|
Article: The Hindu
30 March 2001
by Ambrose Pinto
EVER SINCE Dalit
groups have started mobilising themselves to fight their
centuries old discrimination, the ruling elite have begun to hit
back. In recent days, there have been articles in major
newspapers on how caste discrimination is very different from
race discrimination and that is why it is outside the purview of
the U.N. Conference on Racial Discrimination. And all those who
have articulated themselves including Andre Beteille, social
anthropologist of repute, (in TheHindu of March 10, 2001) have
backed the irrational position of the present government and
other forces of vested interest.
What is however
forgotten in the whole course of the arguments by the ruling
elite is their own location in the social hierarchy. Our
relationship to other human beings and society depends on our own
social location and subjectivity. One can quote from authors and
scholars to legitimise one's position and strengthen one's case.
Unfortunately, the ground realities are experiential. To be fair
to discriminated groups none of the elites who have been part of
the oppressive structure should have any business to talk on
their behalf since they have not experienced the reality of
discrimination. The language and ideas of the ruling elite have
been one of subjugation and exploitation since it is purely
centred on concepts evolved in ivory towers. The objective of
such knowledge is to preserve one's class interests. More than
theory, knowledge must be constructed from experience. This
position is unlikely to be acceptable to our noble theoreticians,
academicians, the politicians and the bureaucrats since this
class has benefited through subjugation of certain social groups
in the name of caste.
The principle of
equality is a fundamental component to the U.N. mechanism of
promotion and protection of human rights. Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ``All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood.'' As we step into 21st
century we need to ask ourselves as a nation whether our social
and institutional structures are based on discrimination or not.
And if there is discrimination what is it based on?
Endogamy
Whether it is
caste or race, the status is entirely ascribed, the status one
obtains at birth. Segregation exists in both the systems.
Outcasts still remain outcastes. Even in the midst of the recent
worst human tragedy that hit the country in the form of an
earthquake in Gujarat, the whole institutional mechanism of the
state did not move into the Dalit areas and belts while the
benefits of relief went to the upper castes as fast as possible.
This is no concoction. Papers have reported it. Parliament has
discussed it. The Congress party has highlighted it and NGOs have
testified to it. In both caste and race those in the lowest rung
are not only discriminated against but cursed to do menial jobs.
Endogamy is another feature of both. Marriages are rare and few
both among different racial and caste groups. Both are
stratifications, a hierarchical ordering of social categories,
supported by social institutions. Inequality is
intergenerationally transmitted in caste and race. Prejudice and
discrimination are both a part of race and caste. And what is
worse is that such prejudice and discrimination are not merely
personal but institutional, a part of the structure and processes
of whole society.
In both caste
and race theories, there is an attitude of the so- called higher
or superior groups that their culture is superior to all other
cultures and all the other groups should be judged according to
their culture. What is the difference in the claims made by the
white race in Europe and the upper castes in India? In any racial
or caste society the access to the society's resources including
power is proportionately larger to the pure in comparison to the
impure or polluted. Take the example of the Dalits in India. The
Constitution has made caste illegal and abolished it in 1950.
Affirmative action programme was introduced to bring the unequals
to the level of equality. Regardless of official policy, the
system still permeates Indian life and culture. ``When we are
working, they ask us not to come near them. At canteens, we have
separate tea tumblers and they make us clean them ourselves and
make us put the dishes away. We cannot enter temples. We cannot
use upper caste water taps. Our children in schools are not
treated as children of the others. We live in colonies of our
own'' - is a testimony of a scavenger in Ahamedabad. Caste has
still limited social advancement, job and marriage choices. In
spite of 50 years of Independence can one still believe that the
SC/ST representation in teaching jobs at the level of higher
education is a mere 2 per cent at the all India level, when the
affirmative action has provided them with 22 per cent. How do
those who oppose the linkage of caste with race explain this?
Though skin colour or physical differences may not all the time
play a significant part in distinguishing caste as in race,
social descent and occupation does. Apartheid exists in both.
On several
counts Dalit oppression is worse than racial discrimination. Over
240 million people of this country have been shunned as
outcastes. In fact, the Government of India's 1996 state report
on the Committee on Elimination of all forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) clearly notes though caste may not be
equivalent to race, it falls within the purview of Article 1 of
the Convention due to the clause on descent. Why is the
government playing a different tune now? Even the U.N. Committee
on Civil and Political Rights has observed ``SC/STs continue to
endure severe social discrimination and suffer disproportionately
from ...intercaste violence, bonded labour and discrimination of
all kinds.'' The U.N. bodies have opened up opportunities for
Dalit activists, movements and organisations to highlight their
oppression in the international forum. When the Indian state has
not effectively implemented its constitutional mandate of Dalit
Human Rights, what is wrong that the Dalits demand for rights
from the World Government, the U.N.? After all, India is a
signatory to most of the covenants of the U.N. In the light of
India's ratification of CERD in 1969 it is perfectly
constitutional, lawful and democratic for the discriminated
communities to approach the very body to bring to its notice the
discrimination they suffer.
Vested interests
In spite of
ground realities why is our ruling elite thus sound increasingly
irrational? The reason is vested interests. It is the same
interests that did not permit Ambedkar to raise specific concerns
of the Dalits with regard to independence at the Round Table
Conference. Once again, it is the very same interests that deny
any implementation of affirmative action in the name of
efficiency and merit. The caste system has developed a large
amount of socio-economic interests and any change in it affects
the existing socio-economic order. That is why our ruling elite
abhor any transformation of the system. What the Dalit cause
needs is perception of ground level realities from all concerned
and not faithfulness to the position of the state and its
academicians. We need to work for the liberation of the
marginalisalised based on ground realities as experienced by the
discriminated people.
|
