If the caste war is truly taken to the countryside, it will become a class war

Nehru's concept of a "socialistic pattern of society" has never been mocked as much as during the Gujarat agitation on reservation of jobs and places in higher educational institutions for the scheduled castes and tribes. For behind the first prime minister's philosophy was the ideal of a more equal society in which the lot of the less privileged would become several shades better.It was typical of the Indian age of innocence. The first phase of the Nehru era represented in many ways that the special dispensation for the scheduled castes and tribes was for 10 years. The 10-year provision was, in fact, to become a rolling one - somewhat like the Janata concept in relation to five-year plans. Despite the time limit, reservations have become a part of the political structure, with members of Parliament dutifully extending the provision every 10 years without asking themselves uncomfortable questions.Ironically, the challenge to reservations has come from Mahatma Gandhi's home state of Gujarat, highlighting the distance Indians have travelled away from his ideals. But it would be wrong to dismiss the Gujarat stir as a mere retrogade happening. Behind the agitation are passionate beliefs and a sense of injury, and it has had the salutary effect of bringing into national focus a question which should have been resolved earlier.Inevitably, any system of privileges creates its own vested interests and the problem is how to go about divesting the alleged custodians of the scheduled castes of the lion's share they have taken to spread benefits more evenly in the community. Shorn of rhetoric, this is what the Dalit Panther philosophy is all about, representing as it does a revolt against their own elite as also against the obvious enemy, the upper castes.Methods: No government worth its salt can repudiate the concept of progressively bringing the underprivileged to the level of the rest of society. The question is of methods and how to evolve a better system. It is the method that has been found wanting, not the ideal of giving weightage to a section of Indian society that has been exploited for ages.Dousing the flames of the caste war in Nadiad in Gujarat: The shape of things to comeIf ever there was a national issue, this is it. The Indira Congress, representing in a sense both the Government and the Opposition, has been true to form in Gujarat: the opposing sides are in the ruling party. For Mrs Gandhi, it is a question of imposing discipline as of getting the other parties to agree to a consensus.If the Indira Congress factions in Gujarat are playing politics on the reservation issue, which they are, how can Mrs Gandhi blame the opposition parties for not lending their support to restore sanity? If the opposition parties are less than enthusiastic about standing up and being counted, with honourable exceptions like the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee, they cannot be held entirely responsible.First, what needs to be understood is the problem that India is facing, for the moment in Gujarat, but one that is bound to spread to other parts of the country. There are three strands in it: the primeval pull of caste in Hindu society, the growing assertion of rights by the lower castes and the economic factor. Each of these has a role in stoking the fires of the caste war.Caste brings into play elemental passions even more vividly than communal clashes. The euphoria of Independence kept the caste factor in check during the better part of Nehru's rule. But Mrs Gandhi was not above exploiting caste to win political battles and later refined her strategy to win elections on an unlikely alliance of Brahmins with the lowest castes as also with the minorities.Caste Politics: Janata's rise to power, brief as its tenure was, meant a resurgence of caste because the inhibitions of the Nehru era, which partly spilled over into the first 11 years of his daughter's rule, were cast aside. Caste was no longer to be brushed away under the carpet. Implicit in Jagjivan Ram's almost permanent berth in Central cabinets was the caste factor. But with Charan Singh it became explicit; he was the representative of the intermediate castes, the landed Jat farmers.Since caste, however divisive it is, cannot be waved away with a magic wand, the solution must lie in a more equitable sharing of power and privileges on the basis of numbers. With Mrs Gandhi's return to power in January last year, caste politics got a further fillip, instead of abating, because in her efforts to consolidate power in the states, she used it to advantage. Even the placing of a Harijan chief minister in Rajasthan and a Muslim in Maharashtra was an act of playing caste politics in reverse.State cabinet lists are now openly discussed on the basis of caste, and the caste factor has become even more relevant than in the past because shaky chief ministers are trying to consolidate their position against odds. Thus caste, which has never been absent from Indian politics, has now come to the fore, with people no longer ashamed of it.The Dalit Panthers are a demonstration of the fact that the lowest castes are not prepared to accept indignities and worse without protest. This phenomenon represents both a generation change and the growing political consciousness of the underprivileged. Although the Gujarat agitation has largely highlighted the urban discontent, the time bomb is ticking away in the countryside. Both caste and class interests have combined to create an explosive situation in villages. Laws alone will not solve the problem. The answers lie in the direction of educating the villagers - if parties were less busy politicking, they could undertake this task - and employing pressures from the exploited to convince the wealthier farmers that they can no longer get away with time-honoured methods of feudalism.Tamil Nadu has proved that the highest castes cannot rule the roast if the lower castes combine to assert their rights. The rub is that the scheduled castes are a minority and not even the communist parties, theoretically the champions of the landless, have thought it wise to speak up for them against the challenge thrown by the better-off farmers belonging to the intermediate castes.Possible Solution: Against this background, the economic factor takes on an ominous complexion because there is simply not enough of the cake of prosperity to share. If people cannot get jobs because a percentage is reserved, they become resentful. If qualified men and women cannot get into medical colleges because places are reserved, they get angry.Bihar's hasty experiment in promoting the interests of the intermediate castes during Janata rule led to strife. Obviously, absurdities like reserving nearly half of jobs for particular castes, leaving the majority to compete for the other half should be avoided. And in Gujarat, the roll-over quota for the scheduled castes and tribes in medical colleges was, to say the least, an unimaginative measure.Since caste, however divisive it is, cannot be waved away with a magic wand, the solution must lie in a more equitable sharing of power and privileges on the basis of numbers. This is happening in the south in particular and will prevail in the rest of the country through compromises or conflict or. most likely, both. But the whole point about reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes is that though they are not in a minority, they deserve a special dispensation to end the injustice which is their lot. First there must be an assessment of the actual benefits they have received from the reservation policy; then there must be a programme to improve the scheme to make it more effective.This is easier said than done because caste evokes deep passions. Any real proggramme which will benefit the bulk of Harijans must do battle with those who claim to speak for the underprivileged as also with vociferous representatives of the higher castes. The political leadership, beset by scores of problems, gives few signs of its ability to grapple with the enormity of the problem.Yet if the political elite is not to be swept away by waves of agitation and violent protest, it must ask some hard questions about the reservation scheme in jobs, colleges and the legislatures. The Dalit Panthers are right in declaring that the present policy has not brought them real benefits and the lot of Harijans in villages remains miserable.A Pointer: Some form of reservation in jobs and in colleges is unavoidable if the objective is to give special encouragement to the backward. But such a scheme should be sensibly promoted, also taking into account the interests of the rest of the community. Reservation of places in medical colleges is a particularly evocative issue for the other castes because of the clamour for admissions and the view shared by many that the medical profession cannot afford to have half-baked doctors.With passions having been aroused, as in Gujarat, it is often forgotten that reservations are for admissions, not in condoning poor performance in examinations on the basis of caste. It is, on course, a valid contention that a better qualified candidate has a greater chance to qualify in the final examination. But how else can one promote the Harijan's cause?But the Government and the opposition parties must take a fresh look at the usefulness of reserving seats for the scheduled castes and tribes in the legislatures. One way of demolishing the Harijans' self-proclaimed leaders would be to abolish the special seats. The Harijans would still be a political factor in determining the choice of candidates as also the outcome of the election in many constituencies. The important point surely is not the number of men belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes who are elected to Parliament and the state legislatures but how those elected serve the interests of the underprivileged. All the system of reserved seats has done is to force the political parties to choose candidates belonging to certain castes; their method of operation and views have remained unchanged.The ruling party and the Opposition must recognise the fact that the reservation policy has come to a dead end because it has not achieved what it set out to do. The obeisance once in 10 years to an egalitarian society is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Government spokesmen are right when they say that the concept of a special dispensation for the underprivileged is not negotiable, but also to imply that the methods followed so far fall in the same category is to bark up the wrong tree.A new complication in an otherwise complex problem is the flexing of muscles of the intermediate castes in the countryside. Thanks to Sharad Joshi, the gentleman farmer who has no truck with politicians and his dramatic rasta roko programme, the full potential of the farmers' political clout has been demonstrated. Although Joshi maintains that the more prosperous the farmers the better the lot of the poorest will be, this is often not the case.And the poorest in the villages often happen to be Harijans. If political parties, including the Indira Congress, become solicitous about the welfare of the richer farmers, the Harijans will suffer more. The danger lies in the possibility that the Harijans will come to the conclusion that their salvation is in militancy. If the caste war is truly taken to the countryside, it will become a class war. Gujarat is a pointer to the shape of things to come should the political leadership not heed the warning.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 25, 2013 15:46 IST--- ENDS ---

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If the caste war is truly taken to the countryside, it will become a class war

Any system of privileges creates its own vested interests and the problem is how to go about divesting the alleged custodians of the scheduled castes of the lion's share they have taken to spread benefits more evenly in the community.

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