The Bharatiya Janata Party has reversed its own publicly stated policy position and agreed to an all-caste census. It is a recognition that “principled” policy positions only enjoy sanctity as long as they do not create the conditions of electoral setbacks and loss of power. Caste – perhaps the most insidious and pernicious form of social distinction known to humankind – structures Indian life in inescapably violent ways. The ruling party’s exhortations to subscribe to an overarching Hindu identity cannot magically do away with the everyday reality of caste that fractures an imagined “united” religious identity and, before all else, directs Hindus to their primary, casted identities. Demands for a caste census have been about recognising the realities of caste. Whether interested in this aspect, the BJP appears to have recognised the realities of the electoral appeal of a caste census.
The need to address the socio-economic realities of caste through reliable data that might come from an all-caste census is important. However, as any social scientist whose work is based on empirical materials – fieldwork – will tell you, the matter of caste is not as straightforward as that. Empirical materials are always good to think with, so let me illustrate with two examples.
Across India, as areas of land within cities have been exhausted and become prohibitively expensive, urbanisation has moved into rural areas. Formerly agricultural lands are being furiously built upon. New Special Economic Zones (SEZs), shopping malls, gated residential communities, highways and various other forms of infrastructure now occupy lands that were earlier under plough. Both the state and private players are involved in acquiring rural land for reworking it into urban and industrial landscapes. As in South India, urbanisation activity has followed this trend in North India as well. In Gurugram, for example, as land closest to Delhi has been built over, city-making has moved further into the rural hinterlands of south Haryana. This has had great consequences for the relatively poor (as compared to Punjab, for example) peasant-farmers who reside in these areas. Their otherwise marginal holdings have gained momentous value; they have sold up and displayed all the new signs of sudden (and massive) wealth.
The economic effects of land sales have, however, also had an important effect on caste consciousness. Many of the newly enriched farmers of Gurugram belong to otherwise socially discriminated castes and new land-wealth has led to conversations about their impoverished past, its connection with their caste position and the fact that even though their material conditions may have improved, they are still be treated with lack of respect by those who see themselves as higher in the caste hierarchy. Money from land sales may have led to large houses and expensive German-made luxury vehicles, but not necessarily a different attitude towards those with such improved standards of living. There is a great deal of discussion about the injustices of caste and its hierarchies. And yet, I have not come across anyone from among this population who actually advocates for the removal of caste as a system. People chafe against discriminatory attitudes towards them, simultaneously as they express pride in their caste identity and its various characteristics. They speak engagingly and fondly about the kinds of foods, clothing, rituals and the various other social aspects that are seen to define the characteristics of their caste.
At the other end of the scale, it is common to find many “upper caste” Indians who condemn caste-based discrimination but, just as fondly, speak of their caste identity as a cultural phenomenon. That is, they speak of caste as an ethnic rather than hierarchy-based identity. Those from non-discriminated castes may speak of the varieties of cooking styles and food ingredients that are specific to their groups and cultural attitudes towards education and inclinations towards a cosmopolitan lifestyle. The two attitudes – against caste discrimination but fondness for caste identity – sit alongside each other, and one does not displace the other. Anti-caste Brahmins from different parts of the country will often speak of their regional specificity, and “progressive” Kayasths elaborately describe their ‘Kayasthness’ without necessarily viewing it as linked to any form of hierarchical framework.
A very large section of the Indian population – both those who have suffered from caste-discrimination and others who have benefited from it – dislikes caste hierarchies but not necessarily caste identity. There are bitter complaints about the ills of caste at the same time that it is seen to be fundamental to one’s being.
Is it possible that the caste consciousness that lies at the heart of caste-based discrimination can simply be a “neutral” and descriptive fact of Indian life? This is an enduring puzzle of the landscape of caste. It is, perhaps, understandable that those who have borne the brunt of caste-based discrimination seek recourse to group identity as a source of support for countering such discriminatory practices. However, why do the upper-caste Indians, otherwise opposed to caste, cling just as vehemently to caste identity? There is an inexplicable underlying sense that, though caste has “negative” effects, there are also “positive” aspects to it.
Can caste consciousness – a very general feeling that is not seen as anything particularly negative – exist alongside the desire to eradicate caste as a way of organising social life and interactions? “Caste”, as BR Ambedkar pointed out, “is a notion, it is a state of the mind”. And that the “destruction of Caste does not therefore mean the destruction of a physical barrier. It means a notional change”. While the proposed caste census is important, it is also worth thinking about the ways in which caste as a notion continues to sit alongside the apparent desire for its banishment. Data is important, but must always be supplemented by a critical attitude that moves beyond it. Otherwise, we may continue to have a circumstance where people oppose caste but also celebrate it.
The writer is Distinguished Research Professor, SOAS University of London
