Ah look, they’re saying about the violence in Rajasthan, reservations divides society! Didn’t we tell you!
But reservations can’t divide an already divided society. Here’s a long quote from Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste:
The Hindus often complain of the isolation and exclusiveness of a gang or a clique and blame them for anti-social spirit. But they conveniently forget that this anti-social spirit is the worst feature of their own Caste System. One caste enjoys singing a hymn of hate against another caste as much as the Germans did in singing their hymn of hate against the English during the last war.
The literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this class of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It has gone deeper and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as well. In my province the Golak Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all claim to be subdivisions of the Brahmin Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails between them is quite as marked and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that prevails between them and other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An antisocial spirit is found wherever one group has “interests of its own” which shut it out from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is protection of what it has got. This antisocial spirit, this spirit of protecting its own interests is as much a marked feature of the different castes in their isolation from one another as it is of nations in their isolation. The Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect ‘ his interest ‘ against those of the non-Brahmins and the non-Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect their interests against those of the Brahmins. The Hindus, therefore, are not merely an assortment of castes but they are so many warring groups each living for itself and for its selfish ideal.
There is another feature of caste which is deplorable. The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in the war of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the descendants of those who fought on the one side do not bear any animosity— any grudge against the descendants of those who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten. But the present-day non-Brahmins cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji. The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due? Obviously, to the Caste System. The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served to keep the memory of past feuds between castes green and has prevented solidarity. [You must read the entire essay.]
That is how caste is, that is how the Hindus are, that is how India is. Your country is not a classless, casteless figment of you middle class air-conditioned imagination.
Reservations can’t divide an already divided people. Reservations challenge the divisions that exist. Change them. Reform them. There’ll be troubles along the way, and not all may be well, but reservations are an inalienable part of India’s journey to a casteless society.
15 Comments
June 3, 2007 at 4:00 pm
but at the same time blood-thirsty and revengeful. “While the Gujjars are also a Kshatriya class, they are outnumbered 2-1 by the Meenas. I will bet on the Meenas. If you are curious to know why all this chaos is happening, you might want to ask Shivam Vij. [ed. incorrectly referred to him as a Jat, he is actually a Khatri] He might be able to throw some light on this matter. It sure looks like Jats are encroaching into the OBC quotas enough that Gujjars have a reason to be pissed:
May 31, 2007 at 3:14 am
[...] by Jack Stephens on May 30th, 2007 Shivam Vij comments on the latest caste based violence in Rajasthan by quoting B.R. Ambedkar: The literature of the [...]
May 31, 2007 at 12:42 pm
“The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter.”
Let us do a small activity. Let us forget for a moment that the author of these lines is the infallible Dr. Ambedkar. Then, let us modify the above as follows:
“The present day Hindus will not forgive the present day Muslims for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter [read: using hindu women as dasis, destroying places of worship, using Somnath stones for toilet steps etc]“.
Whew, that has become the EXACT justification given by the hindu-right wing for the destruction of the babri masjid and the pernicious campaign leading to it. That, my friend, is the problem with the politics of identity: it is inherently not logical, and anti-logic of one kind can easily be used to justify the anti-logic of another.
May 31, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Shivam,
It’s the oldest trick in the game – when logic fails, resort to quotations and rhetoric. Ambedkar essays apart, this is the logic that my middle class air-conditioned hypocritical mind comes up with.
Reservations created for OBCs -> it is beneficial to be counted as an OBC -> Jats lobby and are granted OBC status -> since Jats are politically and economically powerful already, they corner maximum benefits ffrom the reservations -> there is resentment amongst the Gujjars -> Gujjars want to avail benefits that are not monopolised by Jats -> Gujjars demand move to ST status -> Meenas fear that Gujjars will corner teh benefits of St reservations -> meenas threaten that any move to make Gujjars ST will be met with backlash.
Is there anything about that line of thought that you can counter factually or analytically? The annihilation of caste is not possible until your birth and identification with a certain caste stop becomeing the parameters of state policy.
Reservations may not create new divisions. But they have surely not led to the erosion of any older existing diviiosn. And in this particular case, they have ended up magnifying divisions that always existed, and ensuring that people have incentives to identify with their caste and their caste alone if they want to accrue state-given benfits.
June 1, 2007 at 12:02 am
[...] Shubham is convinced the agitation of the Gujjars in Rajasthan spells the beginning of the end of discrimination: I always felt that reservations and caste divide will kill this nation, but now maybe every caste will resort to these measures and try to feature in the backward category list. Soon everyone will have reservations and that will be the end of it. [...]
June 1, 2007 at 3:00 am
Yes, there will be so much infighting that after a few years only confusion will be left, and no caste. By the way this is an ideal situation: having a country without the caste system.
Talking about reforms: they have to begin at the grassroots level — by abolishing the reservations and the quota system. Give people a unified law, give them justice, give them education, and above all, give them respect; there will be no caste wars because there will be no advantage in them. By giving them caste-based privileges they subdivide the already divided community. It’s just like severing the arms because it is already diseased, instead of treating it.
Even the blind have more sense of figuring out where to go, but our politicians and some intellectuals, intentionally or unintentionally (I hope, unintentionally) want to throw the country into an infinite loop of misery and hatred, by leading us to the wrong path.
June 1, 2007 at 8:27 am
Some of the sweeping generalizations in that Ambedkar address were quite surprising to me (first timer there) but thats a powerful and moving piece.
Thanks Shivam for the link.
regards,
Jai
June 1, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Its a well known fact among the educated dalits, its time the other half reads it .
June 1, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Oh Mr. anti-censorship, pray approve my comment.
June 1, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I dont understand what you are trying to say here. Are you saying that since Hinduism/India is a divided society, you expect violence to break out every so often? Or are you saying that reservations do not have any role to play in this violence?
I am not surprised about this bout of violence. People will be willing to take more Risks (number of people who die/get injured in violence or property/goodwill lost) when the rewards (reservation in a less competitive sector) are high.
To me, this is another example of the divisive nature of reservations.
Going by your post (and what Ambedkar said)… Indian society is inherently divisive. Are reservations helping the society become more inclusive? Not by what we have seen in the last 60 years. Gujjars (usually) still dont marry Rajputs or even Meenas for that matter. Would the situation change much even if the Gujjar or Meena is very educated? No. Doesnt that mean that reservations do not help bridge the social gaps between various castes in India?
Instead of squabbling over reservations, or even worse – using reservations as a political appeasement tool, let us work towards uplifting all the underprivileged Indians (irrespective of sub-caste, caste, religion).
June 2, 2007 at 3:22 am
shivam,
you’re right. india would rather that the middle class (thats a sweeping gener.) sit in their AC rooms while the people who ‘live’ sort things out, if with violence then with it. if this violence wasnt there would cnn-ibn, ndtv and all their other chelas write about Gujjars and meenas. I havent heard of them before. now we know they exist and they can burn down police stations and all.
and what moral right does the broadband and SMS activists claim when they abhor violence in rajasthan and in the next second plead for a second term for that nuclear nerd, missile man whatever…
when will the cities erupt…that will be live
June 5, 2007 at 12:39 am
Bvn, please come out of your cave, or, grow up. It is because of the missile man that India has respectful missiles that can act as a deterrence. Missiles are bad, but sometimes they act as an anti-dote. If Pakistan and China know that India can retaliate, there is a less possibility that they’ll shoot a nuke-carrying ICBM in our direction and incinerate us within seconds. Many instances of world-wide annihilation were averted because both Russia and America had nuclear missiles constantly aimed at each other. Today you can safely SMS and leave comments on blog posts because to a great extent we are secure. Besides, this missile man is a Muslim and that too, I think, a Dalit Muslim. He is a prime example of what strides India has made.
June 5, 2007 at 10:59 pm
@ Amrit Hallan, which is Pakistan’s ICBM sir ? btw which is India’s? – I don’t know of any – do you? living outside the cave you do have a good understanding of our National security issues. World wide annihilation wouldn’t have been a threat if nuclear missiles weren’t there, thats the view from within the cave, how is it outside and FYI Godzilla is a myth. And if people like your joke prez is left anywhere near our schools showing off his Agni and Prithvi, you too will soon be living in caves – with me and everyone else.
June 6, 2007 at 6:36 pm
My wrong. We don’t have the ICBM’s. OK India and Pak have none. China HAS. But that’s not the primary issue. What I have written is that arms act as a deterrence. If you read Indian history (I’m sure you have) you will recall that for thousands of years India was consistently attacked by foreign invaders. The reason is obvious. We didn’t pay enough attention to our defense. If we want continuation of that sate, fine. We should disassemble our army, navy and air force and annihilate all arms and jut out our one cheek to our friendly neighbors.
I agree that Godzilla is a myth, but so is the absence of big arms. The point is not if Russia and America didn’t have those missiles, the point is, they have them, and now that they have them — whether we like it or not — they act as a balancing force. We don’t live in a hypothetical world, we live in the real world. Hypothetically, many things could have happened, and should have happened, but they haven’t.
June 14, 2007 at 12:04 am
“There’ll be troubles along the way, and not all may be well, but reservations are an inalienable part of India’s journey to a casteless society.”
your logic is amazing.Dr.Ambedkar is a great man.That does not mean that what he has written some 60 or 70 years ago is true now.Todays OBCs envy MBCs and MBCs envy SCs on account of reservation. OBCs demand reservation in promotions.Reservation on the basis of caste is a wrong solution. It helps in making the caste system stronger
and gives it a legitimacy.