CASTE AND DALIT MOVEMENTS

"The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker
section 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."1

CASTE

This term is derived from a Portuguese word ‘casta’ which means a group. As already noted
castes are ascriptive groups. An individual is born in a caste, and this status will be more or less
permanent. Though the elements of caste are found outside India, it is only in India that
numerous castes are found. Apart from general features like endogamy , castes also have specific
features which are the outcomes of regional linguistic or other variables. Main elements of the
caste system,

1. Castes are endogamous. Various economic, social and religious sanctions are meted out
to those who break this norm.
2. Caste place restrictions on commensalisms between members of different castes. These
restrictions relate to eating and drinking.
3. There is a hierarchical grading of castes based on the notion of ritual purity. The higher
castes are believed to be purer and less polluted. The lower caste are less pure and more
polluted. Here purity or the lack of it has no direct relation to physical purity. Ritual
purity derives from the ideology of caste that human beings are being into a high or low
caste I accordance with karmic law.
4. Social interactions between castes are restricted. They are permitted only during
occupational transaction. An upper caste businessman or landholder has to interact with
others who may be of low rank.
5. Castes are usually associated with traditional occupational. For example, Brahmins,
Rajputs, Baniyas, Ahirs of north India were associated with particular occupations
likewise, in southern India caste were either specialized in occupations or were associated
with them.2

1
Article 46 of the Indian Constitution.
2
T.K. Oommen and CN. Venugopal, Sociology 129 (Eastern Book Company, Lucknow,
Traditional India was divided strongly based on the caste system. Hindu dharma or ideology
insisted the caste system based on their birth, then divided people based on the four folds caste
system which follows a hierarchy as the Brahmins the priests, followed by Kshyitriyas the
warriors, Vysa the traders and Shudras the servants. Dalit who are broken people are not even
included in the system; they are below all the other castes in the hierarchy. For close to 2000
years people have been discriminated based on their caste, and even now the India is unable to
get rid of it.3

Caste can be defined as a hereditary and hierarchic system of social grouping distinguished by
degrees of purity, social status, and exclusiveness. Those who do not belong to any of the four
main varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras) are considered „impure‟ and thus
„polluting‟ to other caste groups. They are seen as „untouchables‟, are named by several states
as „scheduled castes‟ and have chosen the name “Dalit” for themselves, which means „broken
people. The caste system in India – a country with 1.2 billion people, half of whom are under 25
years old – is rigid. “Once you are born into it, there is no means to move out. your caste doesn’t
change. That is the fundamental principle of caste. “Caste is a major system of exclusion across
Indian society and higher education is no exception
“In the past 20 years, because of the assertion of social movements by Dalit and other students
and affirmative action taken under government policies, there has been a massive increase in the
involvement of Dalit students in higher education at both the undergraduate and research levels,”

THE DALIT MOVEMENT

The sun of self-respect has burst into flame-
Let it burn up these castes!
Smash, break, destroy
These walls of hatred.
Crush to smithereens this eons-old school of blindness,

3
http://amity.edu/UserFiles/asco/journal/ISSUE48_1.%20Viduthalai,%20Divakar,%20Natarajan.pdf
Rise, O people!

Social movements of Dalits show a particular character. The movements cannot

be explained satisfactorily by reference to economic exploitations alone or political
oppression, although these dimensions are important. This is a struggle for
recognition as fellow human beings. It is a struggle for self-confidence and a
space for self-determination. It is a struggle for abolishment of stigmatisation,
that untouchability implied. It has been called a struggle to be touched.4

There has not been a single, unified Dalit movement in the country now or in the past.
Different movements have highlighted different issues related to Dalits, around different
ideologies. However, all of them assert a Dalit identity though the meaning may not be
identical or precise for everyone. Notwithstanding differences in the nature of
Dalit movements and the meaning of identity, there has been a common quest for equality,
self-dignity and eradication of untouchability.

The anti-caste movement which began in the 19th century under the inspiration
of Jotiba Phule and was carried out in the 1920s by the non-Brahmin movements in Maharashtra
and Tamil Nadu and then developed under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar had characteristics
of all types. At its best it was revolutionary in terms of society and redemptive in terms of
individuals. In partial context, the ‘post Ambedkar Dalit movement’ has had revolutionary
practice.
It has provided alternative ways of living, at some points limited and at some points radical and
all-encompassing, ranging from changes in behavior such as giving up eating beef to religious
conversion. It has focused on changes in the entire society, from radical revolutionary goal of
abolishing caste oppression and economic exploitation to the limited goals of providing scope
for members of Scheduled Caste to achieve social mobility.
But on the whole…this movement has been a reformist movement. It has mobilized along
caste lines, but only made halfhearted efforts to destroy caste; it has attempted and achieved
some real though limited societal changes with gains especially for the educated sections
among Dalits, but it has failed to transform society sufficiently to raise the general mass from

4
Neerja Shukla and Shiv Kumar, et.al. SOCIOLOGY, NCERT, New Delhi
what is still among the most excruciating poverty in the world.

SOME REPOERTS TO LOOK UPON

1)India Home to the vast majority of South Asia’s Dalits, about one fifth of the population, caste
discrimination is a highly politicized and sensitive issue in India. Despite constitutional
safeguards and special legislation for the protection of Dalits, violations of fundamental human
rights occur on a massive scale. The extreme and violent crimes committed against Dalits (in
India called atrocities) and the widespread impunity for perpetrators, do not fit well with India’s
image as the world’s largest democracy. A global market player and regional super power, India
responds to international attention to caste discrimination by referring to it as an „internal issue‟
and a „family matter‟, that need not be dealt with by the United Nations, especially since
constitutional and legal protective mechanisms are in place. According to the official census the
„scheduled castes‟ constitute 167 million, however the actual number is more likely closer to
200 million. The official census does not include Dalits who have converted or are born and
raised within a non-Hindu religious community. Estimation of the total Dalit population
including Dalit Muslims and Christians comes in at 200 million people. In recognition of the
scale and gravity of this problem, the European Parliament adopted resolution B6- 0021/2007 on
the Human Rights Situation of the Dalits in India, on 1st February 2007, after a hearing on caste
discrimination, in the Development Committee.5

2)The newly released Human Rights Watch World Report 2015 and the Amnesty International
2014-15 report find that caste discrimination persists with adverse effects to human rights on
multiple levels. Serious obstacles to access to justice, discrimination in education and access to
services and caste-based violence, including rape of Dalit women, are among the key themes
addressed in the reports. These concerns are also noted in the latest India and Nepal reports of
the US State Department6

5
Caste and the world, S. ANAND, the Hindu, May 24, 2009
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/05/24/stories/2009052450180500.html

6
http://idsn.org/human-rights-watch-and-amnesty-internationals-2015-reports-raise-serious-concern-over-caste-
discrimination
3) According to a 2010 report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the
Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes, a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18
minutes. Every day, on average, three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits murdered, and two
Dalit houses burnt. According to the NHRC statistics put together by K.B. Saxena, a former
additional chief secretary of Bihar, 37 per cent Dalits live below the poverty line, 54 per cent are
undernourished, 83 per 1,000 children born in a Dalit household die before their first birthday, 12
per cent before their fifth birthday, and 45 per cent remain illiterate. The data also shows that
Dalits are prevented from entering the police station in 28 per cent of Indian villages. Dalit
children have been made to sit separately while eating in 39 per cent government schools. Dalits
do not get mail delivered to their homes in 24 per cent of villages. And they are denied access to
water sources in 48 per cent of our villages because untouchability remains a stark reality even
though it was abolished in 1955.7

CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN

RIGHTS FRAMEWORK
Caste-based discrimination or “discrimination based on work and descent” is prohibited by
international human rights law and constitutes a violation of the most fundamental human rights
principles, including non-discrimination.8 Over the last decade, UN treaty bodies have
increasingly addressed the issue of caste discrimination in their country examinations, and UN
Special Rapporteurs have expressed their concerns in thematic reports and communications to
governments.

After so much of awareness and struggle by countless people the nation has progressed in a slow
but sure pace is distancing the caste system. It is very necessary for each and every section of our
country to come ahead and think for the good of a huge part of our country. In this process one
has to keep it mind that they do not influence by wrong people. History has many instances

7
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dalits-untouchable-rohith-vemula-caste-discrimination/1/587100.html
8
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/droi/dv/201/201102/20110228_510eustudy_
en.pdf
where Dalits, minorities, and backward class people has treated wrongly. Anyone who is in
power can make many changes with the lives of this people with their agenda to bring them in
mainstream. Emancipation from forests has affected them (schedule tribes) many ways. There is
need to get the Dalits kids enrolled in schools for primary education. The situation also needs the
upper caste people to stop glorifying caste divide. Being Dalit means you would be counted a
potential “vote bank” by all political parties.

A nation can only develop if every citizen of that nation develops.

By -Ujjwal Mishra

SUBMITTED TO – RASHEED SIR