State vs caste

Constables in Bihar live in crowded,intricately segregated barracks. A Sunday Express story detailed how the cordons are made absolutely clear,with trunks that bear the names of their owners. Some barracks are largely SC and ST,Brahmins dominate some,others are Bhumihar and Rajput,and Muslims are confined to their own corner. Kitchens are separate,and other common resources like taps and toilets are reluctantly shared. This de facto segregation is taken for granted by the policemen,despite the contradiction between their duty to battle caste-based oppression among other crimes and their own participation in these hierarchies. In 2006,Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had ordered that caste barracks and kitchens be dismantled. That project went nowhere,and he has now issued another order.

The segregation in the barracks is not surprising in a society where caste remains the fundamental organising principle. While caste senas may no longer roam the state as they once did,caste openly looms over every decision,from electoral strategy to arranged marriage,and works more subtly in employment,residential location,etc. In the absence of any coercion to live separately,one might argue that these constables are only reflecting the patterns of their social environment,or even that they are choosing to live with those who seem culturally familiar. However,even the term “self-segregation” encodes a variety of power relations,and degrees of volition — who gets to pick and enforce the bounds,how easy is it for members of a particular group to move into another area?

The police,especially,must make every effort to purge itself of casteism in any form,however benign. Living and thinking along caste lines is bound to affect the spirit of the force,dilute their sense of team spirit and solidarity with narrow considerations. What’s more,police constables are one of the first points of contact with the state,and they are obliged to be,and to appear to be,scrupulously neutral in their actions. If their official place of residence is divided by caste and sub-caste,they are unlikely to be able to shed this mental baggage in their work. The government,at least,must make every attempt to ensure integration,provide spots in the barracks by random lottery,or step in and assign places. The very existence of caste barracks is a reproof to the state.