India will soon celebrate its seventy-first year of independence. Democracy is a relatively new arrangement of human relations. A common feature in the evolution of tribes, kingdoms, empires, or nations before the advent of democracy is the exploitation by a privileged few of excluded others. Slavery and caste are examples of such exploitation. India has to come to terms with its history of caste divisions and democratic thirst for equality?
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, born into the traditionally untouchable Mahar community and recognized as the father of the Indian Constitution, was a critic of the caste system. Ambedkar (1987[1]) noted that graded inequality characterizes the caste system, which ranks Hindus into unequal fixed social classes with separate stereotypic identities. Starting from the idealized to the devalued are the Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders and businesspeople), Sudras (artisans/farmers), and Dalits-Untouchables.
Recent genomic studies of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA show that between 2200 BCE till 100 CE, there was a large-scale mixing of diverse human ancestral populations in India[2]. Although many Hindus believe that differences among castes are divinely ordained and permanently fixed, the Hindu caste system is a social construct and rigidified only after that time. Indians, regardless of the divisions of castes and beliefs, have a common ancestry.
Now, “no group is unaffected by mixing, neither the highest nor the lowest caste, including the non-Hindu tribal populations living outside the caste systems[3].” However, castes and subcastes have been largely endogamous for almost two thousand years.
India is striving to overcome the blight of caste prejudices and internal divisions. India gained Independence from the British Empire in 1947. The Indian Constitution promulgated in 1950 holds equality to be a fundamental right.
To advance the historically disadvantaged groups (Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes of citizens), India promulgated temporary special provisions (affirmative actions). These consist of the reservation of 50% of seats in educational institutions and public sector jobs. Although initially envisaged for ten years, successive governments have continued special provisions. Special provisions have helped underprivileged populations, and more upliftment is needed.
However, there is current strife concerning the scope, duration, and desirability of such special provisions. Communities receiving help from the reservations want them expanded and treated as fundamental rights. Those opposed hold that caste-based reservations violate the Indian Constitution’s guarantees of equality for all and call for the end of caste-based quotas.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of India, in Mahesh Kumar vs. The State of Uttarakhand, held that reservations are the enabling special provisions for disadvantaged groups but are not fundamental rights. The Supreme Court is signaling that India is appropriately addressing the pre-Constitutional disadvantage of historically underprivileged groups through reservations but is constitutionally bound to deliver on every citizen’s individual fundamental rights to equality.
Deshpande and Ramachandran (2017[4]) describe dominant and prosperous farming castes Jats, Patels, and Marathas, who have agitated to be added to the Other Backward Classes or somehow gain access to reservation quotas. While appreciating these groups’ anxieties, Deshpande and Ramachandran question the wisdom of reservations for Jats, Patels, and Marathas. Whereas inherited inequality characterizes the Hindu caste system, equality is a prerequisite for any democracy.
India strives to find the best balance among the shared common good, individual self-interest, and competition. Therefore, residual conflict among individuals and groups is inevitable, requiring the guiding hand of good governance. Reconciling caste reservations, for the historically disadvantaged groups, with demands for equal treatment for all, under the Constitution, is India’s task for democratic integration.
Might state aid based on individual or family poverty, regardless of caste, religion, or sex, be a possible path to national integration? Establishing special provisions based on poverty would benefit an overwhelming majority of disadvantaged castes and reach the poor from other communities. Despite competing interests, Indians can realize their Constitution’s promises for a secular democracy, justice, liberty, and equality for all its citizens. All Indians can unite and make India a true democracy.
[1] Ambedkar, B. R. (1987). The Hindu social order: Its essential features. In Moon, V. (Ed.), Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s writings and speeches (Vol. 3, p. 106-7). Mumbai: Education Department.
[2] Tony Joseph (2018). Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From. Juggernaut Books. New Delhi (pp. 211-212)
[3] David Reich (2018) Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. By David Reich. Oxford Universities Press. The UK. pg.136.
[4] A. Deshpande, R. Ramachandran (2017) Dominant or backward? Political economy of demand for quotas by Jats, Patels, and Marathas. Economic and Political Weekly, 52 (19) (2017), pp. 81-92