Book review: Narayana Sukumar and Paul D’Souza (eds.),The Journey of Caste in India: Voices from Margins

The institution of caste has been manifested and apparent in Indian society since times immemorial, despite witnessing different socio-political obstacles. Even the Independence of India could not liberate the hitherto marginalized communities from the socio-cultural ghettos and distinct forms of discrimination. The caste system sustained itself throughout the Gupta period, Mauryan and British empires to only re-emerge in contemporary India. However, in the mid-twentieth century, a sudden cry of the possibility of the gradual disappearance of the institution of caste from Indian society was proclaimed by many modernist and Marxist scholars, to name a few like Rajni Kothari and M. N. Srinivas. Kothari on a similar line of argument argued that the project of modernity may result in the incremental and piecemeal extinction of the caste system from India. The caste system in contrast to the expectations of these scholars reflected the Platonist attitude which seems to pre-exist in their context and merely manifest itself in the different landscapes across the temporality. The book is a collaborative work by the editors and contributing authors to present a nuanced view of the fact that the institution of caste has outlived the time, context, political establishments and culture to penetrate into the various spheres of everyday life, that is, gender, market, educational institutions, globalization, Panchayati raj, etc. This volume is broadly divided into three sections and touches upon the diverse but interrelated aspects, associated with the same body of the institution of caste: theorization of caste, an assertion of Dalit culture cum identity and Dalit movements.

The first section of this anthology can be situated as a response to the discussion initiated by Gopal Guru about the limitations of social sciences in his famous article ‘How Egalitarian are the Social Sciences in India’. He argues that the Dalit intelligentsia do not theorize about caste and its experiences and only attempt to undertake empirical studies for immediate and temporal benefits. This materialistic orientation on the part of the Dalit-Bahujan scholars, creates a vacuum that gives space to the other non-Dalit Bahujan scholars, to theorize about caste experience from both their own and the Dalit’s perspective. Ambrose Pinto seems to be challenging the above-mentioned presumption of the Gopal Guru about Dalit-Bahujan scholars. He has theoretically engaged with the idea of the rights-based policies of justice. The author argued that there is a difference between the mere formulation of right-based policies and actual benefits to the stakeholders and realization of social justice. The state is reluctant to make and implement welfare policies for everyone on its own. Many times it formulates and implements the policies due to the pressure from interest groups (p. 15). Those who are relatively privileged and dominant are listened to, while the other marginalized and oppressed ones lack behind. To put it in another way, in the Jungle ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Similarly, In the Indian context, the caste system produces inequality, in terms of accessibility of basic resources and opportunity, the body of a caste Hindu may be considered more important than the body of a downtrodden Dalit.

Valerian Rodrigues has elaborated on the theoretical contributions of Ambedkar in the formulation of Dalit identity. He has rightly described the views of Ambedkar that the hierarchy and discrimination are intrinsic within the Brahmanical religion of Hinduism, where not even the holy scriptures are considered of equal importance. For example, the Shastras came to regard themselves as superior to the Vedas and Tantras to the Smritis (p. 27). The Dalits have to have their own alternatives in terms of culture. Rajkumar has nicely comprehended the evolution of Dalit culture and identity in historical terms and contributions of various Dalit movements, faiths, time context, activists, leaders and thinkers, etc. in the making of Dalit culture and identity. Subhadra Mitra Channa’s focus on the experience of Dalit women in relation to the Dalit men and Brahmanical men is yet another insightful chapter of this volume. To elucidate the points of convergence and divergence between caste and race, the comparative analysis of the both has also been given due space by the editors of this volume. Selvaraj Arulnathan, like Isabel Wilkerson’s book ‘Caste: The Origin of Our Discontent’ has linked the experiences of caste in India and race in America.

The last section of the book is centered on the empirical studies regarding the question of caste. Prakash, Louis and Surinder S. Jodhka taking the illustration of Ad-Dharmis and Jats, articulates that as opposed to the belief and presumptions, the caste is still a reality in the state of Punjab even though the Brahmins do not enjoy a similar position of power and influence as they enjoy in the other parts of India like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. After the Ad-Dharmis attained socio-economic mobility, they contended against the dominant Jats in the locality for the management of the Gurudwara. Jodhka and Louis have rightfully maintained that while the conversion to Sikhism seems to have unchained the Dalits from social stigma and discrimination but other forms of marginalization like denial of access over the resources and management of institutions is still prevalent (p. 136). The other essays in the last section of the anthology deal with as diverse issues affecting caste as the adverse effects of globalization on the Dalits and caste discrimination in higher education in India. P. Muttaihah while taking the struggle of Madigas against the dominant Malas in Andhra Pradesh has as quite aptly captured the voices and movements for the sub-categorization of reservation within the Dalits itself. The Madiga community has been batting for the sub-categorization of reservations meant for the Schedule Caste communities. The Mala on the other hand, which is itself a Schedule Caste community, advances all the arguments of anti-reservation in order to preserve their ‘lion’s share’ of reservation benefits, in the guise of the Dalit unity (p. 95). N. Sukumar and Shailaja Menon through the prism of a student’s experience illuminated the institutionalized discrimination being practiced at a number of institutions of higher education.

Despite touching upon the key heterogeneous aspects of caste efficiently, the volume somehow misses out the challenges and harsh critiques of the Dalit movement. Many scholars like Badri Narayan and Sudha Pai have proclaimed that the Dalit movement in India presently is in an illusion and directionless stage. With the exception of one chapter by Anand Teltumbde, the editors failed to acknowledge the challenges of the Dalit movement in the twenty-first century due to the rise of politics of saffronization of Dalit-Bahujan by Hindutva forces and the emergence of the internet and social media, both as a challenge and an instrument of empowerment. The nature of Dalits, the caste system and its associated forms of discrimination has undergone radical alterations, in the last few decades due to socio-cultural and economic changes in India and the world. If we set aside the context of educational institutions and globalization, the editors have brushed aside the contemporary concerns of Dalit-Bahujan, like the psychological concerns of caste discrimination and the role of art, music, fiction and poetry as emerging tools of political mobilization of marginalized communities. These aspects of the caste system are dealt with by scholars like Yashpal Yogdand and Brahma Prakash respectively. A recently released, edited volume by Sudha Pai, Rahul Verma and Dr Shyam Babu entitled ‘Dalits in the New Millenium’ attempts to fill some of the vacuum left by this book.

The book The Journey of Caste in India: Voices from Margins is however a significant contribution to the debate between the history of ideas and intellectual history. The former looks at large-scale concepts as they grow and transform over the course of history, irrespective of context. The ‘Intellectual History’ argues that socio-economic and cultural factors are detrimental to the growth of various ideas. It also believes in the temporality of ideas as they get changed from time to time due to socio-cultural interventions. The editors of the book correctly substantiate the fact that only the ‘Bottle has changed, the wine is the same’. The caste system has sustained but its nature has changed over the period of time.

In brief, undoubtedly this volume is a major addition to the academic literature of social sciences in general and what K. Satayanarayana and Ramanarayana Rawat called ‘Dalit Studies’ in specific. Despite the fact that the inclination of the work is largely on Dalits, it is also making a difference in terms of countering the ideational claims of Decolonialist scholars of being representatives of diverse India. Thus, it would be unjust to limit the scope of this book to ‘Dalit Studies’ alone. Ironically, the decolonial perspective in the Global International relations never meaningfully acknowledged the voices of the marginalized sections of Indian society and discards the persistence of caste in the global sphere. Their claim of inclusion of every possible voice coming from the margin in non-west proves only to be mythical in front of the collaborative arguments of the editors and different contributing authors of this volume.