The caste system is at once the foundation of Hinduism and of the
division of the society into haves and others. Hinduism has no legs to
stand on without the caste system, which is such a clever way of
distributing privilege that even other religious groups which came to
stay in the Hindu India - Christians and Muslims - succumbed to
importing this heinous system into their social practices. It is no
accident that the hierarchy of all major institutions including
political parties comprises of caste Hindus.

Can the the division of labor, profession and privileges sanctioned and
perpetuated by the caste system be done away with? It is not easy
because it is integral to religion and belongs to a very old culture.
However, to do away with caste-linked privileges requires a gigantic
social revolution. Taking away their privileges evokes greater fury of
the haves than does the perpetuation of the miserable status quo based
on the deprivation of the backward castes and more importantly of the
Dalits. Because the overwhelming majority of intellectuals belong to the
high caste, they manufacture justifications against reservations while,
at the same time, many liberals lament the social injustices inherent in
the caste system.

The political awakening in India naturally raised the issue of social,
economic and political division of India based on the caste system.
Gandhi was among the first to raise this issue in an important way but
then he was mainly concerned with social stigma against the Dalits, whom
he accordingly named Harijans. It had little effect in practice since
the leadership of the Congress was not above caste prejudices. The
Communist Party of India ignored this issue because its policies were
more influenced from outside than by the ground realities of India; all
of its offshoots continue to do so to varying degree. The foremost
champion of the cause of the lowest of the low was Dr. Ambedkar; being a
Dalit himself, he raised the issue in a more fundamental way than Gandhi
but lacking an organization he could only integrate his vision in the
Constitution and among Dalits. He did confer new consciousness to
Dalits. Both Gandhi and Ambedkar did achieve something but not enough.
The issue of caste privilege is much more than just a set of social
stigmas. Unless the economic and political privileges enshrined in the
caste system are ruthlessly demolished, India’s progress will remain
limited.

The first major attempt to address this issue in independent India was
through reservation of parliamentary and assembly seats for the
scheduled castes, the worst victims of the caste system. This provision
achieved something and the emergence of Dalit political formations, no
matter how insincere they are to the Dalit cause, has helped in moving
the Dalit issue forward. Likewise, the abolition of Zamindari and other
steps which transformed tenant farmers who were earlier at the mercy of
landlords into rich peasants was one of the important factors in
societal change in rural areas leading to the emergence of regional
political parties like DMK, TDP, Samajwadi Party and various Janata
Dals. Despite these changes, caste-based disparities persisted and
needed further rectification. In this context, it needs to be
recognized that due to various social and political factors, the
abolition of upper caste, particularly Brahmin, privilege has gone much
further in India’s south than in the north, although, even in the south,
the lowest levels of the hierarchy are yet to benefit.

The issue of other backward classes (better than Dalits but worse off
than high castes as a group) received some attention in educational
institutions but the first major attempt to address this issue was
presented by the Mandal Commission in 1980. The recommendations remained
dormant until the government of VP Singh took steps to implement some of
its provisions in 1990. As expected, it faced major opposition. One
lunatic even set himself on fire to ignite the issue. On April 5, 2006,
Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh let it be known that
in accordance with Article 15(5) of the Indian Constitution which came
in effect on January 20, the government plans to extend reservations for
the Other Backward Classes in premier centrally administered
institutions like IIT (Indian Institutes of technology) and IIMs (Indian
Institutes of Management), etc. The Prime Minister urged private
establishments to voluntarily undertake such steps. Like V.P. Singh’s
government, the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led
by the Congress is, as could be anticipated, again facing mass
demonstrations and even division within the party. The first to strike
was the Election Commission, which questioned the timing in view of the
forthcoming elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and
Pondicherry. Soon others pitched in.

The liberals and certain sections of the left, naturally belonging to
caste Hindus, could not openly oppose the idea of reservation; they
resorted to another level of camouflage. What better camouflage can
there be than to raise the issue of poverty rather than of the caste to
be a consideration in reservations. Some liberals are showing concern
with the issue of the quality of education and India’s need to "preserve
a few islands of excellence" like the IITs as an editorial in the Hindu
newspaper suggested. The media has converted the whole issue as a matter
to be debated.

The issue of caste based privilege is not just a question of rich and
poor just as the question of oppression of women is not an issue of
bourgeois women versus working class women or minority communities of
rich Muslims versus poor Muslims. It is an issue of a community.
Obviously, under any system of reservation or its equivalent, the
economically better off from the Dalits and backward classes are going
to benefit more than the most deprived of the Dalits and backward
castes. However, if this process is implemented in earnest, the division
of rich and poor among Dalits and backward castes may reach the same
level as that among caste Hindus. So the arguments such as the one
presented by Professor Purushottam Agrawal of JNU (Tehelka, May 13,
2006) are devious ways of opposing rectification of the caste-based
deprivation. They had all the time to come out with their MIRAA model
(Multiple Index Related Affirmative Action) but waited until an
alternate was about to be implemented. As well, the Marxist fear of
supporting a program based on caste rather than class is ill-founded. In
the final analysis the caste division in India is primarily a class
division; members of scheduled caste and Tribes have only their labor to
sell (if there is a buyer) to survive. The backward castes too do not
have many who sit in affluence because they own the means of
production; they too , by and large, depend upon performing work. Indeed
if some one did a survey of the recently created 150 million or more
wealthy consuming population of India, it is very likely that
overwhelming majority of them belong to caste Hindus.

Similarly the argument about quality of education and training of
professionals is hollow. As it is, the opportunities for educating
students in rewarding educational institutions are far too short of what
is needed. So-called merit (based on grades in examinations, etc.) as
the basis of selection is a technique to eliminate applicants and not to
select the deserving. Many educational fields such as medical science or
management do not need genuises like Einsteins to succeed. Only doctors
like to pretend that medical science is as difficult as mathematics or
physics. The fact is that almost any one can be trained to be a good
doctor and in the actual conditions of India, someone from the rural
poor may become a more compassionate doctor, hence of more practical use
to the vast majority of Indian society, than her or his counterpart
from the urban elite.

What is needed is to extend support to any move by the government to
address the issue of caste-based distribution of privilege. Obviously,
such measures can never solve all of India’s social and economic
problems but they are still a move in the right direction. One can hope
that the government will take firmer action against the elite
demonstrating in front of the All India Medical Institute in New Delhi.

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