Caste – Forever Inscrutable

We have lived in India now for 15 months. What was once foreign is now common. Yet our understanding of the caste system remains illusive. Newspaper stories of a new government quota for the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in premier government educational institutions evokes protests. In America, the mention of affirmative action fuels emotions. We suspect “reservation” is the hot button in India. And who are the OBCs?

From study we understand that there are five major castes in India and thousands of sub castes. Each major caste has a social role: Brahman – priests/teacher; Kshatriya - warrior/landowner; Vaishya – merchants; Shudra – artisans/agriculturalists; Harijans -dalits or untouchables. When this social stratification emerged is unknown by us, but the 1950 Indian constitution outlawed the caste system. Although legally banned, generations of hereditary caste discrimination still exists.

The topic of reservations has roiled since the British Raj. The Indian government in the 1950’s and again in 1979 with the Mandal Commission continued the counting of Indian’s “depressed people” as well as arousing the controversy. Attempts to implement Mandal’s recommendations sparked a Delhi University student to threaten self-immolation. The controversy ultimately caused the fall of Prime Minister Singh.

We understand bits and pieces. Enshrined in the Indian constitution are reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Scheduled Castes (SCs) include those once known as untouchables, now called Dalits, but also known by Mahatma Gandhi as Harijan, children of God. Scheduled Tribes (STs) are aboriginal people. The Mandal Commission using 11 socioeconomic markers classified Other Backward Classes as "castes/classes considered as socially backward by others." We stayed confused.

Whether driven by social idealism or political machinations, membership in an official SC/ST or OBC brings reserved access to government jobs and seats in public learning institutions. Unintended consequence spring forth. Some consider the Christian population undercounted, as converted Dalits remain un-enumerated Christians to maintain their reservation “privilege.”

On the other hand, conversion can be the threat to secure equal access. Recently 3,000 Dalits of Keredagada village threatened conversion to Buddhism if Brahman opposition barring them from the Jagannath temple was not dropped. Buddhism may have been a nod to Dr.B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism. Ambedkar, born a Dalit in 1891, rose to prominence as a jurist, a Dalit-rights movement leader converted to Buddhism in search of "equal status, equal rights and fair treatment" for the untouchables. More recently, another Dalit jurist, without the need for conversion, K.G. Balakrishnan, was appointed the 37^th Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court. Dalit = poor / Brahman = rich….just is not necessarily so….but more common than not. Who’s right?

As in the US, opinions fly between reservation and merit. Dalits and backward communities are painted as devoid of merit and the Forward Castes as meritorious.

If the Brahmans (priests/teachers) are so meritorious, Dr. Ambedkar’s website (http://www.ambedkar.org) begs, why then is half of India illiterate? Hmmmm. You can understand why our understanding of the caste system remains illusive.