"Irrespective of political considerations or threat to law & order, majoritarian casteism should be condemned & the backwardness should be objectively revised to exclude ‘over represented’ and to include ‘under represented’ for which the Backward Classes Commission was originally established."
NIRMALKUMAR MOHANDOSS
In July 2016, the High Court of Punjab & Haryana pulled up the Government of Haryana over the issue of rape committed during the JAT quota agitation at Murthal that February. The Court asserted that rape had been committed on women, the charge that the Government did not deny. It is said that several women were stripped naked and sexually assaulted during the agitation. This happened just less than 90 days before the next quota agitation wherein several public properties worth crores of rupees were damaged by the JATs and the Government had to deploy para military forces against its own citizens to prevent mishaps.
Similarly, when the Kappus in Andhra Pradesh staged an agitation seeking ‘backward class’ status the same year, railway lines were damaged and other public road transport systems were burnt down. The ‘Patels’ also took to streets the previous year, with its sword wielding ‘young leader’ Hardik Patel threatening the Government of dire consequences if they were not given the ‘Backward class’ status.
Legally speaking, there is a glaring difference between the caste based reservation aimed at uplifting the ‘oppressed’ and the one aimed at advancement of ‘socially and educationally backward’. The historically oppressed castes those were subjected to abhorrent practices like untouchability have been listed as ‘Scheduled castes’ by the President of India (read ‘Union Government’) with respect to the ‘States and Union Territories in consultation with the Governor (read ‘the State Government’ concerned). These are castes which are fighting inequalities in the form of ‘community walls’, two tumbler system and honour killings even today.
However, the other communities to which special provisions and privileges are extended by law are the ‘Backward classes’ to which JATs, Patels, Kapus and others seek/sought inclusion. The Constitution of India classifies them as ‘Socially and educationally backward’ for the purpose of prohibition of discrimination in general and as ‘backward class of citizens…not adequately represented’ in the matter of employment. Since our social structure is deep routed in the vedic varna system and the rules of Manu Smrithi which are outright feudalistic & discriminatory, such social reforms are essential to fast track equality of social status with adequate representation for all communities in substantially all fields of the society.
In Indra Sawhaney Vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court had directed the Government of India to constitute a permanent Commission to study and investigate ‘backwardness’, over-inclusion and under inclusion of ‘class of persons’ from the list of backward classes. Pursuant to this, the National Commission for backward classes Act, 1993 was enacted to establish the Commission to recommend from time to time, inclusion of under represented and exclusion of over represented from the list of ‘backward classes’.
Shockingly, according to the official figure presented by the Commission, as of 2016 it had decided 1221 cases with respect to inclusion and rejection of applications for inclusion. This means ever since its inception, in the last 2 decades several hundreds of classes of persons have been included in the list of backward classes while not even one has been removed as ‘over represented’. If reservation to the ‘under represented’ classes had given them adequate representation, few such classes should have now achieved adequate representation resulting in their exclusion from the list. This should either mean that the reservation to these classes did not give them the desired results or the list is not revised objectively. In other words, political considerations but not objectivity determines the ‘backwardness’.
Taking the example of Tamil Nadu, the members of the historically powerful caste that led to the formation of the Justice Party in the early 20th century (to beat the ‘Brahmin dominated’ Indian National Congress) is still classified as ‘Backward’. This caste had members in the legislature at all times even before independence. Some of them were English educated and were conferred with various titles including the ‘Sir’.
Similarly, in his book ‘India after Gandhi’, Ramchandra Guha lists down the caste riots between certain ‘Land owning communities’ and the ‘Land tilling dalits’ in the late 20th century as the former suppress the latter. The dominating caste that he mentions is still enjoying ‘Most Backward class’ status in Tamil Nadu. Members of this caste own land, have businesses and dominate electoral politics in the central-Southern Tamil Nadu even today. Irrespective of parties, only candidates from this caste win elections in the region. This is also the case with three other castes (or cluster of sub-castes) those dominate the electoral politics in the Southern tip of Tamil Nadu, the ‘Kongu Mandalam’ (Western Tamil Nadu) and the Northern Tamil Nadu respectively. These are also the various castes that are also allegedly behind honour killings of youngsters like ‘Ilavarasan’ and ‘Shankar’ only to mention a few. These are castes which are not oppressed but for historical reasons did not have adequate representation in all the fields of the society.
In addition to this, Tamil Nadu is likely to face the danger of ‘majoritarian casteism’ as one of the caste groups has started agitating, calling for ‘proportional representation’ in education & public employment. According to the caste-based party that has launched the agitation, since they form ¼ of the population in Tamil Nadu, they are entitled to public employment proportionately irrespective of their social status.
This is entirely opposed to the concept of social justice. Social justice aims at providing reservation to people at the bottom of the social heirarchy, who on the grounds of their caste alone do not have adequate access to public resources and public places. As against this aim of bringing a balance in the caste heirarchy, majoritarian casteism calls for a proportionate representation without citing social injustice. If political considerations take over objectivity in determining who is ‘backward’ for the purpose of privileges, in addition to permitting majoritarian casteism in providing proportionate representation, then socially just India would become a distant dream. Irrespective of political considerations or threat to law & order, majoritarian casteism should be condemned & the backwardness should be objectively revised to exclude ‘over represented’ and to include ‘under represented’ for which the Backward Classes Commission was originally established.
(The author is available for comments & feedback at nirmalkumar.m.law@gmail.com)
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