6 DECADES AFTER AMBEDKAR, INDIA AND CASTEISM
by Ruma Begum
INDIA AND CASTEISM
After more than 6 decades of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s demise, the question of ‘equality’ still persists amongst the socially alert Indian masses. How much has been done and how much needs to be done to bridge the ‘Manuwadi gap’ between the ones who still face casteist slurs and the ones who hurl them, is still a matter of debate.
As per data published by the National Crime Records Bureau in 2020, a Scheduled Caste person faced crime every ten minutes in India, cumulating to a total of 50,291 cases registered in 2020, an increase of 9.4% from the previous year. Thus, it may not be an exaggeration to say that Article 15 gets stamped every 10 minutes in our country.
Today politics is all about religion, caste, polarisation and verbal mudslinging. Political parties release their respective manifestos but very few people actually read them; even fewer question the promises when left unfulfilled. Ideology, of course, has taken the backmost seat in the SUV of Indian politics. And amidst all the political ruckus and gimmicks, the constitutional intention to provide safety from discrimination on the basis of caste to each and every Indian citizen, particularly to that of the SCs and STs, has remained unheard of.
“Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path”, Ambedkar wrote.
Of course, people (particularly belonging to the general category) become an ardent devotee of Article 15 and equality when it comes to protesting against reservation in jobs, college and university admissions, etc. Questions like “If we are equal, then why do we need reservations?” emerge from the so-called champions of equality. But ironically, majority of them become conservative when it comes to searching for grooms/brides for their sons and daughters! After all, what else could be the reason that only 5% of marriages in India are inter-caste marriages (as per the studies conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2016).“Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path”, Ambedkar wrote.
Unfortunately, the quote still remains relevant even after 74 years of Independence. From television actors like Munmun Dutta to cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, casteist slurs have been used by famous people as if it’s a regular business. Even some educators don’t hesitate to use casteist slurs against their students. One can only imagine the plight of the underprivileged section of the society when political biggies aren’t spared from the ambit of caste-based insults. For instance, not long ago, the BJP’s mouthpiece in Kerala carried a cartoon to use a casteist slur on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by asking him to quit politics and start his ancestral profession of fetching toddy from palm trees. Also, who can forget the instance of way back in 2014, when the temple and the idols were washed after the then chief minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi paid a visit to the temple located in Madhubani district’s Parmeswaristan.
“The poison of casteism has infiltrated all religious communities. It will be absolutely wrong to assume that only the Hindu society has been infiltrated by casteism. Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other religious communities are also not free from it.”
The poison of casteism has infiltrated all religious communities. It will be absolutely wrong to assume that only the Hindu society has been infiltrated by casteism. Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other religious communities are also not free from it. The part that can make people flabbergast is that the idea of casteism in the shape of superiority complex can also be seen in the Schedule Caste society itself. One particular section of the SC community considers itself superior to another section of the SC community. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, there are four major caste groups among the state-enlisted SCs: Parayar, Pallar, Arundhatiyar and Chakkiliyar.
There are instances where they practice discrimination amongst themselves inspite of the fact that each of them belong to the Scheduled Caste. Thus, this entire corrupt form of ‘Sanskritisation’ has taken a toll on the unity of the Indian society as a whole. Henceforth, people from all spheres of the Indian society must try to grasp the fact that lamenting over reservation isn’t going to end discrimination.
After all, reservation was born in the uterus of casteism. Unnecessary mutual differences on the basis of caste and sect deepen the cracks in a diverse society like ours. We may try to befriend people from different social and political spheres in order to understand them. Isolating ourselves from people from any community only feeds the political parties’ vote banks, not the diversity of India. After all, at the end of the day, even the most casteist person doesn’t care about caste when he/she needs blood from a blood bank for his/her beloved ones.
[Ruma Begum is a student of Sociology, Indraprastha College for Women (under Delhi University).]
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