What is your caste? Potential census question exposes sensitive divide in Indian society

NEW DELHI — Bollywood’s biggest star has an answer ready if census workers ask about his caste: “Indian.”

“My father never believed in caste, and neither do any of us,” Amitabh Bachchan wrote in his obsessively followed blog.

Comments like Bachchan’s are common in modern India, which prides itself on how it has transcended some of its most rigid traditions — and those beliefs are being heard more often as the government debates whether the national census should delve into caste.

But Joseph D’Souza doesn’t believe such talk for a moment.

“There’s a lot of lip service to saying ‘I’m an Indian first,’ and ‘I don’t believe in caste,’” said D’Souza, a prominent campaigner for dalits, as India’s “untouchables” at the very bottom of the caste system are now known.

“When it comes to sharing power, to interaction, to sharing social status, low-caste Indians are very much marginalized,” he said, arguing the census could provide firm data about the vast divisions.

India’s census, being held in stages over the next year or so, delves into the wealth, living conditions and other personal details of the country’s 1.2 billion people. But still undecided is one question — “What is your caste?” — that has infuriated much of India’s elite, energized caste-based political parties and left in doubt millions of government jobs and university slots.

The debate has also made very clear that caste, the Hindu custom that for millennia has divided people in a strict social hierarchy based on their family’s traditional livelihood and ethnicity, remains a deeply sensitive subject.

“The biggest issue (with the census) is the inability of India to come to terms with this really ingenious form of discrimination,” D’Souza said.

Bachchan, who has dominated Bollywood for decades, proudly says his family has married across India’s vast geographic spectrum — with a Bengali, a Sindhi, a Punjabi and a Mangalorean. But D’Souza notes that none of those relatives are low caste and that the movie industry has not one dalit star.

The question’s fiercest backers include India’s most powerful caste politicians, who believe they could use the census data as fodder for votes and government funding.

Its bitterest opponents include much of the establishment. “At one stroke, it trivializes all that modern India has stood for, and condemns it to the tyranny of an insidious kind of identity politics,” Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a prominent Indian commentator, wrote in the Indian Express newspaper.

The last Indian census that measured castes was in 1931, when colonial Britain still ruled.

The founders of modern India — nearly all high caste — were, at least publicly, staunch believers in a caste-blind society. While many would have been aghast if one of their children had married a dalit, they also fought hard for dalit rights.

Most felt that counting caste sizes in a census reinforced a tradition they wanted to fade.

It’s an argument still heard today.

“No one denies that there are a lot of problems in India, that there is social discrimination,” said Barun Mitra, who runs a New Delhi-based research center. But “this process of identifying caste with a census is unlikely to help.”

Like many critics, he also worries about the rise of the caste-based politicians.

“What purpose would it serve by drawing and redrawing the identity one more time, particularly when it is politically motivated?” he asked.

In recent decades, some of the sharpest edges of caste traditions have been softened by urbanization and economic growth. Inter-caste marriages are now fairly common, and there are powerful low-caste politicians and businesspeople.

But caste also remains a deeply felt part of Indian life. Brahmins, the highest caste, still dominate everything from politics to journalism. Caste-specific marriage advertisements are newspaper staples. Studies show low-caste Indians and dalits face daily challenges for decent schools, medical care and jobs.

“Caste is part of every social agenda, every political agenda,” said Shaibal Gupta with the Asian Development Research Institute. “Even when someone is considering a neighborhood, caste is an important consideration.”

But caste calculations have become far more complicated, with jobs and university slots reserved for lower castes and a new generation of politicians learning to use their lower-caste backgrounds to create massive vote banks.

Laws give specific breakdowns of those reserved positions, but since the numbers are based on the 1931 census, their accuracy is questioned. And protests have been violent as caste leaders try to have their group’s status officially lowered to be eligible for reserved jobs and school slots.

For some opponents, complexity alone makes caste an impossible census question. While there are just four main castes, there may be more than 20,000 sub-castes. Then there are the sub-sub-castes, clans and a multitude of other variations.

But for proponents like D’Souza, such arguments prove the necessity of the question. In a country where caste is so important, he asks, how can India not know the facts?

“You can’t hide it and put it under the carpet and say caste is not there,” he said.

By: TIM SULLIVAN
Associated Press
http://www.sfexaminer.com/world/what-is-your-caste-potential-census-question-exposes-sensitive- divide-in-indian-society-95006229.html

Posted on: May 27, 2010

 


Failed program starves Dalits in Bihar

Originally published in The Hindu, by Shoumojit Banerjee.

GAYA: With the National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar playing cowboys and Indians with the Centre over the number of BPL (below the poverty line) families in the State, Gaya’s hunger deaths proffer a sober reality check to the government consistently serenading its schemes for the Maha Dalit community.

Three years ago, 14 members of the Bhuiyyan community (a Maha Dalit sub-caste) from a village in Gaya’s Mohanpur block died after eating the rotten meat of a dead goat. The reason for this desperate act was non-availability of grain in the village for long.

Fast-forward two years to the Dobhi block, where more than six starvation deaths were reported. All the victims belonged to the Bhuiyyan-Musahar sub-caste and their names did not figure on the BPL list.

Similarly at Tetua tola, populated with 150-odd Bhuiyyan-Musahar families, barely 69 villagers have their names on the BPL list. A mere 14 received some part of the benefits of the old-age pension scheme. Hardly any of the villagers was given the yellow Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) card that would entitle them to 25 kg of grain at subsidised rates.

Gaya’s hunger deaths reached their climax last month with the death of Congress Manjhi of Manan Bigha, who had been ailing for the past three years. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis six months ago and he died on April 14 — too ill and too weak to work.

Authorities attributed his death to an illness and not to starvation. A Maha Dalit though, Manjhi also did not figure on the BPL list.

In each instance, the kith and kin of the victims were given a token one quintal of rice after their deaths. This, understandably, was to calm the frayed tempers.

“Till date, there have been more than 100 hunger deaths in Bihar, with 26 of them having occurred in Gaya alone. Every single one of them smacks of incredible bureaucratic-political torpor,” says Rupesh, state advisor to the Supreme Court Commissioner.

According to activists like him, very little has changed for the Bhuiyyans in the last 2,500 years.

At a Jan Sunwai (public hearing) organised this Wednesday by activists of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and Koshish, a right to food organisation, a thousand-odd Bhuiyyans took part, braving the scorching heat, for making their voice heard after a very long time.

Not one of them had consistently been given food grains on their BPL ‘red’ cards since June 2009, while barely a dozen were ever issued with AAY cards. “Even in States with dismal human rights records, there has been at least some advancement. But here, there has been very little progress,” said Harsh Mander, special commissioner of the Supreme Court and jury member at the hearing.

Noting that “there is a systematic breakdown in Bihar’s Public Distribution System,” he said: “It is vital for the district administration to get the anganwadi centres in working order if the Bhuiyyan-Musahar communities are to get any relief in the near future.”

Mr. Mander pointed out: “In case of hunger deaths, there is a long time period during which the victim has consistently survived on a low ration of food grains. When the autopsy is performed, there will remain bare traces of morsels.” The Human Rights Commission ruled that there was no need to submit a post-mortem report for hunger deaths.

“Unless there is a mechanism to control corruption at delivery, it will not make any difference to the government switching to cash transfers from the PDS,” says Father Jose of the PUCL’s Bihar unit.

Posted on: May 24, 2010

 


Gates help for Musahar village

May 11: The champion of the “mouse” from America will adopt a village of rat-eaters in India.

Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates will tomorrow make his maiden visit to Bihar in sweltering weather and adopt impoverished Gularia village on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on health and learning.

The village, 180km northeast of Patna, is populated by the Musahars, one of the lowest Dalit sub-castes whose name means “rat-eater”. The landless community principally survived by hunting rodents for centuries but nowadays many Musahars work as farm hands although rats continue to form a part of their diet.

“Bill Gates has decided to adopt the village to improve the villagers’ socio-economic condition. His foundation will open a health centre in the village,” said Sudhanshu Kumar, district police chief of Khagaria.

Foundation sources would not reveal what other plans Gates has for Gularia in Khagaria district that lacks drinking water, schools, hospitals or electricity.

Gates’s visit is unusual because of its timing — day temperatures are now well over 40 degrees in the heartland. The American, one of the world’s richest men, toured Amethi this afternoon with Rahul Gandhi in temperatures above 42 degrees, seven weeks after his wife Melinda had visited Rae Bareli and committed Rs 250 crore worth of health programmes for Uttar Pradesh.

A Rahul aide claimed: “After going back, Melinda, we have learnt, had warned Bill Gates about the scorching Indian summer that she had faced in March, but he still decided to come in May, when it’s worse.”

Sources said Gates had chosen Gularia for adoption after receiving reports from the “field officers” of his foundation and other NGOs.

Khagaria district is home to the highest number of Musahars, whom chief minister Nitish Kumar has included in his “Maha-Dalit” category as a community that needs urgent development.

During his day-long visit, Gates is scheduled to meet Nitish in Patna to discuss pro-poor schemes and offer help to improve medical facilities.The software icon will arrive in Gularia by helicopter, an official said. “Tight security arrangements have been made. His schedule is being kept under wraps.”

Gates today flew down to the Fursatganj airstrip in Amethi and reached Bahadurpur village by car, accompanied by Rahul, traversing a dusty, rough road. As they stepped out, a gust of hot wind raised a cloud of dust around the VIP visitors.

Over 300 women associated with self-help groups welcomed the foreigner guest, who asked them how they cared for pregnant women and lactating mothers and infants.

The women spoke of the challenges they faced but expressed confidence about meeting them. The self-help groups impart healthcare to women and children, provide basic medicines and manage minor welfare projects.

Gates praised the women’s efforts and then turned to his favourite subject: the computer as a window to the world.

“How do you teach your children?” he asked. “Do you use computers to educate your children?”

Rajkali Devi, 27, said yes, the village children learnt to use computers from a very early age. “Sir, your goal and ours is the same in some ways. Like your organisation, we too spread awareness and try to fight poverty,” she added.

The American’s face lit up as he listened to the interpreter.

Nalin Verma and Tapas Chakraborty
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100512/jsp/nation/story_12439668.jsp

Posted on: May 12, 2010