CHAPTER-II

CASTE SYSTEM, DISCRIMINATION AND DALIT RIGHTS IN INDIA

"In that Country the laws of religion, the laws of the land, and the laws
of honour, are all united and consolidated in one, and bind a man
eternally to the rules of what is called his caste. "
Edmund Burke

2.1 Introduction

For anybody having a semblance of intellectual or emotional connection with

India - Caste is the core symbol of community in India, whereas for dispassionate
others, even in serious critique, caste is still the defining feature of Indian social
organization. Views of caste differ markedly: from those who see it as a religious
system to those who view it as merely social or economic contour; from those who
admire the spiritual foundations of a sacerdotal hierarchy to those who look from
below and see the tyranny of Brahmans (all the more insidious because of the ritual
mystifications that attend domination); from those who view it as the Indian
equivalent of community to those who see it as the primary impediment to
community.

An extraordinary range of commentators, from James Mill to Herbert Risely,

from Hegel to Weber, fi-om G.S. Ghurye to M. Srinivas, from Louis Dumont to
Mckim Marriott, from E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker to B.R. Ambedkar, ft-om Gandhi to
Nehru, accept that caste-and specifically caste fomis of hierarchy, whether valorized
or despised- is somehow fundamental to Indian civilization, culture and tradition.

In the Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote that "Almost everyone who
knows anything at all about India has heard of the caste system; almost every outsider

' "Speech on the opening of the Impeachment of Warren Hastings," 15 February 1788 in P.J.
Marshall, ed., The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vol. 6, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1991, pp. 302-3.

30
and many people in India condemn it or criticize it as a whole." Nehru did not like the
caste system any more than he admired the widely heralded "spiritual" foundations of
Indian civilization, but even he felt ambivalence about it. Although he noted that
caste had resisted "not only the powerful impact of Buddhism and many centuries of
Afghan and Mughal rule and the spread of Islam," as also "the strenuous efforts of
innumerable Hindu reformers who raised their voices against it," he felt that caste was
finally beginning to come undone through the force of basic economic changes. And
yet Nehru was not sure what all this change would unleash, "the conflict is between
two approaches to the problem of social organization, which are diametrically
opposed to each other: the old Hindu conception of the group being the basic unit of
organization, and the excessive individualism of the west, emphasizing the individual
above the group." While making this observations, Nehru neatly captured the
conceptual contour of most recent debates over caste: he evaluated it in relation to its
place as fundamental to Hindustan as well as in terms of a basic opposition between
the individual and the community, an opposition that has provided the bounds of most
modem social theory and political imagining.

2.2 The Origin o f Caste'

The word 'caste', is an extremely unhappy translation of two quite different

indigenous concepts, vama and jati, which are generally believed, both by Hindus and
outside observers, to correspond in some way. In a sense, the history of the debate
about the nature of caste can be viewed as the attempt to discover what exactly the
correspondence between vama and jati is. The sense of jati is of those people who are
in some fundamental way alike because of their common origins, and fundamentally
different from those who do not share these origins. One cannot choose one's jati, it is
defined by birth. But one can choose whether one's jati refers to a more or less
inclusive group: this is going to depend on context. In one context, one's jati is one's

^ Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (1946; reprint), Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1985,pp.245-46.

31
lineage; in another, it may be all the lineages with whom one can intermarry; in yet
another, it may refer to those whose common ethnic or cultural heritage sets them
apart from their neighbours. Jati is, of the essence, a relative term. The following
definition gives some idea of the range and flexibility of the concept: One of the
commonest words for genus in most Indian languages, jati, is derived from an Indo-
European verbal root meaning 'genesis,' 'origin,' or 'birth.'''

The sense of varna is quite different. This basic idea is not of birth but of
function, and not simply any function, but one which is necessary to ensure that social
harmony and cosmic stability are maintained. The term varna has a long history and
dates back to the invasions of north-west India (presently Pakistan), beginning in
approximately 1500 BC, by Aryans from Central Asia.These Aryans are often referred
to as Vedic, a word which derives from the priestly ritual and literature with which
they are primarily associated. The central idea of Vedic literature and ritual is that in
order to safeguard the continuity of the universe, it is necessary to make sacrifices to
the gods, and the concept of varna with which we are familiar today is inextricably
tied to a sacrificial theory of human society.''

2.3 The Evolution of Caste System

The connection of varna with sacrifice first appears in a later hymn of the
Rigveda (rgveda) which is generally believed to have been written about 1000 BC in
the area around the Indus river. In this hymn, four vamas are presented, brahmana,
rajanya (later normally referred to as ksatriya) vaisya, and sudra, each of which
emanates from a particular part of the body of purusa- the lord of beings'- who is
represented as a primeval god-man sacrificed at the beginning of time.

A clear delineation of the four Vamas then, is not evident in the Rig Veda, but
appears in the Purusasukta which is a later addition. In the Vedic age, the priestly

^ See, Marriott, M. and Inden, R.B., Social Stratification: Caste in Encyclopedia Britannica,
15* edition, vol. 27, pp. 348-356.
'' See, Declan Quigley, The Interpretation of Caste, OUP, Delhi, 1993, pp. 4-7.

32
duties were not necessarily performed by men of priestly families. "Even in the later
Vedic age of the Yajur Veda, where we find the Vedic Aryans in a settled community,
and where the full elaboration of the four orders of the Varna scheme had taken place,
a conflict for supremacy existed between the Brahmans and Kshatriyas, as well as a
considerable overlapping of duties between them."^ Throughout the later Vedic age
and up to the Upanishadic period, we find several instances of a Kshtriya's thirst for
knowledge and increasing inquisitiveness to know the essence of nature and the
world. Thus, though the priest-king/warrior groups combined to form a composite
ruling class, the distinctions between them were nebulous.

The Aryans also tried to absorb the indigenous local tribes and communities
and establish a workable relationship with them, but naturally from a position of
strength. "Some friendly tribes like the Sutas were even considered respectably.
Rituals were profitably utilized to make allies for the Vedic Aryans form among the
non-Vedic people."^ Members of several weak of unfi-iendly tribes who were unable
to withstand the Aryan onslaught were enslaved by the Aryans or became a servile
class in the Vedic economic structure. They were called the Dasas. The Dasa thus
later came to mean, according to D.D. Kosambi, a helot of some sort. "He had not the
right to initiation, nor to bear weapons: he was property of the Aryan tribe as a whole,
much in the same way as cattle. And, like cattle, both male and female Dasas were
objects of gift to the superior community."^ The evidence that Kosambi and other
historians have cited to show the absorption of Dasas into the Aryans fold leads one to
believe that Shudras arose out of this servile population 'augmented also by such
Aryans as were subjugated and enslaved in internecine warfare.

From the Vedic age to the Mauryan period we fmd the gradual development of a
monolithic, centralized authority. Though productive forces increased in this period with

^ Sharma, R.S., Indian Feudalism c. 300-1200, University of Calcutta Press, 1965, p. 10

* Ibid, p.W
^ Kosambi, D.D., 1975, An Introduction to the study of Indian History, Popular Prakashan,
Bombay, p. 97.

33
the second phase of iron, they did not bring about a qualitative change in the relations of
production. Authority and ownership still lay with the state, and with the growth of
powerful empires, exploitation became more general and more intensive. The phase
beginning from the Yajurvedic age to the fall of the Mauryan Empire, is in essence
similar to authority over land were vested with the state, which resulted in the second
crucial characteristic, viz., that of the general exploitation of the peasantry and artisans by
the state via the royal bureaucracy, or directly by the oligarchs of the Vedic era.

The development of local artisan enterprise combined with increasing

agricultural surplus along with practice of land grants paved way for feudal
tendencies. Local feudatories came into being paving way for localized orders taking
shape. From the seventh to the twelfth century AD these features crystallized.
Q

Serfdom became a widespread phenomenon.

According to R.S. Sharma, certain political and administrative developments

tended to feudalize the state apparatus after the Mauryan period. The most striking
development, he believes, "was the practice of land grants made to Brahmans
(Brahmadaya) which was written just prior to the Gupta period devotes an entire
section to praising such gifts of land... The practice of giving up administrative rights
to the grantees was started probably during the reign of Gautamiputra, the Satavahana
ruler in the second century AD. This became more frequent by the Vakatka period
around the fifth century AD... The Gupta period also affords instances of such
transfer of powers to the grantees, however, they were not always Brahmans. They
were also officers of the state. Though there is no direct information, it appears that
the office of the bhogikas, or administrative officer of the Gupta period, had become
hereditary in some localities."^ The erstwhile officials of the king now began to keep
the entire revenue and for all practical purposes severed their ties with the monarch by
totally usurping his administrative authority. "The feudal elites such as the samantas,

* See, Sharma R.S., 1975, 'Class Formation and its Material Basis in the Upper Gangotri Basin
(c. 1000-500 BC)', Indian Historical Reviews, Vol. 2, pp. 1-13.
' Sharma R.S., Indian Feudalism c. 300-12000, University of Calcutta Press, 1965, pp. 2-5.

34
petty village chiefs, and lesser landholders began to exert greater rights over land*°.
The towns and large trading centers which dotted the earlier Buddhist and Mauryan
empires had also disappeared. The ruralization of the ruling class was accompanied
by the ruralization of the artisans and handicraft workers. Never before had the
peasants and craftsman been subject to such direct control by local chiefs, their
intermediaries and craftsmen.

Here the territory was parceled out by the ruler after retaining his own share
among his kinsmen and clan chiefs. Each of the latter then set about dividing his
territory among his classmen won while retaining his own share, until by this process,
every village was assigned to a particular man in return for a supply of troopers when
needed by the assignor The most common titles of the potentates i.e., the new
landed aristocracies) are samanta, ranaka, rauta, thakkura and rajaputra." Scholars of
the period are in broad agreement that, the distribution of land among royal kinsmen
and officers was a widespread phenomenon of this period. The Harsha inscriptions of
973 AD at Jaipur are considered to be the earliest evidence of such distribution.

The rationale of 'natural superiority' which served the vama scheme so well
was not abandoned. It worked effectively in a more differentiated fashion to underpin
the regime of jatis. The general exploitation of the Asiatic mode of production of the
previous epoch, whereby the obligations and duties of the artisans and peasants vis-a-
vis each other had not been elaborated, now gave way to more clearly specified
patterns of interaction due to the exigencies of localized feudal exploitation. Also the
notion of 'untouchability' originated around 200 AD, especially in association with
the Chandalas. The institution took on an extreme form by the twelfth century AD as
revealed in the Parasamriti. The status of numerous occupational groups of peasants,
artisans, menials, etc, corresponded generally to that of either the Vaishya or the

'° See, Yadav, B.N.S, 1976 'Problem of Interaction Between Socio-Economic Classes in Early
Medieval Complex', in Indian Historical Review, pp. 43-58.
" See, Habib Irfan, 'Distribution of Landed Property in Pre-British India', Enquiry, Vol. 2,
1965,pp.21-75.

35
Shudra Vamas. Further, delineation of status and position among them was not
necessary. The evolution to jatis was on account of the social transition to a closed
village economy.

When trade resumed on a large scale in eleventh century AD; it did not disturb
this village structure. Indeed, the needs of trade very often brought about new
occupational groups, like the diamond miners of Kamataka. Similarly, during the
Muslim period, the regeneration of powerful royal bureaucracies did not dismantle
this feudal set-up, and contrary to popular beliefs, as Alavi points out, all land did not
belong to the Mughal Emperor. Royal officials of the Muslim court were alternatively
paid salaries in cash, or were signed the revenues of a particular area over which they
exercised authority, much in the manner of a feudal overlord. Such changes were
rather abrupt if the earlier ruler was overturned by his successor, but none of this
really altered the fundamental structure of economic relations; thus the village
structure was left largely undisturbed.

The Mughal rulers of India were aware of a formal vama scheme that could be
used to encompass in textual terms the entirely of the Indian social order. AbuT Fazl,
the author of the late sixteenth-century gazetteer and administrative codebook of
Akbar's court, the A'in-i-Akbari, noted that the four vamas-the Brahmans or priests,
the ksatriyas or warriors, the vaisyas or merchants and agriculturalists, and the sudras
or laborers and servents- had been bom from the primodial body of Brahma, and that
all subsequent subdivisions of caste groupings were due to intermarriage among these
four original categories. But the A'-i-Akbari spent far more time delineating the kin
based social categories that actually made up the local social than it did commenting
on caste-predictably, no doubt, given the concern of the book to systematize forms of
revenue collection and local government under Mughal rule. And under direct

'^ Siddiqi, N.A., Land Revenue and Administration Under the Mughals (1700-1750), Asia
Publishing Home, Bombay, 1970, pp. 17-40.

36
Mughal rule, the most saHent titles derived from the Mughal Court, such as
Manasabdar, Zamidar, or Bahadur.

2.4 Caste and Early Western Perception

G.F.W. Hegel was not the first to suggest that the absence of history in India
was a consequence of the natural force of the caste system, but he was among the
most influential. He viewed India as advanced beyond China, on his civilizational
scale, in part because of the break between state and society produced by caste. "The
different castes are indeed, fixed; but in view of the religious doctrine that established
1^

them, they wear the aspect of natural distinction." For Hegel this meant that in India
the whole of society was not absorbed into the despotism of the ruler, as was the case
in China. However, the admirable inauguration of a separation between the religious
and the secular is distorted by the fact that caste is ultimately a religious principle.
Caste resists not just despotism but also any meaningful exchange between social and
political developments. For Hegel, as a result, caste fails to establish a relationship
with history, and India remains plunged in a dreamlike state that necessitates its
subjection to Europe.
The great nineteenth century Indologist Max Mueller, the scholar-missionary
Abbe Dubois, or even the sociologist Max Weber, were not very certain if India would
even succeed in modernizing itself as they felt that the caste system would continue to
frustrate all attempts towards social and economic progress. Their understanding of
the caste system was largely conditioned by Hindu sacerdotal texts which are heavily
biased in favour of a Brahmanical point of view. Even British administrators,
whenever in doubt about what is proper Hindu custom only consulted Brahmans. The
belief that Brahmans alone can speak on behalf of the entire Hindu society continues
to dominate even contemporary scholarship on caste.

'^ G. W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History (1899; reprint), Dover, London, 1956, p. 113.

37
 One of the first British report of this nature came in a treatise by Alexander
Dow, an officer in the East India Company's army who had studied Persian and
published a translation of a standard history of India by Firishtan (The History of
Hindostan) in 1768. Dow relied on the tutelage of a Brahman pandit in Banaras and
adopted a textaulist and Brahmanic view of Indian society. Dow was critical of
Mughal ignorance of Hinduism and disregard for Brahmans, though he tells the story
of how Abu'l Faz' I's brother studied Sanskrit and the Vedas under false pretenses-an
illustration of Akbar's famed tolerance and interest in these matters.

His section on "caste" is only a page long. He wrote: "The Hindoos have, from
all antiquity, been divided into four great tribes, each of which comprehends a variety
of inferior casts. These tribes do not intermarry, eat, drink, or in any manner associate
with one another, except when they worship at the temple of Jagganat in Orissa... The
first, and most noble tribe, are the Brahmans, who alone can officiate in the priesthood
like the Levites among the Jews. The other three vamas, which he called tribes, by
noting their formal associations: Sittri's" or Ksatriyas, ought to be military men; but
they frequently follow other professions, Bise-s or Vaisyas 'are for the most part,
merchants, bankers, and bunias or shop-keepers, and Sudders....ought to be menial
servants, and they are incapable to raise themselves to any superior rank. All those
who are excommunicated from the four tribes are, with their posterity for ever shut
out from the society of every body in the nation and becoming members of the Harri
cast, presumably the "untouchables".

Missionary perspectives on caste are best summarized in the work of Dubois

who began his book by describing the "caste system" in India, referring to the vama
system as outlined in the Dharma Sastras. "I am persuaded that it is simply and solely
due to the distribution of the people into castes that India did not lapse into a state of
barbarism, and that she preserved and perfected the arts and sciences of civilization

'" See, Dow Alexander, 'The History of Hindustan', Translated from the Persian, 3 vols.,
Banaras, 1768.

38
whilst most other nations of the earth remained in a state of barbarism..."'' His high
opinion of caste was linked to his very low opinion of Hindu morality: "We can
picture what would become of the Hindus if they were not kept within the bounds of
duty by the rules and penalties of castes, by looking at the position of the Pariahs, or
outcastes of India, who, checked, by no moral restraint, abandon themselves to their
natural propensities... For my own part, being perfectly familiar with this class, and
acquainted with its natural predilections and sentiments, I am persuaded that a nation
of Pariahs left to themselves would speedily become worse than the hordes of
cannibals who wander in the vast waste of Africa, and would soon take to devouring
each other."'*" If Dubois had negative views of Brahmans, they were nothing to what
he took the "outcaste Pariahs" to be. Without a Brahmanically ordered caste system,
Dubois felt that India would "necessarily fall into a state of hopeless anarchy, and,
before the present generation disappeared, this nation, so polished under present
conditions, would have to be reckoned amongst the most uncivilized of the world."''
Dubois's chapter on "Pariahs" demonstrated his "upper-caste" contempt for them, as
well as for those- including Europeans- who lived in any proximity to them. Thus it
was that Dubois believed that a Christian mission was destined to fail if it could
convert only "untouchables" and have no success at all with Brahmans.

Risley, who was the census commissioner of India expounded his views in his
magnum Opus "The People of India" in 1901 it was an expansion of his earlier work
and resulted directly from Risley's work as census commissioner. Risley seemed to
speak for many in both colonial and academic establishments when he wrote that caste
"forms the cement that holds together the myriad units of Indian society... Were its
cohesive power withdrawn or its essential ties relaxed, it is difficult to form any idea
of the probable consequences. Such a change would be more than a revolution; it

'^ See Abbe J.A. Duboi, translated, annotated, and revised by Henry K. Beauchamp, as Hindu
Manners, Customs and Ceremonies 1897, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906.
'^ Ibid
" Ibid

39
would resemble the withdrawal of some elemental force like gravitation or molecular
attraction. Order would vanish and chaos would supervene... The caste system itself,
with its singularly perfect communal organization, is a machinery admirably fitted for
the diffusion of new ideas: that castes may in course of time group themselves into
classes representing the different strata of society; and that India may thus attain, by
the agency of these indigenous corporations, the results which have been arrived at
elsewhere through the fusion of individual types."

Hutton, who returned to Britain after his stint as census commissioner in 1931
to assume a professorship in anthropology at Cambridge, served as a direct bridge
between colonial officialdom and academic certification, directly calling upon his
colonial experience as the basis for his anthropological expertise. In fact, academic
anthropology, at least in Britain, had been, preoccupied not with the peasant societies
represented by caste but rather with the idea of primitive society and with the islands
and hill regions that were often on the borders of imperial rule. Hutton, who also had
the acuity to draw upon a growing interest in French anthropology concerning the
nature of the caste system (viz. Emile Senart and Celestin Bougie), worked to change
all that, and to train a new generation of anthropologists in Britain who sought to unite
the study of primitive and peasant. On Caste, Hutton, concluded that: "The truth is
that while a caste is a social unit in a quasi-organic system of society and throughout
India is consistent enough to be immediately identifiable, the nature of the unit is
variable enough to make a concise definition difficult. If it be enough to define the
system, the following formula is suggested, 'a caste system is one whereby a society is
divided up into a number of self-contained and completely segregated units (castes),
the mutual relations between which are ritual determined in a graded scale'. But it
would be hard to claim that to define a caste as one of a number of such units was
completely safisfactory."'^

'* Also See H.H. Risley, The People of India, 2nd ed., W. Thacker, London, 1915, pp. 1-20.

40
 British colonialism played a critical role in both the identification and the
production of Indian "tradition". Current debates about modernity and tradition fail to
appreciate the extent to which the congeries of beliefs, customs, practices, and
convictions that have been designated as traditional are in fact the complicated
byproduct of colonial history. India was redefined by the British to be a place of rules
and orders; once the British had defined to their own satisfaction what they construed
as Indian rules and customs, then the Indians had to conform to these constructions."'^

Post-World War II era heralded the American Hegemony in Social Science as

well, 'Village, India', a volume of essays edited by the young American
anthropologist McKim Marriott, was the herald of a new anthropology of South Asia.
A product of the new American interest in "underdeveloped" societies (driven, and
funded, in part by the imperative of the cold war), the turn of anthropological interest
to peasant societies was dramatically linked to modernization theories that operated as
the ideological charter of a new American claim for post imperial domination.
Spawned in large part under the influence or Robert Redfield, whose concern was to
locate anthropology around the study of little communities in complex societies and in
relation to civilization processes, Village India made a strong case for the fundamental
relationship between caste as a civilizational idea and the Village.

Some American social scientists sought to see caste as one particular instance
of social stratification in a comparative context that linked racial discrimination in the
United States with caste prejudice in India. Others sought to document in rich detail
the way actual relations of intermarriage and inter-dining determined each local
manifestation of caste. During the 1960s, caste became central once again to the
academic study of within British, American, and Indian anthropology but also from
the monumental intervention of the French anthropologist Loius Dumont, whose
major work on caste, Homo Hierarchicus, was published in 1966.

'' Hutton, Caste in India, Oxford University Press, London, 1963, pp. 49-50.

41
 Dumont argued that the political and economic domain of social life in India
has always been encompassed by the religious domain, articulated in terms of an
opposition between purity and pollution. For Dumont, as for Weber and others before
him, the Brahman represents the religious principle, inasmuch as the Brahman
represents the highest form of purity attainable by Hindus. The king, although
important, only represents the profane political world, and is accordingly inferior to
and encompassed by the Brahman. The overarching value accorded to the religious
domain is the central feature of the ideology of caste-which Dumont characterized
with the single word "hierarchy". Dumont argues that the sociological significance of
hierarchy has been systematically missed by modem writers obsessed with the
ideology of equality. Caste is fundamentally religious; and hierarchy is about the
valorization of society over the individual. Dumont reasoned, in ways not entirely
dissimilar from later formulations by Marriot and Inden, that vama and jati were not
opposed but rather that the principles of vama underlay the actual organization and
articulation of hierarchical relations between and among jatis. What was distinctive
for Dumont was his sense that even if the classical Brahman and Ksatriya were not
present in a distinct social system, the values associated with them- status and power,
respectively- would always be there, and were always held as foundationally separate
and resolutely hierarchalized. And, as he put it, "this was not enough: for pure
hierarchy to develop without hindrance it was also necessary that power should be
absolutely inferior to status. These are the two conditions that we find fulfilled early
on, in the relationship between Brahman and Kshatriya."

The caste hierarchy however is not merely a linear order but is 'a series of
successive dichotomies and inclusions.' For instance, the Shudra is opposed to the
block of the first three castes, Vaishyas are opposed to the block of Brahmans and
Kshatriya, which finally divides into two in this manner, Dumont demonstrates again
the relationship between the encompassing and the encompassed.... Dumont

^° Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, translated by
Mark Sainsbury et a!., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980.

42
categorically states: 'For us... what happens at the extreme is essential...' In a true
hierarchy that which encompasses is more important than that which is
encompassed. 'For pure hierarchy to develop without hindrance it was also
necessary that power should be absolutely inferior to status. ,22

It is in this context then of shared values that caste constitutes a discourse of

beliefs, which has practical consequences. It is in this scene then that in spite of being
discrete entities castes can still talk and relate to one another. Neither Bougie nor
Senart were self-consciously espousing the cause that castes are discrete entities in the
sense that we are, yet there is much that we can learn from them. Dumont faults
Bougle^^ and Senart^'' for not being more explicit of the fact that castes constitute a
system... If it had been possible for Bougie or Senart to reply to Dumont they would
have said that they were not anti-systemic because what made caste a distinctive
system were the principles that were universally employed in separation, viz.,
hierarchy, occupation, and repulsion. Our view is, however, not identical to either
Bougie's or Senart's. in spite of the fact that castes are discrete, they are related as in a
discourse because each caste in spite of its own idiosyncratic articulation of the caste
ideology nevertheless uses identical elements and positions itself with reference to a
notion of hierarchy nodes of which appear and reappear in different ideological
formulations. As Cox perceptively observed, the caste system is 'a number of cultural
unities invidiously juxtaposed, and the greater the struggle for position the more
secure the structure is as a whole.'

Generally, the vama system forms a reference point to which each caste
ideological formulation addresses itself, though very often the vama system is

^' Ibid,p. we
" Ibid.
^^ Ref. Bougie. C, 'The Essence of Reality of Caste System' in Deepankar Gupta, Ed. Social
Stratification, OUP, Delhi, 1991.
^'* Senart, E., Les Castes dans L. Inde, Paris, 1896 (The translated edition used).
^^ Cox Oliver Cromwell, Caste Class and Race, A Study in Social Dynamics, Monthly Review
Press, New York, 1970.

43
skipped, and the gods of the Hindu pantheon are referred to instead. But both the
primary and secondary symbols employed to differentiate one caste from the other
occur in the context of a common reference particular enough to render this context
non-referential in any other system of differentiation. The caste system is a system of
condensed symbols, the like all symbols what is signified at one point makes sense
within a referential context, and yet any particular signification does not limit the
potentiality of the signifier. The signified, as the linguists tirelessly remind us, does
not exhaust the signifier. In other words, symbols are capable of multiple
interpretations and no single rendition should be taken as the ideal signification.

The existence of so many diverse and contrary tales of caste origin is not the
only way by which discrete castes maintain their separateness. If one were to look at
the customs and traditions followed by different castes, one would be hard put to force
them into any grading system on the basis of purity and pollution. For instance, in the
case of kachcha and pacca food, it is not always the upper castes who are very
particular in this matter. According to Blunt's classification, there is no relationship
between orthodox caste ranking and the severity of the cooking taboo. The Koiris and
Kumharas are as rigid in their cooking taboos as the Brahmans, and belong to the
same group in Blunt's classification. The Cheros and the Khatris also belong to one
group and the Banjaras, Byars and Dangis are about as severe in maintaining the
taboos relating to kachcha and pacca food as are the Kayasthas.

Differences in marriage rites, jewellery, dress and other such factors also
neutral to purity or pollution are adhered to rigidly by different castes, not always to
show their superiority, but to emphasize their differences. These differences need to
be made and emphasized. Ideologies thrive only when they are able to condense a
large number of discrete phenomena in a comprehensive and total manner and it is
through this process that ideologies attain their diacritical marks. There are certain

^* Blunt, The Caste System of Northern India with Special Reference to the United Province of
Agra and Oudh, S. Chand & Company, Delhi, 1960.

44
features many castes share in common. The Nabashakhas (originally nine but now a
group of fourteen castes) have their ceremonies performed by the so-called 'orthodox'
Brahmans. Their distinctiveness, however, does not become redundant because of this.
The Baidyas, the Kayasthas, the Tantis, the Goalas - all members of the Nabashakhas
- follow customs which also separate them comprehensively from one another. These
differences are zealously guarded, and the so-called lower castes also observe caste
distinctions very rigidly.

Jati differentiation through multiple rituals signifies not so much different

social histories of the various jatis as it does a natural history which separates jatis
irreconcilably on a biological plane. This is the pre-eminent value to which all those
who participate in the caste system subscribe. It is for this reason that endogamy is
effective only at the jati level. The abundance of rituals, through social and aesthetized
codes, guarantees that neither common social circumstances nor the absence of any
visible biological variation among jatis sublates the rationale of endogamy.

Caste, should be understood first in terms of discrete categories. Hierarchy

obviously comes in, but as castes resist being placed together in a continuum several.
No caste considers itself to be actually made up of base and impure substances; no
untouchable community believes that it rightfully occupies such a lowly position. This
is in spite of the fact that all castes, no matter where they may be placed in terms of
the existing structures of power, believe strongly in impurity and purity, and in all the
other basic beliefs that inform the caste system. The disagreement primarily lies in the
elaboration and in the practice of social distance based on hierarchy. The untouchables
have their own origin tales as do the many castes that call themselves the martial
castes as also do those that claim Brahman status. Through these disparate tales and
clearly differentiated rituals castes constantly signal their differences with one
another. Thus, even if members of a depressed caste were to claim Brahman status, it

^^ See, 0' Malley, L.S.S., Indian Caste Customs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1932.

45
is not as if they want to merge with the more established Brahman castes. They would
rather want to be known as Brahmans of a different icind with their own distinctive
diacritics. Endogamy would be kept alive and any suggestion that they marry into
other Brahman castes would be fiercely resisted.

2.5 Untouchability

Untouchability is one of the unique features of Hindu Society. The Hindu

social order does not recognize the individual as a centre of social purpose. For the
Hindu social order is based on primarily on class or Varna and not on individuals.
Originally and formally the Hindu social order recognized four classes: (1) Brahmins
(2) Kshtriyas and (3) Vaishyas and (4) Shudras. Today, it consists of five classes, the
fifth being called Panchamas or Untouchables. Even the family is not regarded by the
Hindu social order as a unit of society except for the purposes of marriage and
inheritance. The unit of Hindu society is the class or Varna, to use the Hindu
technical name for class.

People belonging to the last Varna, namely Shudra and Avamas include many
caste groups which have suffered social, economic, and political inequalities since
many centuries. People outside the Varna system were known as Avaranas or
Panchmas or Antyajas or Achut (Untouchable). They were external in the sense that
they were required to stay outside the village settlement. In the words of Louise
Quwerkerk, "The Untouchable are the menials of India. They are the performers of
unclean tasks, the landless labourers in the fields, the unskilled workers in the towns.
Whatever work is mean or degrading or drudging is done by the Untouchables. They
are the people who are considered so inferior that even their touch defiles, and they
must be kept at a distance, segregated, excluded from the ordinary life of the
community. And they are bom to their tasks. For they are part of that caste system.

^* Please see, Gupta, Dipankar, Interrogating Caste, Penguin India, Delhi, 2000.

46
unique to India, whicii fixed a man's social and economic status by the group into
which he is bom."^^

In the words of Ghanshyam Shah, "Untouchability is a distinct Indian social

institution that legitimizes and enforces practices of discrimination against people
bom into particular castes, and legitimizes practices that are humiliating, exclusionary
and exploitative. Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the
world, untouchability is made unique by the fact that its parent institution: the caste
system is found only in the Indian subcontinent."^^ According to Ambedkar,
"Untouchability is the notion if defilement, pollution, contamination and the ways and
means of getting rid of that defilement."''' Surely, the phenomenon of Untouchability
among primitive and ancient society pales into insignificance before this phenomenon
of hereditary Untouchability for so many millions of people which we find in India.
This type of Untouchability among Hindus stands in a class by itself "It has no
parallel in the history of the world. "It is unparalleled not merely by reason of the
colossal numbers involved which of great many exceed the number of great many
nations. Asia and in Europe but also on other grounds... There are some striking
features of the Hindu system of untouchability affecting the 429 untouchable
communities which are not to be found in the customs of untouchability as observed
by Non-Hindus communalities, primitive or ancient."^^

The Hindu society insists on separation of the untouchable on the ground that
they are impure. "Never a whole class was treated as impure... There has never been
a case of permanent impurity based on the rule 'once impure always impure'... There
has never been a case of a people treating a section of their own people as

^' Quwekerk, Louise, The Untouchable of India, Oxford University Press, London, 1945, p. 3.
^° Shah, G. Harish Mander, Sukha Deo Thorat, Satish Deshpande and Amita Baviskar (ed.),
Untouchability in Rural India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2006, p. 19.
^' Ambedkar, B.R., The Untouchable, Amrit Book Co., New Delhi, 1948, p. 3, 20-21.
^^ Ibid, pp. 2<d-2\.

Al
permanently and hereditarily impure."" But the impurity of the untouchables of India
is permanent. "The Hindus who touch them and become polluted thereby can become
pure by undergoing purifactory ceremonies. But there is nothing which can make the
untouchable pure. They are bom impure, they are impure while they live, they die the
death of the impure, and they give birth to children who are bom with the stigma of
untouchability affixed to them. It is a case of permanent hereditary strain which
nothing can cleanse."''''

2.5.1 Ex-Untouchables/Dalits by various names

The Ex-Untouchable/Dalits in the Indian caste system is to be very low in, and
partially excluded from the hierarchical Hindu social order. Ex-Untouchables are
persons of a discrete set of low castes, excluded on account of their extreme collective
impurity from particular relations with higher castes. They make up about 16.2
percent of the Indian population and number about 150 million. They have been
called by various names.

2.5.2 The issue of Nomenclature

The issue of nomenclature is very important. The most socially and politically
acceptable name for the most disadvantaged members of Indian society has changed
over years. Outcaste and Untouchable have become unacceptable (although, sadly,
still having some descriptive validity). The term "Untouchable" was first used by the
Maharaja of Baroda before the Depressed Classes Mission of Bombay in 1909. The
terms Achut, Untouchable, Outcaste were replaced chronologically, by Harijan or
Schedule Caste in the middle of the 20 century and subsequently Dalit or Dalit-
Bahujan or Bahujan in the last decade or two of the 20'*' century. Dalit is now almost
universally preferred among researchers and writers. The term "Untouchable" as
general identifier of the people about whom we are talking. But the most powerful

" Ibid, p.22.

^' Ibid.,p.2\.

48
count against this term is that almost no one identifies him/herself by reference to it.
There are very obvious reasons for this of all the generic terms used to refer to
'Untouchables', none is entirely satisfying. For instance, to a certain extent everyone
in Indian society is ritually impure and therefore 'untouchable'. A Brahmin in
mourning for a decreased close family member or a funeral priest are in a sense
untouchable. In fact the very ideas of 'impurity' and 'untouchability' are relative. It
is never said of an Untouchable that he pollutes the land he tills. Untouchability
cannot simply be reduced to a matter of relative purity. Untouchables are clearly set
apart from the rest of society and yet bound to it. The Untouchables were called the
Depressed Classes by the leader from Madras M.C. Rajah. Mahatma Gandhi called
them Harijan or, "People of God". This word was coined by Narasimha Mehta.
"Exterior Castes" used by J.H. Hutton. In the ancient times - the term 'Chandala',
'Malechha' (used by Manu), also Panchama (the fifth class), Nishada, Antyaja,
Atishudra, etc., were used.

The term 'Untouchable' falls into several different categories. The first
category is names of a clearly political character. While the three leading terms are
'Harijan', 'Dalit' and 'Dalit-Bahujan'. "As early as 1917 the prefix 'Adi' or
'Original' was employed by Untouchable leaders seeking to assert a status as a people
subordinated by later Aryan immigrants' to India."^^ So the term 'Adi-Dravida',
'Adi-Kamataka' and 'Adi-Andhra' are still used as a self-description by large
numbers of Untouchables in the different states of South India. The term 'Harijan'
was adopted by Mahatma Gandhi in 1933 with the objective to invent a name which
identified the relevant people withoutfixingthem with an inferior status - "Harijan" is
translatable as 'People of God'. This term was widely accepted by Ex-Untouchables
and others, but in recent years the name has lost support. This term has come to be
seen as a symbol of the non-radical integrationist politics of Gandhi and his followers.
Poona pact epitomizes such non-radical integration and the over all Gandhian stategy

•'^ Omevedt, Gali, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit
Movement on Colonial India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1994, p. 118.

49
of attempting to build a united political front emasculating the long standing social
and cultural divisions within the Indian society. The term, "Scheduled Castes", by
which Untouchables are also called, refers to a list of castes prepared in 1935 by the
British Government in India. The Scheduled Castes therefore as those groups which
are named in the Scheduled Caste Order in force for the time being. The expression
thus used in the Indian Constitution, was first coined by the Simon Commission and
embodied in Section 309 of the Government of India Act 1935, However, while the
system of census introduced the social categories of Scheduled Castes, the focus
however then was on emancipation through socio-religious movements which were a
major focus during British India .However the time that has elapsed since India's
independence, the socio-religious movements have lost some of their importance, and
for the most part Untouchables have shifted their attention to other issues, a prime
target among which has been the positive discrimination system.

One might even wonder whether this system has not become the main
battleground for Untouchables today. Positive discrimination' designates the set of
measures adopted by the Indian government in favour of certain disadvantaged social
categories, the purpose of which is of rectify the inequalities and discriminations has
afflict them.

2.5.3 The Indian Constitution and Dalits

The Indian Constitution recognizes three population categories as 'backward

classes'. Dalits, representing some 15 percent of the population, are classified as
Scheduled Castes. Hill and forest tribes represent a mere 7 per cent of the population,
but unlike Untouchables, they are strongly concentrated in certain regions; these are
grouped under the heading Scheduled Tribes. The third category of Backward classes
is ill-defined, because each state is free to decide which castes or social categories are
covered; its size varies with the region and with varying sensibilities; these 'backward
social categories' which are neither tribes nor Untouchables are called the 'Backward
classes', or the 'Other Backward Classes' (O.B.C). Although the issue of OBC has

50
become a major political issue especially after the implementation of the formula for
reservation for OBCs as per the Mandal Commission recommendations..

The advantages granted to the Scheduled Castes can also be grouped into three
categories. First, the Constitution provides for 'reservation' in the case of socially
important jobs or resources: for example, reserved seats in various legislative bodies,
important jobs or resources: for example, reserved seats in various legislative bodies,
civil-service posts and places in universities that are subject to a numerous clauses. In
other words. Untouchables are entitled to a certain number of representatives in
government, a certain number of civil servants or, for instance a certain number of
places in schools. The second set of measures concerns state expenditures reserved
for Untouchables: scholarships, loans, land grants, medical care all come under this
heading. Third, the state has taken a number of special measures, for instance
campaign against untouchability, special steps to free bonded labourers, and so on and
so forth. Let us take a closer look at the first two sets of measures.

The Indian Constitution thus establishes a system of positive discrimination

that provides various advantages for Ex-Untouchables and a few other social
categories in doing so the Constitution reinforced the social category of 'Scheduled
Castes', The Government thus, drew a veritable boundary line around untouchability,
which was in sociological terms a fluid and contextual concept and tended to be
contested in certain contexts. There are now some classes that are 'Scheduled', and
others that are not. In other words, untouchability is now an officially recognized
category, and this recognition has had important social consequences. Significantly, in
many parts of India, Ex-Untouchables are commonly called Scheduled Castes, or SCs,
and the registered groups have discovered that they have some characteristics and
interests in common.

In many parts of the country, this has led to their forming organizations for the
defence of the interests of Scheduled Castes. As Christian Untouchables are not an
official Scheduled Caste, they cannot be members of these associations, and are

51
therefore excluded from the Untouchable movement. Positive discrimination, then,
has resulted in strengthening Untouchables' unity to a degree, but in so doing, it has
perversely also contributed to their stigmatization; and it is for this reason that some
authors, like Sriniwas^^ have argued that caste as an institution has been reinforced in
modem society.

While Ex-Untouchables may have found a community of interest thanks to the

legislation, it by no means follows that they now form a uniform category. Solidarity
remains highly limited, and has not led to a fusion of castes. And while it is true that,
over the last century, the subcastes of any one caste have had a tendency to merge, this
process has never cut across caste barriers, so that the different untouchable castes
continue to be highly divided. The best indication of this is caste endogamy, which
has not suffered any serious breach in the past century. On the whole, Untouchables
remain split into a myriad of widely dispersed castes having little contact with each
other.

2.5.4 Defining Dalit

The word 'Dalit' is now fast supplanting the other generic names for persons
descended from the old Untouchable castes. 'Dalit' the marathi word was chosen by
the group itself and it means literally "ground" or "broken or reduced to piece". The
word is indicative of a certain degree of consciousness among the ex-untouchables,
which has come into being in recent years, militant Ex-Untouchables and their
intellectual leaders have taken to calling themselves dalit, a term that seems to have
become popular among certain untouchable groups, particularly in North India. It
means 'the downtrodden', and comes from a political movement, the Dalit Panthers,
which was created in Bombay in 1972 along the lines of the American Black Panthers.
The Dalit Panther movement was clearly an intellectual one, with among its members
a great number of poets and other writers.

^* See, Sriniwas, M.N., Caste in Modern India & Other Essays, Asia Publishing House,
Bombay, 1962.

52
 Unable to agree on its manifesto, the group eventually disintegrated, but the
term dalit survived, and is widely used by intellectuals throughout India. It also
spawned an important literary movement in Maharashtra, the Dalit Sahitya ('literature
of the downtrodden') which has been particularly active.

The Ex-Untouchables' traditional self-effacement and baseness. Nevertheless,

it is only fair to point out, in the first place, that this term is only now beginning to be
known to the mass of those concerned, and, in the second place, that higher castes
never use it in referring to Ex-Untouchables, although in recent years it has become
the politically correct term.

According to Zelliot "Dalit implies those who have been broken, ground down
by those above them in a deliberate and active way. There is in the word itself an
inherent denial of pollution, karma, and justified caste hierarchy."^' A section of
scholars believe that it has become a positive, assertive expression of pride in
untouchable heritage and a reject of oppression. In the words of Barbara R. Joshi,
"Because 'Dalit' deliberately refers to all forms of social and economic oppression it
can be, and often is, extended by untouchable writers and activists to other suppressed
peoples - tribals, religious minorities, women, and the economically oppressed of all
castes... but the very concept of 'Dalit' may prove a powerftil untouchable
contribution to a broad spectrum of social and economic liberation movements."^^

Ambedkar used this term for the first time in his fortnightly Bahishkrit Bharat.
He defined it comprehensively, "Dalithood is a kind of life condition which
characterizes the exploitation, suppression and marginalisation of dalits by the social,
economic, cultural and political domination of the upper caste brahminical order.

^^ Zelliot, Eleanor, From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement, Manohar
Publishers, Delhi, 2005, p. 267.
^* Joshi, B.R., Untouchable: Voice of the Dalit Liberation Movement, Select Book Service,
Syndicate, New Delhi, 1986, pp. 3-4.
•" Ambedkar, Babasahib, Yanche Bahishkruit Bharat ani Muknayak (Marathi), Education
Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1990, p. 194.

53
 Many Dalit scholars have the opinion that Dalit is not a caste. He does not
believe in God, but in human. In this regard, the clearest definition of dalit in its
contemporary usage had been given by a Professor Gagadhar Pantawane, "To me,
Dalit is not a caste. He is a man exploited by the social and economic traditions of
this country. He does not believe in God, Rebirth, Soul, Holy Books teaching
Separatism, Fate and Heaven because they have made him a slave. He does believe in
humanism. Dalit is a symbol of change and revolution." The Marxist, however,
would define Dalit in terms of class. It includes women, tribals, workers and
agricultural labourers.

However, in a sense, the term dalit is an imposed category, for many former
"untouchable" groups and they do not identify themselves with the term. Many feel
that "Downtrodden" is a fairly accurate translation of dalit, and it is unrespectful to
call "Untouchable" as "Dalit". They felt pride in the name of Vyasa, Valmiki and
Ambedkar etc. They also criticized caste Hindus and supported the ideas of
Ambedkar. "The Hindus wanted the Vedas and they sent for Vyasa who was not a
caste Hindu. The Hindus wanted an Epic and they sent for Valmiki who was an
untouchable. The Hindus wanted a constitution, and they sent for me."'*° Another
term used by a section of untouchable is 'Bahujan' though originally coined by
Jyotiba Phule and even referred to by Ambedkar it has been popularised by B.S.P.
leader late Shri Kashi Ram. This concept is very popular among the Dalits of U.P.,
Punjab, Haryana and M.P.

2.6 Discrimination against untouchables/Dalits

The discrimination against untouchables/dalits comes not only on account of

the conventional pollution purity discourse which condemns them to certain impure
tasks perpetually but also on account of the fragmented nature of dalit insertion and
dispersal in the power dynamics of Caste especially the dominant caste in a particular

43
Ambedkar, Babasahib (Marathi, 1978, p. 25) quoted from Zelliot, op. cit., p. 317

54
context or region. As Rudolphs' noted in their seminal study: 'There is no denying
that this fragmentation is one more curse for Untouchables, making it impossible for
them to play on their numerical strength to win a significant role in Indian politics.
Furthermore, although nearly every village has its Untouchables, they almost never
constitute a majority, but tend to be divided into relatively small communities. Such
fragmentation is then an essential feature of Indian untouchability. Traditionally,
Untouchables even espoused the quarrels and factions of their masters, and therefore
practised vertical solidarity rather than the 'horizontal mobilization' they had always
lacked'.'*' In April 1899, the low-caste Nadars of Tamil Nadu rose up in defence of
their rights, the untouchable Pallars joined with the high-caste Maravars in the violent
repression of the Nadar movement.'*^

Uttar Pradesh presents a similar story, older people remember that they used to
side with 'their' Thakur masters in quarrels that often ended in bloodshed.'*'' Such
divisions are found all across villages and towns and constitute the self-defeating
threat to Untouchables. Untouchables are those groups that carry out the various
menial tasks that keep the village running. This means that they are rarely numerically
dominant in a village. In the plains of North India, for instance, the Chamars are one
of the largest castes after the Jat agriculturalists. And yet, out of a sample of 167
villages, they were numerically dominant in only 16 villages. It is likely, moreover,
that these villages are fairly recent settlements. An even more typical example is that
of another untouchable caste, the Pasis, who are found in practically every village, but
in small numbers.

More generally, the proportion of Untouchables in a population seems to vary

with the environment and agrarian relations. To take this aspect forward and in the

"^ Rudloph, Lloyd & Susan Hoeber Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political
Development in India, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1967, p. 84.
^^ See, Hardgrave, R., The Nadars of Tamilnadu: The Political Culture of a Community in
Change, OUP, Bombay, 1969.
*^ See, Cohn, B., "Some Notes on Law & Change in North India", Economic Development and
Cultural Change, 8, 1959.

55
South, In Tamil Nadu, Gough'*'' has shown a significant correlation between the
number of Untouchables, paddy cultivation and the agricultural value of the land:
Untouchables are more numerous in regions having the most fertile land, the best
irrigation, the most intensive agriculture and the highest crop value per acre. The most
arid regions, where agriculture is both less intensive and less productive, have a lower
percentage of Untouchables.

It is not unreasonable to think that this correlation holds true for the whole of
India, with a few exceptions, such as Kerala, which is known for being a 'special
case'. Clearly, then. Untouchables provide the bulk of agricultural labour, and
agricultural work, in the broad sense, is an essential feature of untouchability.'*^
Clearly then, untouchability cannot simply be reduced, as Hocart''^ does, to being only
a question of ritual.

Dumont, too, tends to regard Untouchables as merely the necessary complement

of Brahmins. For Dumont"*^, Untouchables do not form a separate category and therefore
are not 'outcastes'; Moffatt''^, for his part, even qualifies them as 'last among equals',
which is tantamount to passing over an essential aspect of untouchability.

The problem of untouchability, as Oommen'*^ correctly writes, is above all one

of 'cumulative deprivation', and it must be made clear that Untouchables do indeed

'*'* Gough, K., Rural Society in South East India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981.
^^ See, Alexander, K.C., 'Caste Mobilization & Class Consciousness: The Emergence of
Agrarian Movements in Kerala & Tamil Nadu' in F. Frankel & M.S.A. Rao eds., Dominance
& State Power in Modern India, OUP, Delhi, 1989.
'^ Refer Hocart, A., Kings & Councillors: An Essay in the Comparative Anatomy of Human
Society, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970.
'*' See Dumont, Louis, Homo Heirarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications, trans. Mark
Sanisbury, Louis Dumont & Basia Gulati, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London,
1980.
•** Moffat, M., An Untouchable Community in South India: Structure and Consensus, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, 1979, pp. 222, 247.
'*' Oommen, T.K., 'Sources of Deprivation and Styles of Protest: The Case of Dalits in India' in
Contributions to Indian Sociology (NS), 18, 1984, p. 46.

56
constitute a distinct group, even if the vernacular has no specific term for them and
even though they are highly fragmented.

Andre Betillie in his classic study, 'Caste, Class and Power' argues that, "the
population of Tamil Nadu can be divided into three broad categories: Brahmins, non-
Brahmins and Untouchable argues that this division is significant from a sociological
standpoint. Socio-economic dependence, material poverty, social deprivation and lack
of political power combine with ritual pollution to make Untouchables a social
category clearly set apart from the rest of society."^^ "The peculiar social stigma
suffered by Untouchables was something unique to them. The abhorrence of
untouchables was not something limited to the higher castes, but extended even to the
lower 'clean' Hindu castes."^' In more recent times, Den Ouden^^ systematically
demonstrated that high caste people's attitudes varied considerably depending on
whether they were dealing with Pallars, Sakkiliyars or Kuravars, a carpenter will
repair a Pallar's roof but not that of someone from a lower caste, and the local high
caste Kavuntars regard Pallars as 'touchable' and entertain a great many relations with
them. At the other end of the subcontinent, Cohn^^ observed that the Higher Castes
did not treat all the groups known as Achuts in the same way. And it is well known
that, in Hindi - speaking regions, Chamars rank much higher than Bhangis.

Another question is: What a Harijan feels when he is obliged to acknowledge

his caste in public? And it introduces us to another important aspect of untouchability:
whatever their social position and merit. Untouchables are ashamed of their social
background and try to conceal it whenever possible. To be forced publicly to
acknowledge one's caste is humiliating and insulting. Even people who have made it

50 Beteille, Andre, Caste, Class & Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification in Tanjore
Village, OUP, Bombay, 1966, p. 3.
51
Joshi, Barbara P. (ed.), op. cit., p. 2.
52
Den Ouden as quoted in Robert Deliege, The Untouchables of India (trans.), Nora Scott,
Berg, New York, 1999.
53
Cohn, B., The Chamars ofSenapur: A Study of the Changing Status of a Depressed Caste,
Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University, 1954.

57
up the social ladder and hold an enviable job do not boast about their humble origins,
as may be the case in the West. In fact it is not uncommon for an Untouchable who
lives outside his traditional environment to conceal his identity.

India's Untouchables then, do not constitute a uniform community with its own
culture,: they are widely integrated into the local communities and share the basic
values of these communities. If untouchability in India can be said to have one
primary characteristic, it is this fragmentation, which binds the untouchables
inexorably to the very communities that reject them. Their integration is a dependent
insertion in the world view of Dominant caste, it even produces a sense of false
security in a highly insecure environment.

Discrimination against dalits (India's lowest Hindu castes) is technically

illegal. In much of South Asia and India in particular caste based discrimination
exists.^'' For nearly two hundred million Dalits or 'ex-untouchables' at the bottom of
Hindu caste system - the exclusion extends to the economic realm of wages, jobs,
education, land; and also in social, political, and cultural fields. They are shunned,
insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from
separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped,
burned, lynched and gunned down. But such cases are rare and less reported.

Caste based discrimination which is based on caste system and

untouchability.^^ Caste system is a power structure in the hands of upper caste
Hindus. The following passage from the nineteenth century Russian novelist Fyodor
Dostoyevsky make help us to understand the mindset of 'Caste Hindus' who have
enjoyed the power and status due to this unhuman system. "Whoever has experienced
the power, the complete ability to humiliate another human beings... with the most

54 See, Thorat, S., "Caste System and Economic Discrimination: Lessons from Theories" in
Thorat S. et al. (ed.). Reservation and Private Sector: Quest for Equal Opportunity and
Growth, Rawat Publications, Jaipur, 2006, pp. 66-68.
55 See, Chalam, K.S., Caste-based Reservations and Human Development in India, Sage
Publications, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 75-90.

58
extreme humiliation, willynilly loses power over his sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it
has a capacity for development, it develops finally into a disease... The human being
and the citizen die within the tyrant for ever; return to humanity, to repentance, to
regeneration becomes almost impossible."^^

Caste based discrimination existed in India due to caste system and

untouchability which is based on the Hindu social order. "As a system of social,
economic and religious governance, it is founded not on the principle of liberty (or
freedom), equality and fraternity, the values which formed the basis of universal
human rights, but on the principle of inequality in every sphere of life. In this context
three unique features of caste system need to be understood. In social sphere the caste
system involves (a) division of people in social groups (castes); (b) the social,
religious, cultural and economic rights of member of the caste are predetermined in
advance by birth into that caste and are hereditary an unequal distribution of these
rights across caste groups; and (c) provision of a mechanism of social and economic
ostracism, calculated to ensure rigid adherence to the system and justification of the
Hindu social system by philosophy. In the sphere of economic rights, this concept of
social order also lays down a scheme of distribution namely, (a) it fixes the
occupations for each caste by birth and its hereditary continuation; (b) unequal
distribution of these economic rights related to property, trade, employment, wages,
education, etc., among the caste groups; and (c) imposing a hierarchy of
occupation."^^

The Hindu social order which is based on three interrelated elements, namely,
predetermination of social, religious and economic rights of each caste based on birth;
the unequal and graded division of these rights among castes; and provision of strong,

56 Dosloyevsky, Notes from the House of the Dead, quoted from Mainstream, May-June, 2011,
from the article of Barun Das Gupta, p. 6.
57 Thorat, Sukhdeo, "Oppression and Denial: Dalit Discrimination in the 1990s", Economic and
Political Weekly, February 9, 2002, p. 573. Also see, Thorat, S., Aryama, Negi, Prashant
(ed.). Reservation and Private Sector: Quest for Opportunity and Growth, Indian Institute of
Dalit Studies, New Delhi, and Rawat Publications, New Delhi, 2006, pp. 1-128.

59
social, religious and economic discrimination supported by social and religious
ideology to maintain the order. Thus, the principle of inequality is the core and heart
of this order. What is important is that the philosophical elements in Hinduisrh also
directly or indirectly support the system.

S. Subramanian also explained the phenomenon of discriminatory barriers

among the different groups in different societies. "The phenomenon of discriminatory
barriers to entry is one of which is experienced, in a variety of social and economic
situations, by those groups of individuals that are relatively 'disadvantaged' or
'underprivileged' in the socio-economic hierarchy of the reference society. Common
examples would include discrimination in the job market as between males and
females, discrimination in access to rented housing as between members of majority
communities and members of minority communities, discrimination in access to
occupational categories as between 'forward caste' and 'backward caste' persons and
so on."^^

India is a great country and it will occupy its rightful place as a strong global
leader in the comity of nations. But it will not happen unless the caste system is
abolished and along with it the terrible caste based discrimination against Dalit in
present-day India. No nation can achieve its true greatness and potential if a large
section of its people are discriminated against on the basis of descent and occupation.
Caste based discrimination and prejudice in the modem India continues to banish
nearly 20% of its people to a world of abuse, exploitation, bonded child labour, sex
trafficking, landlessness, illiteracy, dehumanisation, disempowerment and oppression.

India's tragedy is that society continues the practice of caste system and even
the practice of untouchability stands abolished by the Constitution. Year after year the
statutory SC Commission tables its reports in parliament on the caste based atrocities
and discrimination against Dalit but there is no serious action taken by the

^* S. Subramanian, "On an Index of Discrimination", Journal of Social and Economic

Development, July-December, 2001, Vol. Ill, No. 2, p. 199.

60
Governments or Governments. "There are two states that can be said to be Hindu
states: India and Nepal. Thus the phenomenon of caste-based discrimination affects
these two states primarily. States with large Hindu minorities also merit attention.
For example, the situation of caste in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. However, there is a
difference in scale between these states and India and Nepal that must be appreciated.
Because they are not states with a majority Hindu population (Bangladesh is ten
percent Hindu, while the Tamils in Srilanka constitute 18 per cent of the population),
caste cannot be said to permeate all aspects of socio-economic life, as is the case in
India and Nepal. The latter are the only predominantly Hindu states in the world and
caste-based discrimination is systematic and endemic in these two countries.^^
Although sociologists may differ as to a precise definition of caste and the parameters
of its meaning^^, it is the religious element that differentiates the system from other
forms of discrimination based on inherited status."^' According to Prof. K.S. Chalam,
"one can enumerate different categories of untouchabiiity practiced among Hindus in
India. They are broadly divided into (i) ritual and (ii) secular forms of untouchabiiity.
Ritual untouchabiiity keeps each caste at a distance from another on the basis of their
ritual ranks. It is purely based on birth and has been carried on as traditional practice.
This is found to be convenient for every caste including sub-castes among the Dalits.
However, the Dalits remain suppressed as the means of livelihood is under the control
of those whose ranks are higher. It is in this context that the practice of untouchabiiity
is to be analysed. The ritual status of each caste in India gives each member in the
caste some premium and with each caste pitted against another, no one is allowed to
cross their social boundaries."^^ Secular forms of untouchabiiity has no relations with

^' Keane, David, Caste-based Discrimination in International Human Rights Law, Ashgate
Publishing Limited, Hampshire, 2007, p. 5.
^ See, Ambedkar, B. (1936), "The Annihilation of Caste", in Rodrigues V. (ed.), The Essential
Writings ofB.R. Ambedkar, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 285-290.
^' Ibid, p. 5.
*^ Chalam, K.S., op. cit., pp. 80-81. See also, Keane, David, op. cit., pp. 1-23; Kothari, Rajni,
"Rise of the Dalits and Renewed Debate on Caste", in Chatterjee, Partha (ed.). State and
Politics in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997, pp. 439-458.

61
rituals and Hindu religion. "Progressive legislation and constitutional safeguards have
done little to rid the social order of the widespread evil of caste discrimination. As
this paper argues, taboos imposed by tradition and belief still exert their stranglehold
across most of India, impose social obligations and economic deprivation on several
of those in the dalit category, and as borne out in surveys conducted in four states.""

2.6.1 Nature and Extent of Discrimination against Dalits

Dalits are discriminated by caste Hindu by various ways:

(1) Temples are still barred to most of the ex-untouchable and they are also not
allowed to enter houses of caste Hindus mainly in rural areas.
(2) Marriage processions through the public village road by ex-untouchables are
still prohibited on one pretext or another.
(3) Dalits are not allowed to use tube well or tap in the villages, sometimes even
the cities. There is no access to the public drinking water source. If the well or
tap is located in the high-caste locality and any attempt by the former
untouchables invite objections and physical obstruction. Dalits experience
difficulty and discrimination in taking water from high caste localities.
(4) They are not allowed free access to the local village teashop. In urban areas the
discrimination is much less.
(5) With regard to the provision of essential services, the practice of untouchability
still exists. Some of dalits are not able to receive the services of a barber and
washerman in the villages in many parts of the country.
(6) In public services like post-offices, health and education centres for example,
the practice of untouchability is much less. But it still exists in many remote
areas in the country.
(7) In village community feasts and marriages in both villages the former
untouchables are not treated equally exception are there. Majority of the dalits
face discrimination during village cultural events and festivals.

Thorat, Sukhdeo, op. cit., p. 572. -50-3 A-^S"

62
(8) To lesser extent, open or subtle untouchability is practised in panchayat
meetings in some village panchayats.
(9) The practice of untouchability has striking declined in occupational activities,
i.e. in buying and selling commodities.
(10) The extent of untouchability has remained almost intact in the sphere of house
entry. Except in a few villages, SC members of village society do not get entry
beyond the outer room of high caste Hindus. Even in villages where the young
folk, do not believe in physical untouchability, and who serve tea to SC guests
in their houses, entry in the dining room is not encouraged.
(11) Dalits are discriminated in the job market mainly in private sector. "Among
the regional studies considered earlier, the studies on Andhra Pradesh and
Kamataka also provide evidence about economic discrimination in occupation,
employment, wages and loan and other economic spheres."^''

In some parts of the country, the ex-untouchables are beaten by the upper
castes, ranging from frequently to rarely. Raids on ex-untouchables hamlets or
houses, sometimes followed by looting are/were reported. Violence is also
perpetrated in the form of kidnapping, insults, rape, physical torture and threat or
attempt to murder.

Many ex-untouchables were prevented from exercising their franchise in

elections. In some cases they are also prevented from participating in political
activities like organising meetings in the village or taking an independent position on
political issues, or contesting elections.

Caste discrimination still alive in modem India "The finding of the Indian
Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS) survey conducted in 531 villages of five states in
2003 expose the patterns of exclusion and caste discrimination that afflict, if not over
whelm, the government of India's mid-day meal scheme (MMS) and public
distribution system (PDS). In addition to examining the treatment of dalits in these

^ Thorat, S. op. ciL, EPW, Feb. 9, 2002, p. 576.

63
governments programmes, the survey attempted to measure dalits' physical access,
participatory empowerment and community level access to the MMS and PDS."^^
Thorat also explained the opposition to dalit cooks in MMS "is actually a blanket term
describing several different pattern of specific acts of caste discrimination and
exclusion observed in the study ."^^ He also explained the reasons behind the
dominant caste behaviour, "Behind these trends of dominant caste behaviour is the
classical Hindu understanding of purity and pollution, according to which food
prepared by a dalit - that is, an "untouchable" is considered "polluted" by virtue of its
contact with the instrinsically polluted dalit. On another level, dominant caste
opposition to dalit cooks also represents a power struggle over livelihood rights."^'

Although caste discrimination declined both in rural and urban areas, but the
conditions of dalits in rural areas are still miserable. A lot of steps to be taken to
protect the human rights of the Dalit community. It is the duty of the state and civil
society specially the educated people to strengthen the hands of those people who are
fighting against caste-based discrimination. It is also the duty of all right thinking
people to mobilise the public opinion against the unhuman and barbaric caste-based
discrimination and strengthen and organise the various programmes which will protect
the rights of the weaker sections of the society in general and dalits in particular,

Dalits are not able to fight unitedly because they are also practising the
untouchability among themselves. As American Scholar Stanley Wolpart has
observed, "With more than 1,000 jatis of their own, untouchables have found it
impossible to unite in opposition to twice-born dominance, themselves reflecting all
the fragmentation of Hindu society that has always been its greatest weakness. "The
wall built around caste is impregnable", Ambedkar often insisted, arguing that
Hinduism at its core had nothing to do with either "reason" or "morality". Ironically,

^^ Thorat, S., "Caste Discrimination and Food Security Programmes", Lee, Joel, Economic and
Political Weekly, Sept. 24, 2005, p. 4198.
^^ Ibid., p. A\99.
" Ibid

64
however, his own Mahar Jati of Maharashtra looked down upon "untouchable"
chamars (leatherworkers), and both groups looked down at "scavenger" Bhangis,
almost as much as all three were despised by Brahmans."^^

2.7 Untouchables Outside India

The first thinkers to address the question often stressed the similarities between
Indian castes and other closed-status groups found throughout the world. This is
certainly the case of Senart, a Sanskritist who interpreted the caste system as a local
expression of an Indo-European institution.Although since Dumont the cultural
specificity of Caste has been the dominant discourse.

There are acute depatures such as Gerald Berreman, an American

anthropologist, has strongly argued not only that is caste a universal phenomenon, but
that Untouchables can usefully be compared with Black Americans. According to
Berreman, cross-cultural comparison is essential to the progress of science. He readily
acknowledges that there are differences between Black Americans and Indian
Untouchables, but he does not accept that the two phenomena are to some extent
different and therefore incomparable:

For Berreman, then, the concepts of caste, ethnic stratification and race are not
basically different; 'race' as a basis of social rank, for example, is always a socially
defined category and corresponds only very imperfectly with genetically transmitted
traits. His ultimate argument that caste, race and stratification are all birth-ascribed
systems, and as such are comparable. Although comparing caste with other systems
of social stratification may be of some use in certain circumstances, Berreman fails to
convince that the similarities between Blacks in America and Untouchables in India
go deeper than a few very general or even superficial observations. His is a case of
comparing sophisticated information gathered in another society with generalizations

^* Wolpart, Stanley, In Introduction to India, Penguin Books India (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 1991,
pp. 130-131.

65
on his own; while his analysis of India is based on an intensive study, Black
Americans certainly suffer from all manner of discrimination, but the similarities with
India do stop there.

At any rate. Black Americans are not divided into hundreds of endogamous
groups, nor does the United States have an ideological system that underpins and
rationalizes racial discrimination. Blacks are not confined to ritually unclean
occupations, the black/white dichotomy has no equivalent in India, where hierarchy is
highly complex, Untouchables are not physically distinguishable from the rest of the
population.

Rather it is in the Asian countries that one finds social categories similar to
caste and untouchability. The Ragyappa of Tibet, who numbered a scant thousand in
the 1950s, live in separate quarters outside the walls of Lhasa's inner sanctum. They
perform various services connected with dirt, death and blood: they act as scavengers,
butchers, street sweepers, and so forth. Other people find their neighbourhood filthy
and even terrifying. Similarly, Korea's Paekchong work as butchers, tanners,
slaughterers; they are looked on as both unclean and dangerous. They are subjected to
a number of discriminatory practices: their dead must be buried apart, they are not
listed with human beings on official registers, they may not wear silk, and so on.^^

Another striking example is that of is Japan, wherein Berreman along with

colleagues studied the Eta of Japan number about one million and constitute some 2
per cent of the" Japanese population. In Japan, the very word Eta is considered a
serious insult, and one can be fined for using it.^' The Chinese character for Eta means
'defilement abundant', and in common Japanese speech it has many of the same
connotations as the American 'nigger'. It is for this reason that, as in India, a number

^' Passin, H., 'Untouchability in the Far East', Monumenta Nipponica, 2, 1955.
™ Wagatsuma, H. and De Vos, G., 'The Ecology of Special Buraku', in G. De Vos and H.
Wagatsuma, Japan Invisible Race, p. 118.
'' Ibid, p. S].

66
of other terms are used, so that the Japanese speak of Burakumin, or Shin-Heinin, 'the
new common people'. But such circumlocutions soon take on the derogatory
overtones of the original words.

Japanese avoid having anything to do with them and even consider them to be
dangerous; general opinion regards them as thieves, gangsters and likely to be infected
with syphilis, tuberculosis and leprosy. They always trigger a 'gut' reaction, and they
are felt to have about them something like a disgusting body odour that is repulsive to
the ordinary citizen. In an important study, Passin identified a number of points
common to all the Asiatic examples of untouchability, and these similarities cannot be
discounted.

Yet this is not to say that Untouchables are completely cut off from the rest of
society; nor are they marginalized, as wonderers and gypsies tend to be in Western
societies. Unlike gypsy communities or renouncers, for instance. Untouchables are
marginalized only to an extent; at the end of the day the theirfrinctionalutility to the
higher castes determines the social distancing. Their marginal status is therefore
complex and paradoxical; they are both outside and inside the system, and are
unquestionably set apart by their ritual pollution; but at the same time, they do not
constitute a separate society. They reside on the outskirts of villages, but not in the
wild. This ambiguity has not always been sufficiently stressed by observers, who have
generally emphasized either the one or the other aspect of the Untouchables' position:
some emphasize their social integration, while others regard them as a totally rejected
group with its own culture. In reality the two models are not contradictory, but they
work in tandem to give Indian untouchability its original and unique character.

2.8 Dalit Rights are Human Rights

Dalits in the South Asia region as a special social category are different from
other marginalised groups (e.g. negro or women) elsewhere. Dalits are primarily
looking for a human element in social relations. There are several discriminations

67
based on caste system that are perpetuated on them that distinguish them from other
vulnerable groups in the world. They are called untouchables in India, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and in other countries where the Indian diaspora
has spread. Therefore, they are still discriminated in the labour market, capital
market, land market or in the other areas which the market can enter. "Though SAP
experts consider the market as neutral and invisible, it has a caste bias in South Asia in
general and in India in particular. Around 50 per cent of so-called 300 million poor
people in the region are untouchables or Dalits. The PRSP or any other strategy
adopted by the World Bank based on the western experience will remain untouchable
79
in ameliorating the poverty of the Dalits."
Caste discrimination, based on birth, violates all human rights norms on which
U.N. instruments are founded. In every respect, caste rejects the notion of human
equality and thus justified enclosure of each caste within its own boundaries on the
basis of graded inequality. In this set up the idea of common good existed only with
each caste group. Caste based discrimination against Dalit is violations of their
human rights. Since 1948, the United Nations has been promoting and codifying
human rights through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a common
standard of achievement for all peoples and nations. Overtime, the concept of human
rights has continuously expanded. According to Prof Thorat, "The U.N. human rights
framework has received wide acceptability. However, their adherence and
enforcement in cross cultural-social situations has posed a serious challenge. In
societies where the social, cultural, religious and economic notion or institutions are in
general conformity with the UN framework, the enforcement and the practice of the
human right turn out to be less problematic if not easy. But in situations where
societal notions and informal institutions do not confirm to the UN framework
enforcement of human rights has been a major issue."

" Chalam, op. cit., pp. 87-88.

'^ Thorat, S., op. cit., EPW, Feb. 9, 2002, p. 572.

68
2.8.1 Defining Human Rights

The term 'human rights' is strongly associated with the founding of the United
Nations (UN) in 1945, and the adoption by "the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights" in December 10, 1948 by the U.N. General Assembly.

"Human Rights are those rights which are essential for us to live as human
beings. Without human rights, we cannot fully develop ourselves and use our human
qualities, our intelligence, our talent and our spirituality."^'* Thus, Human Rights are
the rights individuals have because they are human. All human beings including
Dalits and women have them. However, this is not a scientific proposition such as all
human beings have lungs; it is a moral proposition which some might deny. What is
more important from a practical point of view is that people might disagree as to the
nature of these human rights. Historically these concepts are modem. One hundred
years ago, only a minority accepted the idea that people of all races, castes and both
sexes had equal rights.

2.8.2 Generational Classiflcation of Human Rights

Civil and political rights are generally referred to as 'first-generation rights'

and provide for certain basic guarantees for an individual in relationship to the state.
The 'second generation rights', which generally require action by the state to provide
certain basic needs or amenities to an individual. And, 'third generation rights' have
been developed to provide for the relationship between individuals, the collectivity,
and the state.

74 U.N. - Everything you want to know about United Nations, Deptt. of Public Information,
United Nations, New York, 2001, p. 53.
75 See, Brown, Chris, "Human Rights", in Baylis, John and Smith, Steve (ed.). The
Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, Oxford
University Press, 2001, pp. 599-614. See also, Brownlie, I. (ed.), Basic Instruments on
Human Rights, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995 (contains the texts of all the most important
treaties and declarations). Nicholson, Michel, International Relations: A Concise
Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, pp. 224-226.

69
 In short, "it has been put forward that first-generation rights are related to
liberty; second-generation rights to equality; and third-generation rights are related to
fraternity."^^ Taking lead from U.N. definition of Human Rights, 'The Protection of
Human Rights Act' of 1993 defines in these words: "Human rights means the rights
relating to life, equality and dignity of individual guaranteed by the Constitution or
embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by the courts of India."

2.8.3 Caste Based Discrimination and Dalit Rights

Caste based discrimination against the dalits are violation of human rights of
dalits. "Despite formal protections in law, discriminatory societal norms continue to
be reinforced by government and private structures, often through violent means.
Dalits are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely
abused at the hands of the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state's
77

protection." Dalits are also denied entry in the temples and the houses of upper-
castes people.
Recent efforts by Indian Dalits to transform age-old caste-based discrimination
into an international human rights issues. "Until the late 1990s, the daily violence,
exclusion, and humiliation suffered by millions of people in low caste groups were not
treated as human rights issues by United Nations organs or Non-governmental
Organizations (NGOs). Despite decades of overseas activism by Dalit organizations,
recognition of the untouchables' plight remained minimal. No international
conventions specially covered problems of untouchability, human rights treaty bodies

76
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, Introducing Human Rights, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2006, p. 9.
77
Thorat, S.K., "Dalits and Human Rights - A part of the whole but a part apart", in Bhargava
and Pal (ed.), Human Rights of Dalits - Societal Violation, Gyan Publishing House, New
Delhi, 1999, p. 67. See also, Dreze, Jean and Sen, Amartya, Democratic Practice and Social
Inequality in India, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, 2002, pp. 29-32; and Agrawal,
Girish and Gonsalves, Colin, Dalits and the Law, Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi,
2005, pp. 1-17.

70
did not recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation, and major
human rights NGOs had not taken up the issue.

From a number of standpoints, this longstanding gap in international human

rights law and practice is puzzling. First and most important is the magnitude of
human rights violations associated with caste discrimination. While precise numbers
are uncertain, reliable estimates indicate that there are over 160 million untouchables
in India. Many continue to ensure harsh discrimination and violence because of their
subordinate position in the Hindu caste system. "In sum, give the scope of
untouchability, the world community has been surprisingly slow to acknowledge caste
discrimination as a "human rights" issue."

The plight of the ex-untouchables might have been expected to attract

significant attention early on, the human rights movement became concerned with the
ex-untouchables only in the late 1990s. Various United Nations organs, international
human rights NGOs and select governments especially in Europe consider caste based
discrimination as a human rights issue. "Caste society precludes the people from
experiencing the joy of rights and the satisfaction of Sharing based on rights. Dalit-
bahujan thought not merely argued that rights should be made universally applicable
and available but also insisted that they should be broadened and made more
substantial through temple-entry rights, access to public spaces, untouchability-
abolition, gender equality and political participation. The rights-language is central to
dalit-bahujan thought from Phule onwards. Phule himself had read Paine's Rights of
Man in 1847. He discusses rights as human rights, although the focus is on the former
and not the latter, as we understand them today. He inveighs against Brahminism for

^* Bob, Clifford, Dalit Rights are Human Rights, Critical Quest, New Delhi, pp. 4-5.
'^ See also, Rao, Anupama, The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India,
Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2010, pp. 1-36.

71
 on

denying rights." "For tiiousands of years, the defeated shudras were kept ignorant of
their human rights."*'
2.8.4 Need to Protect the Dalit Rights

Eradication of the practice of untouchability and protecting the Dalit rights

have been the much-admired concern of most of the nationalists and political bigwigs
even before India's independence. Though there was hardly any law ensuring their
basic human rights, safety and dignity, there were laws declaring them Untouchables.
There were laws enforcing inhuman punishments against Dalits declining to be
untouchables. There were also laws prohibiting them from taking up occupations of
their own choice, and condemning them for adopting other professions.

2.9 Poena Pact*^ and Reservation

The reservation are the result of historical pact reached between Gandhi and
Dr. Ambedkar in Poona on 24 September 1932, whereby Mahatma Gandhi agreed to
end his fast in exchange for the relinquishing of separate electorates for the
untouchables. Dr. Ambedkar sought to ensure that the untouchables' interest would
be safeguarded within a majority Hindu polity, and the pact he negotiated, in return
for ceding his demand for separate electorates, outlines the three processes by which
this was to be achieved; reservations in the provincial and central legislatures, in
appointment to government posts, and in education.

In spite of all the affirmative actions taken by Govt, of India after

Independence. There was need felt for a proper law to deal with untouchability.
The Constituent Assembly debates of India 1947-49, reveal the impetus behind the

*° Rodrigues, Valerian, Dalit-Bahujan Discourse in Modern India, Critical Quest, New Delhi,
2005, pp. 28-29.
*' Deshpande, G.P. (ed.), Selected Writings ofJotirao Phule, Leftword, New Delhi, 2002, p.
174.
*^ See, Ambedkar, B., What Confess and Gandhi have Done to the Untouchables^ Thacker and
Co., Bombay, 1945.

72
constitutional ban or untouchability. Untouchability was not defined in the Interim
Report on Fundamental Rights. Untouchability was abolished in Clause 6 of the
Interim Report, adopted on 29 April 1947, which read "untouchability" in any form
is abolished and the imposition of any disability on that account shall be an
offence." Srijut Rohini Kumar Chaudhury proposed an amendment to clause 1,
the second part of which proposed defining untouchability: "Sir, in the
fundamental rights, it has been laid down that untouchability in any form should be
an offence punishable by law. That being so it is necessary that the offence should
be properly defined. As it stands, the word untouchability is very vague."^'*

2.10 The Steps taken to Strength Dalit Rights and Elimination of Caste based
Discrimination

2.10.1 Constitutional Remedies

The post-independent India had a vision of egalitarian nation. Its "constitution

has emphasised the unity and integrity of the nation as a paramount value and insisted
equality and dignity as a constitutional fundamental. In a powerful endeavour to
produce a casteless society, the Constitution has promised equal protection of laws to
the lowliest and the lost, forbidden untouchability and made free access to all places
of public resort a fundamental right."^^

When India become independent, Dr. Ambedkar was appointed Law Minister
by Prime Minister Nehru, and subsequently Chairman of the Drafting Committee of
the Constituent Assembly. He was one of the principal architects of the Indian
Constitution, and its provisions for "a system of reservations for what the Constitution
termed the 'Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes', which

*^ Constituent Assembly Debates (reprinted 1999), Official Reports, Lok Sabha Secretariat,
New Delhi, Vol. 3, Book 1, 29 April 1947, p. 434.
** Ibid, p. 4]3.
*^ Iyer, Krishna, Social Democracy and Dalit Egalite, University of Madras, Madras, 1989, p. 14.

73
sought to redress the imbalances caused by historical inequalities in the Hindu social
system."^^

The Fundamental Rights part of the Indian Constitution upholds equality before
the law and equal protection of the law. Articles 14-16, taken together, enshrine the
principle of equality and non-discrimination.^^ While the principle is generally stated
in Article 14, Article 15 and 16 involve particular aspects of equality. Article 14
reads:

The state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal
protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Article 15 prohibits "discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or

place of birth."^^

Article 16 is concerned only with employment under the state, paragraph 1 of

which holds that there shall be equality of opportunity for all matters relating to
employment or appointment to any office under the state.

Untouchability is forbidden under Article 17. This article of the Constitution

declares:

"Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The

enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an offence
punishable in accordance with Law."

In concordance with Article 46 of the Directive Principles, the Indian Constitution

did not just guarantee formal equal treatment; to promote the advancement of the

** Keane, David, Caste-based Discrimination in International Human Rights Law, Ashgate

Publishing Limited, Hampshire, U.K., 2007, p. 117.
*^ Basu, D., Introduction to the Constitution of India, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 2001,
p.9L
** Agrawal, G. and Gonsalves, Colin, Dalits and Law, Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi,
2005, p. 19.

74
untouchables, tribals, and other socially and educationally backward classes, it provided
for special measures or affirmative action on their behalf.

Article 29(2) forbids persons in charge of "any educational institutions

receiving aid out of state funds" to deny admission to an applicant "on grounds only
of religion, race, caste, language or any of them". Similarly, Article 23 prohibits
begar and forced labour.

Article 330 specifically provides for reserved seats in the Lok Sabha, the House
of the people or lower house of parliament of the union, for the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes.

Article 332 contains reservations for the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes
in the Legislative Assembly of every state. "These reservations are the only ones
specifically enacted by the Constitution. Other provisions contain authorisations
empowering the state to make special provision for the Schedule Castes, Schedule
Tribes and Other Backward Classes."^'

"The Indian Constitutional reservations system is divided into three main

categories, discussed respectively in the third, fourth and fifty sections. The first
category, described in the third section, comprises legislative reservations in the Lok
Sabha, or lower house of Parliament of the Union, and Vidhan Sabha, or state
assemblies, under Article 330 and 332, as well as reservations in the decentralised
panchayats under Article 243D. The section looks at reservations in educational
institutions under Article 15(4), while the fifth details reservations in government
employment under Article 16(4). These provisions represent the three prongs of
affirmative action measures in the Indian Constitution, which have their roots in
Poona Pact of 1932."

*' Keane, D., op. c;/.,p. 119.

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2.10.2 Protection of Civil Liberties Act 1955
The Untouchability Offence Act 1955 was passed. The Act was amended in
1976, and renamed the Protection of Civil Liberties Act 1955 (PCR Act, 1955).
Certain acts were declared as offences, such as refusing admission to any person to
public institutions, such as hospitals or schools or 'preventing any person from
offering prayers in any place of worship.''" The 1976 amendment added offences
such an insulting a member of a Scheduled Caste on the ground of untouchability on
historical or philosophical grounds, or on the ground of tradition of the caste system.

2.10.3 Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes (Preventions of Atrocities) Act, 1989

In spite of PCR Act, 1955, the practice of untouchability still continue. To

protect the rights of the Schedule Castes, this legislation was strengthened further with
the passage of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act 1989. The Act theoretically creates courts for speedier trials and imposes harsher
penalties for these crimes, but has yet to be implemented properly in all states. Few
cases of these atrocities seek remedy before the courts, a vast majority remaining
unreported; rather there are instances where atrocities committed against the
community are celebrated by other sections of society. The findings of National
Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, that "even after the fifty
years of independence, untouchability has not been abolished as provided in Article
17 of the Constitution and incidents continued to be reported."^'

Despite such powerful legal provisions and government bodies to implement

them, Dalits continue to suffer form the stigma of untouchability and bear the burnt of
worst forms of atrocities all over India. While recognizing the fact that most of the
offences against the SCs and STs particularly those occurring in rural areas go
unreported, recent data on cases of untouchability and atrocity as registered under the

^ Protection of Civil Liberties Act 1955, Section 3(b).

*' National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Fourth Report, 1996-97
and 1997-98, Government of India Press, New Delhi, p. 232.

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IPC and special laws, viz., the PCR Act and the POA Act reveal vividly that these are
still much a day-to-day reality .^^

2.10.4 Manipulation of the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act, 1989

The failures of Govt, of India and various state governments "to prosecute
atrocities against Dalits is well illustrated by its manipulation of of the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989... to bring about
social change, however, has been hampered by police corruption and caste bias, with
the result that many allegations are not entered in police books. Ignorance of
procedures and a lack of knowledge of the act have also affected its implementation.
Even when cases are registered, the absence of special courts to try them can delay
prosecutions for up to three to four years. Some state governments dominated by
higher castes have even attempted to repeal the legislation altogether."^"'

'^ See, Throrat, Sukhadeo, "Oppression and Denial", Economic and Political Week, Mumbai,
February 9, 2002.
Agrawal, G. and Colin, G., op. cit., pp. 1-166.
Ramaiah, A., op. cit., pp. 33-48.
Rao, Anupama, The Caste Question, Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 163-181.
Chalam, K.S., op. cit., pp. 79-90.
'^ Narula, Smita and Macwan, Martin, op. cit., p. 8.
Also see Krishnan, P.S., "Socio-economic Empowerment of the Weaker Sections of Society",
in Dubey, M. and Jabbi, M.K., A Social Charter for India, Pearson Longman, New Delhi,
2009, pp. 121-159.

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