The Social Set Theory

- Ipsita Shome

The genesis

Casteism in India segregated the society into ghettos of isolation and exclusiveness, sealing humanity into insulated social divisions. Whereas the dying effects of caste identities are noted by theorists – but given the vociferousness with which casteism is often proclaimed, from political manifestoes to matrimonial columns, it gives rise to the illusion that the ancient caste system is still kicking away.

The caste system in its traditional form meant a functioning vertical hierarchy. According to the norms of this hierarchy, castes lower in status were routinely expected to work for those above them. It is not as if the subaltern castes endorsed the disprivilege and participated willingly in their own exploitation. If the caste system worked, it was mainly because the superiors used coercion quite freely and ruthlessly against the poorer castes. The caste system was ultimately enforced by power and not ideological acquiescence.

In modern India, these then oppressed castes are tagged ‘backward’ only on the basis of their formal educational qualifications, which are generally lower than those of the urban middle class. But we must note that they are numerically not insignificant and economically well-endowed by rural standards. One of the main reasons why political parties indulge in its own breed of backward caste politics.

Corruption in the Indian statehood is directly proportional to the number of policy mishaps and constitutional loopholes. Following the wave, both the administration and the subject in concern turn opportunist and rob instances of mutual discrepancies for individual kinship. And in this case, to smoothen the lower rungs of the society with reference to the higher stratus, a number of derivatives were procured which were less accommodating and more of a tool for repeated both-sided speculation. The cycle brimmed over and now the utopian ‘struggle for equality in India’ is more of a billboard art for the local Communist parties, than a theory under practice.

Samples of modern day discrimination

Even those who know very little about the Naxalite movement know that its central slogan has been ‘land to the tiller’ and that attempts to put the poor in possession of land have defined much of their activity.

Insecurity and exploitation of tenants is a widespread phenomenon, hence tenancy reforms of various kinds have been attempted right from the time of independence. While some States have banned tenancy altogether, some have provided statutory security against eviction, including preferential right of the tenant to purchase the land if the landlord wants to sell it. But instead of improving the lot of tenants, these reforms have only driven tenancy underground.

Indebtedness, also, is one of the chief causes of land alienation and forced labour. Indebtedness among STs (Scheduled Tribes) is particularly widespread on account of food insecurity, no availability of production and consumption credit through public institutions and corruption in the public lending agencies.

Prominent dodges

The enforcement of labour laws has always been tardy after the on-set of economic reforms. It is a matter of common knowledge that officers of the labour departments have unwritten instructions, since the 1990s, not to come in the way of profitable enterprise by insisting ‘too much’ on compliance with labour welfare laws.

The rudderless implementation of the PESA act, albeit partial and perfunctory, faces the first estoppel at the level of defining the ‘village’ that comprises the community, and ‘competence’ of Gram Sabha to manage the affairs of the community in terms of its customs and traditions. Once these ‘features’ are incorporated in the legal frame, the paradigm of administration at the village level would undergo a total transformation, with community at its centre and in a commanding position.

It should be recognized that there are different kinds of movements, and that calling and treating them generally as unrest, a disruption of law and order, is little more than a rationale for suppressing them by force. It is necessary to contextualize the tensions in terms of social, economic and political background and bring back on the agenda the issues of the people – the right to livelihood, the right to life and a dignified and honourable existence.

The determinant

The virus of casteist polarity is being injected with great vengeance even without the supposed ‘help’ of the constitutional and administrative injunctions. Caste awareness has been a notable and deciding factor for many underplayed election victories. Every election accelerates the tempo of the working caste consciousness. Increasing involvement in the political process seems to aggravate caste identification – thereby transforming caste into the dominant entity of partisan politics. In spite of repeated moral embargos, both in theory and practice, the social structure is dark and dismal. Conceptualizing mythical pathos for the mistaken modernities of the statehood is the worst that could happen, and that has taken place already.