Backward classes & Dalit movement ( Sociology Optional)

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Dalits

Thinkers View

• Economist and reformer R. Ambedkar said that untouchability came into Indian society around 400 CE, due to the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism.
• In the late 1880s, the Marathi word 'Dalit' was used by Mahatma Jotiba Phule for the outcasts and Untouchables who were oppressed and broken in the Hindu society.
• George Kunnath claims that “there is and has been an internal hierarchy between the various Dalit castes". According to Kunnath, the Dusadhs are considered the highest while the Musahars are considered the lowest within the Dalit groups.

Socio economic conditions

• Dalits have had lowest social status in the traditional Hindu social structure but James Lochtefeld, a professor of religion and Asian studies, said that the "adoption and popularization of the term Dalit reflects their growing awareness of the situation, and their greater assertiveness in demanding their legal and constitutional rights"
• Nonetheless, while caste-based discrimination was prohibited and untouchability abolished by the Constitution of India, such practices are still widespread.
• For this, the Government of India enacted the Prevention of Atrocities Act, also called the SC/ST Act, on 31 March 1995.

Dalit Movements

Background

• The Dalit Movement is a social revolution aimed for social change, replacing the age old Dalit Movements in India hierarchical Indian society, and is based on the democratic ideals of liberty, equality and social justice.
• The socio-cultural exclusion, economic deprivation and political exploitation of centuries made the Dalits break out of such kinds of age-old prejudices.
• Hence, they began to protest with the help of literature, or forming organizations like the Dalit Panthers, and this protest movement came to be recognized as the Dalit Movement.

Personalities

• Gopal Baba Walangkar is generally considered to be the pioneer of the Dalit movement, seeking a society in which they were not discriminated
• Another pioneer was Harichand Thakur with his Matua organisation that involved the Namasudra (Chandala) community in the Bengal
• Ambedkar himself believed Walangkar to be the progenitor.
• Another early social reformer who worked to improve conditions for Dalits was Jyotirao Phule .

Thinkers view

• Ghurye in ‘Caste and Race in India’ has explained the type of discriminations associated with untouchables in traditional Indian society which includes banning of women of untouchable caste from covering the upper part of their body, wearing gold ornaments, having sexual proximity beyond the caste and the men from wearing dhoti below their knees, using public facilities and going for occupations beyond their caste etc.
• S. A. Rao in ‘Social Movements in India’ equates Dalit movement with the movements of Blacks in America. He concludes by saying that ideology for Dalit movement was imported from the west that bore fruit in Indian social soil.
• Ghanshyam Shah classifies the Dalit movements into reformative and alternative movements. The former tries to reform the caste system to solve the problem of untouchability while latter attempts to create an alternative socio-cultural structure by conversion to some other religion or by acquiring education, economic status and political power.

Major trends of Dalit Movements from pre to post independence era

Dalits Movements in Pre Independent India

1.Bhakti Movement:

• This movement in 15th century was a popular movement which treated all sections of society equally and it developed two traditions of Saguna and Nirguna.
• The first one believed in the form of God Vishnu or Shiv .
• The followers of Nirguna believed in formless universal God. Ravidas and Kabir were the major figures of this tradition.
• It became more popular among the dalits in urban areas in the early 20th century as it provided the possibility of salvation for all. It promised social equality.
• These provided the means to protest against orthodox Hinduism for future generations of Dalits.

2.Neo-Vedantik Movements:

• These movements were initiated by Hindu religious and social reformers.
• These movements attempted to remove untouchability by taking the dalits into the fold of the caste system.
• As an impact of this movement various other like -The Satyashodhak Samaj and the self-respect movements in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the Adhi Dharma and Adi Andhra movement in Bengal and Adi-Hindu movement in Uttar Pradesh are important anti-untouchability movements which were launched in the last quarter of the 19th and the early part of 20th century.

3.Sanskritization Movement:

• N. Srinivas defined Sanskritization as a process by which “a low or middle Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual ideology, and way of life in the direction of a high and frequently twice-born caste”.
• Kumar writes that Dalit leaders followed the process of ’Sanskritization’ to elevate themselves to the higher position in caste hierarchy. They adopted Brahman manners, including vegetarianism, putting sandalwood paste on forehead, wearing sacred thread, etc.
• Dalit leaders like Swami Thykkad (Kerala), Pandi Sunder Lai Sagar (UP), Muldas Vaishya (Gujarat), Moon Vithoba Raoji Pande (Maharashtra) and others tried this too.

4.Gandhiji’s Contribution to Dalit Movement:

• When Mahatma Gandhi was in South Africa, he realized the problem of social discrimination. He stressed the problem of untouchability and its removal from its roots.
• To boost up the work for the upliftment of Harijans, Gandhiji laid the foundation of the Harijan Sevak Sang in 1932 when he was in jail.
• It was the outcome of the fast Gandhiji undertook in 1932 in jail. the social status of the untouchables. He always thought of untouchability as a cruel and inhuman

5.Ambedkar’s Contribution to Dalit Movement:

• Ambedkar started a Marathi fortnightly, the "Bahiskrit Bharat", in April 1927 and a weekly, the “Janta” in November 1930.
• In September 1927 he started the "Samaj Samta Sang" for advocating social equality for  the untouchables
• He supported inter-caste dinner and inter-caste marriage. He also published another paper, the “Samata” in March 1929.
• He secured funds from the central Government for their education and reservation in posts in the central and provincial services for them

6.Satyashodhak Samaj:

• Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth-seekers' Society) was a social reform society founded by Jyotiba Phule in Pune, Maharashtra, in 1873.
• It espoused a mission of education and increased social rights and political access for underprivileged groups, focused especially on women, Shudras, and Dalits.
• Jyotirao's wife Savitribai was the head of women's section of the society.
• The Samaj disbanded during the 1930s as leaders left to join the Indian National Congress party.
• The organization attracted individuals of all castes, religions, and professions, including brahmans, Muslims, lawyers, merchants, peasants, land-owners, agricultural laborers, Rajputs, untouchables, and government officials.
• Phule thought that the Samaj could uplift disadvantaged communities through collective action and organized movement, and the first step to doing so was educating low caste individuals about the misdeeds of the Brahmans.
• In order to spread their ideas more effectively, published the Deenbandhu newspaper from 1877 to 1897.
• Emphasized the special importance of English education as the basis for the intellectual emancipation of disadvantaged groups. Phule also believed that an English education might open opportunities for employment with the British Government.
• They cultivated relations with British officials in order to seek benefits for low caste groups and saw the British government as the most likely power to offer low caste groups fair treatment.

Dalit Movements in Post independent India

1.B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit Buddhist movement:

• The Neo Buddhist movement (also known as the Buddhist movement For Dalits, Ambedkarite Buddhist movement or Modern Buddhist movement) is a religious as well as a socio-political movement among Dalits which was started by R. Ambedkar in 1956.
• It radically re-interpreted Buddhism and created a new school of Buddhism called Navayana. The movement has sought to be a socially and politically engaged form of Buddhism.
• It rejected Hinduism, challenged the caste system in India and promoted the rights of the Dalit community.
• The movement also rejected the teachings of traditional Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism, however promoted Theravada

2.Dalit Literary Movement:

• Dalit writings became an all India phenomenon. Dadawala writes that even prior to the 1960s, writers like Baburao Bagul, Narayan Surve, Anna Bhau Sathe were expressing Dalit concerns and issues in their literature.
• Baburao Bagul is considered as a pioneer of Marathi Dalit writings in Marathi. His collection of short stories titled Jevha Mijat Chorali (When I Concealed My Caste) published in 1963.
• Namdeo Dhasal (who founded an organization called Dalit Panthers) further consolidated and expanded the Dalit literature movement in India.

3.Dalit Women’s Movement:

• In January 1928, a women’s association was founded in Bombay with Ramabai Ambedkar, Dr. Ambedkar’s wife, as its president.
• In 1942, The All India Depressed Classes Women Conference was organized and 25,000 women attended that conference.
• The Dalit movement thus considered women of even the highest castes as Dalits, because of their oppression.
• Dalit Mahila Sanghatana was formed by dalit women in Maharastra in 1995. It focused on representing the dalit women’s question at the International Women Conference held in Beijing.
• Dalit feminists have articulated the three-fold oppression of Dalit women as

1. Dalits are oppressed by upper castes.
2. Agricultural workers are subject to class oppression, mainly at the hands of upper caste land owners.
3. Women are facing patriarchal oppression at the hands of all men, including men of their own castes.

• The current goals of Dalit Women’s Movement are as follows:

1. To change caste equations in the area/region where they work
2. To promote the leadership of local women
3. To protest against all forms of violence against women and men
4. To negotiate their terms with members of the upper castes during elections
5. To ensure that the benefits of government schemes announced under the new Dalit-run regime

Factors led to Dynamic Dalit Movements

Discrimination

• Discrimination against Dalits has been observed across South Asia and among the South Asian diaspora.
• Though the Indian Constitution abolished untouchability, the oppressed status of Dalits remains a reality.
• According to a 2007 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the treatment of Dalits has been like a "hidden apartheid" and that they "endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public services". HRW noted that Manmohan Singh, then Prime Minister of India, saw a parallel between the apartheid system and untouchability .
• Eleanor Zelliot also notes Singh's 2006 comment but says that, despite the obvious similarities, race prejudice and the situation of Dalits "have a different basis and perhaps a different solution."
• In rural India, stated Klaus Klostermaier , "they still live in secluded quarters, do the dirtiest work, and are not allowed to use the village well and other common facilities".
• Zelliot noted that "In spite of much progress over the last sixty years, Dalits are still at the social and economic bottom of society.
• While discrimination against Dalits has declined in urban areas and in the public sphere, it still exists in rural areas and in the private sphere and in everyday matters .
• Some Dalits successfully integrated into urban Indian society, where caste origins are less
• In rural India, however, caste origins are more readily apparent and Dalits often remain excluded from local religious life.

Crime

• Dalits comprise a slightly disproportionate number of India's prison inmates.
• While Dalits (including both SCs and STs) constitute 25 per cent of the Indian population, they account for 2 per cent of prisoners.
• About 5 per cent of death row inmates in India are from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes which is proportionate to their population.
• The percentage is highest in Maharashtra (50 per cent), Karnataka (36.4 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (36 per cent). Dalits have been arrested on false pretexts.
• According to Human Rights Watch, politically motivated arrests of Dalit rights activists occur and those arrested can be detained for six months without charge.

Laws

• The Government of India has attempted on several occasions to address the issue of caste-related violence.
• Aside from the Constitutional abolition of untouchability, there has been the Untouchability (Offences) Act of 1955.
• It was determined that neither of those Acts were effective, so the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 (POA) came into force.
• In 2015, the Parliament of India passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act to address issues, including instances where the police put procedural obstacles in the way of alleged victims or accused.
• One of those remedies, in an attempt to address the slow process of cases, was to make it mandatory for states. The Laws has not been properly implemented yet.

Dalit Politics

• In various states it has mainly been a politics of negotiation for a “good deal” from mainstream political parties.
• The “good deal” meant a good bargain from the parties, either in office or in the opposition, in terms of seats in a pre-poll alliance, and share in the government.
• In return, the transfer of caste and community votes was promised.
• This politics of negotiation in Bihar proceeded from the period that Kanshi Ram diagnosed as the chamcha age of Dalit politics.

Identity politics

• It  is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, religion, gender, social background, social class, environmental, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these identities.
• Such groups often have support from allies outside the respective identity groups.
• The term is used in a variety of ways to describe phenomena as diverse as multiculturism, women’s movement, civil rights, Lesbian and Gay Movement , and regional separatist movements.

Political mobilisation of the Dalits

1.Dalit Panthers:

• The Dalit Panthers movement was a neo-social movement which accepted Ambedkar‘s philosophy to find a theoretical framework for the movement.
• Dalit Panthers was a social organisation that sought to fight caste discrimination.
• It was founded by Namdeo Dhasal and J. V. Pawar on 29 May 1972 in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
• The Dalit Panthers were inspired by the Black Panther Party, a socialist movement that sought to fight racial discrimination against African-Americans.
• Kumar narrates that the Dalit Panther movement was a radical departure from earlier Dalit movements.
• Its initial thrust on militancy through the use of rustic arms and threats, gave the movement a revolutionary
• Unfortunately, quite like the BPP, they lacked the suitable ideology to channel this anger for achieving their goal.

2.Contribution of KanshiRam:

• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a popular national political party in the Indian state formed by Kanshi Ram in 1984 on the birth anniversary of Dr B.R Ambedkar to represents Bahujans or “People in minority”.
• It refers to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC), as well as religious minorities.
• With goal of “Social Transformation and Economic Emancipation” of the “Bahujan Samaj".
• R Ambedkar, who was the champion of lower caste rights became the icon and ideological guru of BSP cadres.
• In 1973, Kanshi Ram established the Backward and Minority Communities Employee Federation (BAMCEF).
• The motto of the association is to “Educate, Organize and Agitate”. In 1981 he founded the Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti.

3.Mayawati’s Contribution to Dalit Movement:

• She emphasized on a platform of social change to improve the lives of the weakest strata of Indian society — the Bahujans or Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and religious minorities.
• Dalit empowerment is Mayawati’s lasting contribution to the Indian polity.
• She has “given a sense of self-confidence to the community that even Ambedkar or Kanshi Ram could never give."

Conclusion

• Dalit Movement has no doubt brought a major social change in the traditional hierarchy of Indian society.
• It has encouraged the democratic ideals of liberty, equality and social justice among the different castes and classes of people.
• The Dalit movements raised the issues related to identity and reservations of government jobs and political positions.
• There was a strong opposition to the practice of untouchability and discrimination.
• The Dalit movement was a direct challenge to the upper caste and class and they have been acting as a strong pressure group to the government in the mainstream politics.
• Thus the dalit movement has become a powerful social movement to bring a major socio-economic and political transformation in the conditions of dalits

Sarvodaya movement

Background

• Sarvōdaya is a Sanskrit term which generally means "universal uplift" or "progress of all".
• The term was used by Mahatma Gandhi .
• Later Gandhians, like the Indian nonviolence activist Vinoba Bhave, embraced the term as a name for the social movement in post-independence India which strove to ensure that self-determination and equality reached all strata of Indian society.

Origin of Movement

• Gandhi's ideals have lasted well beyond the achievement of one of his chief projects, Indian independence (swaraj).
• His followers in India (notably, Vinoba Bhave) continued working to promote the kind of society that he envisioned, and their efforts have come to be known as the Sarvodaya Movement.
• Anima Bose has referred to the movement's philosophy as "a fuller and richer concept of people's democracy than any we have yet known."
• Sarvodaya workers associated with Vinoba, Jaya Prakash Narayan, Dada Dharmadhikari, Ravishankar Maharaj, Dhirendra Mazumdaar, Shankarrao Deo, K. G. Mashruwala undertook various projects aimed at encouraging popular self-organisation during the 1950s and 1960s, including Bhoodan and Gramdan movements.
• An annual Sarvodaya mela or festival has been held at Srirangapatna and at Tirunavaya.
• At the latter site, it was instituted by K. Kelappan (Kelappaji)
• Gandhian socio-political philosophy is impregnate with rich insights and novel ideas. Gandhi summed up the teachings of Ruskin’s Unto This Last, which he called Sarvodaya, in the following three fundamental principles:
• That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
• That a lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber’s since all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work.
• That a life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is life worth living.

Backward Classes

Introduction

• Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially disadvantaged.
• In the Indian Constitution, OBCs are described as socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC), and the Government of India is enjoined to ensure their social and educational development — for example, the OBCs are entitled to 27% reservations in public sector employment and higher education.
• The principal intermediary OBCs are Yadavs, Kurmies, Koeris, Gujjars and Jats in north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and some of them in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh; Kappus, Kammas, Reddies, Vokkaliggas, Lingayats, Mudliars in south Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; Patles, Kolis, Kshatriyas and Marathas in west Indian states like Guajarat and Maharashra. They belong to the upper or dominant backward classes.
• The service castes and artisans, principal castes among them being carpenters, blaksmiths, barbers, water carriers, etc., are found in almost all states in varying numbers.

Socio-Economic Conditions of the Backward Classes: Impact of the State Policies

• The principal policies which impacted them includeds the land reforms which consisted of the abolition of landlordism, putting ceilings on the size of the landholdings, consolidation of landholdings, and Green Revolution in the selected areas of the country; welfare schemes for the welfare of the lower backward classes.
• Besides, the state policies the changes which occurred from within the society — population growth, breaking down of the jajmani system .
• On account of their numerical strength along with the control on the village land they came to control the village vote banks.
• Even the capitalism had the differential impact on the backward classes. While the upper backward produced mainly for the market and remained largely the self-cultivators, those belonging to the lower backwards joined the ranks of the wage labourers in the agriculutre or the non-agrarian sectors or even migrated to the cities.
• The fact that the OBCs belong to distinct economic categories and to the middle castes and the artisans and the service castes have given rise to the issues which are both economic and caste related.
• The nature of these issues have changed over a period of time. For example, the social issues were combined with those of abolitions of landlordism and demand for providing ownership right to them in land before the implementation of the first phase of land reforms.
• Another factor which is related to the changes in the socio-economic conditions of the backward classes is rise of a middle class among the OBCs.
• Despite the failure of the education policies a group of educated persons, who became their spokespersons, had emerged among the backward classes.

Backward Class Movement in the Post-Independence Period

• North-South Comparison: In comparison to North India, the backward classes in south India were moblised much earlier.
• They not only got reservation in the government jobs but they were also mobilised into the social movement and entered politics.
• Christophe Jaffrelot attributes the early rise of backward classes in South India and their late rise in North India to the processes of ethnicisation and sanskritisation respectively.
• Through ethnicisation the backward classes of south India questioned the Brahminical domination and sought to replace it with that of the backward classes or dravidians.
• It was a revolt against sanskritisation in south.
• As compared to the north Indian states, where reservations for the OBCs were introduced from the 1970s at different points of time, the south India states had completed the process of granting reservation for the OBCs by the 1960s.
• This process in south India, in fact, had started as far back as in 1921 when the Maharaja of Mysore decided to implement reservation for the OBCs in the government jobs in order to end the Brahamin monopoly there.
• In the post-independence period different states in south India appointed backward classes commissions, which espoused for the causes of the backward classes.
• In contrast, the north Indian backward classes were undergoing the process sanskritisation. Unlike their counterparts in south India they attempted to follow the customs, habits and rituals of the high castes.
• In north India the organisation like Arya Samaj spread the message among the backward classes that it was the karma not the birth which determined the place of a person in society.
• While it encouraged the backward classes to sanskritise themselves by tracing their lineages to the high castes, wearing janeo (sacred threads), etc., it also attempted to bring back to Hinduism those Muslims who were supposed to have converted from Hindu religion through the Suddhi
• This instead of challenging the hegemony of the high castes or Brahminism revived it and strengthened it. As a result it dampened the chances of strong backward class movement in north India

Self Respect Movement

• The most effective expression of the dravidian revolt against the Brahmin domination in south was provided by the Self-Respect Movement led by E.V. Ramaswami Naicker, alias Periyar, during the 1920s and 1940s.
• The Self-Respect Movement was based on the premise that the original inhabitants of India were non-Brahmins or the dravidians, not the Brahmins.
• The main principle of this movement was Samadharma or equality.
• To get their self-respect and the non-Brahmins should replace the dominance of Brahmins in education, culture, politics and administration.
• The Self Respect Movement included: boycott of Brahmins in rituals like weddings; condemnation of varnashrama dharma; burning of Manu Smriti.
• The non-Brahmins added suffix “Dravida” and “Adi” to their associations. C. Raja was another advocate of the dravidian ideology.
• He became president of the Adi Dravida Mahasabha in 1916 and chaired the All India Depressed Classes Association since 1928.
• In west India the backward classes were mobilised much earlier in comparison to north.
• Jyotiba Phule belonging to backward Mali caste who became a source of inspiration for social reformers including E.V. Naicker, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and the non-Brahmin Maratha rulers of Kolhapur Sahuji Maharaj, set up Satya Shodak Samaj in 1873 in the Bombay Presidency in order to mobilise the low castes including dalits and non-Brahmins or backward classes.
• Satya Shodhak Samaj was able to unite untouchables and backward caste peasants
• The Maratha princes like Maharaja of Baroda and descendent of Shivaji, Maharaja of Kolhapur, Shahu, inspired by the philosophy of Phule challenged Brahmins’ domination of their administration.
• Shahu introduced policies to empower the non-Brahmins in administration and to end Brahmin’s domination in it.

The Electoral Mobilisation

• The backward class politics in India has largely been related to electoral mobilisation and creation of support base among them by the political parties and leaders.
• Other issues like the reservation for the OBCs or their mobilisation on the class issues like those related to the farmers also get linked to the electoral politics.
• The main leaders and political parties which mobilised the backward classes in north India include Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur, Socialist parties and the different political formations at different point of times like Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• Sanjay Kumar observes in his article “New Phase in Backward Caste Politics in Bihar, assembly election in Bihar which showed a new trend towards the empowerment of the OBCs in the state.
• It was marked by the polarisation of the backward support base; Yadavs supported the Janata Dal while the Kurmies and Koeries supported Samata Party.

Politics of Reservation

• The introduction of Mandal Commission Report by the V P Singh’s government in 1990 recommending reservation 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in the central government jobs made the reservation a national issue in Indian politics.
• The demand for reservation for the backward classes was raised in the Constituent Assembly by Punjab Rao Deshmukh, like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had raised the similar demand for the Scheduled Castes.
• In order to articulate the reservation issue for the backward classes he founded All India Backward Classes Federation (AIBCF) on 26 January 1950.
• The Mandal Commission was result of the consistent demand by the backward class leadership to get the Kaka Kalelkar Commission’s, the first backward class commission report accepted.
• But Kaka Kalelkar’s recommendations of class as the criterion for identification of the backward classes and rejection of the Commission’s report by the parliament led to the demand of appointment of another commission which would take social and educational backwardness as the criteria for identification of the backward classes.
• The implementation of the Mandal Commission report, however, has not settled the issue of reservation. Newer groups continue to demand to be recognised themselves as the OBCs.