Newsmaker: Andre Beteille

Once anti-utopian, always anti-utopian

Andre Beteille is a self-confessed "anti-utopian", and admits to holding views that are not in vogue. He was a non-Communist during his student days in Kolkata, a difficult feat even then.

He rejected the purely textual interpretation of the caste system that was in fashion in Indian sociological circles in the 1950s and 1960s.

He chose to do his fieldwork in Tanjore, learning Tamil and studying what he termed "the dominant castes" "" who, though not ritually "high caste", owned enough land to be dominant.

When he joined Delhi School of Economics (DSE) as a founding member in 1959, he surprised people with a confession of having enjoyed his fieldwork only in retrospect. "I hated the lack of privacy," he said.

His resignation from the national Knowledge Commission (KC) over numerical quotas for "Other Backward Castes" (OBCs), therefore, could be seen as just another act in a continuum of acts which go against the politically acceptable norms of the time.

It is, however, much more than that. For Beteille's examination of the Indian caste system is a nuanced one, with his predictions proving correct in most cases.

According to Beteille, his resignation was not about social equity and reservations, it was about his long-held view that "numerical quotas are different from ensuring social justice".

Beteille had been an old friend of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (they'd both taught at DSE), and Singh appreciated Beteille's nuanced scholarship, appointing him first as chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and then also a member of the KC.

Still, he quit. "I met the Prime Minister on May 10 and indicated that I wanted to quit the post. On May 11, I wrote him a letter explaining my position. I hold certain views, and felt I had to resign to defend them," he said, adding that the friendship stood: "I consider him an outstanding economist."

His own view of reservations, quoted once by the Supreme Court, emphasises capacity creation, making reservation more a question of policy than rights.

His firm belief is that the pursuit of equality "limits the attainment of other ends such as those of efficiency, liberty, and even self realisation of the individual" (his "anti-utopia" stance). He feels that equality pursued in the manner of the American form of affirmative action would be more effective.

It was obvious that such views would be unacceptable politically, given the exigencies of a general election due in 2009. But it was the silence of those sympathetic to his views but unable to speak out in his defence that drove him to resign.

Beteille is a man of plainspeak, as reflected in his view that "The Indian intelligentsia has somewhat mixed attitudes towards the Indian village. While educated Indians are inclined to think, or at least speak, well of the village, they do not show much inclination for the company of villagers." For Beteille, that disconnect does not exist "" as he retains the right to be unfashionably his own man.