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Journalism of Courage
Rewind to 1990, and an image that is for ever lodged in my memory. India Gate, Rajpath, and an injured Delhi policeman crawling, pulling himself towards safety. Fear of looming death written in his eyes. The newspaper got his photograph that close. And the accompanying caption mentioned that his service pistol had been stolen by the agitators. For reasons that are peculiarly provincial I found that to be the most disturbing part of the photograph. Since memory is frighteningly short, it is worth recounting that the photograph was taken during the siege of Delhi by agitators demanding the inclusion of Jats as an Other Backward Class. Delhi was well and truly surrounded then. Amongst Jat friends we’d remark that historically whenever Delhi has been raided by them, the rulers have had to bite the dust. In a few months that was to happen again. And nine years down the line, Jats were the latest beneficiaries of OBC categorisation.
Back to a blistering Barmer afternoon of May 30, 2007, and the shock in the district at being connected to the events of almost a thousand kilometres away. That was the cremation of Babu Lal Chowdhury, a young police recruit. He was part of a detachment of 100 policemen sent from Barmer to help other districts cope with the Gurjjar reservation mobilisation. And came back home a corpse split open by sword strikes. Doctors in Kota gave up hope as soon as he was wheeled in. His daughter is nearing five months. And to give the incident the most gruesome of caste ironies, he was a Jat, and died when trapped between the mob and a temple!
There has been much written, and aired, about recent incidents in eastern Rajasthan. Like all public outpourings, not all of it is accurate, either in a political or sociological sense. Myths tend to get made when emotions are heightened. But unless we shatter myths we don’t get closer to understanding the storms raging.
For starters it must be made clear that there was no commitment from the BJP to include Gurjjars a Scheduled Tribe (ST). A re-reading of the party manifesto for 2003 assembly elections makes that clear. Party policy, and commitments, must be read from that document, and that document alone. It was also mentioned in this newspaper that the Meenas are the only ST community in Rajasthan. That is also not accurate, for there are significant others. But the Meenas mentioned are certainly the most influential, politically and economically. And therein lies the genesis of this tale.
The epicentre of this agitation lies in the districts of Rajasthan where the Gurjjar and the Meena live side by side. There has been no violence in districts with significant Gurjjar populations, but which have no Meena presence. And this is also not an issue in areas outside of Rajasthan that have a far higher number of Gurjjars. Like all reservation-agitations, this too is about politics. This too is about empowerment, but as it is understood in the district. And the district sees empowerment very differently from how the chatterati does. It is not about entering the Union council of ministers, but being in the district and getting called ‘Collector Sahib’ or ‘SP Sahib’. It is not about gender and all those goody-goody things, but about getting your sarpanch, pradhan or zila pramukh elected even when the seat is reserved for STs. It is about sending legislators from seats that are reserved, as well as those that are not. So the Meena neighbour has a lot more of his kin in Jaipur to help him remove that teacher, nurse, gram sewak or patwari. That is power, not sitting in Delhi discussing esoteric subjects. But the entry into those portals is severely restricted, what with the Jat now an OBC and the Meena dominant in the ST ranks.
The process of addressing the Gurjjar sense of being squeezed out of benefits was begun by
various district administrations through analysing socio-economic data. It makes for fascinating reading. Despite the spread of Gurjjars in many districts it was only two that suggested an inclusion into the ST category. And those are districts where the Meenas reside in good numbers, and dominate. Sociologists mention ‘ritual hierarchy’ as one of the barometers for understanding a community’s condition. It is a curious term, but supremely relevant for an Indian analysis. So when the Gurjjar sees no difference between him and the Meena in a ‘ritual’ sense, but enormous differences in both economic and political, the seeds of resentment are sown.
To earn his livelihood, the Gurjjar has to leave his village, for there is no scope for him there. The landholdings are too small to sustain all the brothers. Educational standards being what they are, he has little chance of getting that coveted sarkari job in Rajasthan, the OBC quota being over subscribed, and the ST quota not open. And if he happens to be from near Ranthambore National Park, he’ll see the land once reserved for his cattle as ‘common grazing land’ now has posh hotels, run by posh people, where posh parties are held all night. And his cattle starve. Life is tough in the district, so the only option left is what his ancestors have done for centuries, join the army.
It is not for nothing that some of the most moving veer rasa in Rajasthani is sung by the Gurjjar. Nor that one of Rajasthan’s Victoria Class winners was a Gurjjar. Or that many a highway truck would have Veer Gurjjar written behind it. For that is the sense of self. Which is now on the boil, and Gurjjars have a precedent for it, from that late 20th-century siege of Delhi.
Incidents have happened that were unthinkable in Rajasthan. The political culture of Rajasthan was accurately captured in these columns on Thursday (‘The Dausa effect’ by Pratap Bhanu Mehta). But what is being witnessed is something completely alien. Indian politics has been influenced for far too long by patently mediocre historians. It is time some heed be paid to the sociologists who’ve been a far more innovative and vibrant lot. So politicians will then understand reservation agitations cannot be handled by administrative measures alone, but have to be seen politically, for they are political problems, and exacerbated by politics.
The writer is a BJP member of Lok Sabha from Barmer, Rajasthan
