An internal code, culture and values make a caste special to its members.
What explains the persistence of caste consciousness in our politics? André Béteille explores this in his piece in The Hindu (India's destiny not caste in stone, February 21, 2012).
Béteille's argument is structured thus:
Media experts are preoccupied with caste and its role in politics. Divisions of income, education and occupation are ignored, and caste alone is stressed.
Béteille says in 60 years a great many things have changed. These are things that change over generations, and so don't interest the media. People dine with one another now. To insist on these rules of ritual purity in the age of the college canteen, he says, would cause a scandal. The “custom of marrying within the caste is still widely observed,” he accepts, but adds “it will be difficult to argue that caste consciousness in matrimonial matters has been on the rise in recent decades.”
To him such things indicate the steady dying out of caste consciousness in matters outside politics. So then what explains the persistence of caste in politics? Béteille says: “The consciousness of caste is brought forward to the fore at the time of elections.” How? “Private television channels have created a whole world in which their anchors and the experts who are regularly at their disposal vie with each other to bring out the significance of the ‘caste factor'.”
Let us agree with Béteille that caste is not India's destiny. But let us also examine why it persists in our politics if it's dying out elsewhere as he claims it is. The Constitution created rights, Béteille says, but could not eradicate caste from the hearts of its citizens: “For many Indians, and perhaps the majority, the habits of the heart are still the habits of a hierarchical society.” Adult franchise opened up the possibility of mobilising electoral support on the basis of caste, but outside politics “the consciousness of caste has been dying down, though not very rapidly or dramatically.”
In showing changes in society, Béteille refers to such things as pollution and inter-dining. That is to say, in interactions members of caste A have with members of caste B. This is the prescriptive aspect of caste. The Constitution skewers it through Articles 15, 16 and 17, but it was dying even a century ago. The Sanatani Gandhi does only perfunctory penance for sailing to England (and so losing his caste), and promptly sails off again, to South Africa. The prescriptive aspect is eroded easily by modernity because it is prejudice and superstition. Adherence brings little benefit. It erodes also because, as Béteille says, urban life brings proximity, in the college canteen and the city bus, where such rules are not easy to follow.
Is this aspect of caste, the one that is dying out, what produces caste division in politics? Is it why people cleave to their caste when they vote?
Two examples
No. The reason for the persistence of caste in politics is something entirely different.
It has to do with the internal code of the caste, its positive aspects, its culture. What makes it special, according to its members, and distinguishes it from the other castes. This aspect erodes more slowly, if it erodes at all, because it is felt.
Two quick examples will illustrate what is meant. Let us look at the castes of the 10 richest people in India, according to Forbes magazine: Lakshmi Mittal (Baniya), Mukesh Ambani (Baniya), Azim Premji (Lohana), Ruia brothers (Baniya), Savitri Jindal (Baniya), Gautam Adani (Baniya), K.M. Birla (Baniya), Anil Ambani (Baniya), Sunil Mittal (Baniya), Adi Godrej (Parsi).
Nine of the 10 are from mercantile castes, including the only Muslim. The break up as we go further down the list is diluted somewhat in favour of the other castes, but not by much. Even first generation billionaires, for instance Adani, the Ruias and Sunil Mittal or Uday Kotak (Lohana), tend to come from mercantile castes. Wealthy Muslims like Premji or Khorakiwala (Lohana) also tend to follow this pattern. It is not easy to find many Indians of non-mercantile castes who run businesses of scale.
The Baniya is convinced that his ability to raise and manage capital is demonstrably superior to that of the rest. He sees this as a result of his caste's culture, which stresses the ability to set aside honour, to compromise.
Honour killing
Now let us look at honour killing. Murdering their daughters for honour is almost exclusively done by the peasant castes of north India, especially the Jats of Haryana and Punjab. What is honour killing? Honour is bestowed on us by others. We cannot honour ourselves. Honour killing is successful only when his caste accepts that the Jat has redeemed his honour by murdering his disobedient daughter.
The Jat receives from his caste's values the ability to be rigid about honour, to not compromise. This distinguishes his caste, and he takes pride in it. Baniyas don't do honour killing because their community gives them no honour for killing their daughters. The division will not be papered over by modernity.
This explains Béteille's marriage problem. Castes inter-dine but don't inter-marry much. Why not? Not for fear of pollution, but because of a positive attraction towards people with the same values, which emanate from caste.
This is also the aspect of caste that drives people to vote for their own kind. Whether or not the media emphasise this is unimportant. The fact is that the Indian votes confessionally. For him or her, merit comes from caste values. This condition may not be forever unalterable, as Béteille points out. But it is also evident that modernity by itself has thus far not dented it as it has the prescriptive aspect of caste, the one Béteille focuses on to make his argument.
“The average villager devotes far more thought and time to home, work and worship than to electoral matters,” says Béteille. If he means to say that this takes him or her away from caste, he's wrong. Home, work and worship are precisely where caste is embedded most powerfully, and the reason why caste consciousness persists in 2012. Voting is only an extension of this consciousness that has, in fact, not changed that much.
Perhaps it will change in 100 years. But even if it does it won't be because news channels have stopped talking about it during elections.
Read André Béteille’s response
(Aakar Patel is a director with Hill Road Media.)
Keywords: Caste politics, caste inequalities, honour killing
Caste politics is a half-brother of Communal politics. The British
were adept at the the 'Divide and Rule' game and introduced reserved
constituencies. It led ultimately to the Balakanisation of the country
and creation of Pakistan/Bangladesh.
We Indians fell for caste reservations because new doors were opening
up; but the country has been divided and sub-divided and left in a
pathetic state even after 65 years of Independence with many on
permanent dole..Easy access to jobs and academics have made such
politics attractive. In the process merit is being given the go by.
The poison has spread.
It requires a powerful leader of a powerful political group to undo
this curse.I do not see such a one in the horizon. Pity!
more than the politicians, it's the voter who is more concentrating on
the caste of their leaders.... they (voter) were of the opinion that if
the a politician of their caste wins then they will be favoured...
to overcome this the minds of the people must be changed from their
childhood, by proper education.
nowadays the leaders with the greater capabilities are not getting
opportunities to contest in the elections due their caste..
so the voter should change his view and vote by considering the
potential of the leader rather than their caste...
Caste division is a reality in India. It is there in several other countries. In India, the division was there all along. The divisions are there in all the religious groups in India. The rule book of India really wanted to bring about a change. The members of the Constituent assembly were very sincere about that. They thought that changes can be brought about Within a period, but we we have found that this is next to impossibility. The people of India Are deeply immersed in retaining this for variety of reasons and the govt has found it difficult to bring about a change. All the political parties, even select candidates based on
castes. An honble minister was in trouble recently on some statement he made on reservation and later expressed regret. India is not in a position to have a common law for All religious groups. The govt cannot be blamed for this. In a democratic country, changes cannot be brought about as in a totalitarian state. Let us accept the realities.
caste had have the biggest problem in India which results discrimination, honor-killing and many more dangerous things. in my vies our people, our government and our society have been failed to overcome it. i think the only thing can erase this problem is appropriate education to each and every people of our country. politics of India also has been caste oriented , all the political parties observe the caste with higher no. voters of a region before declaring the name of their candidate for this region.
Caste will persist in politics. Politics is a mirror of society. Right from the time one is born, to go to school, work and even in marriages (which are arranged) caste plays a key role. Though it doesn't manifest at a drop of hat, individual's natural tendency is to take umbrage in crowd.
The religious sections are numerous in line with the number of gods. The caste sections are in line with their birth certificates, They would only increase in numbers rather than disappear.
Religion is slowly disappearing as the youth are growing in numbers. But the caste system
is advantageous to youth to get advantages in jobs and hence they would accept that system for ever. There is another system is growing up very fast which might over take all the above systems. That is the party sections and divisions. If we look at the regional levels, we have
in Tamilnadu, parties like congress,DK, DMK, AIADMK, MDMK, CPI, CPM, DDMK, PMK so on ..
In other states also we see so many parties springing up during each elections. At this rate
this division would sure to extinguish, the other religious and caste systems within a short period of time.
Good quality Education will not solve the purpose of Caste Based voting, because the educated Class don't vote at all. i am not saying this just as a statement. i work in an MNC and From the past 2 years i had done a survey of people with whom i had interacted and the results are very disappointing. The educated/working class don't want to go to polling booths, they think its a waste of time and also their thinking is that they will not be affected much whoever is the ruling party. So something different from good quality education is required.
I just went thru the article, This article contains only visible aspects of the Caste System in India and whoever have written this article did not know the reality [Invisible aspects of the Caste System]. Let me tell you dinning/ standing/ praying/studying/ talking in public places together does not shows that Caste System is 'Crumbling' because though people are dinning/ standing/ praying/studying/ talking together , the MENTALITY have not changed. Until the mentality gets changed, I am not sure about the writers argument that the caste is vanishing.
MARRIAGE: People are marrying intercaste only when: 1. They fell in LOVE 2. They don't have money for giving dowry 3. They calculate and gets the better opportunity etc. YOU GIVE THEM RESERVATION, YOU GIVE THEM COMPANY IN
DINNING/TALKING/LIVING, BUT YOU DON't GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED i.e.
DIGNITY,RESPECT, and YOU DON't Change you mentality towards them.
That is why Caste is alive and will be.
As per Maclver and Page definition of caste is "when status is wholly predetermined so that men are born to their lot without any hope of changing it, then the class takes the extreme form of caste".
As per this India has abolished caste with commencement of constitution. what is left now distinct culture and their cultural practice. And this distinct culture are slowly assimilating into one culture and this assimilation has been expedited by common education system. Thus I agree that future of India is not caste.
Caste System has deep down roots in indian culture.It is like the
"Brahamastra" for politicians.They have used this weapon over and over
again to register wins in the Elections.And I think we the people are
responsible for this.We have,many a times,cast our votes in the name of
"Caste".The Only solution is "Quality" Education to each & every child
to impart in them the value system and not the caste system.
Well written article.The author rightly brought out the weak link that exists between conscience and caste.
After reading this article i feel that whatever the author has written is true .I also read one of the comment saying that good quality education is the key to get rid of caste based voting , i am afraid thats not the solution . I see that most of the people around me (Most of them being well educated) always go for caste based voting . Say for example few of my friends support bjp as they are hindus and rest of my friends support congress ...
If i tell u that Indian cricket team is divided into 2 parts and 6 will play for the country(Party in power) and rest will play against the team (Opposition) will we ever win ????
The same is the concept here , if we have 10 smart leaders in INDIA we want them all to work for India and make our country a better place . Instead what we see is people trying to make political parties higher then the country .. Sad but true ...I doubt authors statement that things will change in 100 years , i think it will take much more time than that :)
Very pessimistic article - does not consider the influence of education and access to modern technology on the mindset of people. As far as comments like " indians are still the same as hundred years ago", it clearly shows that we have forgotten how we were hundred years ago. I think each generation is less concerned about caste than the previous and today people live longer and so old ideas and values also have longer lives. If you want to pick out ten rich baniyas it is certainly possible, but there are also ten rich in other castes that are not considered to be "wealthy". I also heard that most of the MLAs are millionaires if not billionaires and I bet there are a lot of OBCs among them.
I agree fully with the author. Every caste has its own unique culture and every member of a caste is proud of that culture. It is that self-identification with that culture which causes people to want to associate with other members of the same caste.
Caste is the greatest impediment and arguably the greatest sensitive
issue in a country like India . Many have imbibed this very casteism and
would never dare to come out that trance. Media has a great role in
subsiding these imperative issues but I don't see this in the next
century.
Living in India and remaining away from cast is impossible, so impact of caste system on politics in very clear to me. In today’s educated Indian society there may be a section who think that caste does not matter but it is. Some people think that imparting education to every section of society will reduce castism but I think this approach is also wrong, as I am from SC community and educated in MBA institution where come across comments by my fellow student who belong to very educated families and still have old cast mentality. Many of them use abusive language for other castes in front of me not knowing I am also an SC. So all change which we talked about are not because people are changing their think by it is the compulsion of new time, that they can no longer stop us form entering places. And if we remove those new time compulsion then I feel Indian are still same as they were 100 years ago.
I am finding it difficult to accept what the author is telling here. I agree to a point that for a common man his home, work and family comes first above everything else. Let us also agree to the point that caste system is further strengthened at such places. But it is difficult to agree to the point that people vote from their caste as they have some kind of attraction or positive feeling or just because that caste gives more merit. This is rationally wrong. People must vote (in the real sense) on the caliber of the leader, not his caste, his power to associate with the people regardless of their caste and must work for their up bringing in the right sense. Honour killing is a crime, the colour of caste doesnt make it any noble.
The solution is education, not just secular education but EXCELLENT education for ALL irrespective of caste, creed, community, region and whatever other grouping a sociologist may come up with.
We all know that caste is very much a reality of our society and its
presence is felt everywhere, be it business or be it personal matters;
so it is hardly surprising that it plays an equally important role in
politics too. Moreover, India is a representative form of
parliamentary democracy based on universal adult suffrage and
traditionally caste has been a predominant model of mass-mobilization.
Also one of the objectives of our constitution is Political Equity,
which can't be visualized if caste is ignored, since caste is
manifested in socio-economic disparities across the society. Only
silver lining is the wave of modernization & urbanization which have
increased the chances of mobility across the hierarchical chain for
the under-privileged. But historical evidences show that social-change
is a gradual and lengthy process and this transition might take
decades if not centuries. All of this will depend on the pace of modernization in India and the combined will of the society.
Nice Article!!!
I am sorry to say but the fact is that any discussion on withering away of Caste System from India is futile as,most innocently , we have accepted and enhanced the British conspiracy of creation of, not only , a divided but , surely a compartmentalized society in India.The British never understood the Varun system of India and it were only they who created the so called Caste system and also gave it a legal status.Our Constitution, which , virtually is a repeat - with minor amendments - of Govt. of India Act continued with the British created monster. Not only that we also let the Reservations system continue.Now the society tends to go caste less and progress but the constitutional validity of castes is not only BUT the biggest obstacle.Sadly enough, we cannot do away with the constitution at this stage, nor the established political gangs would let us do so.
Please Email the Editor