An open letter to India's progressive parties on social justice

If they are to fight RSS-BJP, it is time progressive parties take an unequivocal stand on the social justice paradigm

Dr BR Ambedkar famously posited that "a nation is not a people synthesised by a common culture derived from a common language, common religion or common race...Nationality is a feeling of oneness that makes those who are charged with it feel they are kith and kin...It is a feeling of 'consciousness of kind'...it is longing to belonging to one's own group." Despite his exhortation (and the efforts of numerous governments post 1947), casteism continues to be pervasive in India. Millions of our fellow Indians are systematically denied access to the great vaults of this nation and discriminated against in accessing education, employment, housing and basic services. This undermines not only the forging of consciousness of kind but also India's promised constitutional social revolution.

That is why the caste-census debate offers a rare window of opportunity to meaningfully debate how India's social justice paradigm can be deepened. Both moral and political considerations mandate that India's progressive parties leverage this debate to take a principled stand on some critical issues related to the welfare of India's Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Backward Classes (OBCs) and minorities.

Morally, there are two reasons why progressive parties ought to take a principled stand on social justice issues. Firstly, despite decades of reservations in government services, only 11.5 per cent of the class A administrative positions in India are occupied by SCs, and 13.5 per cent by OBCs. Similarly, 95 per cent of employed SCs are clustered in grades C and D, while 22.6 per cent OBCs are employed in Group C.

A first of its kind survey on the social profiles of senior decision-makers in 37 newspapers and television channels found that 90 per cent of the decision-makers in the English language print media and 79 per cent in television were upper castes. Likewise, while the average household income in India is Rs 113,222, STs, SCs, and OBCs earned 34 per cent, 21 per cent and 8 per cent less than the national average. As Dr Ambedkar presciently predicted, "by reason of our social and economic structure, (we) continue to deny the principle of one man one value" to India's SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities.

Secondly, this structural discrimination is being exacerbated by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government, which takes inspiration from MS Golwalkar's argument that reservations are "divisive talk" and that "we must cry a complete halt to forming groups based on caste…and demanding rights and privileges in services, financial aids, admission in educational institutions" (Bunch of Thoughts, p. 351).

Consequently, the BJP government has slashed the SCSP-TSP fund (renamed as Special Central Assistance to SCs and STs) by 50 per cent, looked the other way as gau rakshaks target Dalits for their vocations, undermined affirmative action by changing the unit of reservation, both slashed and under-utilised the funding for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers, while its ideological collaborators have repeatedly asked for a review of reservations. All this as atrocities against SCs/STs have increased.

Politically, it would be expedient for progressive parties to champion an inspiring vision premised on social justice because the ethnicisation of Indian politics has accelerated manifold in the last seven years. The BJP has championed this ethnicisation by cultivating emotions, the methodical use of symbols and programmatic interventions to forge a monolith political bloc.

For one, the BJP has symbolically accommodated some SC, ST, OBC leaders in its party organisation and various councils of ministers. Arguably, this unfavourable inclusion is instrumental, for none of these leaders enjoys any real power or influence. However, the BJP has leveraged these leaders to systematically reach out to OBC and Dalit sub-castes, co-opt their icons and re-engineer their thinking towards a larger ideological agenda. As the National Election Studies shows, the strategy paid rich dividends to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Bucking earlier trends, 44 per cent of OBCs voted for the BJP in 2019, while only 27 per cent voted for regional parties. Dissecting this further, what emerges is that 41 per cent of the OBC dominant sub-castes voted for the BJP, while 47 per cent of the OBC sub-castes voted for it in the same election.

This ethnicisation is both for electoral and ideological reasons (the latter being an effort to create and nurture a macro-identity around Hindi, Hindu and Hindustan, and then cynically channelise this bloc against those Golwalkar perceived to be the real enemies - Christians and Muslims). Progressive parties cannot counter this by identifying themselves as aligned to one particular caste or creed. That would mean adhering to the binaries created by the RSS-BJP and playing on unfavourable terms. The only way to disrupt the status quo is through normative politics and bold reforms. To reiterate, India's progressive parties must take an unequivocal stand on India's social justice paradigm. They must first stem and reverse the attack. Towards this end, they must fill up the backlog of reserved seats in the public sector in a time-bound manner, restore budgetary allocations for SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities and uphold the rule of law.

They must then further India's social justice paradigm by experimenting with radical and disruptive innovations. In that spirit, they must commit to spearheading a caste census, which would be instrumental in revising the benchmark for socio-economic and educational backwardness and giving a scientific basis for the recommendations of Union and state-level

backward caste commissions. This would go a long way in ensuring that India's social justice and welfare paradigms are more equitable. That is partly why the UPA government spearheaded the Socio-Economic Caste Census Survey (SECC) in 2011. To argue against the caste census on the grounds that it will unleash fissiparous tendencies and hence tear India's social fabric is counter-productive since the 2011 survey already established a precedent (although the data was inexplicably never released, and unconfirmed reports suggest the BJP is now using it for its political social-engineering. If true, those responsible for withholding the SECC data are directly responsible for the BJP's electoral windfalls).

An allied issue that emanates from the point about caste census is sub-categorisation. If, like the SECC, a fresh caste census highlights the precise socio-economic status of SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities (including Dalit-Christians, OBC/Dalit-Muslims, since casteism afflicts all creeds), it can be used to disburse the benefits accruing from reservation to various sub-castes equitably. This debate has already been opened up by a 2020 Supreme Court decision ( Davinder Singh vs the State of Punjab ) on sub-categorisation within the SC category, and because numerous OBC and SC sub-castes have been raising this demand. To argue against sub-categorisation on purely ideological grounds seems specious given India's programme of social justice was specifically designed for "undoing the baneful hierarchies of the past, and the unequal starting points they have constructed". If sub-castes have not prospered - economically, socially and politically, it is the duty of the State to ensure that it delivers those conditions that ensure the fullness of life for them (even if it means temporarily facing the ire of dominant sub-castes).

The elephant in the room is the declining share of public sector employment. Although this is bound to be a controversial issue, a debate on affirmative action in the private sector is bound to arise sooner or later. It would be expedient for parties to get ahead of this and commit to linking tax breaks and subsidies to companies based on a greater

diversity of SC, ST, OBC, minority, women, LGBTQ+ communities within their structures. This positive reinforcement would incentivise companies to be more representative without creating an overbearing State.

An equally pertinent issue is that if the caste census shows that India's SCs, STs, OBCs are more than 50 per cent of India's population, then does the principle of "jiski jitni abaadi, utni uski bhaagidaari" (borrowing from Kanshi Ram) prompt a rethink on the 50 per cent ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court on reservations? Reservations for the Economically Backward Sections have already cracked this glass ceiling (albeit using a non-caste metric), and states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and others have also done so (using a caste metric). Other arguments (most visibly about merit/capability) ignore socio-historical realities and are empirically unsound. As argued, the vast majority of India's population continue to be unequal partners in India's prosperity, which has to be redressed.

There are other allied issues that flow from the caste census debate (making the media and judiciary more representative, filling up the backlog in reserved seats, reservations for OBCs in legislatures) but lie beyond the scope of this article. All of these will inevitably be caricatured as antithetical to forward/upper castes. Such arguments conveniently ignore the fact that a caste census will enumerate data for all castes and thereby help the State customise its welfare programmes to serve better the needs of economically weaker sections amongst the forward/upper castes. Indeed the targeted delivery of benefits and services to those really in need (and the consequent curtailment of leakages/rent-seeking) is a desirable goal for any government committed to furthering the public good. Unless, of course, such arguments are motivated by regressive ideological proclivities, not by concern for the forward/upper castes or the poor.

India's progressive parties need to champion an inspiring alternative vision that is both principled and strategic. They need to forge an "alliance of equity" to ensure that India's promise is accorded to all Indians, regardless of their caste, gender, creed or ideological inclination. Only then can we actualise the dream of an equitable, just and egalitarian India. Only then can we ensure that no one gets left or held behind. To paraphrase Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, in the national interest, let us collectively strive to rebuild the noble mansion of India.

(Pushparaj Deshpande is the Director of the Samruddha Bharat Foundation and the Series Editor of the Rethinking India series (Penguin))