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Journalism of Courage
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Chatur-varnyam maya sristam guna-karma-vibhagasah… (The four divisions of society are created by me, according to their qualities and work)”. But the basis of that division has been relegated to the realm of philosophy. In practical terms, caste is still determined by birth alone, and we can see its manifestations and pitfalls play out in our public life.
A lot has been and is being written about caste battles in India. The latest is senior journalist Manoj Mitta’s Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India, which chronicles the fight for equality that started even before the fight for Independence. Mitta writes that even though afterwards, the fight for political freedom and caste reforms went on simultaneously, “freedom fighters were not necessarily equality champions.”
In a country where birth determines caste, and consequently, social hierarchy, after the mid-19th century when India was suffering from plague and an estimated one million died in the pandemic, some courts in India and even the Privy Council in London was struggling with a deluge of petitions from communities to decide their status according to the four varnas.
Mitta is a rigorous researcher and after spending several years on this book, he has put together abundant information on issues and personalities relevant to India’s tryst with caste. He notes that in 1795, the East India Company had exempted Banaras (now Varanasi) Brahmins from the death penalty, though, in 1817, the Company had restored this option. He reminds readers that whatever caste reforms India pulled off after Independence, “have their origin in the pioneering struggle against Hindu conservatives that had been waged under British rule.”
For instance, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which “made direct reference to the 1850 law” and, the Anti-Sati legislation of 1987 under the Rajiv Gandhi government, which was borrowed from an 1829 regulation but “did not acknowledge these borrowings from (Lord William) Bentinck, despite repeated references.”
Mitta has given due space to some “unsung heroes” of caste reforms, who, the author says, did not get their due. One of the reasons behind it was that either they did not belong to the Congress or, if they did, they swam against the mainstream.
The list of such personalities include Vithalbhai Patel (Sardar Patel’s brother, for bringing the first-ever inter-caste marriage bill in 1918), Maneckji Dadabhoy (he was the first to bring untouchability into focus in 1916); BV Narasimha Iyer (he forced the government in 1915 to repeal the punishment of lower castes by confinement in stocks); Kalicharan Nandagawali (he moved a resolution in 1921 on access equality); Hari Singh Gour (he prompted several social reforms); MR Jayakar (he moved an untouchability-related Bill in 1929); MC Rajah (in 1919, he debated with the governor about access to public amenities for the “untouchables”); R Srinivasan (he moved a resolution in 1924 to open public places for “untouchables”); R Veerian (on whose Bill, in 1926, Madras Legislative Council passed the first ever legislation against untouchability); SK Bole (in 1923, Bombay Legislative Council adopted his resolution to let “untouchables” access public places, including watering places); and Thakurdas Bhargava (on his Bill, in 1949, India validated inter-caste marriage under Hindu law). Alongside, the book also recognises the role of some British officials in pushing for social reforms.
Mitta’s book also raises questions on some known “reformers” who “pushed back against caste reforms at different times even as they positioned themselves as reformers”, such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak; Motilal Nehru; Madan Mohan Malviya; Surendranath Banerjee and C Rajagopalachari. Rajagopalachari and Malviya (posthumously) have been conferred Bharat Ratnas in 1954 and 2014 respectively. Mitta establishes that “the ones who blocked the reform for so long were not the colonial rulers but a section of Hindus themselves.”
Even on Mahatma Gandhi, he writes, “In this specific context, he does not always come across as a Mahatma” for lagging behind his friends, followers and adversaries “in recognising the incongruity of not just the four-fold varna system but even untouchability”. On the first Prime Minister of India, he says, “Where (Jawaharlal) Nehru does appear in stories of caste reform, his role is limited to a cameo.”
The book also details how, in independent India, when VV Giri, who later became President of India (also a Bharat Ratna awardee), lost his Parvathipuram double-member Lok Sabha seat to a ST candidate, he fought unsuccessfully up to the Supreme Court to declare a ST winner as Kshatriya; and how Swami Karpatri Maharaj was “fighting” against Harijans touching the Jyotirlinga at Kashi Vishwanath.
Another eye-opening segment is a listing of the massacres of Schedule Castes (SC). Starting from the first such mass killing at Kilvenmani in 1968, where 42 SCs (then called Harijans) — mostly women and children were burnt alive — to Belchi in 1977 which became a political hotspot with Indira Gandhi visiting it as Opposition leader, to Bathani Tola massacre of 1996; to Laxmanpur Bathe of 1997, several such targeted killings of Scheduled Castes in different states show, how, in most of these cases, the accused were acquitted for lack of evidence. Despite Article 17 of the Constitution which abolishes untouchability, despite the SC/ST Atrocities Act 1989 and despite several other strict measures, this remains a reality in India.
In the national capital, we often hear people say, “ab kahan jaativaad hai!” Even as I write this review, there is news of a Schedule Caste groom allegedly being beaten up and forced to alight from the mare he was riding by a group of upper-caste men in Agra, a mere 240 km from Delhi. Such incidents remind us of the stark reality of caste in India.
At a time when elections are fought on caste calculation (for one party, it may be social engineering, for another, caste politics), when the demand for a caste census is high, this book is supremely relevant to explain to us the society that we live in. For me, this book has it all.
