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ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
Seminar on 'Annihilation Of Caste’
Though before Dr. Ambedkar there were several socio-religious leaders including Saints who opposed the Brahminical social order based on caste, the credit should go to him for a comprehensive theoretical articulation on the caste system. He strongly argued that the caste system was antithetical to the development of a healthy human social relationship. As early as in 1916 he presented his thesis on the caste system, entitled “Castes In India: Their mechanism, Genesis and Development”. The thesis was presented in the Anthropology Seminar at Columbia University in N.Y. Later he elaborated some of the arguments of the seminar, in his speech “Annihilation of caste” for the conference organized by Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore in 1936. However, he could not deliver his lecture as the organizers canceled the conference. Both of these writings are logically well argued. They analyze the nature and basis of caste system that create a parochial and divisive nature of society. He explains the origin of the caste system and why as well as how it has sustained. He then pleads that it is not possible to annihilate the caste system without annihilating the religious notions on which the system is founded. Ambedkar not only criticizes the caste system for its inhuman social order but he also presents an alternative social order based on liberty, equality and fraternity –democracy.
The thesis presented in the form of a lecture, 75 years ago, is still relevant today for more than one reason. On a normative/theoretical level, the Indian Constitution envisages building a social order around the principles of equality, liberty and fraternity- the principles for which Dr. Ambedkar stood firm and argued at length. The Constitution derecognizes caste based social order and strives through various provisions to build a casteless social system. It prohibits discrimination in the public sphere on the grounds of religion, race, caste, gender or place of birth. Not only that it lays down positive measures for ameliorating the socio-economic condition of the traditionally deprived social groups so that they do not suffer caste based discrimination and eventually in the process the Brahminical social order may become irrelevant. In short, the Indian Republic aims at building a casteless society.
It is time to revisit Dr. Ambedkar’s thesis on annihilation of caste – what he meant – in the context not only of his Text but also his other writings on caste and untouchability as well as his ‘ideal’ society based on Reason. The Text also needs to contextualize his call for political action, role of the State, his political activities and also his contribution in the formation of Indian Constitution, Hindu Code Bill and his conversion to Buddhism to translate his ideal into reality.
Moreover, the Text also needs a critical examination in the context of the nature of the contemporary caste system, its regional variations and ‘new’ assertion of political Hindutva. Along with this, a larger question for the discourse may be addressed thus: Is the Brahminical caste system, based on purity and pollution, anywhere near the process of annihilation after sixty years of Independence? Or is the traditional social order reasserting its value system, hierarchy and ethos? If it is reasserting, what is its nature and modus operandi? What is the impact of modernity – liberal values, democratic system, social-engineering measures, and market on the caste based social system?
Beside Ambedkar there were/are many other –liberals and radicals such as Nehru, Ram Manohar Lohia, Tagore, etc. who in their own way advocated and worked for destroying the edifice of caste system. Nevertheless, despite all such efforts we are caught up in a perplexed situation after six decades of economic and political ‘development’ of the country. At present, caste cannot be wished away as a social reality. For the first time after Independence Indian State has agreed to recognize caste as a social category for enumeration in the forthcoming 2011 census. Can it be read as legitimacy to caste and/or caste social order? Ironically, the dominant social groups oppose caste census with an argument that caste does not exist in modern India; on the other hand many pro -lower caste elite argue in favour of the caste census as in their view caste based discrimination continues to perpetuate in society. Do both the groups attach the same meaning to caste?
If caste needs to be annihilated, a question arises: Can it be annihilated by annihilating the religion (Hinduism) in philosophical terms, and its sacred texts as Dr. Ambedkar pleaded? Is the religion confined merely to scared texts? Would the social system wither away by de-recognition of the sacred texts on the part of the State and the Elite? Be it noted that Indian Constitution does not recognize Hindu scared text books as authority to maintain and govern social relationship. We also now have some evidences, at least from some parts of the country that during the pre-colonial period, “political domain was not encompassed by religious domain” and folk Hindu religion was not the same everywhere as codified by the texts. In a given situation the nature of the system as it is functioning needs to be critically interrogated. We also need to address: what kind of cultural, political and economic intervention might accelerate the process of weakening the present day caste structure if not a complete annihilation of the system?
Anti-caste movement began prominently in the early 19th century. Its leadership approaches and strategies of course vary from time to time and region to region. In the 1930s when Dr. Ambedkar wrote the above booklet, anti-caste movement was in full swing in certain quarters. Then, “Jat Pat Todak Mandal” was one of the leading organizations in North India. It is time to revisit historical nature of this movement and its impact; and the status of such movements if any in the post Independent India. Can we call present day dalit and OBC (Bahu jan samaj) struggle as anti-caste movement to annihilate the caste system? What is its impact on a ritual based hierarchy?
It is an oversimplification to say that caste has ceased to exist in Indian society. But at the same time it is naïve to assume that caste determines all aspects of life in modern India throughout its length and breadth and to say nothing has changed. It is worthwhile to examine empirically what is the nature of caste in India today? Are all the features of a traditional caste system found within caste/jati in terms of boundary, authority structure, endogamy/exogamy relationship, ritual ascribed functions etc. exist? Similarly does the essential core of the system –purity and pollution, ritual and occupational hierarchy perpetuate among the castes, or have it changed? If so, what changes have taken place and what features have continued in the last sixty years in the midst of a democratic system, market and liberal education system? What changes have taken place in its ritual/religious, social and economic role in determining life chances of a citizen? Has caste now become confined more to identity/marker, rather than ritual hierarchical system? Does the erosion, (if any) of the ritual hierarchical order mean the problem of exclusion of traditionally deprived groups from socio-economic development process has become irrelevant? When the elite of the lower caste demand for an enumeration of caste category do they wish to legitimize ritual and social role of caste? Or is it an assertion for identity in competitive politics to get social justice –inclusion in the development benefits?
Can caste based mobilization lead to social transformative process – eventually weakening, if not annihilating the caste system –challenging dominant social classes? Or has such process come to an impasse?
Some of the above questions and many others need to be examined in order to understand the caste system and its eventual annihilation as a discriminatory system. The proposed seminar will focus on the following themes related to annihilation of caste system:
(a)Discussing Abmedkar’s Texts
(b)Other texts on abolition of caste system: Lohia, Nehru, Tagore…
(c)Anti caste movements in the post-Independence India.
(d)Nature of the caste system today: Is it weakening? Is it getting strength? Role of democracy, modernity, market etc. in the changing nature of caste.
(e)Social Engineering: (a) Welfare policies of the Indian State, (b) Reservation. Consequences of these measures on the caste system.
(f)Panel discussion: (a) Way Ahead. (b) Stratification, Egalitarianism and the Future .
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