Rising above caste

The anthropological assumption is that when humans started living in larger groups and acquired surplus resources, the dominant factions within a group resorted to mass violence to either capture those resources or retain them if already captured. A natural consequence of this was social inequality. To overcome it, ways had to be found by public-spirited individuals such as prophets and men of God. This is why all religions emphasise philanthropy and humanitarianism over rituals. Yet, humans have not found a cure for their violent greed and indifference to others’ suffering. The result: inequality continues to exist.

In the last century, the concept of affirmative action became a popular means to reduce inequality. Through this, a set of procedures was designed to eliminate institutional discrimination in the name of race, creed, colour, religion, caste, gender, or national origin. In the USA, for instance, discrimination of this kind in the fields of education and employment was addressed through executive orders such as those issued by President John F Kennedy in 1961 and President Lyndon B Johnson in 1965.

In India, several safeguards against discrimination were incorporated into the Constitution, thanks to the historic debate between Ambedkar and Gandhi. Ambedkar believed that "the out-caste is a by-product of the caste system. There will be out-castes as long as there are castes...Nothing can help to save Hindus and ensure their survival in the coming struggle except the purging of the Hindu Faith of this odious and vicious dogma."

Gandhi's response was: "I do not believe the caste system...to be an ‘odious and vicious dogma.' It has its limitations and its defects, but there is nothing sinful about it, as there is about untouchability, and, if it is a by-product of the caste system it is only in the same sense that an ugly growth is of a body, or weeds of a crop." [Dr. Ambedkar & Caste, ‘Harijan’, February 11, 1933]

Nonetheless, the Indian Constitution in Article 15 makes it clear that no citizen shall be discriminated against "on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them," and that the State has the right to make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, or for the economically weaker sections of citizens. Article 46 similarly encourages the State to "promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation." Additionally, Article 340 empowers the President to appoint a Commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes to remove their difficulties.

There can be no doubt that the framers of India's Constitution did their best to uplift the deprived sections of society. But as time went by, the benefits of reservation were cornered by a select few within the deprived class. This was first highlighted by Justice Krishna Iyer almost half a century ago.

In State of Kerala & Anr vs N. M. Thomas & Ors, on September 19, 1975, Justice Iyer wrote:

"In the light of experience, here and elsewhere, the danger of ’reservation’, it seems to me, is three-fold. Its benefits, by and large, are snatched away by the top creamy layer of the ’backward’ caste or class, thus keeping the weakest among the weak always weak and leaving the fortunate layers to consume the whole cake.

Secondly, this claim is over-played extravagantly in democracy by large and vocal groups whose burden of backwardness has been substantially lightened by the march of time and measures of better education and more opportunities of employment, but wish to wear the ’weaker section’ label as a means to score over their near-equals formally categorised as the upper brackets.

Lastly, a lasting solution to the problem comes only from improvement of social environment, added educational facilities and cross-fertilisation of castes by inter-caste and inter-class marriages sponsored as a massive State programme, and this solution is calculatedly hidden from view by the higher ’backward’ groups with a vested interest in the plums of backwardism.

But social science research, not judicial impressionism, will alone tell the whole truth and a constant process of objective reevaluation of progress registered by the ’under-dog’ categories is essential lest a once deserving ’reservation’ should be degraded into ’reverse discrimination’.

In the latest Supreme Court judgment dated August 1, 2024, Justices Gavai, Nath, Mithal, and Sharma advocated for the exclusion of the creamy layer even among the SCs and STs from reservation benefits. At present, the creamy layer of only the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is excluded from reservation.

The same logic may be followed when it comes to reservations given on the basis of religion. For example, irrespective of ideologies, almost all political parties in India have been promising quotas for Muslims. In fact, several state governments (Karnataka, Maharashtra, and West Bengal) have already enacted the quota system for Muslims, which eats into the OBC quota.

The Hon’ble High Court of Kolkata has struck down the quotas given to Muslims with effect from 2010 in a recent order. However, the West Bengal government has already appealed to the Apex Court against the High Court order. Indeed, it was the Communist Party of India, Marxist [CPI(M)] that introduced this quota system for Muslims during its 34 years in power from 1977 to 2011, defying the very basis of their Marxist ideology, which is anti-religion.

This is nothing short of pure vote-bank politics. But at whose cost? The fact is that the politics of quotas started in the 1980s by the VP Singh government pushed the country back in time.

It encouraged some political parties to commit to reserving jobs for Muslims, mostly for those who convert to Islam from the so-called lower Hindu castes. This begs the question: after embracing Islam, can one still retain one’s earlier caste?

Without getting into the merits and demerits of the caste system once prevalent in Hinduism, which has now been diluted to a great extent, it would be wrong to offer any reservations to Muslims as that is against the very tenets of Islam.

If one is fed up with the Hindu caste system and converts to Buddhism or becomes a Muslim, there is no scope for such a person to retain the earlier caste as a Hindu. One fails to understand how some followers of Islam could retain their earlier caste post-change of faith because Islam is against the caste system.

But the fact is, despite caste being alien to Islam, it is prevalent in the Muslim community. Upper-caste Muslims look down upon fellow Muslims who converted from lower castes, though all are followers of the same faith of Islam, praying to the same almighty, yet look down upon fellow Muslims based on their caste prior to embracing Islam!

The Holy Quran states that “The best amongst you is the one whose character is best.” This clearly indicates that there is no difference on the basis of caste and race.

Also, the Holy Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) stated in his last Hajj sermon that “there is no superiority of the Arabs over the non-Arabs and no superiority of the white over the black” because, in the eyes of God and his Prophet, all human beings are equal.

So if Islam doesn't believe in the caste system, then why don't Muslim ulama and intellectuals come forward to deny and oppose reservations on the basis of caste? Muslims can always avail themselves of it on the basis of economic backwardness. Having said this, it must also be pointed out that no Indian must be denied reservation on the basis of religion.

The makers of the Constitution introduced the quota system to provide a level playing field for oppressed communities for a certain period only. But now it seems that it is going to stay for a long time in our country. The political parties also have to be blamed for creating the present situation.

If this situation continues, and the idea of reservation is not re-formulated along the lines suggested by the Indian higher judiciary, it could lead to social dissatisfaction among the masses. In July this year, Bangladesh witnessed violent student protests in which at least 200 people died.

The students were opposing the quota system, which bypassed academic merit and gave 30 per cent reservation to descendants of Bangladeshi freedom fighters, 10 per cent for affected women from the Liberation War, 10 per cent for people of various districts, and 5 per cent for members of indigenous communities. This left just 45 per cent for recruitment to government jobs on merit.

Therefore, it is high time responsible citizens with modern and progressive thinking in this great country issue a call for making the quota system available only to the economically weaker sections irrespective of caste, creed, and religion.

The writer is a senior Airforce Officer with long experience in Govt of Delhi as the State Commissioner for Personnel with Disabilities (Jan 2021- Jan 2024), OSD to LG Delhi (2007-2013) and several other key positions in the Govt of India. Views expressed are personal