The Ghost Of Mandal

First part of a series which seeks to unpack and analyse threadbare the debate around reservations. 

Elections are taking place in Bihar, where Mandal politics and reservations remain a major factor after almost three decades of its introduction. Although the direct mention of any reservation dole is absent, the debate is happening across the country on this delicate issue and may have a bearing on the outcome.

Recently, the government of Rajasthan has provided a 14% quota for EBCs, the economically backward classes amongst the forward classes.  That makes the percentage of reservation in the State a total of 69% if you include the proposed 5% quota for SBCs, the Special Backward Classes, and breaches the upper limit imposed by the Indra Sawhney case.

The legislation through which this decision has been enacted will inevitably be challenged in the Courts.  These developments, in light of the recent comments by RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, and the latest  ‘reservation agitations’ in the country by the Patel Community beg a simple question: Is the affirmative action scheme helping the desired persons/communities?

Backwardness And Social Mobility

‘Backwardness’ within the social milieu is a dynamic and territorial concept that operates at a relative as well as an absolute level.  It has pervaded every society, in every geographical region and time continuum, whether ancient or medieval, feudal or imperial.

Backwardness, generally understood, operates at a social and/or an economic level. Social stratification is not necessarily a social evil and is rather a social phenomenon that seeks to categorize academically the different socio-economic clusters and study their interplay within the larger setup. Social mobility stands for change in the position of an individual or a group of individuals from one status to another. Social mobility and the speed of the movement or change may differ from one period to another and can be examined as a tool to study the health of any society. Upward social mobility arises with social interaction. For instance, reactions of an individual or a social unit from the backward classes to others change with the transformation of social roles resulting in a decrease of the backwardness in the individual or within such social unit. This is to be conceived as a process occurring over a period, with individuals moving from one ‘social role’ or ‘social class position’ to another through the medium of social interaction.

Throughout history, ancient and medieval Western societies typically had a feudal system with two strata, the ruling class and nobility on one hand, and the subjects/laborers on the other. Even the imperial/renaissance societies were presented with three major divisions in the society with the advent of the working middle class and with pre-existing classes.

The existing ‘caste system’ in India was most likely conceived as an academic mechanism to study contemporary jatis and their mobility within the four social strata referred to as the Varnas.  Caste was largely based on a hierarchy of occupations, as inevitably there were certain occupations deemed to of a higher regard than others and so on. The word ‘caste’ was an English adaptation from the Portuguese term ‘casta’, which was first used by the Portuguese’ in describing what they perceived to be India’s social structure. There is no term for ‘caste’ in Sanskrit or any Indian language. The only reference to such social structure in the Gita is verse 13 of chapter 4, where the notion of ‘varna’ has been explained. The word Varna translated into English means “sort into quality’s”.

Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, every society suffers from a decrease in the upward social mobility of groups as classes towards the upper strata begin consolidation and speed of mobility decreases which results in a closed and claustrophobic system. The social mobility in the Indian system was on the decline with the advent of the second century, and the closed ‘caste system’ was the product of the decreased social mobility within the societal milieu.

This was further accentuated through the medieval and the colonial ages. Varna was mistranslated as ‘caste’, and after generations of repetition, it became the prevailing view. The British census of India and later even the Indian census used rigid caste boundaries to divide the population ignoring the present occupational belonging and relied on the historical categorization.

This hierarchy of occupations and their direct connection rewards and respect within the society can be seen in societies across time frames and geographies. Recent genetic studies and sociological history show that our presumption of ‘caste’ as a system may be wrongly based on the work of an ancient scholar merely trying to study the existing society.

The Max Mueller inspired narrative of the great Aryan Invasion from the North West and the subsequent subjugation of the native population as backward, and lower ‘castes’ has largely been disproved.  The toned down, but equally flawed Aryan Migration Theory by Romila Thapar has too suffered the brunt these recent discoveries.

In practice, the ‘Caste’ represented social strata and remained constant and ‘closed’, but the jatis within those castes were mobile and could interchange castes. As these genetic studies reveal, inter-caste marriages and ostensibly upward social mobility of these jatis within various caste strata was very common in those times. As Sanjeev Sanyal puts it, the present narrative around caste and the ‘historical wrongs’ by the present forward classes is slightly misplaced and exists because most scholarship on the subject is based purely on the historical texts that have allowed the ‘tail to wag the dog.’

In present-day modern states, societies can still be divided into different social strata, and they are in fact divided into different social strata for academic or policy purposes. Most of these societies whether democratic or communist, capitalist or socialist, have endeavored, albeit differently, towards the upliftment of depressed classes and eradication of backwardness. Relative backwardness is almost impossible to eradicate, as evidence from even the communist states and systems suggests. However, the eradication of backwardness in its absolute form through social mobility is a worthy endeavor.

State Assistance For Upward Mobility

To increase the upward social mobility of the depressed classes, states across the world have been trying to establish mechanisms of affirmative action that are best suited to their societies. To extend benefits to such classes, one has to understand and define parameters due to which such classes are backward. Following that, one must study why and to what extent the demography is represented by such classes and examine policy measure as to the removal of the difficulties faced and improve the conditions of such classes.

The process through which systems for assistance in upward social mobility of targeted groups are developed in modern states can be roughly divided into three steps – theoretical definition, statistical application, and policy/legal framework. It begins with an attempt made on the part of social scientists at theoretically defining what constitutes a class as being ‘backward’ or ‘depressed’ within a social setting. The term has often bewildered numerous social scientists, across nations and time frames, due to the difficulty faced in structuring a definition to encompass ‘backwardness’ within a definitional filter.

If and when that is done, the next step is a statistical nightmare as it means inculcating the theoretical definitional filters within statistically recognizable criterion so as perform a logically feasible and accurate survey. Once that exercise is over, the data collection and data processing can happen through ethical and universally accepted statistical techniques. Once the data analysis is over, it is the job of legislators and policy makers to examine methods and provide the most efficient and effective framework for the amelioration of the backward classes. Providing a constitutionally viable framework that includes modern democratic principles of non-arbitrariness and equality and fine tuning them to include provisions for affirmative action/reservations, has often left even the sharpest legal minds tied in knots, particularly over the semantics.