By Dilip Bobb
There is this Biblical quote about who will cast the first stone. In contemporary India, that could well read caste, as political parties have made caste a central and combustible issue inside and outside parliament. The Congress under Rahul Gandhi did indeed, caste the first stone leading to some unparliamentary references from the ruling party loudspeakers. However, it was the demand for a caste census by Rahul and Akhilesh Yadav during the 2024 election and after which has clearly led to political whataboutery and sudden competitiveness to show empathy and support for India’s underprivileged. Now, even the Supreme Court has stepped in with a far-reaching decision on the issue of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs), triggering another round of political hand wringing and overdue concern for classification, reservations and the much-misused and misunderstood quota system.
The person who rises, literally, above all that is, of course, the President, now celebrating her second year with the gravitas and dignity the office represents and deserves. Droupadi means “daughter of fire” and it seems appropriate since she is not, as many believe, in that exalted office because of tokenism. As the earlier articles show, she has earned her distinction as the first tribal to enter that office, and also the youngest President, the apex of a long political career that has included a Gubernatorial position. In her words: “…people who were devoid of development for years – the poor, Dalits, backward, the tribals – can see me as their reflection. My nomination has blessings of the poor behind it, it’s a reflection of the dreams and capabilities of crores of women”.
Inspiring words but little has changed for the people she speaks of in the two years she has been President, or, indeed, the 64 years since she was born. Social mobility in India is a zero-sum game. Despite the Modi government’s many high-sounding initiatives, including his latest, ‘Stand Up India’ meant to transform the lives of SCs/STs, Dalits and women, on the ground the caste system has ensured it remains a complicated and contentious aspect of life in India, and now, a political flashpoint and a vote bank to be exploited. Two recent examples will suffice. Last week, the Goa government introduced a bill called Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes. The Goa assembly has 40 seats of which one is reserved for SCs and none for STs. The Bill refers to “a peculiar situation” where the population of STs is considerably higher than SCs, yet they do not have a single Assembly seat. The same week, the Supreme Court asked the government of West Bengal to explain the process it used to classify 77 communities, mostly Muslim, as OBCs (Other Backward Classes) making them eligible for reservation benefits.
The earlier Supreme Court intervention which created political shockwaves is only an added complication by shrinking the pie through its order of sub-categories for SCs and STs, basically creating a quota within a quota. In his recent, erudite article, Badri Narayan, director of the GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, points to its social and political implications, with BSP head Mayawati, who was the poster woman of Dalit empowerment, already opposing the proposal. He cites the example of many states where the competition for jobs and reservations have exposed even more political fault lines among the various castes affected by the SC verdict. As he writes: “In the frame of political morality, all political parties should support the move. And yet, the pressure of their caste bases and electoral pragmatism may compel some to oppose it.”
Mayawati herself is a prime example of how caste can be a force multiplier in electoral politics but also a destroyer when taken to unacceptable levels. Hailed as a Dalit icon and the Iron Lady of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati is now a caricature of her former self. Her unabashed accumulation of wealth, symbolised by that ever-present handbag, and failure to uplift her community which had voted her into power three times, led to her Bahujan (a term connoting the subaltern) Samaj Party becoming increasingly irrelevant in national politics. The BSP failed to win a single seat in the 2024 general election, abandoned by even its most loyal Jatav (a Dalit sub-caste) supporters. She proved that caste can be an advantage under certain circumstances, but also a curse.
The demand by many opposition leaders led by Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav’s for a caste census has put the proverbial cat among the pigeons. The prospect of a caste-based census has serious implications for welfare and ‘freebie’ politics and has the potential to realign the electoral bases of political parties. The BJP is firmly opposed to any caste census because of the electoral complications it may uncover. It might reveal that after nine years of the BJP in power in New Delhi, the upper castes still disproportionately wield power, position, and pelf.
Ironically, in 2022, its key ally in the ruling coalition, Nitish Kumar, spent a huge amount of the state’s funds on a caste census. The data that emerged showed that marginalised castes are the most dominant bloc in India’s social structure, and yet, remain deprived and discriminated against. The survey showed that 42 per cent of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes households live in poverty and that only 6 per cent of Scheduled Castes had finished Class 11 and Class 12. “The data reiterates how a small proportion of the dominant castes have occupied and controlled everything, from politics to its media to businesses,” Yashwant Zagade, a research scholar studying politics of the backward castes, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), was quoted as saying. Critics say a national caste-based census may give rise to the demand for more reservation in jobs and educational institutions from various communities. That comes with hazardous consequences, as we are now witnessing in Bangladesh where the massive public anger against a job quota in government and the public sector by students and the unemployed led to the downfall of a seemingly invincible Prime Minister, even forcing her to flee the country.
Measuring caste in India is highly consequential for understanding the dynamics behind the struggle for empowerment by what the British called the “depressed classes.” There is a heated debate over the exact number of OBCs in India, with census data compromised by partisan politics. It is generally estimated to be higher than the figures quoted by either the Mandal Commission or the National Sample Survey. The representation of OBCs in Central Government services is 21.57%, which is less than the prescribed percentage. The paradox is that while there may be some social stigma associated with identifying as a member of a lower caste, there are also an increasing number of incentives associated with doing so. The 2011 census reported 17% of Indians as members of Scheduled Castes and 9% as members of Scheduled Tribes. The OBCs, which came with another set of parameters, were not measured as part of the census which eventually led to then Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s controversial and politically-motivated push for an additional 27% reservation for OBC members in government jobs, with the reasoning that there were other socio-economically disadvantaged people in India besides SC or STs. The decision to implement the quota was based on an earlier report by the government-appointed Mandal Commission on social backwardness in India. With additional reservation for OBC communities, the total caste-based reservation would increase considerably to about 50% or higher in some states. His government’s decision to implement the reservation policies led to protests around the country, including self-immolations by university students. The Mandal Commission was heavily criticized for basing its recommendations on a pre-independence census. The 2011 census was aimed at obtaining more accurate numbers on lower castes in India, including OBCs, but this data has not been releasedsince it was deemed to be inaccurate.
Despite the political importance of the OBC category, no official estimates of the group are available even now, 74 years after Dr Ambedkar, a Dalit himself, albeit highly educated and brilliant in thought and deed, drafted the Constitution of India with its pledge to secure to all its citizens ‘Justice, social, economic and political’, as well as ‘equality of status and of opportunity,” India’s rigid social hierarchy has ensured that the so named backward classes have remained largely, with some exceptions, on the fringes. The issue of caste and empowerment has been further complicated by the “Creamy Layer” factor. Creamy layer is a term used to refer to some members of a backward class who are highly advanced socially as well as economically and educationally. They constitute the forward section of that particular backward class. The expression ‘means-test and creamy layer’ first found its mention in the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case of 1992 (also known as Mandal Commission case) in 1992.The creamy layer was then described as “some members of a backward class who are socially, economically as well as educationally advanced as compared to the rest of the members of that community. They constitute the forward section of that particular backward class and eat up all the benefits of reservations meant for that class, without allowing benefits to reach the truly backward members”. The Court also asked the Central government to fix the norms for income, property and status for identifying the creamy layer. In 1993, the creamy layer ceiling was fixed at Rs1 lakh per annum. It was increased to Rs 2.5 lakh (2004), Rs 4.5 lakh (2008), Rs 6 lakh (2013), and Rs 8 lakh since 2017.
The Court upheld the Nagaraj decision about the creamy layer principle, which prevents the wealthy members of the SC/ST community from receiving benefits in government or public sector jobs. The Court ruled that in order to transfer quota benefits to the weakest of the weaker people and prevent them from being taken away by members of the same class who were in the “top creamy layer,” the creamiest members of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes communities had to be excluded from the benefits of reservation in government services. The Court further noted that it would be impossible to improve the weaker groups if only a small portion of that class managed to secure every sought position in the public sector and maintain it, leaving the remainder of the class in the same condition as before. In the latest SC judgment, Justice BR Gavai urged that states must develop a policy to identify and exclude the ‘creamy layer’ among Scheduled Castes and Tribes from affirmative action benefits. He argued that this step is essential for achieving genuine equality as envisioned in the Constitution. He stated that children of individuals who have benefitted from reservations should not be equated with those who have not. Justice Vikram Nath supported Justice Gavai’s view, asserting that the ‘creamy layer’ principle applicable to OBCs should also apply to SCs and STs, albeit with different criteria.
The problem with the creamy layer concept is that it has generally been identified with the familiar nexus of nepotism. The creamy layer tends to take care of its own kith and kin, whether in politics or the bureaucracy. There are manifold examples, from the Soren clan in Jharkhand to Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, with the latest being the Pooja Khedkar case in Pune. The IAS probationer was accused of misusing power and privileges by demanding perks she was not entitled to, as well as faking her identity. Her father Dilip Khedkar is a former civil servant and was also charged for other offences. As the Indian Express commented on the case: “On the one hand, it has the power to erode our trust in one of the country’s most revered institutions. This is disastrous because the UPSC is seen by many as a beacon of merit where nepotism does not work, an island of excellence and an unyielding filter that weeds out the rest, choosing only the best to govern the country. On the other hand, it seems to confirm various beliefs about the working of the government machinery, which the public psyche suspects — a rampant misuse of power, corruption and the hackability of the system by the rich and powerful. For many, psychologically speaking, this is a confirmation of the worst fear: In India, you can get away with anything if you have the right contacts.”
That case reignited the politics of caste inside and outside of parliament. Generally, the successive pro-poor policies under various governments smacks of hypocrisy, now descending into a familiar tit for tat with the Congress and the BJP trying to assume credit for uplifting the backwards, as they are commonly known. A 2019 study by the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies is revealing. It found that the percentage of OBCs voting for the BJP doubled from 22 per cent in 2009 to 44 per cent in 2019. That’s the reason there is growing realisation among Opposition parties, including the Congress, that winning back the OBC votes is crucial to their electoral gameplan. Sajjan Kumar, a political analyst, has theorized about the BJP’s focus on the BJP’s attempts to consolidate marginalised communities – a concept that he terms ‘subaltern Hindutva’. He writes: “The fact that the top three posts (President, Vice-President, and Prime Minister) of the Indian Republic is represented by leaders belonging to subaltern communities has given the Indian Right a decisive edge over the opposition parties.”
For all that, SCs, STs and OBCs remain isolated, geographically, politically, and in terms of social acceptance. Dalits are still attacked physically, even killed, for daring to marry outside their caste or even for riding a horse to their wedding. A Pew Research Center survey in 2021 on caste in India showed that members of India’s lower castes form the lower social and economic rungs of society and continue to face discrimination and social repression. Ultimately, empowerment is about creating a more inclusive society where indigenous people have equal opportunities to thrive and contribute to the overall development of the nation. It is a crucial step towards achieving social justice and equality for all, as prescribed in the Constitution. The words of Ambedkar still echo down the ages: “No society has an official gradation laid down, fixed and permanent, with an ascending scale of reverence and a descending scale of contempt.”
Bipasha Maity, in a study on caste published in Science Direct, opines that the STs and SCs are the two most disadvantaged social groups in India.She writes: “Previous studies have usually grouped the STs and SCs together as one disadvantaged group and have compared their educational and occupational mobility with the higher castes. We instead seek to compare health outcomes of the STs with not only the upper castes but also especially the SCs. We find that STs consistently perform poorly even relative to the SCs in terms of knowledge and usage of modern contraceptives, antenatal and postnatal healthcare, incidence of anemia and child immunization. However, female infant mortality is significantly higher among SCs than among STs, with no significant difference in male infant mortality between these groups.” Anil Kumar of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, also produced an authoritative essay in which he wrote: “Scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India…Scheduled castes, also known as ‘Dalits,’ have been suffering from social, religious, legal, political, economic, educational, and other problems. Scheduled tribes live in various ecological and geo-climatic conditions ranging from plains and forests to hills and inaccessible areas and are at different stages of social, economic and educational development. Problems of tribes are mainly related to forest rights, land alienation, exploitation by money lenders, mining and displacement in tribal areas.
Development projects, such as industrial projects, dams, roads, mines, power plants and new cities, displace the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes from their homes resulting in destitution and unemployment. Today, displacement is the main problem confronting these communities.”
Some critics of the NDA have questioned if Murmu’s appointment would lead to the empowerment of an average tribal or Adivasi as they are broadly classified. So far, there are not many signs that this is happening on the ground. When she presided over a meeting of all Governors on August 2/3, she asked them to ensure “inclusive development” with a focus on scheduled and tribal areas. However, the sad fact is that her suggestion comes at a time when many governors are more focussed on battles with opposition governments (the Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions against governors of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal filed by those state governments) that her words may not carry much weight. The tragic conclusion is that those who the British termed as Depressed Classes still suffer from discrimination and deprivation on many fronts, largely thanks to India’s impenetrable caste system and their own lack of education and opportunity. Perhaps the one man who did the most to end discrimination, Mahatma Gandhi, was prescient in his view that in order to abolish untouchability or other types of political and economic discrimination, it was necessary to change not only laws but also people’s hearts and minds. President Murmu has three more years to prove whether she can indeed, make a major contribution towards halting, even reversing, that backward march.