Every Sixth of a Sixth
My name is Samantha Headley. I’m from Eagle, Idaho and I’m pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering at Boise State. Ever since I was little I was always interested in designing and building things. As a kid, I would play for hours with Legos and Hot Wheels, creating my own little cities in my room. As I’ve gotten older my passion for architecture and designing buildings has continued to grow. After college I hope to become a certified structural engineer so that I can design and build structures in real life. When I’m not in class or doing schoolwork I spend a lot of time hanging out with friends and playing volleyball. I also love art, and I like to draw and paint in my free time.
Every Sixth of a Sixth
For thousands of years there has existed in Indian culture a very strict and divisive caste system. Since 1950, when the Indian Constitution officially abolished the practice of “untouchability” many argue that the discrimination Untouchables, or Dalits as they are commonly referred to, are faced with is a thing of the past. But extensive research and first hand accounts from Dalits and non-Dalits alike suggest otherwise. Today, there are groups who’s goal is to spread the word about the human rights violations Dalits endure everyday, in hopes of sparking more reform. Many of these groups argue for more reservations (quotas universities and employers have to meet) for Dalits. But these reservations may be the very thing holding Indian society back from establishing equality for all its citizens.
To understand the attempts the Indian Constitution has made to end discrimination against Dalits and other low castes, one must first understand the origin and history of the Indian Hindu caste system. Batuprasad Sharma Shastri, a Hindu priest and Brahmin, explains the Hindu holy scriptures to an interviewer as he sits in a robe, legs crisscrossed on a rug on the floor of his home in India. He recites that according to Rig-Veda, one of the Shastras (Hindu holy scriptures), God sacrificed his body, and with his mouth created the Brahmins (priests), from his arms the Kshatriyas (warriors and landowners), his thighs the Vaishyas (merchants and commoners), and his feet the Shudras (servants). In Hindu, these four caste distinctions are known as Chaturvarna. A Dalit in Indian society is the lowest of the low in caste hierarchy. In fact, you may have noticed from the four varnas Batuprasad described, that Dalits aren’t even mentioned or considered part of the caste system; they’re below it. In Narendra Jadhav’s book “Untouchables” it is noted that “untouchables have no place in the Chaturvarna, and are placed even below the lowest Shudra Varna.”
The religious beliefs in Hinduism drive the discrimination and brutal treatment against Dalits. Birth right is a huge part of the Hindu religion. “You have a society which is casteless and birth has got no meaning!” jabs a Hindu man to a non-Hindu reporter that made a comment about how Hinduism encourages unfair discrimination simply based on one’s birth. This Hindu man’s reaction shows how passionately he believes in the caste system, and just how vital the idea of birth right is in Hinduism and in India. In Indian society birth does have significant meaning, because the caste one is born into is believed to be based on that person’s deeds in their past lives. This is why poor treatment of Dalits is justified in Indian society. According to reincarnation, their past “misdeeds” are what have classified them as a Dalit in this life, and it is “their dharma-duty-… to perform their tasks [play their role in society] assiduously with the hope of redeeming themselves and aspiring to a better life in the next incarnation.” The emphasis placed on duty vindicates the three main ploys of discrimination Dalits are subjected to; exclusion, humiliation, and exploitation.
The most common examples of exclusion include Dalits being prevented from using the same wells and water sources of upper castes, and prevented from entering places of worship designated for higher castes such as Brahmins or Kshatriyas. In a study conducted by Ghanashyam Shah, published in 2009, Shah gathered empirical data from 565 villages in 11 states across India. Through his data, Shah discovered that in 64% of villages, Dalits were not allowed to enter places where upper castes members worship. He also found that in 25% of villages Dalits are barred from stepping foot into police stations, and in 70% of villages Dalits are prohibited from entering the homes of non-Dalits. These actions of exclusion are sometimes enforced by authorities, as the example with the police stations would suggest, but they are more often performed by the normal everyday citizens of Indian society. A clear example of this can be found in an interview conducted for the documentary “India Untouched”, by Stalin Kurup, where two Indian men, one a Dalit and one not, insist on how strong of a friendship they have, but when the non-Dalit is asked if he would let his Dalit friend into his house for a cup of tea, he adamantly refuses.
As far as humiliation and exploitation goes, Dalits are constantly reminded of their impurity and worthlessness to society. In “India Untouched” two boys riding bikes immediately jump off the bikes and take off their shoes as they enter the village. A camera man asks an Indian woman why the boys took off their “slippers” and she says, “They are the ‘other people’-parayars (pariahs).” Having to walk barefoot whenever they enter an upper caste area of a village is a small example of the humiliation Dalits encounter everyday. On top of this they are bullied against wearing nice clothing in fear of violent, and sometimes deadly, retaliation from upper castes, and they are forced into performing the most undesirable jobs.
Dalits are almost always the ones required to keep the cities clean, by disposing of dead corpses and animals, as well as feces, all while often being far under paid for their work. One Dom (a sub-group of Dalits) man explains, “We carry rotten bodies on our shoulders. Ten days later we are still stinking of the corpse,” while another chimes in angrily “No higher caste will ever do such a job! And even then it is the Harijan (Dalit) who is always made to suffer.” This quote is not only significant to point out the cruel and inhumane treatment Dalits encounter, but it also exemplifies the attitude and resurgence of protest against the caste system that has been developing and growing among Dalits throughout the decades following the writing of the Indian Constitution.
Though there have been many activists to take a stand against the caste system and the discrimination of Dalits, Dr. Ambedkar is one of the more notable and influential. For much of the early twentieth century, Ambedkar was a leader in the fight for equality for Dalits, he himself being a Dalit. In 1923 Ambedkar earned his D.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and he eventually gained his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1947. Besides accomplishing this extraordinary feat, especially for a Dalit, he also helped establish hostels and colleges for Dalits throughout India. As pressure on the government to take action against the discrimination of Dalits grew, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was appointed the Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the Indian Constitution. He helped write the constitution to protect Dalits, although he did recognize that laws and politics would not be sufficient enough:
On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has laboriously built up.
This same sentiment about the worry of economic and social inequality bringing down the political equality that was trying to be established has arguably been why there is still conflict between Dalits and non-Dalits today.
The problem seems to be that the caste system is a social issue that politics have failed to properly address, and in fact unintentionally encouraged. The main issue is the way the reservation and quota system for Dalits is set up. In the Indian Constitution government subsidies and benefits are distributed by caste, meaning that if a Hindu were to convert to another religion they could not receive any benefits because they no longer belong to a caste. In other words, one must belong to a caste to receive aid from the government. This creates an incentive for citizens to identify themselves as from the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, or Shudra castes, or as a Dalit. This acknowledgement and loyalty to castes just further perpetuates the very existence of caste divisions and the discrimination that comes with a caste system. Jeremy Sarkin and Mark Koenig, perfectly capture the complex, vicious cycle of this phenomenon:
Caste identity… is routinely used by politicians to mobilize support for elections and collective action… this… has translated into the formation of caste-based interest groups… [that] lobby for economic benefits… to members of their caste. This continuing use of caste as a rallying point requires… explicit drawing of caste distinctions… [and] in order to receive some benefits, one must voluntarily choose to continue one’s association with the same system that sanctions discrimination… As long as people voluntarily self-identify using caste, it might be assumed that caste as a social force will continue.
The laws of the Indian Constitution and other Indian politics that have emboldened caste divisions are exactly what have diminished the power and authority of Dalits throughout India.
Another big reason loyalty to caste has decreased the power of Dalits is because of jatis. Jatis are sub-groups within the four main varna. They are divisions within a caste or Dalit community based on “occupation, linguistic and geographical limitations, customs, and other sociological features.” In interviews, some Dalits referred to themselves as Dom, Harijan, Bhangis, Musaharnis, or Valmikis. These are just a few of the Dalit jatis. Chaturvarna and Untouchables are divided into over 3,000 subcastes, or jatis, throughout all of India.. Because of the large number of jatis, Dalits’ loyalty and support is split up between several different parties. This prevents Dalits from getting behind one party and really having a presence in politics that would make a lasting and significant impression on Indian society.
With the inability of Dalits to unite as a common front in politics, upper castes have been able to dominate political discussion by coming together and expressing their dissent of the reservation system. Stories from as recently as August and September of this year report deadly riots and protests against the reservation system. Hundreds of thousands of members of an affluent caste in the community of Gujarati in Western India are protesting for the abolition of the reservation system altogether. The protest group’s leader, Hardik Patel, made the statement that it is unfair that “to get into a top university, a student with a backwards caste (lower caste) certificate needs a lower grade than the other… the same goes for plum government jobs.” This attitude of resentment isn’t new; it seems to only be growing stronger in recent years. A few years ago in another rally protesting against Dalit discrimination a frustrated upper caste Indian woman responded to a reporter saying,
There’s no discrimination in today’s society. We don’t treat them badly anymore. The society has changed now. They can develop too, if they are intelligent enough. They don’t need to be given any more reservations. This [affirmative action] is unjust to the upper castes.
Author’s Reflection
I see similar resentment of reservations and quotas expressed here in the United States, even if less drastic than that in India. When bringing up the topic of quotas and discrimination within the U.S., most people think of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 clearly stated that racial quotas were unlawful, but there have been many court cases claiming violation of this law through use of unfair quota systems and “reverse discrimination” in universities, as well as in the job market. In 1994 several white students sued the University of Texas Law School for experiencing reverse discrimination through the university’s quota on the percentage of black and Hispanic students the school had to accept. The representative for the students expressed their frustration by stating, “[The] plaintiffs are white and, for this reason, the law school evaluated their admissions applications under a different, higher standard than that applied to black and Mexican-American applicants. As a result, the law school rejected the plaintiffs… while admitting… far less qualified black and Mexican-American applicants.” Even today in the U.S., there is constant questioning of the fairness of quotas and how government aid is distributed among races. As a college student, I hear and see examples of resentment every day; people exasperatedly exclaiming “If I was black and unemployed I could go to Berkeley for free?” or “If I was Mexican and couldn’t speak English I could get this scholarship from this public university?” In the U.S. many people also express their frustration of race-based scholarships. In an interview with a Texas news station, Colby Bahannan, a student at Texas State University explains how, “it just [gets] really frustrating when every other scholarship you happen to find online you need not apply to based on your ethnicity or gender.” In another interview Colby participated in, the interviewer points out how frustration with race based scholarships “speaks to the anxiety a lot of people have about race in this (the U.S.) country.”
Similar to India, American society also fuels class and racial divisions through its politics. It is common to hear a newscaster on TV discussing what each presidential candidate will bring to the table in order to get the “black vote” or the “Mexican-American vote”, or the “white vote”. These distinctions between races within the U.S., parallels what is happening with the castes in India. The more U.S. politics appeals to voters based on race, the larger the division between races is; as we have seen, the more Indian politics appeals to separate caste groups, the larger the division between castes there is. This trend perpetuates the existence of discrimination, including that against Dalits.
“Every sixth human being in the world today is an Indian, and every sixth Indian is an erstwhile untouchable, a Dalit.” Dalits make up 17% of India’s total population. This is the equivalent of about 170 million Dalits; 170 million people that endure systematic violence and discrimination day in and day out. Standing up against a caste system that has endured for over 3500 years is no easy task, but the best way for India to begin its reform is through its reservation system. Instead of dispersing government aid and establishing quotas based on caste and jatis, the Indian Constitution needs to distribute benefits based on “economic prerequisites, so that it is truly the most disadvantage who benefit.” A social revolution needs to take place in Indian politics that would allow issues to be addressed to a unified people instead of to a single caste. There needs to be international pressure for India to recognize the social injustice its caste system perpetuates. This is no easy task, and certainly can’t be expected to happen in a short period of time, but if B.R. Ambedkar’s message to the Dalit people of “educate, organize, and agitate” is religiously followed, social revolution and justice for Dalits is a goal that is not out of reach. All that will be left to do is reach out and grab it.
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