Presenting a narrow view

A Delhi University sociology lecturer in a newspaper article recently narrated a joke attributed to the Internet, "the fount of all contemporary wisdom", as he called it: India decides to send a 20-member space exploration team to the moon and the caste quotas are decided immediately""six SCs, four STs, eight OBCs, and, if possible, two astronauts. Rubbing it in, it says the astronauts have no caste but the reserved categories have only their caste.

Prof. K S Chalam would have elaborated on the composition of the imaginary space exploration team to cover Depressed Backward Classes (DBCs) and the ubiquitous Dalits as well, also to bring into focus the author's penchant for looking at every development""momentous or routine""in caste terms. For instance, he alleges that while a Harshad Mehta gets away with massive manipulation of the share market, "civil servants in the administrative cadre belonging to SCs and STs are punished for smaller offences". Dr Manmohan Singh and no caste Hindu bigot was finance minister then. He would not brook any criticism of the finance ministry or concede systemic lapse for the virtual pauperisation of hundreds of middle class investors. A caste-driven crusade against Dalits would be qualitatively different.

This is not to overlook the erudition of the author but to bring out the proliferation of caste denominations in the first five decades of Independence. Further, the study brings a breath of fresh air into the sterile public debate on "reservations" geared to vote bank politics and stereotyped polemics.

There is no mention in the book of VP Singh. And, it is dedicated to pioneers of the anti-Brahmin movement in Madras, Ayothidas and Periyar EV Ramaswami Naicker.

B R Ambedkar preferred the British government nomenclature "untouchable". It was anathema to the Mahatma, who resisted untouchability all his life. Dalit is a post-Ambedkerite term flowing from the militant outfit Dalit Panthers. It is the stock-in-trade of Mayawati. Ironically, Dalit implies "downtrodden", not in tune with the idea of fight. Chalam uses it as a synonym of deprivation.

After the Constitution had abolished untouchability, Ambedkar started using the nomenclature of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, with the Constitution enjoining upon the state to promote their educational and economic interests. Chalam ignores the fact that Ambedkar had opted for a ten-year limit for the Constitutional safeguards for the SCs and the STs. He is also eloquently silent about the assertion of the architect of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly that extended dependence on reservations was detrimental to the self-reliance of the beneficiaries. Instead, Chalam chases the judicial red herring of "creamy layer", a far cry from the Periyar's philosophy.

The approaches of Ambedkar and the author are thus mutually like chalk and cheese. Ambedkar wanted the Scheduled Castes to be enabled to outgrow the need for safeguards while Chalam regards reservations as the key to the amelioration of the community. The author's last word on the subject is that "affirmative action in the form of proportional representation should be extended to those sections that are inadequately represented, not only in the economy and but also in employment and in all other spheres of private and public life" (emphasis added).

Affirmative action in the US is different from reservations and quotas. In fact, quotas stick in the throats of US lawmakers. It is not clear what Chalam means by the phrase. But in the light of his passionate campaign for reservations, he equates reservations with affirmative action, which is not right. Further, the author's advocacy of reservations and quotas in "not only the economy but also in employment and in all spheres of private and public life" would conjure up, besides a command economy, Soviet-style regimentation as well. Such a dispensation is unthinkable now, irrespective of one's attitude to market economy.

The communication revolution as an offshoot of technology cannot be wished away, even if command economy and return to the licence-permit raj are believed to be conducive to the uplift of Dalits. Above all, proportional representation in a country of our size and diversity is a recipe for a hopelessly fragmented polity.

Finally, the subjective overtones of the author's assessment of the caste problem do not go well with his academic record and cerebral experience. The author had held high positions at Andhra University as professor of economics and founder-director of Academic Staff College of the university and is a prolific writer with many books in English and Telugu to his credit. Currently he is a member of the Union Public Service Commission. Why then should he speak the language of a run-of-the-mill advocate of reservations?

CASTE-BASED RESERVATIONS AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

K S Chalam
Sage Publications
Price: Rs 275; Pages: 210