CASTE, DISCRIMINATION, AND EXCLUSION IN MODERN INDIA
Vani Kant Barooah and others
Sage
337 pages; Rs 995
"On 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradiction. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality."
B R Ambedkar
In a sweeping study of the discrimination that continues to haunt Indian society 68 years after Independence, Caste, Discrimination and Exclusion in Modern India highlights this very contradiction.
This book does not show what is unknown, but provides extensive statistical data to underline the limits of political freedom amid the continued subjugation of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Muslims and women.
As Sukhdeo Thorat, professor emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, points out in the foreword, "the caste system, according to Ambedkar, in its outcome serves the economic and social ends of the dominant groups of high castes."
In lines that seem almost prophetic, the authors say the book "details the many ways in which an accident of birth affects a person's chances of achieving economic and social success". Events in recent months have made us more than aware what this means. In his suicide note, Rohith Vemula alluded to this "fatal accident" of his birth and the inability of our society to treat "a person as a mind."
In its chapters on educational attainment, child malnutrition, health outcomes, employment and wages and the position of women, this book painstakingly details the extensive hurdles that stop marginalised groups from fully participating in the life of their communities.
Three kinds of difficulties that marginalised groups typically face are mentioned here. Access to the market, in terms of the ability to get jobs and housing, is often denied. For example, housing in villages is organised along caste lines, with Dalits often living in "colonies" outside the village.
Then there is disparity in the kind of jobs offered to them and the wages that they receive. There are sections here about the difficulty "untouchable" casual labourers face in finding jobs in harvesting fruit and vegetables because of the notion of purity that underpins the caste system. In terms of land, lower-caste households do not get access to good quality land. Land is also sold within castes, which automatically excludes them.
In terms of access to common property resources, dominant castes "privatise" such resources, leading to skewed access to basic amenities like water, or denial of other essential services, like the denial of haircuts within villages in parts of rural Karnataka.
Access to health care too, according to the book, is so skewed that the average age at death for Scheduled Tribes is 4.9 years lower than the national average, 7.1 years lower for Scheduled Castes, and 6.1 years lower for Muslims.
Public policy initiatives meant to address these issues are "captured" by dominant groups, and often those entrusted with implementing such schemes are upper castes. Then there are other instances of such discrimination, such as in a village in Mysuru district, where the decision to hire a Dalit woman for the midday meal scheme resulted in upper castes withdrawing their children from the school.
The book also highlights the problems women belonging to the Scheduled Castes face. For them it is an intersection of issues, a three-fold discrimination. Discrimination based on caste, gender, and the discrimination based on being Scheduled Caste women.
The book also draws attention to the lack of any affirmative action for Muslims, despite the Sachar Committee pointing out the gross underrepresentation of Muslims in public life.
Such studies, however, are not new. Many have studied the extent of discrimination and the resultant deprivation. Every piece of evidence against the caste system, though, must be welcomed and the effort to constantly highlight injustices entrenched in this system must be lauded.
This is after all a society that does not stop with discrimination of humans. India is home to two kinds of kites. The Brahminy Kite which has a white body, and the Pariah or Black Kite.
This is clearly a society where the "value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility," as Vemula noted.
However, where the book does fall short is in its conclusion. The authors say, "For Indian society to progress, Hindu social order needs reform."
Yet, reform is violently resisted by the caste hierarchy. For example, in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district, when a Dalit man and a woman belonging to the Vanniyar caste eloped, a Vanniyar mob torched 200 houses in the Dalit hamlet. The mob paid special attention to destroying the assets the Dalits had accumulated as a result of their hard work and increased access to services.
In a system that has exclusion as an added safeguard for dominant castes, as Mr Thorat points out, it is hard to see how reform from within can be transformative. It is probably for this reason that Ambedkar called not for reform but the annihilation of caste.
To achieve this, one must follow through on Ambedkar's proposition: Educate, agitate and organise. Educating people about this injustice is just one part.
