Caste and Castelessness: Towards a Biography of the 'General Category'

Author(s): SATISH DESHPANDE

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , APRIL 13, 2013, Vol. 48, No. 15 (APRIL 13, 2013),
pp. 32-39
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23527121

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PERSPECTIVES

Caste and Castelessness professional identities of choice, whereas

lower caste identity is so indelibly engra
ved that it overwrites all other identities
Towards a Biography and renders them illegible, along with

of the 'General Category'

the choices that they may represent.
This, to my mind, is the central pre
dicament of caste today - its hyper
visibility for the so-called lower castes
SATISH DESHPANDE and its invisibility for the so-called up
per castes. Having started out at Inde
As a modern republic, India felt pendence with the common goal of tran
public attention for a long time, scending caste - an objective that hardly
duty-bound to "abolish" caste,
Caste has been at the centre of
especially in the last two dec anyone dared to question publicly and
and this led the State to pursue
ades. Despite being at the centre of our almost everyone seemed to share - we
the conflicting policies ofattention,
social however, caste continues to appear to have reached a dead-end six
elude us
justice and caste-blindness. As in fundamental
a ways - or at decades later where society is split into
least so it would seem. In this article I two unequal and implacably opposed
consequence, the privileged upper
would like to explore some of the wayssections. For one section, caste appears
castes are enabled to think of
to be the only available resource with
in which caste has proved to be elusive,
themselves as "casteless", and
while
the reasons why this has happened.which to try and improve life-chances in
the disprivileged lower castes are way to map the terrain Ia game where the playing field is far
The quickest
wish to cover is to recount a joke that hasfrom level. This section, which consti
forced to intensify their caste
been circulating on the internet. Populartutes the large majority of the popula
identities. This asymmetrical
ised five or six years ago when the 93rdtion, includes many disparate groups
division has truncated the amendment to the Constitution intro that nevertheless share an interest in

effective meaning of caste to duced reservations for the Other Back caste-based politics. For the other sec
ward Classes (obcs) in elite educational tion, which is far less numerous and
lower caste, thus leaving the
institutions, the joke goes as follows: In (relatively speaking) much more homo
upper castes free to monopolise
dia decides to send a space exploration genous, caste-qua-caste has already
the "general category" by posing team to the moon. Feverish negotiations yielded all that it can and represents a
as casteless citizens. begin immediately on the composition of ladder that can now be safely kicked
the team, and after much haggling it is away. Having encashed its traditional
This is a slightly edited - and very lightly decided to include nine obcs, six mem caste-capital and converted it into mod
referenced - text of the 12th Malcolm bers of the scheduled castes (ses), three ern forms of capital like property, higher
Adiseshaiah lecture delivered at the Asian
from the scheduled tribes (sts), and, if educational credentials and strongholds
School of Journalism, Chennai on 21 November
there is any place left, two astronauts. in lucrative professions, this section
2012. As it forms part of a larger book project
where there will be more space for proper
This joke unintentionally offers us a deep believes itself to be "caste-less" today.
footnoting and referencing, I have let this insight into the central predicament of Not only is there no dialogue possible
version remain almost exactly as presented in caste today. The insight is contained in between the two sides, they are trapped
Chennai. This means that there are numerous the fact that the "astronauts" are not in a perverse relationship where each is
fellow-travellers whose work I have benefited
compelled
identified by their caste but only by their to unravel the arguments
from even though I have been unable to cite
them explicitly here. I am grateful to the
qualifications (as astronauts), whereas
knitted by the other.
Malcolm and Elizabeth Adiseshaiah Trust, and the quota-walas are identified only by What I would like to emphasise here is
especially to C T Kurien, Rama Melkote, the mismatch in the public perception of
their caste and not by their qualifications.
V K Nataraj and M N Shetty, for this honour. In short, the joke correctly assumes that
the two groups. The story of the political
Those familiar with this field will instantly "we" will know the caste of the astro encashment of caste is often told -
recognise that my greatest intellectual debt is
to Marc Galanter. For the critical engagement
nauts without being told, but will agree indeed it has dominated public discourse
and encouragement that they have generously
that it is irrelevant in the face of theirover the past two decades. This is a noisy
provided, I thank Mary John, Kalpana and raucous account, full of the rough
qualifications, while simultaneously agree
Kannabiran, V K Nataraj, Madhava Prasad and tumble of political contestation, and
ing that though the quota-walas too would
and A Vaidyanathan.
it has also attracted ample attention
presumably have qualifications, these are
Satish Deshpande ([email protected]) irrelevant in the face of their caste. To put from
it social scientists, as attested by
teaches at the Department of Sociology, concepts such as "dominant caste" or
differently, upper caste identity is such that
Delhi School of Economics, Delhi.
"the Congress system". The other story -
it can be completely overwritten by modern

32 April 13, 2013 vol XLViii no 15 Q353 Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES

that of the "extra-electoral" coup effected fellow travellers or else manufactured subsume wide variati
by the upper castes through the trans- new divisions. The next two sections of and intent.
formation of their caste capital into this essay attempt to take up each of Thus, when tracked throu
modern capital - is not so well known, these options in turn. Section 1 exam- as the Indian National
Because it runs with the grain of the ines the apparently universal goal of official resolutions,
dominant common sense - which is for "abolishing" or transcending caste and clear that the public l
obvious reasons monopolised by the its many distinct strands in the decades caste was addressed acqu
vocal upper caste minority - this story is leading up to Independence. Section 2 of "abolition" very late
almost unseen and unheard. That is, it is deals with the ways in which the consti- a slow and reluctant p
seen and heard in other garbs - it appe- tutional ideals, legal norms and policy kar has documented in h
ars to be a story about something other practices of the new republic tried to What Congress and G
than caste, like the story of nation- give expression to the variously under- the Untouchables and M
building for example, or the story of a great stood objective of "abolishing" caste. Emancipation of the U
and ancient tradition modernising itself. The concluding section (Part in) specu- after talk of "abolit
I want to suggest that one reason why lates on the current and possible future mon, it remained fac
caste has proved elusive is because we trajectories of the "general category". accompanied by a concre
have not recognised the consequences of ing of caste and the practical course to
this asymmetry. While it is of course 1 The Provocation of Caste be followed to achieve its abolit
necessary to address the question of the Caste offers a paradoxical union of the Moreover, caste appeared to be un
lower castes and their demands for overfamiliar and the poorly understood, in the sense that it was the onl
social justice, we will not get a grip on As the unique institution that indelibly encompassing institution that was sla
the contemporary complexities of this marked Indian society as fundamentally for abolition rather than reform. Th
institution unless we pay close attention inegalitarian and therefore unfit for mo- vious comparison is with religion w
to its taken-for-granted side, namely the dernity, caste was the universal provo- even when it admittedly harboured
"naturalisation" of the upper castes as cation. No Indian, and certainly no merous "social evils", could still be
the legitimate inheritors of modernity. Indian wishing to claim modernity in sented as possessing an indispensabl
In brief, my contention is that caste can any way, could remain indifferent to it. positive residue well worth preserv
be understood only if we pay as much This response was pre-given by the Finally, while "everyone" had reli
attention to it when it is invisible or encounter with modernity, that is to say, including the colonisers and others
infra-visible as we do when it is hyper- something had to be done about caste - it were undeniably modern, caste wa
visible or ultra-visible. Whether it is rep- could not be allowed to continue "as is", quely ours and it seemed unquestion
resented as a chosen goal or claimed as And this generalised urge to change "un-modern", or, indeed, anti-modern
an actual achievement, castelessness caste, or to act upon it, was typically In this sense, therefore, when s
holds the key to caste. expressed by the term "reform", which ing of the "abolition" of caste, reformis
Therefore, my objective is to attempt "proclaimed the existence of a commu- public rhetoric was leaning far ahead
an initial account- a brief biography- of nity...of the enlightened, working in its constituency which was still loc
the emergence and rise of the notion of harmony towards improvement and well to the rear of the rhetoric. Thi
castelessness and its main form-of- "uplift" in the life of the nation" (Bailey ological overhang is most clearly vis
appearance in everyday life, namely the 2008:155)- in the early stages of the campai
"general category". Needless to say this However, this apparent commonality against caste, namely the last quarte
is a preliminary and incomplete effort, a was very deceptive because of the diver- the 19th century and the beginni
rehearsal rather than a performance, gence between implicit intentions and the 20th century. The most prominen
Such an effort must begin by asking how explicit rhetoric. Public statements voices here are still those that are s
a journey (apparently) originating in a about caste were more constrained by ing the reform of caste groups qua cast
common starting point - the desire to the normative pressures of modernity The practical measures advocated he
"abolish" caste - could lead to such shar- than communitarian intentions, which require nothing more than the simp
ply divergent paths. There are two obvi- could always manage to create some cation of an over-intricate system a
ous places where answers may be sought, space for manoeuvre. What this meant in the dissolution of proliferatin
First, we must examine the starting practice was that the language in which castes in favour of a larger, more ef
point to check whether it was in fact political and social programmes were tive collective caste identity. Examples
common or shared, and the extent to expressed was far more convergent of such campaigns were many, ca
which this was so. Second, we must than the divergent projects that these for rationalising and modernising, say
examine the particulars of the initial programmes actually contained. Even the kayasths or the brahmins as a cast
part of the journey to check whether when these disparate positions eventu- by promoting inter-dining and inte
something happened along the way that ally seemed to congregate around firmer riage among sub-castes and urging
magnified existing differences among terms like "abolition" they continued to castes to rise above petty rivalries
Economic & Political weekly DES) april 13, 2013 vol xlviii no 15 33

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PERSPECTIVES

claims to precedence. Associated meas- faith in the basics of the caste system, was necessary but far f
ures might include those that were part which he understood in terms of the uproot caste. Unlike
of the larger social reform agenda such doctrine of varnashramadharma, en- allies in the Jat Pat To
as education of girls, raising the age of dured for nearly a decade and a half of were enthusiastic advo
marriage, doing away with arcane taboos his career as an activist against casteism. riage, Ambedkar wa
and superstitions, and so on. So, by and During this period, all that Gandhi desi- ultimate foundations
large, campaigns whose stated intention red was the purification and simplifica- believed were located
was to abolish caste were actually desig- tion of the system that would help it to and especially its rev
ned to prepare castes to meet the mod- rediscover its sanatana or eternal vir- was precisely his
ern world as castes. tues. Despite some discomfort with the scriptures that alarmed h
A second set of agendas was less paro- unjustifiable reliance on birth to deter- Mandai and led to t
chial and attempted to address the severe mine varna or station in life, it is instruc- their invitation to add
disabilities that the caste system imposed five from a contemporary vantage point convention in 1936.
on the lower and especially the lowest to see just how far even such a commit- In short, the moral
castes. These efforts matured at the na- ted political reformer was willing to go the institution ma
tional level into the "constructive pro- in his support for caste. ferred motif for prog
gramme" of the inc launched in 1922 Similarly, striking instances of re- utterances on caste. H
soon after Gandhi's virtual takeover of formist political beliefs coexisting with rent unanimity of p
the Congress. One of the major themes of extreme anxiety about "losing caste" broad spectrum of a
this programme was the campaign were seen among early Tamil brahmins from revitalisation
against untouchability, easily the most supporting the Congress and other pro- to annihilation. Amb
visible and damaging practice associated change groups in the south (Pandian was desirable and
with caste. However, it is important to 2007). The clearest evidence for the because of the pervasive
emphasise the self-imposed limits that gradualism that attended Gandhi's slow- It was (and is) no eas
this programme functioned under. One ly evolving views are visible in the inter- lish" an institution th
way of mapping the gradual and relue- caste marriages that he began to advo- areas of social practic
tant widening of the ambit of the anti- cate in the 1920s. As Mark Lindley so broad and inclusive th
caste campaign within the Congress is to (2002) has shown, intercaste initially a "way of life". In the f
trace the evolution of Gandhi's positions only meant inter-subcaste and strictly ards Independence, th
ón caste. Gandhi, too, began with what intra-varna marriages. This slowly ex- ied positions tended t
was essentially a rationalisation and panded in the late 1920s to intra-savarna in similar sounding ph
reform programme whose overall objec- marriages that could be across the three that were intentio
tive was to simplify the needlessly intri- twice-born varnas. It took a significant precise. It is no surp
cate system of castes into the four broad and clearly difficult interregnum before Constitution makers
varnas. The legitimacy of varnashramad- Gandhi could bring himself to advocate these ambiguities i
harma remained an article of faith with the marriage of twice borns with the document of the new r
Gandhi that he gave up only towards the shudra castes. Ultimately-after the 1936 But civil society w
end of his life, after sustained interaction publication of Ambedkar's famous text active force working
with powerful opponents like Ambedkar The Annihilation of Caste - Gandhi grad- period - the colonia
and Periyar and radical anti-caste groups uated to his most radical position of ad- important actor. Ind
like the Jat Pat Todak Mandai. vocating intermarriage between harijans strand of scholarship
and caste Hindus. By 1946, two years caste as we know it today is "a
1.1 Abolition of Caste before his assassination, he publicly de- phenomenon, that it is,
At the start of this political and moral clared that the only marriages that would product of an histor
journey, we have Gandhi declaring in be celebrated in Sewagram Ashram tween India and wes
1921, just before the launch of the "con- would be those involving a harijan bride (Dirks 2001: 3). Possi
structive programme" that: "The caste or groom. Thus, even for the most fam- quential intervention
system is the natural order of society, ous campaigner against caste "abolition" effort, via the Censu
[...] I am opposed to all those who are in pre-Independence India could have - merate caste. As has be
out to destroy the caste system".2 From and did have - many meanings that nard Cohn, Arjun Appa
there, by a gradual process helped along by evolved over time. Dirks and others, the ve
the constructive programme and esca- Finally, there was a third version of merate caste led to impo
lating in 1932 after the Poona Pact and "abolition" that stood at the far end of with the institution
the launch of the harijan uplift campaign, the spectrum, a position represented by sively more and m
Gandhi had arrived, by the mid-i930s at Ambedkar with his stated goal of "anni- and fixed than it had
the view that "Caste must go". Gandhi's hilation". For him, mere intermarriage the 1930s the enume
34 APRIL 13, 2013 VOL XLVIII NO 15 GQQ Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES

also tied to the question of electoral poli- Davis has shown, the vast majority of option but to succumb. The
tics as provincial legislatures were formed Indians were willing and able to state of 1932 thus cemented the cl
and a gradually expanding electorate their caste, including most of those be- Congress and specifically of G
was demarcated. Two events are partie- longing to sects like the Arya Samaj or represent all of India, thus
ularly relevant from this decade, the Brahmo Samaj that were actively op- conceal the fact that the leaders
Census of 1931 and the negotiations posed to caste. Caste was reported ex- exclusively upper caste an
around separate electorates that culmi- tensively by Muslims - indeed, well over more closely guarded "pub
nated in the so-called Poona Pact of 1932. 80% of them reported castes, with 133 that these castes represent
The census is particularly relevant castes being exclusively Muslim. Caste small minority of the Hindu pop
from the point of view of the emergence was also reported by Sikhs and to a less- The muting of caste identitie
of "castelessness" as a possibility and as er extent by Christians. necessary precondition for the co
a conscious political and social desire. Equally important, if not even more tion of a Congress "majorit
Writing in the chapter on "Caste, Race so, is the question of the electoral signifi- opment of immense signifi
and Tribe" in the Census Report of 1931, cance of caste identities. With the Mus- emerging era of electoral dem
J H Hutton, the census commissioner, lim demand for a separate electorate However, a peculiar and
observes: having already crossed the point of no twist was imparted to this by
As on the occasion of each successive census return by the 1930s, intense attention kar's vigorous championin
since 1901, a certain amount of criticism has was focused on the Depressed Classes, touchable cause. The Poona
been directed at the census for taking any Gandhi and the Indian National Con- to significantly increase the
"if6 of,the fact
alleged that'.i1 has
the been gress had
mere act particularly
of labelinghigh stakes in this political
persons 0 , , representation
, . for
as belonging to a caste tends to perpetuate issue because of the w
the system...It is, however, difficult to see stacked up. According t
why the record of a fact that actually exists sus, Hindus accounted
should tend to stabilise that existence. It is population of India, w
just as easy to argue and with at least as 22.2%. Given that
much truth, that it is impossible to get rid of
any institution by ignoring its existence like Castes" (mostly corre
the proverbial ostrich...(Census of India, Depressed Classes) acc
1931, Ch xii, p 43oj. much as 21.1% of the Hindu popu
He goes on to wonder whether, by the grant of a separate elec
aggregating castes across regions wher- would greatly reduce t
ever feasible, the census "may claim to (roughly to under 54%)
make a definite, if minute, contribution tantly, this would be a
to Indian unity". But his most interesting moral authority and he
revelations concern the "no caste" cate- political power of the Co
gory which was specifically provided for representative of "Indi
in the Census of 1931. Nearly 19 lakh only a caste Hindu minority
people seem to have made use of this were strong inequities mar
category in 1931, with 98% of them being tionship of even the s
from Bengal. Although this amounts to a castes" (or shudras) wit
little less than 0.8% of the total popula- minority within caste H
tion of Hindus in India, it is still true sions could be papered o
nevertheless that the number of "no vented from emerging in
caste" returns in 1931 is greater than that However, the disabi
in any previous census. Depressed Classes were so sever
There is evidence to suggest, there- shocking that no amount o
fore, that the possibility of refusing a could hide them. Thus,
caste identity-at least in response to the of the untouchable cas
colonial state - was already well- established empirical and
established by the 1930s. However, we It is this fact that Gandh
need other sources of socio-historical ing in his negotiations ov
evidence to evaluate the precise nature of separate electorates f
of this response and the reasoning that Classes being deman
lay behind it. On the other hand, the By embarking on a pre-em
census results can also be said to demon- death - the very first t
strate the pervasiveness of caste as a taken such a radical step -
ubiquitous form of identity. As Kingsley sured that Ambedkar
Economic & Political weekly CGE3 april 13, 2013 vol xlviii no 15 35

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PERSPECTIVES

shaped it. Among the most significant entitlement are neither equal nor sym- is that it can be wo
contradictions are those that concern metrical. Being a fundamental right, to name one's own cast
the vexed institution of caste (Galanter the right to equality and non-discrimi- Although the comm
1963,1968,1969,1984). The central ten- nation takes precedence and is pre- caste injustice was i
sion is between, on the one hand, the emptive - the state's duties towards the contract upon which
need to "abolish" - or at least to delegiti- lower castes and weaker sections may founded, the new C
mise - caste as an institution that affects be discharged only as "permissible ned the victims of ca
all citizens; and, on the other, the com- abridgements" of this always-already tice as a caste-marke
mitment to redress the disabilities of established right. its beneficiaries were emp
caste imposed on one section of citizens, Thus, the Constitution promises to mand the perpetuation
namely the lower castes. These conflict- redress the injustices suffered by the ses tages as a casteless
ing demands - requiring in the first case and sts, and also to ameliorate the dis- leads towards the
that caste be derecognised, and in the abilities and disadvantages suffered by the diminishing of c
second case that it be recognised - have the sebcs, but these promises are con- nant common sense,
to be accommodated within the overall tained in the Directive Principles of State ted as having alread
framework of a "passive revolution", that Policy that are not justiciable. The rela- nation, while th
is, a revolution from above whose funda- tive weight to be attached to these prin- leading us away from
mental tendency is to minimise the im- ciples in comparison with the Funda- the unbridgeable div
pact of change on already entrenched mental Rights may be a matter for judi- two routes - and thei
enclaves of power and privilege. As the cial interpretation, but the pre-eminence nal certainties - th
manifesto of the passive revolution, the of the latter is never in any doubt. More- lation of caste" se
new Constitution must be faithful to over, to keep its promises to the ses and ling dream than an em
both terms. Being in some sense a revo- sts the state must first recognise them as
lutionary Constitution, it is full of radi- castes, and this in itself is sufficient to 2.1 Victory in D
cal good intentions. But it is also a pas- confine such initiatives within the Barely six months afte
sive or an orphan Constitution in the bounds of a benevolent exception to the of the Republic of I
sense that "there is no class backing the prior and stronger commitment of the adopted, the Madras
Constitution with its iron will", as state to not discriminate among its citi- in July 1950 the plea
Madhava Prasad (2011: 45) has written, zens on the basis of caste. petitioners, Champak
so that it lacks "the will to change" and By contrast, the biggest boon that the R Srinivasan, who
offers only "the letter of the law... with- state grants to the upper castes is a guar- fundamental righ
out the spirit". The legal career of caste antee of anonymity in caste terms. This discrimination gu
in the passive revolution is thus shaped effectively means that regardless of the stitution were be
through the disparate effects of con- extent of their past or present privileges, and community q
stitutional intention, judicial interpreta- their caste identity can never be used Although the speci
tion and the policy initiatives of the directly to prohibit or limit access to any lenged - known as
new republic. public resource. In other words, the predated constitutional reservations,
In colonial and precolonial India caste upper castes cannot be prevented from these petitions also had an impact on t
identities were compulsory for all - only cornering a disproportionate share - or new legislation. The unanimous verd
those who renounced the world could be even all - of a public resource because of the full bench of three judges strik
caste-less (Burghart 1983). Nationalist they belong to caste a or b; their share down the Communal go sent sh
efforts to exorcise the embarrassment can be limited only by setting aside por- waves through Parliament when th
of caste succeeded to some extent in tions exclusively marked for castes x and Supreme Court concurred with the h
valorising a worldly ideal of casteless- y. But as we have seen, such an exclusive court in April 1951. The law minist
ness, but they were unable, and also setting aside - or reservations - is already (then headed by B R Ambedkar) and
largely unwilling, to mount an all-out designated as an exception to the norm government (headed by Jawaharlal Neh
assault on caste. This ambivalence is of non-discrimination and equality. From responded swiftly with the first am
translated into the Constitution through the perspective of the upper castes, ment to the Constitution protecting
the inclusion of, on the one hand, the therefore, the constitutional guarantees ervations in higher education with
rights to equality and non-discrimination, of equality and non-discrimination amo- same special proviso already included
and, on the other hand, the charge on unt to a licence to capture unequal shares job reservations. The first amendm
the state to show special consideration of public resources. This licence is limited was passed in June 1951, less than tw
to the sts and ses, to "socially and edu- only by two things, first the rules of the months after the Supreme Court ver
cationally backward classes" (sebcs), market or open competition, and second, but the state was put on the defensiv
and more generally, to the "weaker the exceptional device of reservations. In reality the courts had been vi
sections" of society. The two kinds of The most significant aspect of this licence ious in defeat. They had managed
36 april 13, 2013 vol XLViii no 15 13353 Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES

firmly establish the primacy of the It may be that through the fortuitous operation castes need no longer
meritocratic norm over the aberrational of a rule, which in itself is not discriminatory, ye fashi0n through
r . . , a special advantage is enjoyed by some citi- ... . , ,
status of social justice initiatives. At the zens belonging tQ a pa
same time the courts made explicit and munity. This advantage
endorsed a new kind of agency that the Article 15(1). If, for i
Constitution implicitly offered to the longing t0 a certain com
, , , reason of their caste discipline, habits and r . , . , , .
upper castes, an agency based on the modes of ufe_ sadsfy the pr'¿scribed
universal-normative position of "caste- ments in larger number than others, it
lessness". This was, however, a presump- permissible to shut them out on that
tive castelessness - that is, it did not (Para 44). contrasts - the pursuit of their interests
require the upper castes to "give up" [...] requires the mandatory mediation of
their caste in reality; it simply assured it would be strange if, in this land of equality public politics, and th
them that they would be presumed to be and liberty, a class of citizens should be con- ally be articulated
casteless as long as they did not invoke strained to wear the badge of inferiority demands. In brief, up
their caste explicitly. In effect, the new because, forsooth, they have a greater ^ gra¡n 0f de
v J ' aptitude for certain types of education than 00 r
Constitution forbade the state to name otber classes (para
or act against caste-based privileges or (Madras High Court 195
advantages as long as they wore the garb caste interests appear as transfer pay
of secular modernity. Constitutionally 2.2 Unmarking ments that can only b
and legally, caste was henceforth to be Clearly, what is taking shape here is not tions. But what is
recognised only as a source of disadvan- the "general category" as such, but rath- not casteless egal
tage or vulnerability, not as a source of er its immediate ancestor, namely an ex- an unequal "de
privilege or advantage. And when it was plicitly caste-marked identity that has castes, as Suditp
invoked as a liability (as in social justice suddenly been freed of its particularistic (Kaviraj 2011: 29
legislation), it was promptly imprisoned burden by the "fortuitous" advent of a It is important
in the straitjacket of a regrettable and historically unprecedented category - legal or policy imp
hopefully short-lived exception to the the unmarked universal citizen. Pic- judgments. The
meritocratic norm. tured in this liminal moment at the cusp were largely overturned by the swiftly
The arguments in the Dorairajan case of tradition and modernity, and posed enacted first amendment. Also, the
in the Madras High Court bring this out (so to speak) with its progenitors, the Dorairajan-Srinivasan case had little to
very clearly. The court is told that if the new republic and its freshly minted Con- do with the constitutional reservations
Communal go had not existed and se- stitution, this figure is clearly recognisa- for the ses and sts; it was part of an on
lection to the roughly 400 seats in gov- ble as brahmin even as it proudly wears going local contest between the brah
ernment engineering colleges were made the new clothes of the citizen. These are mins and the "non-brahmins". The main
solely on "merit", i e, in terms of a rank- still clothes; they are not - or not yet - a impact of these early judgments was
ing based on the marks obtained in the disguise or costume, and the upper caste ideological, and in this respect it was
qualifying examination, then brahmins subject is at this early moment in its ca- considerable. By creating the conditions
would have obtained 249 seats instead reer remarkably uninhibited about ex- for the infra-visibility-ultra-visibility
of the 77 they were allotted under their hibiting signs of caste belonging. But al- division the category of the unmarked
communal quota. The court sees this as ready, even at this inaugural stage, there citizen helped to mystify the category of
clear evidence of injustice against brah- is an awareness that "in this land of caste and its social relations. In fact, it
mins, with no attempt to reflect on how equality and liberty" the public declara- authored and disseminated a new kind
a republic committed to ending caste tion of upper caste identity has been of common sense where the very defini
inequalities ought to deal with a situa- made voluntary, and that this could be a tion of caste was truncated and equated
tion where a historically privileged com- decisive tactical advantage. Unlike the with the lower castes. This was in keeping
munity numbering 3% of the population compulsory marking of lower caste iden- with similar effects produced by other
would corner 62% of the seats in a state- tity which the new republic perpetuates
subsidised engineering college. Nor does and intensifies, upper caste identity may
Economic&PoliticalwEEKLY
the court evince any interest in the facts now be declared or not at will. Most im
that once admitted, all candidates would portant, the privileges and benefits that available at
receive the same instruction, and would accrue to the upper caste identity may
Oxford Bookstore-Mumbai
be held to the same academic standards now be accessed anonymously, while its
Apeejay House
in the qualifying examinations. Justice political-moral debts and liabilities are 3,DinshawVacha Road
Viswanatha Sastri is both eloquent and written off by the new Constitution. Mumbai400020
unequivocal in his defence of caste- The broader consequence of these Ph: 66364477
based advantages: changes is that the welfare of the upper
Economic & Political weekly E£E3 April 13, 2013 vol xlviii no is 37

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PERSPECTIVES :

universal-modern categories invested with the public naming of caste (outside the one hand, and the o
power-for example, patriarchal common reserved categories), thus offering an "weaker sections" and t
sense reduces gender to women, while "equal" anonymity to both the upper ing full circle from
white supremacy limits race to non- castes and the obcs. But the unequal distri- Madras High Court in it
whites or "people of colour". The un- bution of material and cultural resources Venkatramana decisions
marked universal becomes the abode of had turned equal anonymity into severely quashed the Communal
normal, naturalised power, its transpar- unequal access to privilege and power. iterates that the unrese
ent invisibility being a sign of its privi- One of the curious facts about Mandai category cannot be treat
lege in contrast to the compulsory mark- - perhaps also the reason why it gets quota for upper castes. It
ings that subaltern identities were forced elevated into a rare instance of national ocally that those reser
to display. It took four decades and the catharsis - is the way in which it seemed didates who qualify to b
emergence of the key category of the to drive home lessons that should have general category must b
"Other Backward Classes" (obcs) before been learnt already. Thus, the basic - they must not be forced
the infra-visibility of the upper castes trajectories of obc politics had already seats, nor can the size o
qua castes - or at least its normal-natural been traced in many regional contexts, reduced because of such
status - could be named and challenged, notably in the southern states, for whom "merit category". Altho
Mandai was just so much deja vu. Despite this is not new (various court jud
3 After Mandai this, the national media and even had appeared to reach si
The 1990s were probably the most academia seemed to realise for the first sions since 1958 (Gal
momentous decade in the life of our time that the upper castes who had been daily Ch 12)), there is so
republic, and one of its defining events is accustomed to regarding the general the context that adds w
the social revolution now known simply category as their ascriptive birthright revaluation.
as "Mandai". The Mandai moment mar- were actually a minority while the reser- However, the most r
ked the long delayed arrival on the natio- vation categories constituted the vast level assertion of cast
nal stage of the critical category of the majority of the population. Even though provoked by the propo
obcs. Given its electoral weight and the absence of reliable statistics on the caste in the Census of 2011
sociopolitical significance, this was like obcs fuelled initial scepticism and con- we see the media and ci
an avant-garde play where the Godot- troversy, this conclusion was hard to ganisations mounting cam
like protagonist arrives very late and dis- resist. With the publication of separate ing precisely a casteless
rupts the narrative, forcing the audience statistics for the obcs by the National proposals to count caste
into hurried retrospective revisions of Sample Survey Office at the end of the sus had been summarily
the storyline. I will focus here on only decade, many doubts could be resolved, then home minister L K A
those aspects of Mandai that are imme- and the logic of numbers was strength- cussion at that time had
diately relevant for the "general category". ened. What this brought to light was the confined to the pros and
Although it might seem rather obvious long-forgotten "power sharing" or con- ing such data; castele
in retrospect, the first consequence of sociational argument for reservations. If emerge as a visible an
obc assertion for the general category power flowed from aggregated majori- Despite efforts to delay
was not immediately recognised. It took ties in a democratic polity, then it was wise scuttle the proposal
sometime for the realisation to sink in hard to explain why the distribution of were ultimately succes
that, with the obcs too being added to opportunities could be allowed to be so for a while that caste w
the "reserved category", the general cat- far skewed in favour of a minority that to be counted in the 20
egory had now become a euphemism for it supported stark forms of durable ine- this prospect that ener
the upper castes. In fact this had been quality. And though the traditional meri- caste elite and crystallis
true since the advent of the Republic, tocratic arguments continued to be castelessness. For the first t
because the general category had been advanced, they seemed to lose their caste enumeration campaign
comprehensively colonised by the upper lustre. Mandai provoked a re-evaluation weight on the claim o
castes and obc participation in it was of the symbolic and practical scope of rather than on the other c
negligible. Of course, it was this very fact the general category. ist arguments they had
that had triggered the Mandai upsurge One instance of such a revaluation is lier (Deshpande and John
in the first place. Until this moment, the in the so-called Mandai case of 1992. the best known instances
fiction of the "general" being the all- Here the Supreme Court consciously from the veteran actor Am
inclusive universal had been easy to invokes the history of the checks and who declared on his b
maintain, given that reservations were balances played out between non- enumerators who cam
locked into the exceptional mode from discrimination, equal protection of the would be told that the c
the beginning. The constitutional attempt law, and the special charge on the state itants was "Indian" a
to be "caste blind" had worked against represented by the ses and sts on the Soon after, a new civil soc
3® APRIL 13, 2013 VOL XLVIII NO 15 HUTTl Economic & Political weekly

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES

We can
led by similarly inclined upper caste 3 For more detailed treatments of this famous
elit also examine the possibility
case, see, inter alia, Galanter (1984:164^) and
es calling themselves "Meri Jati of Hindus
reclaiming and repositioning this
Kannabiran (2012:166-73).
tani" was launched. As its name sug in the light of what we have
category
gests, the campaign urged citizens learnt.
to Can we imagine a different
REFERENCES

avatar of the general categoryAmbedkar,

join in the effort to scuttle the counting as a B R (1990): Dr Babasaheb Ambedk
"true
of caste by insisting on identifying themuniversal"? Writings and Speeches, Vol 9, edited by Vasa
Moon, Education Department, Government
selves as "Hindustani". It is in the nature of utopias to be Maharashtra, Mumbai.
One sees the emergence here of a ill-defined. So it is hardly surprising that Bailey, Susan (2008): Caste, Society and Politic
India from the ¡8th Century to the Modern A
voice and a sensibility that is beginning B R Ambedkar's cherished ideal, "the (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres
to believe in its own castelessness. The annihilation of caste", remains to this (Online version of 1999 print edition).

day an inspiring but vague destination Beteille, Andre (1991): "The Reproduction of
fact that such claims invariably emanate
quality: Occupation, Caste and Family" in C
from the upper castes - indeed from the
without a reliable route map. But located tributions to Indian Sociology, n s, Vol 25, No
elite among them - continues to eludeas we now are within the postnational January-June.
Burghart, Richard (1983): "Renunciation in the
proponents. Once they are successfullycondition, with the Nehruvian naivetes ligious Traditions of South Asia" in Man, N
interpellated by the ideology of casteof yesteryear a distant memory, it is time Series, Vol 18, No 4, December.
Deshpande, Satish and Mary E John (2010): "
lessness, upper caste subjects see theirperhaps to interrogate this utopia more
Politics of Not Counting Caste" in Economic
caste identities as incidental or irrele closely. If one meaning of annihilation Political Weekly, Vol 45, No 25, t9 June.
must be to render caste irrelevant as a
vant to the claim. They can thus assert Dirks, Nicholas (2oor): Castes of Mind: Coloniali
and the Making of Modern India (Princeto
determinant of life chances, then it is Princeton University Press).
with some sincerity that it is mere coin
cidence that everyone who makes suchnecessary
a to understand not only how a Galanter, Marc (1963): "The Law and Caste i
Modern India" in Asian Survey, Vol 3, No
claim happens to be from the upper particular caste habitus might block or November.
castes. This is the generation that limit
is these chances, but also how another - (1968): "Changing Legal Conceptions of Cas
such habitus might enlarge or amplify
(generally speaking) distanced from the in Milton Singer and Bernard Cohn (ed
Structure and Change in Indian Society.
life chances. Recent social science re
process of the conversion of traditional - (1969): "Untouchability and the Law" in
caste capital into secular modern caste
search offers us many accounts of the nomic & Political Weekly, Vol 4, No r, 1 Januar
- (1984): Competing Equalities: Law and
less capital that previous generations
former but almost nothing on the latter. Backward Classes in India, Oxford India Pap
When it comes to the positive and pro backs (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
effected. It is objectively true that in the
life-experience of such individuals - who, ductive facets of caste we have onlyKaviraj, Sudipta (2011): "Democracy and Socia
equality", Chapter 8 in The Enchantment of
broad correlations between outcomes; mocracy and India (Ranikhet and New Del
it must not be forgotten, may still consti
we lack detailed accounts of processes Permanent Black).
tute a minority within their own caste
Kannabiran, Kalpana (2012): Tools of Justice: N
group - caste-qua-caste plays no direct
and modalities, the concrete ways in Discrimination and the Indian Constitution
which an upper caste identity secretes (New Delhi: Routledge), pp 166-73.
role, or only a minor one. It is for this group
Lindley, Mark (2002): "Changes in Mahatma Gan
and
- and this group alone - that family seems synergises the dispositions and
dhi's Views on Caste and Intermarriage" in
to have replaced caste as the source of embodied competences that add up to Social Sciences Journal (Ankara: Hacettepe
social capital (Beteille 1991). Long accus that abstract term: "merit". To under University), Vol I, accessed at: http://www.
academia.edu/326347/Changes_in_Mahama_
tomed to a comfortably homogeneous stand the productive side of caste weGandhis_views_on_caste_and_intermarriage
environment populated almost entirely need not one but many detailed Madras bio High Court (1950): Srimathi Champakam
Dorairajan and Anr vs State of Madras, Judg
by people like themselves, this group graphies
is of the "general category". Inment delivered on 27 July 1950, Chief Justice
the last analysis, then, the call to inter
unsettled by the recent arrival of hither Rajamannar presiding, with separate (concur
ring) judgments by Justices Viswanatha Sastri
to excluded and therefore strange and rogate the upper caste self is not about and Somasundaram.
unknown social groups in their vicinity.
the end of illusion as it might first seem,
Pandian, M S S (2007): Brahmin and Non-Brahmin:
It is the double coincidence of the matu but about the revitalisation of what is Genealogies of the Tamil Political Present (Rani
khet and New Delhi: Permanent Black).
ration of a sense of castelessness and the perhaps our most intimate as well as our
Prasad, Madhava (2011): "Language, Education and
arrival of caste-marked strangers in most elusive utopia. Political Existence" in Seminar, No 624, August.

hitherto upper caste social milieux that

confirms and amplifies this response. NOTES Style Sheet for Authors
First published in 1945 and 1943 respectively,
While preparing their articles for submission,
Conclusion both works are included in Ambedkar (1990).
contributors are requested to follow epw's
The quotations in the following discussion are
This is a good time, then, to be working stylesheet.
taken from Lindley (2002), who is himself
towards a biography of the general citing
cat Theim
various sources, including (as in this style sheet is posted on epw's web site at
mediate instance) Ambedkar, the Harijan,
egory. The problem of false universals the
http://www.epw.in/terms-policy/style-sheet.
ioo-volume Collected Works of Gandhi and html
is already known to us from feminist
other texts in the enormous literature on
theory and from critical race theory.Gandhiana.
We It will help immensely for faster processing and
I have verified that this particular
quote error-free editing if writers follow the guidelines
can use the insights of this literature to is from Ch XI of Ambedkar's What
in the style sheet, especially with regard to
Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Un
understand how the general category
touchables, and is to be found on p 276 of
citation and preparation of references.
has fared as a universal in our context.
Ambedkar (1990).

Economie & Political weekly DSS3 april 13, 2013 vol xlviii no 15 39

This content downloaded from

103.21.127.60 on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 03:23:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms