Caste identity and U.P.’s qualified success

November 11, 2014 12:50 am | Updated 12:50 am IST

Development Failure and Identity Politics in Uttar Pradesh Author: Roger Jeffery, Craig Jeffery and Jens Lerche

Development Failure and Identity Politics in Uttar Pradesh Author: Roger Jeffery, Craig Jeffery and Jens Lerche

The eradication of caste became a major part of the programme for social change after Independence in India. The hope of many was that the forces of economic development and modernisation (read, secularisation) would reduce the dominance of caste and result in an egalitarian society. Indeed, there were noticeable signs of change in some parts of the country, especially in urban areas.

Way back in 1957, Prof. M.N. Srinivas, the doyen among Indian sociologists, fluttered the dovecotes when he said, “Caste is still very strong and is growing stronger.” It was at the Annual Science Congress held in Calcutta. This became controversial and generated heated debates among academics. Marxian and non-Marxian scholars debated the role of caste versus class.

In recent years, we have a more balanced view of the roles of caste and class. Andre Beteille has examined these issues in his writings with profound scholarship supported by field studies. In a scintillating article in the Economic & Political Weekly (The Peculiar Tenacity of Caste, March 31, 2012), he reinterprets the findings of Srinivas and provides new depth. Castes endure in India, but not for the reasons which bound them together in earlier decades, such as rituals, notions of pollution, wedding norms, etc. These are no doubt weakening. But, as he says, “We will have to turn to a different sphere of activity to understand the peculiar tenacity of caste, and that is the sphere of politics.” (Emphasis added.) With adult franchise, the style of electioneering has changed. It is easy for a voter to identify himself more readily with a caste than with a class. “Where caste consciousness was dying down, it was brought back to life by the massive campaigns that became a part of every election.”

With the rise of Hindutva, the demolition of Babri Masjid and the storms swirling across India in the wake of the Mandal Commission report’s implementation, caste groups have morphed into potent interest groups. Among others, they destroyed the dominance of the Congress and brought about newer coalition governments. Caste groups and caste-based parties began to align opportunistically to get a share in power and to advance group interests, i.e. reservations, quotas, subventions, etc.

In a broad political sense, it is an eminently democratic process where groups interact and resolve their interests. This process is viewed by some scholars as “the transformation of castes into interest groups, resulting in the erosion of the caste system, mostly under the influence of ethnicisation and positive discrimination programmes.” Caste groups thus tend to acquire separate identities to operate in the democratic system.

It is natural that the phenomenon of caste and the role of caste or ethnic identities in the India became a matter of great interest to western scholars. Back home, they don’t have castes and its prevalence in a backward country like India is worthy of research! Teams of scholars descended on India to study them at micro or grassroot levels. The book under review is the product of two conferences of the European Association for South Asian Studies held in 1998 and 2010. They were devoted to developments in Uttar Pradesh. The papers are based on field studies, mostly undertaken in the last decade. More recent developments such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning the Lok Sabha election and the emergence or disruption of political alignments reduce the relevance of some studies.

The broad message conveyed by all the papers in this volume is that Uttar Pradesh’s democracy is a qualified success. As the editor confesses, “the book dwells more on the qualifications than the success.” While the book celebrates the State’s formal democracy which has brought about a genuinely competitive multiparty system, it laments the absence of substantive democracy. Individual chapters explore the mismatch between the two. Except the last chapter by Zoya Hasan of Jawaharlal Nehru University, all others study small segments and do not add up to a big picture.

Satendra Kumar studies the changes at a village level. While caste groups are diversifying economically in the neoliberal economy, they are doing so with very unequal effect. Their diversification is limited by the inequalities stemming from pre-existing caste stratification. Large sections of Uttar Pradesh’s population have been left out of the benefits that have flowed to the privileged few.

The chapter by Patricia Jeffery on the pulse polio programme undertaken in western Uttar Pradesh was based on a field survey undertaken around 2004-05. It deals with the undue importance attached to the programme and the resistance it met with from illiterate Muslim families based on irrational fears or religious prejudices. As later medical surveys have shown, there were errors committed by health authorities in the earlier stage of the programme and also the efficacy of the vaccines used. It is to the credit of the health authorities that they changed the vaccines and persisted with the programme. Resistance had indeed taken a communal character.

On the whole, global opinion on date is unanimous in its admiration for the Indian record in totally eradicating polio. The chapter fails to take note of all later developments.

Ali Mehdi analyses the “elusive pursuit of social justice for Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.” He deals with the performance and achievement of the BSP while in power. In his view, the BSP was able to provide to the Dalits what all other parties could not. As he argues, BSP has not only led to a less disabling environment for them, but also visibly enhanced their sense of self-respect and self-confidence which “neither pre-BSP Dalit mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh, nor job reservations, scholarships, etc. provided by successive governments were able to bring about on a scale we witness today.”

In a very detailed study (Chapter 6), two authors describe the growing political cooperation and distrust in Yadav-Muslim relations. They concentrate on their relations in Mathura. The area had not witnessed any communal riot since 1954. However, between 1999 and 2009, social relations between Yadav and Muslims deteriorated. Over years, the Samajwadi Party has come to be seen a Yadav party, ‘a family party’ and “a party of intimidating muscular politicians.” Based on their field study, the two authors noted the increasing popularity of Narendra Modi and the possibility of BJP gaining more seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This assessment done around 2010 was prophetic.

Philippa Williams analyses the unique features of the silk sari industry in Varanasi as a case study of Hindu Muslim relations. There are myths about the harmony obtaining in their relations in Varanasi. Her study explains the growing tensions and continuing subordination of Muslims who are weavers to Hindus who are traders. The industry is dominated by traders (Hindus) who exploit the weavers (Muslims). Muslims are not allowed to enter the trading sector, even to open shops in Hindu dominated bazaars and there are other subtle ways of discrimination and subordination. This results in Muslim marginalisation that is rooted in a form of Hindu hegemony.

It is Zoya Hasan who captures in its entirety the malaise that is UP politics. This is in the last chapter on “Democracy and Development in Uttar Pradesh.” As she narrates, identity-driven parties were able to occupy the space vacated by the Congress. If, in the 1990s, the balance of power shifted from the upper castes to backward castes, the balance shifted even more dramatically with Dalits during Mayawati years and posed a threat to backward caste power. These changes did raise the status of the Dalits and OBCs but did not result in any structural change in the economy or public intervention to advance them in terms of education, skills, and health. Sadly, in Uttar Pradesh, as she says, “For too long the main concerns of its politically powerful men and women have less to do with development of any variety, and more to do with the calculus of caste and community.” It has reduced to politics to narrow networks of caste groups and clientilism.

On the whole, this is book is highly scholarly and the conclusions drawn have the caution becoming of academics. The conclusions are somewhat depressing. But the authors are not to be blamed. The book is valuable addition to the study of Indian politics at grass roots.

DEVELOPMENT FAILURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS IN UTTAR PRADESH: Edited by Roger Jeffery, Craig Jeffery, Jens Lerche;

Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B1/1-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044.

Rs. 995.

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