WHY CASTE CONSCIOUSNESS STILL PERSISTS IN INDIAN POLITICS

“Caste is the most overwhelming factor in Indian life. Those who deny it in principle accept it in practice. Life moves within the frontiers of caste, and cultured men speak in soft tones against the system of caste, while its rejection in action doesn’t occur to them”. Socialist thinker Ram Manohar Lohia said this in 1964.The recently concluded general elections has accentuated the issues of ‘India’s rightward tilt’ and ‘end of electoral politics in India’. The myth should be empirically verified and so should be its underlying significance. There is no doubt that BJP won an overwhelming mandate from the people on the back of the charismatic leadership of Narendra Modi, but it would be inappropriate to say that ‘caste consciousness’ was entirely negated in this election. Yes the urban votes went to BJP, where caste and religion are miniscule factors in determining the voting pattern, the rural votes are still caste based. For the urban voters (including the youth and first time voters) with no first hand experience of religious and communal extremism, terms such as secularism and communalism have become obsolete and redundant. They saw in Modi a ‘pied piper’ who would take them to the path of growth and development.

     But three- fourth of India’s population reside in villages, where the ‘caste’ factor cannot be condoned during elections. What explains the persistence of caste consciousness in Indian politics? Media plays a major role in the sustenance of caste by deliberately highlighting the non issues. In various debates, the panellists are constantly asked questions regarding the caste factor (especially in UP and Bihar). Also the media has been accused of being biased by bestowing differential treatment to dalit leaders like Mayawati with respect to other political leaders. The BSP chief’s wealth and her self projection- creating parks and monuments, naming projects after her and celebrating lavish birthdays have been obsessively written about while ignoring her extraordinary political achievements. The political rallies are reported not for their content but for the traffic chaos they created.

       According to eminent sociologist Andre Beteille, ‘inter caste marriages, inter caste dining, etc. have reduced the caste inhibitions in our society to a large extent. But in politics, caste consciousness still persists.’ So what explains this phenomenon? The consciousness of caste is brought forward to the fore at the time of elections. The ‘social engineering’ done by the political leaders to woo the voters, makes the election period, the most appropriate time to play the caste card. The Constitution created ‘rights’ to eradicate caste from the heart of its citizens. But for the majority of the citizens, the habits of the heart are still the habits of a hierarchical society. Other eminent scholars have the opinion that modernity has eroded caste consciousness among us. Today we experience urbanization of society where students dine together at the canteens, dalits enter the temples unopposed, lower and upper caste people travel in the same compartment of a train. Caste may not be dying out in the next 50-100 years, but the rapid expansion of a new middle class, attendant to demographic, technological and economic changes will slowly but surely alter the operation of caste.

When we talk of caste consciousness in politics, it is prejudiced and perceived in a negative outlook, which shouldn’t be the case always. India cannot get rid of its caste identity. Modernization cannot erode the primordial hierarchical structure of our society. ‘Caste in India is class in the west’. The dalits and the shudras belonging to the lower stratum of society have bore the stigma of the caste system in India. Even today people belonging to such lower castes perform the scornful and repugnant act of manual scavenging. This apathy has given rise to caste based parties and political leaders. The social engineering is done to bring forth the issues of exploitation and discrimination. Hence there can be positive aspect to class consciousness too.

      The reason for persistence of caste in Indian politics is the tacit ‘internal code’ of caste, its positives and its culture. This ‘internal code’ makes it special; and distinguishes it from other castes. A few examples will illustrate what it means. Let us look at the caste of the richest people in India according to Forbes. Lakshmi Mittal (baniya), Mukesh Ambani (baniya), Kumarmangalam Birla (baniya), Gautam Adani (baniya), Sunil Mittal (baniya). Most of them belong to the mercantile castes. It is not easy to find many Indians of non mercantile caste who run businesses of large scale. The baniya is convinced that his ability to raise and manage capital is demonstrably superior to that of the rest. He sees that as a result of his caste culture.

Now let us look at ‘honour killing’. Murdering their daughters for honour is almost exclusively done by the peasant castes of north India, especially the Jats of Haryana and Punjab. Such heinous acts have got the legitimacy of khap panchayats there. Honour killing is successful only when his or her caste accepts that the Jat has redeemed his honour by murdering his own disobedient daughter.

Similarly people belonging to the ‘sevayat’ and the ‘daita’ community of Jagannath Puri take immense pride of their lineage. Any aberration in terms of matrimonial alliance outside their caste and community won’t be received amicably. That family is debarred from performing rituals inside the temple.

        This explains the fact that why even today people vote for their own kind. Not for the fear of pollution, but because of a positive attraction towards people with the same values, which emanate from caste. Whether or not the media emphasizes this, is irrelevant. The fact that rural India votes confessionally, for him merit comes from caste values. This condition may not be forever unaltered, but it is also evident that modernity by itself has not dented it. The average villager devotes far more time and thought on home, work and worship and less on political matters. But for him ‘this’ is where caste is embedded most powerfully. Voting pattern is thus an extension of this consciousness that has in fact not changed that much. This fact is clearly evident when BJP had to make alliance with LJP in Bihar and Modi effectively and repeatedly playing his ‘OBC’ card in UP.

STARTUPS-ORIGIN, RISE AND FUTURE

Our grandfathers were primordial, simple and satisfied. The so called specialization and division of labour was nonexistent. In our fathers’ generation, specialization was simple and the ‘seed of ambition’ was at its nascent stage. They went for ‘sarkari jobs’ viz. IAS, banks, etc. But once they entered the professional sphere, they never looked anywhere else. A job guaranteed a marriage and they were consumed in the nitty-gritty of family ties. Our elder siblings craved for money; there was a paradigm shift where success was measured in monetary terms. MBA was the ‘means’ to the ‘end’. A lot of opportunities were created with the embarking of world class B-schools. They loathed the idea of going through the gruelling process of IAS which ate away the prime period of a youth’s life. A MBA degree from a reputed B-school gave them a ticket to the seven digit salary job. Now coming to our generation, we are highly competitive, ambitious and balk to follow the conventional path. The only similar thing about our generation is that everyone wants to be different. We refuse to be one among the horde and espouse something niche. So how do we achieve that?

          Since success is a relative term, some individuals equate success with established societal norms (they go for IAS since it gives you maximum social respect and stature) while others pursue money. Here also there is a difference between money earned as an ‘employee’ and money earned as an ‘employer’. Whether it is entrepreneurship or quitting your job for IAS, both are aberrations that contravene common norms. So what do we do? The tacit belief is that if you are an employee, you are working for your organization and when you start your own business, you sweat it out for yourself. In today’s globalized world, there is a plethora of opportunities for the educated youth. Hence if the individual is not satisfied in any job, he won’t think twice before quitting. Here the concept of ‘self actualization’ comes into the picture. The current bunch is restless and perceives start ups would not only bestow money, but also lead them to self actualization.

ideas ideas and more ideas

          ‘Start ups’ in layman terms means starting your own business. It is not neologism. The ‘gujjus’ and the ‘marwaris’ have always tilted towards family business or other forms of entrepreneurship. Their superior business acumen, which is innate in them, would make them the dominant players in this trade. Today, almost 40% of MBA graduates and almost 70% of MBA graduates from elite B-schools opt for start ups. The startling increase in internet connectivity via a variety of mediums- the computer, the tablets, the smart phones, etc. coinciding with a rise of middle class that has more disposable income than ever before and the aspiration to lead a life that qualifies as a ‘lifestyle’, has translated in the burgeoning of start ups in India. When I talk of start ups, a major chunk of them fall under the ambit of e-commerce. Much of the rapid e-commerce growth is powered by greater consumer choice and consumer awareness and the improved convenience offered by online shopping. Another important aspect is the wider choice that the e-commerce vendors offer in terms of products in sync with global trends. Services such as buying grocery and vegetables are a click away. One can search for houses at a new place. Once can book appointments in top tier hospitals through a common forum. One can compare the prices, the specifications of myriad products and decide accordingly. E-retailing in India is growing well beyond categories like apparel and electronics. It is hitherto entering into domains like travelling, health, food, entertainment, housing, insurance policies, income tax returns, etc. If there is a consumer for it, there is bound to be an e-retailer proving services for it. And if there isn’t, just wait for few months. Start ups such as FLIPKART, SNAPDEAL, MYNTRA are the dominant players in the market today. Other start ups such as ASKMEBAZAAR (a digital open market), MAKEMYRETURNS (empowering the payers to pay their taxes with ease), POLICYBAZAAR (buying an insurance policy online), PUMPKART (buying water pumps online), CREDIHEALTH (providing health facilities from booking appointment to delivering medicines) are emerging at a very fast rate.

catch 22

              Modi, being an astute politician, very well understands the aspirational demographic profile and their psychosis. Hence in the recently announced budget, the government has provided a huge impetus by reserving 10,000 crores for these start ups. Earlier the investment in the form of venture capital would arrive from foreign investors. But with such a step, the government has given signal of its intentions. Hence with government backing, this is the time to go for start ups and build an ‘Israeli culture’ (where children learn innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship right from the school itself) in India.

             So what about the future of start ups in India? The first decade of the twenty first century witnessed the so called ‘IT boom’, which culminated in the bursting of bubble in 2008. (The Lehman brothers fiasco) Will start ups, especially E-commerce meet the same fate? In the E-commerce sector, there is already a lot of competition. So unless a new start up can provide something new to the consumers, and perpetually revamp itself with the changing needs, it won’t survive. Such a start up needs to benchmark itself and thus differentiate itself from the rest of the flock. On the contrary, human needs are humongously insatiable. Changing time will give rise to new wants. Hence there will always be a window of opportunity to carter the new needs. Hence what is required is that the start ups need to be on their toes to grab such opportunities. In simpler terms, consumers can have needs ranging from health, education, decoration to environment and hygiene.  So with new wants, will come new service providers. So the bubble of start ups bursting in the current scenario seems to be a distant myth. So for us, we need to play the ‘wait and watch’ game since the ultimate gainers will be the consumers themselves.

SECULARISM: A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

In his autobiography ‘My Experiment with Truth’ Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “My devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics, do not know what religion means.” Recently the comments of former defence minister A.K.Antony that in order to appease the Muslims, the Congress party lost the faith of the Hindus, has sparked off a controversy. It is no secret that all the secular parties project themselves to be the messiah of the Muslims, fighting for their rights and liberties. But by doing so, they take the majority for granted. This aspect of Indian society was evident in the just concluded general elections. Narendra Modi in his pursuit to enhance his secular credentials, didn’t lose the connect with the core ‘hindu’ votes. He perpetually reached out to the ‘majority’ by invoking the policy of ‘justice to all and appeasement of none’. Hence for the first time, ‘secularism’ has come under intense scrutiny or in fact being challenged by the common mob.

 Out of the commonly accepted three definitions of secularism, one is people-centric; another is state-centric and yet another is India-specific. Firstly, the people-centric definition emphasises the idea of separating religion from politics, economy, education, social life and culture. The purpose of this separation is not to stamp religion out from life but to contain it to the private lives of individuals (as witnessed in US). A secular state is not supposed to discourage the practice of religion but neither can it base its policies

on religion. The ultimate goal is to make religion a personal affair. Most societies have followers of different faiths and this puts a great responsibility on the state to be neutral. The state-centric definition of secularism emphasises the need to keep the state neutral to all religions. Religious people would like to see the state to show equal regard to all

faiths but others may demand the same respect for atheism. The demand normally is that the state must treat all its citizens equally. This means that the state must neither favour nor discriminate against citizens on grounds of their religion. The third India-specific definition of secularism underlines the importance of the unity of all people against colonialism and communalism. A secular state and society were a part of the social vision of the Indian national movement. Hence, despite the horrendous violence in 1947 and the making of Pakistan ostensibly on religious lines, secularism remained the abiding principle and opposition to communalism was the chosen policy in Independent India.

                    In today’s world, religion is a reality as well as a necessity. Even before the current phase of globalisation, capitalist institutions like the market integrated vast areas and people in different parts of the world. There were the capitalists and the wage-earners. The wage earners were devoid of ownership of the means of production due to their poverty. After being paid a subsistence wage, these workers were alienated from the fruits of their labour due to the prevailing social relations. Hence, they grasped the conception of God and institutions of religion to compensate in imagination what they had

lost in the real world. Religion was welcomed by them into their culture in order to make the conditions of the ‘heartless world’ slightly more bearable. On the other hand, capitalists needed religion to buffet the brutal uncertainties strewn in their lives, both as individuals and firms, busy with the task of accumulating capital. The capitalists may occasionally also need religion to be used as an instrument to pacify potential rebels among wage-earners. Imagine the role of religion in the lives of the Tatas, the Birlas, and the Ambanis. Hence the words of Marx that ‘religion is the opium of all masses’ is rightly justified as religion comes to the rescue of these wage earners and prevents them from fighting for their rights and liberties.

Capitalist societies can be divided into two main categories according to the nature of Church-State relations. The first category consists of those who have a declared State religion and only the adherents of the State religion could become the head of the State, member of high state institutions and participate in the management of State affairs. In the second category, fall countries which have officially declared the separation of the State from any religion but in practice religion is present in the cultural life of the nations. Agencies of the State get involved with the religious ceremonies in the interests of public order, religious education is regulated in the interests of uniform educational standards and religious institutions are overseen in the interests of public good. The Indian case falls in this latter category where there is a formal separation but actual involvement of the State with religious affairs.

             In the context of secularism, there has been a considerable debate about the suitability of the concept and practice of secularism in India. Secularism and religion are mismatched in an Indian scenario since religion is irrational and makes a guarded attack on modernity, while secularism signifies modernization. If secularism wants to remove religion from the public life and culture of India, it’s not going to happen.

HINDUTVA AND SECULARISM

Hindutva or Cultural Nationalism is BJP’s conception of nationhood. According to the judgement of Supreme Court of India, Hindutva is ‘a way of life’. It signifies a culture of tolerance and universalism. The BJP owes its origin to the non political organization such as the RSS and hence cannot relinquish the ‘Hindu tag’. This explains the reason as to why Modi refused to wear the skull cap during his ‘sadbhavana fast’ and refuses to apologise for 2002 riots. He also chose a safe, Hindu dominated constituency of Allahabad to contest his first election outside Gujarat. But what’s wrong with it? Modi proudly proclaims himself to be a Hindu nationalist and wears its ideology in his sleeves.

Hindutva can be distinguished as a faith and as an ideology. Hindutva as a faith means ‘a

way of life’, a tradition that is non-monolithic and operationally plural. Religion as ideology, on the other hand, is a ‘subnational, national or cross-national identifier of populations contesting for or protecting non-religious, usually political or socio-economic, interests. Modernity produces religion and then generates secularism to meet its challenge.

Religion inevitably enters public life through the back door and this leads to communalization of politics. On the other hand, secularism has turned into an intolerant ideology with modernization, development, scientific growth and nation-building as its

allies or constituents. This secularism alienates believers and breeds both old and new kinds of violence. Such secularism breeds old violence in the form of backlash of marginalized believers which in turn reinvigorates bigotry and fanaticism. Secondly, this secularism generates new violence between nation-state and religious communities.

      It is important to accentuate the ‘other side’ of secularism too; the anti-religiosity

and the hyper-substantive secularism which excludes religion from public life. It’s time to privatize religion and rationalize politics. Secularism is criticized for being invalid in circumstances where religion is of immense importance to people. Modern culture is a mixed bag and its outright rejection may not be the best way to have secularism.  On the one hand, modern culture has some frightening flaws like a drive to control; a purely instrumental and destructive stance towards nature and human life, towards poor, marginalized sections and victims of the savage side of capitalism. The onus is on us to go for ‘my way’ or the ‘high way’.

BUDGET: HOPE, EXPECTATION AND PRAGMATISM

As the new government gets to work, one key item on the agenda would be the revival of growth. The key to achieve such an objective is to revive the investment climate. The major challenge for the government would be to revitalize the investors’ faith while at the same time keeping the inflation in check. The Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report (FSR) highlights that the Global financial markets are showing signs of improved stability although growth is still not on strong ground and easy monetary policy continues in many jurisdictions. On the domestic front, the return of a stable government has definitely provided impetus to the money and the capital market. The BJP led government has already signaled its happiness with the RBI, taking a stern line against the rising food prices by keeping the interest rates pegged at the existing high levels.

      Onions can make the government cry. This has been witnessed in the recent Indian history. Such are the conundrums of facing the country that presenting the general budget is equivalent to a juggler, walking on a tight rope while multitasking. Steps taken to rein in onion and potato prices by raising the minimum export threshold price, is a clear indication of where the Modi government’s priorities lie at this moment. Given the battle against WPI that is being driven up mostly by food prices, it would be a great challenge to inject a growth impetus in the budget.

      The Iraq situation is not going to help India. The rising oil prices will also have a big impact on the CAD (Current Account Deficit). If the oil prices go out of control, what will happen to India’s import bills? (India meets 80% of its oil requirements by importing from foreign countries) So in order to curb in the CAD, a major decision would be to increase the import duty on gold, which was used by the previous government. But if the BJP wants to reduce the import duty on gold to please the electorate that voted it in, where then would it find resources or the ‘bitter pills’ to keep the CAD at bay?

       Election of pro market Narendra Modi has raised hopes that reforms will be put on fast track mode and projects which earlier got stuck, will be cleared. This has led foreign investors to invest over one lakh crores till date in equity and debt taking stock markets, to a new high. Also, what has been helpful in part is the Ukraine crisis in Russia and concerns about growth in China. Money which would have been poured in these two countries, is coming to India. With such high hopes from the government by the investors-both domestic and foreign, any slip off in budget will be severely punished.

        Along with the growth and inflation, many issues need to be addressed lucidly too. The ignominious invoking of the retrospective taxation system in the Vodafone case, has attracted the ire of the foreign investors. It needs to be resolved. GAAR needs to be addressed and its implementation should be postponed. Hard decisions regarding the subsidy on food, fuel, fertilizers, LPG should be pondered upon. GST should be implemented. But it would be interesting to see how it materializes since Modi, as chief Minister of Gujarat, had opposed it vehemently. There is also a need to increase the non tax revenue of the government. PSUs sitting on a huge pile of cash which they are not using, should be asked to give more dividends to the government. The DTC (Direct Taxes Code) Bill, which has been dwindling in the Parliament for too long now, needs to be legislated. Also over the last three years, India has been hit badly by ‘transfer pricing’ issues too. Finally, we continue to pursue the exchange of information with Switzerland, we need to enter into a treaty of the type entered into by UK where account holder who doesn't agree to be named, would be taxed on the accumulated balance and on ongoing income.

         Also India’s greatest bugbear of the immediate future is going to be the unemployment issue, in a country with an increasingly younger demographic profile. If there is no growth in the manufacturing sector, which is actually the prime mover of employment generation, the rising demands of the aspirational India won’t be met and the Indian market will be flooded with cheap Chinese products.

         According to the Prime Minister, the nation has to be governed with certain ‘bitter pills’. But if Mr. Jaitley assumes that he can do that by tinkering with the tax laws or reducing subsidies, he would fail badly. The test for the Finance Minister would be to improve India’s rankings in the Human Development Index, Ease of Doing Index, and Corruption Index. For this, he has to be refreshingly different from his predecessor.

CURSE OF PATRIARCHY

The curse of ‘December 16’ has come back and has blown away Akhilesh’s ‘Sheila Dikshit moment’. Rapes, molestations, domestic violence and other atrocities meted to the Indian women have been a universal phenomena in our society. Only recently in the past few years, the frequency and extent of such nefarious and gregarious incidents have compelled the media to highlight such heinous acts of cruelty. Earlier these incidents would go unreported, but ‘it’ has always been there. Yes we can talk about the various reforms, the role of State, the various legislations to be incorporated, but this would make this article a never ending process. Rapes, molestation, etc. are sensitive issues and people dealing with such issues need to be sensitive and compassionate enough before making any callous, impudent remarks. Tragically, the notion of what constitutes an ideal society, appear to be rooted in the very prejudices that have engendered a culture of violence against women. The Delhi incident, and now the recent incidents in Badaun and Meghalaya have reinforced the notion of a dominant patriarchal society ingrained in the Indian society. Such incidents portray women to be ‘dolls’ at the whims and fancies of diabolical men.

      

        But after the incident, it is always the insensitive, callous attitude of the society (the police, the government, and the insensitive remarks) that adds salt to the wound. The demonizing of the victim (“she asked for it”, “it’s all about money”, “they have made it a business”, “it is consensual all the time”) and the subsequent pariah reflects the retrogressive mentality of the people. When these incidents are viewed under the lens of a microscope, it magnifies the cultural, ideological bent of mind of the society. Cultural thought process that has been given a particular mode through aeon of traditional-inertial forces has fossilized the overall make up of a particular society. No amount of education and wealth, which are being regarded as the cornerstone of modern society, is successful in making a desired change within the gender sensitization domain. Let me point out some of the myriad insensitive comments made by own demagogues. Eminent political leaders such as Sharad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav have made comments such as “when one is young, one tends to slip up” and “boys make mistakes”. Even godmen like Aasaram Bapu’s statement that the 23 year old woman who died after being gang raped in Delhi was as much at fault as her offenders and that she would have sought refuge in prayer and begged her offenders to stop, would make you frown with grimace. This followed by Akhilesh’s ‘google comment’ that rapes occur throughout the country, reflects the lack of political will to deal with such issues. It is interesting to note that they are the same men who vehemently opposed the women reservation bill in the parliament. Why do these men make such irresponsible comments? Are they so naïve not to read between the lines? It is the other way round. The Yadavs (Lalu, Mulayam, Sharad) being grass root level mass leaders, understand the psychosis of the people in these areas, where male dominance is a norm. The portrayal of male chauvinism in states such as UP and Bihar (both rural and urban areas) has kept them in good heed. Hence their comments are in reality not irresponsible comments but a part of social engineering process. One such experience of the writer during his engineering days, where the topic of discussion was whether one should go for a housewife or a working woman, one Bihari guy replied “padhi likhi ko launga aur ghar main bithaunga” (I will marry an educated woman and make her a house wife)

         Do all men who whistle and wink at, grope, stalk, harass and molest women ever feel ashamed of what they do? The answer is NO. On the other hand, shame has been used as a double edged sword against women. They are easily tagged as shameless transgressors for acts such as marrying without the consent of the family, seeking a divorce, asking for a share in ancestral property or refusing to cover her face, hair or body. Since time immemorial, shame in the form of moral sanction has been an effective tool that the patriarchal society uses to control women, to limit their autonomy, their mobility and their choices. Shame is directly linked to the utmost necessity for a victim of sexual violation i.e. her rehabilitation in the society. The actual positive transformation in the life of the victim would take place only when the society is ready to embrace her with open arms.

          Police sensitization and accountability, judicial expediency, fast track courts and justice, civil defence mechanisms, better surveillance through CCTV cameras are some of the steps to bring about changes in the system. But one shouldn’t ignore the role played by one of the most important social institutions, which has a tremendous capacity to subvert the biased construct of social discrimination and stereotype, namely the ‘family’. It was not in vain when the famous sociologist Louis Althusser proclaimed ‘family’ to be the most prominent ideological state apparatuses. Thus families become repositories of exercising the functions of society and sustaining the power relations endorsed by it. The toys that the girls are given, the way the girls are encouraged to dress up, the way they are told to be docile and submissive are all part of the socialization process.

       Violence against women surges whenever the patriarchal status quo or the traditional mode is challenged. It strikes with a severe backlash to kick women back in the space ordained by patriarchy for her. A lot of debate ensued whether rapists are perverted, mentally sick individuals or whether it is about proving who the boss is. The important factor in the crime of rape is that it is all pervasive and is done across class, caste, religion, culture and countries. It is not just the sexual urge or lust but the will to subjugate and dominate the victim that leads to rape. It is an explicit manifestation of the power relations entrenched in our social fabric.

        Hence breaking the shackles of societal norms cannot be brought about through statutory laws; it has to evolve from the society itself, both collectively and individually. Only when parents make their sons realize the importance of respecting the other sex and treating it at par, when society stands up to support victims and ostracise the perpetrators, when society stops seeing women as belonging only to domestic realm, this battle will be holistically won.