Abdul Khaliq for BeyondHeadlines
A scheduled caste (SC) Christian associate- a convert from the Parayan Dalit community of Tamilnadu- is distraught that his country views him as a native alien, a second-class citizen. Being a Dalit in a society that still treats caste as indelible, he suffers all forms of socio-economic discrimination, and as a Christian he is denied the benefit of reservation and other concessions granted to SCs of the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist religions. His anguish encapsulates the unconscionable injustice meted out to SC Christians and SC Muslims by the State.
Centuries ago Aristotle, recognising the unevenness of social structures, moderated the universal egalitarian ideal of equal treatment of human beings with his observation that justice implied the equal treatment of similar persons. Article 15 of the Constitution embodies this concern by qualifying the dictum of non-discrimination among citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste and sex with the proviso that the State is empowered to make special arrangements for the advancement of socially and economically backward citizens, and specifically for SCs and STs. However, the State’s stance on the issue of Dalit converts from Hinduism blatantly violates this sacred canon of equal treatment of equals. The endorsement of SC status for SC Sikhs and SC Buddhists but denial of this status to the SC Christians and SC Muslims is tantamount to licensing and sanctioning discrimination on the basis of religion.
The pledge to be a Secular Republic is founded on the principle that the State will neither establish a religion of its own nor confer any special patronage upon any particular religion. Unfortunately, the Constitutional (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 circumscribed the scope of the wide-ranging colonial term “depressed classes” now defined as “scheduled castes” by excluding from the list any person who professed a religion different from Hinduism, thereby reflecting a clear bias in favour of the majority religion. However, this Order and allied notifications were at sharp variance with what our first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad and PM Jawaharlal Nehru perceived to be the Constitutional provisions. The President, in a letter to H.C.Mukherjee in December 1950, clarified that “so far as educational and economic facilities to the backward classes are concerned, it is not the intention of the Government that there should be any differentiation on grounds of religion or castes. The only differentiation between the backward classes and other backward groups who are called Scheduled Castes can be in regard to certain political rights such as separate representation.”
The grant of SC status to SC Sikhs in 1956 and SC Buddhists in 1990 is actually the culmination of a pattern of thought that has even been enshrined in the Constitution, which clearly distinguishes between Indic religions and those originating elsewhere. The explanatory note under Article 25 unambiguously states that “the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jain and Buddhist religions.” The purport of Article 25 is that a Sikh, a Buddhist or a Jain can lawfully enter a temple but not a Christian or a Muslim. The counter argument that the Constitution has separate provisions for minorities including Christians and Muslims is specious justification for this discrimination, as the minority provisions apply equally to Sikhs and Buddhists as religious minorities.
Although the Constitution has sanctified the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion, the Constitutional order 1950, as amended from time to time, has penalised Dalit converts to Islam and Christianity for their religious beliefs. The true intent of the directive becomes self-evident when read in conjunction with the Circular issued by the Home Ministry in May, 1975 which states that “where a scheduled Caste person gets converted to a religion other than Hinduism or Sikhism and then reconverts himself back to Hinduism or Sikhism, he will be declared to have reconverted to his original scheduled caste.” The hegemony of the dominant religion is sought to be protected by penalising SCs who convert to Christianity or Islam but restoring their privileges if they return to the fold. In effect, the State has legitimised discrimination against Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam.
The philosophy underlying the Constitutional Order of 1950 and its amendments bears an uncanny resemblance to the thinking of our right-wing fundamentalists. The leading ideologue of Hindutva, Veer Savarkar has explicitly distinguished between the indigenous, Indic religions and those that originated elsewhere. A key concept is that Bharatvarsha has, in addition to Hinduism also given birth to the religion of the Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists who are all in this sense Hindus. Conversely, Muslims and Christians are foreigners in this country which rightly belongs to Hindus. Tragically, a similar quasi-racial bias is evident in the denial of SC status to SC Muslims and Christians while granting this concession to SC Sikhs and Buddhists.
The ostensible reasons for denial of SC status to Dalit Christians and Muslims are built around the myth that SCs who convert to these religions no longer face any social stigma or prejudice. Nothing is more untrue. Caste consciousness is a part of our everyday lives; its universality renders it normal. However hard we may delude ourselves, we are all scarred by it. A plainly irrational, wicked belief in Dalit inferiority is embedded in our culture. Dalits, irrespective of their religious beliefs, have similar narratives of oppression- victims of historical prejudice, of illogical hate, of violence. We need to face up to the brute fact that caste still influences the way social and economic privileges are enjoyed and determines the nature of human interaction. Being at the bottom of the hierarchy, the Dalits reap the whirlwind of an iniquitous system.
Mahatma Gandhi, who knew this country and its people better than anyone else, had this to say on the subject; “whether the harijan is nominally a Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh, he is still a harijan…He may change his garb and call himself a Catholic harijan or a Muslim harijan or a neo-Sikh, his untouchability will haunt him during his lifetime.” Dr B. R Ambedkar asked the rhetorical question: “what good is Christianity for a Hindu if it does not do away with his caste?” India’s most distinguished sociologist and social anthropologist, M. N. Srinivas, who had underlined the persistence of caste in modern India, noted that “conversion to Christianity only changed the faith but not the customs, the general culture, or the standing of the converts in society.” Significantly, the Supreme Court in various judgements has emphatically underlined the obdurate hold of caste in our society. In its judgement in the S. Ambalagan vs Devarajan AIR 1984 case, the Supreme Court has inter alia observed: “he never lost his caste when he embraced another religion… this appears particularly so in the case of Scheduled Castes who embraced other religions in their quest for liberation but return to their old religion on finding that their disabilities have clung to them with great tenacity.” You can change your religion but caste is part of your DNA, immutable and eternal.
The intellectual elite and the media have steered clear of this issue because acknowledging injustice would morally bind them to do something about it. Their reluctance to engage with this subject possibly stems from the belief that this unprepossessing group- Dalit and minority- does not count for much in the larger canvas of minority politics or in the mart of economic strife and gain. They also clearly wish to avoid confronting the communalists for a marginal group of Dalits. The issue captured the headlines only once, when Mother Theresa sat on dharna at Rajghat in 1996 in support of this desolate group, but the media interest was clearly not in the cause she espoused but in her celebrity persona. Otherwise, the numerous dharnas and protest marches by these disaffected, powerless citizens barely get a mention in a media culture that expends reams of newsprint and hundreds of hours of prime time salivating over the sexual escapades of a deviant Baba.
Significantly, in 1996 the Narasimha Rao government had approved an amendment to the Constitutional(Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 to include SC converts to Christianity and Islam as Scheduled Castes, but due to alleged procedural lapses the proposed Bill was not introduced in Parliament on the appointed date. Following the adjournment of Parliament, an Ordinance was proposed to the President but was not promulgated as, in the mean time Parliament Elections were announced. The shoddy handling of the proposal raised legitimate suspicions that it was aborted on purpose by the Rao government.
The aggrieved Dalits approached the Supreme Court in 2004 for redress of this palpable injustice. Almost 10 years on, the case hangs fire with little hope of an early resolution. Since the filing of the writ petition, the case has been listed innumerable times but almost invariably, the Government counsel has sought adjournment. The last listing was on 9th September, 2013, and predictably the case was again adjourned without a hearing. The unspoken understanding seems to be to postpone indefinitely a verdict in the matter.
The most disingenuous of all- a classic example of political artifice and subterfuge- is the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs in Feb. 2011 on the pending writ petition. Couched in graceless bureaucratese, the minutes recorded state that the Committee “ decided that based on data that will be collected in the 2011 Census, Government will institute further studies and thereafter consult with State governments and other stake holders.” It is clear to the meanest intelligence that the government’s intent is to keep this issue in limbo forever.
The Supreme Court has all along maintained that reservation and other benefits in the form of affirmative action for a group should be based on their social and educational backwardness, their social degradation and inadequacy of representation but not on religious considerations. The Court in the case of Soosai vs Union of India,1985 observed that in order to establish that the Constitutional (SC) Order 1950 discriminates against members of a particular caste “ it must be shown that they suffer from a comparable depth of social and economic disabilities and cultural and educational backwardness and similar levels of degradation within the community necessitating intervention by the State under the provisions of the Constitution.” Data compiled by the NSSO shows that educationally, Muslim Dalits are behind Dalits of all other communities with the largest percentage of illiterates at 48.08% in the rural areas and 31.7% in urban areas. The Buddhists have the lowest percentage of illiterates among the different Dalit communities. Similarly, Muslim Dalits constitute the highest percentage below the poverty line with 39.6% in rural areas and 46.8% in urban areas compared with 7.6% Dalit Sikhs in rural areas and 24.8% Sikhs in urban areas below the poverty line. An in-depth study conducted by the National Commission for Minorities in 2008 concluded that SC Christians and SC Muslims “ were invariably regarded as inferior by their co-religionists….
On the basis of cold facts, it would be impossible to deny SC status to SC Muslims and SC Christians on grounds of social, cultural, educational backwardness and social segregation. To set aside their petition on the argument that the caste system is not recognized in these religions is to blind oneself to the realities of this country. Moreover, it is then contradictory to justify granting SC status to SC followers of Sikhism and Buddhism which also doctrinally abjure caste.
In the ultimate analysis, this issue is the acid test of our nation’s commitment to a secular polity.
(The author, a former civil servant, is Secretary General of Lok Janshakti Party.The views are personal.akhaliq2007@gmail.com)
