Address caste issues now, it cannot be left for tomorrow

Since its publication on October 2, Bihar’s caste survey report has received varied reactions from political parties. Many of these reactions emanate out of a lack of understanding about the nature and the context of the data from an exercise which was a long-pending demand from India’s marginalised community.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost said that the move is meant to create divisions in the Hindu society. As the Prime Minister of India, national unity should also be Modi’s concern, as should social justice. His policies have engineered and accelerated the downward slide of India on both these counts. Even if we ignore his blinkers about the wider issues, one must examine his ideas about Hindu society.

Even today the people who get down to clean the sewers and die in the process are drawn from a particular community — shouldn’t the Hindu society express indignation and work towards the eradication of manual scavenging? Despite extensive land reforms, the Dalits and the Adivasis who work closest to the land, find themselves alienated from it.

Shouldn’t the caste-society unite for fair distribution of land? Shouldn’t the Hindu society resist and speak when a young man from a Dalit community is attacked only because he rode a horse at his wedding?

Shouldn’t the same Hindu society articulate embarrassment when a large number of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Classes are denied entry into institutions with a remark which has acquired a proverbial status: ‘None Found Suitable (NFS)? Shouldn’t the custodians of the Hindu society speak unitedly and powerfully when entry into several temples is restricted based on one’s birth?

Who do we want to become?

A comprehensive list of denial and discrimination is too long to be shared here. The fundamental question before the community and its self-proclaimed leaders is what kind of Hindus we want to become.

A forward-looking progressive Hindu who would march on the trajectory of constitutional premises or an inward-looking regressive one who would be perpetual prisoner of a medieval outlook? Should we be promoting the idea of a Hindu whose only engagement is to hate Muslims and remain immersed in a past based on post-truths?

Great ideas must wait for an appropriate time. Bihar has taken the lead to conduct a caste census. This has prompted other states that they should also have one.

A national caste-census is an idea whose time has come. This data would be the evidentiary narrative of the lived realities of Indian people — chronicling the unspoken and unheard stories of India’s development. The least we can do is begin a conversation with this data — rather than denying it.

On this issue I shall bring in the complaint by some of the political leaders in Bihar that this scientific exercise has ‘reduced’ the number and percentage of their caste. To all those naysayers, my advice is to see the figure in Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s caste.

Caste privilege

My second argument comes from the study of the operative part of the Hindu caste structure. Today the visibility of any caste in public sphere whether institutions, colleges, markets, judiciary, or even politics has no correlation with the numerical strength.

History is witness to the fact that castes with relatively smaller numbers have been more visible and vocal, and the grammar of privilege has supported and sustained them over the years. Now is the time to inquire this idea of privilege.

It's important to recognise that not everyone supports or loves caste privileges. However, caste privileges are a complex issue, deeply rooted in our historical and sociocultural contexts.

The caste system has been ingrained in our system and the social structures, and hierarchies based on caste have been passed down through generations, making it challenging to break free from these entrenched norms. Caste privilege is one of the most pervasive one.

Caste privilege is an enduring issue within the Hindu society and one that has been addressed, albeit differently, by Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar. Gandhi was not born into an untouchable caste. Nonetheless, he was acutely aware of the issues surrounding caste privilege.

He believed in the transformative power of self-reflection. He argued that individuals, especially those from privileged castes, should acknowledge their privilege and work to reform themselves.

This self-reform was a precursor to any broader societal change. While Gandhi did emphasise unity, he believed it would be based on co-operation, solidarity, and mutual respect among different castes.

Gandhi called for reform within the existing caste system, but Ambedkar went much further and called for the annihilation of caste.

We can think of Gandhi concurring with Ambedkar on one limited but important point — they both believed that caste privilege needed to be acknowledged and eradicated for India to achieve true social justice. The acknowledgement of privilege is the first step to developing mutual respect and solidarity.

Political empowerment and access to education were important credo for Ambedkar. In the face of insufficient impulse for social reform and no sign that ‘upper’ castes will voluntarily give up on their privilege, Ambedkar emphasised constitutional remedies.

An opportunity

Formulating anti-discrimination laws and policies became an important avenue for social change also because since Independence there has been little initiative or dialogue from the ‘upper caste’ sections on social reforms for eradicating discrimination, thereby building a more just Hindu society.

Instead, the demand for equality and dignity has mostly been met by asserting that affirmative actions are unjust and pushing the humiliating discourse of merit.

The vision behind the demand for the national caste census is to serve as an acknowledgement of the extent of the problem and to provide an accurate roadmap for addressing this pressing issue.

The release of Bihar’s caste-based data presents to the larger society and particularly the caste-Hindu groups an opportunity they must grab to clean themselves of abhorrent ideas, including the idea of merit residing only in those who are endowed with caste privilege. The caste census is an occasion when through self-reflection and self-reform they must give up defending the unjust privileges by any means.

We know that any societal change is often met with resistance, particularly when it threatens existing power structures or ways of life, and we are also aware that caste-based privileges have persisted due to resistance from those who benefit from them. But the time to deal with this persisting question is now and it is too urgent to be left for tomorrow.

(Manoj Kumar Jha is an RJD leader, and Member of the Rajya Sabha. X: @manojkjhadu)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.