Opinion Commission on inclusion of Dalit Muslims and Christians as Scheduled Castes: Setting right a long injustice

One doesn’t need data to see the bias built into the constitutional provisions on identifying SCs. Thus, the crucial question before the constitutional bench of the apex court is the validity or lack thereof of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, sub-clause three under Article 341, which expressly forbids the inclusion of persons who follow a religion other than Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. The said clause must be assessed against the fundamental rights of equality before the law and non-discrimination based on religion, race, or caste. The question of the inclusion of a particular caste and the requirement for data to study it would arise only after that.

The problem endures as the colonial understanding of the relationship between caste and religion persists. The British colonial administration firmly believed that caste was an exclusively Hindu phenomenon since the scriptures of any other religion did not extend legitimacy to this birth-based hierarchy. Hence, only Hindus were allowed to be included in the Scheduled Castes as part of the Government of India Act of 1935.

After Independence, the Presidential Order of 1950 gave a new lease of life to caste-religion congruence by relying on the same criteria. The two amendments to include Sikhs and Buddhists in 1956 and 1990 did not strike at the underlying premise. The Scheduled Castes order is a shining example of the colonial understanding of an Indian institution that has persisted 75 years after Independence. There is an excellent opportunity before the Supreme Court and the Government of India to decolonise the understanding of caste by quashing Clause 3 of the Presidential Order.

For too long, administrations have been hiding behind the excuse of a lack of data, a handicap that did not enable them to take a policy decision. It was not even a vicious cycle of the absence of data paralysing policy formulation. Once the inherent discrimination in the Constitution is removed, all other steps will follow independently. The inclusion of castes would happen on a case-to-case basis, using data collected by the Registrar General of India.

The claim that there is no data on these caste groups is also not tenable. Several studies have underlined the persistence of caste or caste-like hierarchy among Muslims and Christians after conversion to these religions and the existence of a group of people at the bottom facing untouchability. For instance, ‘Dalits in the Muslim and Christian Communities’, commissioned by the National Commission for Minorities, reviewed a body of social science evidence to reach a similar conclusion. Based on NSSO 61st round data, the report found Dalit Muslims to be the worst-off in terms of poverty, occupational pattern and educational attainments compared to Dalits belonging to other major religions.

The Lucknow-based Giri Institute of Development Studies conducted a state-wide survey of social groups among Hindus and Muslims in 2014-15. The findings of the ‘Backward and Dalit Muslims; Education, Employment and Poverty’ unequivocally established the practice of untouchability among Muslims, with Dalit Muslims being the worst-placed social group on all social and economic parameters. The primary data collected by the institute revealed that Dalit Muslims lagged behind other groups in literacy and educational attainment at different levels, as well as in services under the state and white-collar jobs. They had constrained access to formal financial sources, institutional delivery and social welfare schemes on the one hand, and a higher share of child labour and poverty on the other. Among the OBC, “general” and Dalit groups of Hindus and Muslims, Dalit Muslims experienced food insecurity for a longer time. They suffered from a deficit of durable assets and commensurate consumption.

The same report also unearthed the persisting practice of untouchability against Dalit Muslims by both Muslim and Hindu groups in commensal relations and access to public and socio-religious spaces. This data corroborates Ali Anwar’s argument in Masawat ki Jung (Struggle for Equality) that the Dalit Muslim castes continue to be traditionally associated with the same occupation as their Hindu counterparts. Not to mention the Sachar Committee report, which was a landmark in the field. The report ‘Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India’, prepared by the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee, identified the presence of a group called “Arzal” among Muslims, which is comparable to Dalits. The fact that these reports are in the public domain makes it difficult to hide behind the excuse that data is not available.

The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities forcefully reiterated and provided legitimacy to the demand for making the qualifying criteria for the Scheduled Castes religion-neutral. The report of the Ranganath Misra Commission has been waiting for action for the last 15 years. The new commission constituted by the government should explicitly be mandated to study the untouchability faced by Dalits among Muslims and Christians, which is a crucial criterion for the inclusion of castes in the Scheduled Castes.

It is not the paucity of data that would come in the way of removing colonial-era baggage. Once the exclusionary provisions are removed, the standard inclusion process can take its course. The numerical strength of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians might not be significant to influence the policy outcomes, but justice should be on their side.

The writer is Associate Professor, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow