The echoing silence of caste - The Hindu

15th April 2014 - Link

Caste in India

Progressive-minded Indians think that caste politics is the bane of India. If it were not for the politicians who are stoking the fire of caste, India would be tearing ahead to be a part of the developed world, à la China

Congress Party manifesto has reservation for the oppressed castes in the private sector. From the fearful prognosis, it seemed that a tsunami of soul-numbing “quotas” was going to be unleashed which would gobble up an otherwise meritorious India, and which would leave nothing but an economic Stone Age in its wake!

The greatest tragedy of India is the shocking silence about caste. Caste in India is like air, it is what you breathe but yet you cannot “see” it

The irony of spewing venom on caste politics is that it is mainly politics that has delivered some limited empowerment and mobility to the oppressed castes, through reservations in Parliament, Assemblies, and in government jobs and public education.

There is a mammoth and unbridgeable gap between caste in the political sphere, and caste in the cultural sphere and the private economic sector

American Parallel

Condition in India:

• Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) survey of 315 important decision-makers in 37 Delhi-based publications and television channels, not one was found to be a Dalit or Adivasi
• Dalit population numbering 20 crore (as large as the population of Brazil!) has hardly “produced” any national cultural icons in the non-political sphere.

Condition in America:

African-Americans have similar histories of slavery and oppression as the Dalits, and even if their general condition is vastly inferior to the white population, American society has provided the conditions for the emergence of black icons who are celebrated across race barriers.

Reason: The colossal scale of our participation in denying them the opportunities, and the complicity in silencing their icons.

Cultural sphere and private sector

Foreign Example:

What could be a better demonstration of the fostering of diversity, by representing the oppressed sections, than the quota system (even with its flaws) in South African cricket?

What needs to be done?

The recognition of the vibrant struggles for empowerment of the oppressed castes has to expand beyond political confines to the cultural sphere and the private sector.

Whats the problem in doing that?

The annihilation of caste is hardly on the agenda as savarna India, especially the youth, rush to embrace neo-liberal capitalist development (now in a heady mix with Hindutva lite) in which concepts like caste-based reservation are anathema.

Solution:

All the moral outrage that is directed against reservations should be targeted at dismantling the caste system.

Then, we would not be holding on to a vacuous notion of merit which means keeping nearly 80 per cent of the population’s talents from flourishing.(Due to reservation)

Conclusion:

• Discrimination does not always mean a deliberate picking of an “upper caste” over a “lower caste,” but a systematic exclusion which results from unequal starting points leading to a grossly unequal competition.
• Destroying caste is not “uplifting” the oppressed castes; it is about liberating ourselves from the labyrinth of caste