education or jobs).
How did India try to address them?
21
Addressing Inequality
• Secularism: non-discrimination and
separation of state and religion (i.e.
state has no official religion
• Affirmative action (called reservation
in India): creating quotas for admission
to educational institutions and
Did they work?
22
Solutions?
• Secular democracy fulfilled a very
important role but generated
contradictions: it did not reduce the
structural inequality between different
religious communities, particularly
Muslims
• Rise of communal politics and
fundamentalist politics
23
Dalit Muslims
• Muslims got some protection for
language, separate educational
institutions, freedom of religion etc.
but not affirmative action
• The Dalit Muslim movement claims that
80% of India’s Muslims gained nothing
from these changes. They demand
affirmative action based on religion
and socio-economic situation
24
Politics of Affirmative action
• Affirmative action resulted in some progress
of individuals but has done little to change
the social location of disadvantaged groups
• Upper castes and classes have reacted
strongly against these reservations
• At present major social conflict exists over
whether SC/ST/OBC should have reserved
seats in elite institutions (such as the top
engineering, business and medical schools).
The fear is that this may lead to admission of
students with less merit and destroy the
credibility of these institutions
25