Caste and 'Modernity'Author(s): V. K. NatrajSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 51/52 (Dec. 27, 2003 - Jan. 2, 2004), pp.5406-5408Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4414440 .Accessed: 05/10/2011 03:55

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villages in Shahpur block, have private schools. 5 As for the 'GoMP's position towards school

quality', readers are referred to subsection 6.2 of my paper.

References

Govinda, R (2003): 'Dynamics of Decentralised Management in Primary Education: Policy and Practices in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh', ch 9 in Govinda and Diwan (2003), pp 203-35.

Govinda, R and Rashmi Diwan (2003): Community Participation and Empowerment in Primary Education, Sage Publications, New Delhi.

Jha, Jyotsna (2000): 'Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative Schooling: Community Based Initiatives in Primary Education in Madhya Pradesh' in RGSM, pp 161-233.

Kothari, Brij, P G Vijaya, Sherry Chand and Rajeev Sharma (2000): A Review of Primary Education Packages in Madhya Pradesh, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, December.

Leclercq, Francois (2002): 'The Impact of Education Policy Reforms on the School System: A Field Study of EGS and Other Primary Schools in Madhya Pradesh', Occasional PaperNo 5, CSH, Delhi, November.

- (forthcoming): 'Is the Education Guarantee Scheme Bringing Madhya Pradesh Closer to Universal Elementary Education? Preliminary Field Evidence from Betul

District' in Anne Vaugier-Chatterjee (ed), Education and Democracy in India Today, Manohar, Delhi.

National Institute of Advanced Studies (2002): Marginalised Communities and Dysfunctional Schools: Local Education Report, Khategaon, Madhya Pradesh, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

Noronha, Anjali (2003): 'The Community in Charge: Shades of Experience from Madhya Pradesh', ch 5 in Govinda and Diwan, pp 99-121.

Raina, Vinod (2003): 'Making Sense of Community Participation: Comparing School Education and Watershed Development', chapter 8 in Govinda and Diwan, pp 182-202.

Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission (2000): From Your School to Our School, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal.

Sharma, Amita (nd): 'The Management of Primary Teachers: Improving Primary Teacher Provision through Better Management: A Study of Madhya Pradesh', Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Bhopal.

Sharma, Rashmi (1999): 'What Manner of Teacher: Some Lessons from Madhya Pradesh', Economic and Political Weekly, 34 (25), June 19, pp 1597-607.

Srivastava, Ranjana (2000): 'Evaluation of Community Based Primary Schooling Initi- atives in MP: Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative Schools' in RGSM, pp 234-80.

Vyasulu, Vinod (2000): 'In the Wonderland of Primary Education' in RGSM, pp 143-60.

Caste and 'Modernity V K NATRAJ

This is a personalised response to M S S Pandian's paper on modernity

('One Step Outside Modernity: Caste, Identity Politics and Public Sphere', EPW, May 4, 2002) and in passing the note also offers a few comments on S Rohini's reaction ('Whither Subaltern Studies?', July 20, 2002) to the paper. Since this is a confessional piece I should start by men- tioning that I am a south Indian brahmin. And this is neither more nor less than a statement of fact. I own no responsibility for it nor do I apologise for it. I am stating it as unselfconsciously as I can. My reason for doing so is not to seek anticipatory bail from my friend Pandian's likely charge that like all upper caste men I have chosen to be indifferent to caste but more because some of my reactions are likely to have been conditioned by my upbringing and experience. Indeed I venture to suggest that this is true of most of us although some have the apparent confidence to speak with a universal voice. If only they would realise how very difficult it is to experience

the 'experience' of those dissimilarly placed.

Let me begin with the good news. Pandian is absolutely right in remarking on the fact that upper castes often refrain from speak- ing about caste, not just their own but of caste as a sociological phenomenon. This is strikingly similar to the urban upper castes/middle classes expressing their indifference, even contempt for politicians and the political process. There the expla- nation is simple. You can afford to be indifferent because (a) you are capable of bending the process to suit your interests; and (b) some of its sweep does not affect you. Something similar operates in rela- tion to caste. Educated urban upper castes can be (or at least feign to be) indifferent to caste because at their level of social interaction it does not have much signifi- cance. It is rare for this class to experience social rejection. However, this is by no means the whole story. Brahmins, in particular, must be aware that their coun- terparts from other castes (including other upper castes) have an ambivalent attitude towards them. The ambivalence is a blend

of envious respect for the educational attainments of the caste and an equally strong condemnation of brahmanical ar- rogance which is best expressed in the patronising dismissal of other castes who try to catch up with them. Brahmins and brahmanical upper castes - a distinction which is important but frequently forgot- ten - of this genre derive their philosophy of life from their life experience which tends to be insular to the point of being cocoon like.

This is one side of the picture. My complaint against Pandian is that he does not speak of the other side. I shall not charge him with being ignorant of it or deliberately sidelining it. This other side is that there have been and are sensitive brahmins who make an effort to transcend the insular values which their immediate environment imprisons them into. Of course such people and what they repre- sent can be cynically dismissed as an attempt to be 'correct', worse it is a way of making yourself socially acceptable while ensuring that your interests are not hurt. My reply to this would be that such undiluted cynicism borders on paranoia and deserves no answer. Quite a few, unfortunately a larger number than one would wish or hope for, indulge in these games but to extend it across the board is grossly unfair to those who genuinely subscribe to some notion of social decency and the larger good.

As a brahmin I have now and then found myself in a quandary and so, I know, have several others of my caste. The more insistently brahmin among my caste affili- ates find my ways unacceptable, I am thought anti-brahmin. At the same time non-brahmins - friends and several others excluded - are sceptical of my 'liberated' views, after all I am a brahmin and so can I be trusted? There are exceptions galore but I speak of the underlying scepticism which many share and perhaps with good reason. In a fit of pique I once asked a griup of students in the provincial university where I taught and where these tendencies are visible in their raw glory, how often I was expected to prove my bona fides. Some- thing similar bedevils the genuinely liberated in all castes and communities.

There is an option available which I have hinted at above. I can use politically ac- ceptable platforms and revile brahminism and upper caste hegemony and declare them the root of all evil. That this may not be a faithful representation of the actual state of affairs need have no place in my

5406Economic and Political Weekly December 27, 2003

declamations. I need also make no particu- lar effort to assist the cause of those less fortunately situated. This sort of 'position- taking' is quite common. A good example is the shrill tones in which hordes of 'scholars' and activists railed against Hinduism and pleaded for the inclusion of untouchability in the Durban conference last year. But once the event was over many of them have obviously turned their attention to fresh pastures. This is not to endorse the patently indefensible stand of the government of India on the issue. It was morally reprehensible and politically wholly ill-advised.

To return to Pandian' s paper his problem is that he seems to be looking at Indian society in a somewhat simplistic frame- work. It is dichotomous, 'us' and 'them' or in his idiom 'the other'. In the process the layered, graded nuanced discrimina- tion in this society is lost sight of. It is this characteristic which distinguishes our society from one segregated on racial lines. Here virtually every caste has some above to grumble about and some below to growl at. The incidence of the system is finally on the lowest of the low, the dalits and there too there is evidence of hierarchy.

I am acutely aware of the negative contributions made by the brahmanical world to the persistence of discrimination. But it is necessary to be conscious of the difference between the textual view and ground level reality. Brahmins, respected in the text, are the object of satire and the target of jokes. Moreover it would, in my view, be incorrect to write off the positive contributions made by any group merely because it is also guilty of negative ones. In the specific case we are concerned with the negatives would be excessive attention to hierarchy and violently discriminatory practices. However, there are two prob- lems involved in this. The first is that discriminatory practices are not confined to the brahmanical and upper castes. Much the largest proportion of violence against dalits in the villages is perpetrated by the intermediate castes (I should clarify that my reference is only to the states in the south, especially Karnataka with which I am most familiar). This is well known, yet when this point is made in meetings and seminars one often gets the remark thrown back that ultimately this is traceable to upper caste ideology. That may well be so but it should not blind us, especially social scientists, to what stares us in the face. We are in fact dealing with two related sets here, one, the acute expression of anti-dalit

violence and the other where it originates. Even if the origin is in upper caste hege- monic ideology we still need to identify the agents and instruments and why they sport this role.

It is the absence of attention to nuances that induces Pandian to overgeneralise. I shall cite just one example. He is critical of Ashok Mitra and M N Srinivas for the stand they took on reservations, Mitra with reference to the Mandal agitation and Srinivas on the general principle of reser- vations. While I am not in full agreement with either of them there is something that Pandian misses. The southern states did not witness the anti-Mandal agitation with anything like the ferocity which the north did. That apart, the opposition to reserva- tions in the south has always been nuanced - again I should add that the bulk of my evidence is from Karnataka. The first opponents were brahmins. Later, however, the intermediate castes (officially OBCs) began to speak the language of 'merit' and 'efficiency' and are vocal in their dis- approval of what they perceive is pamper- ing of the dalits who are seen as one monolithic, homogeneous group. This is important - this continuous shift from a strongly pro-reservation position to an almost equally strong antithetical one.

Pandian's message to the dalits is to be out of step with modernity. To urge his case though he uses the most modern theoretical paradigms and a good number of his references are western. At one point he scoffs at the use of "western authority to defend caste pollution" but is blissfully unaware of the contradiction - he cites Edmund Leach to critique Srinivas. Par- ticularly interesting is his quote from Leach who asked Srinivas if "his interpretation would have been different if he were a sudra". The question can be turned back on Leach; "would your question be different were you not a westerner?".

Pandian criticises Srinivas for speaking of the 'common good' as a stick to beat reservations. As I have mentioned earlier I am not in full agreement with Srinivas on this issue, that is, in denying the need for reservations. Yet something significant goes unnoticed, namely, how several cen- ters of excellence in India do much less than what is required in relation to positive discrimination. In theory they are protago- nists of the policy and have produced high quality work on the subject. The truth is that many who inveigh against the invo- cation of merit and excellence find it difficult to take an unequivocal stand how

equity and excellence can be blended. There is another piece of irony here. Srinivas draws flak from Pandian for trying to protect "caste from the pollution of politics" but interestingly Srinivas has also been criti- cised for drawing most of his material from the realm of politics to illustrate the tena- cious persistence of caste in Indian society. Poor Srinivas, damned either way.

As S Rohini has observed Pandian quotes selectively. Let us take a look at the begin- ning of his paper. He chooses R K Narayan as his first target. Through some highly involved process he attempts to prove that Narayan cohveys the message that the family dog was fed mutton, not beef. I would like to tell Pandian that to a prac- tising vegetarian "anything that moves is taboo" as a friend of mine put it. The finer distinctions between poultry, mutton, beef and pork are beyond reach. This I can attest to as one brought up in a conventional although not overtly rigid brahmin house- hold. I do think Pandian reads too much into the selected passage from Narayan and in Narayan's generation the non- vegetarian vocabulary of brahmins would have been even more limited than is the case now. I am also curious to know why he does not see the presence of caste in Narayan's fiction. It enters in the typical Narayan fashion, with a light and faintly ironic touch but I do not argue that caste is a central concern of his. Equally I am bewildered at Pandian's dismissive ap- proach to Srinivas' Sanskritisation and westernisation paradigm. In relation to names and dietatry habits evidence simply leaps to the eye. I wonder if Pandian's sadness at the phenomenon renders him unable to accept the fact that it exists.

This brings me to a few points in Rohini' s reply to Pandian. She is right in speaking about the political marginalisation of brahmins - true of much of south India. But she too does not go far enough. I am not sure that as a caste they ought to feel as aggrieved as they sound. I say this because as a group they have always placed a premium, a high one, on education and for this reason I have maintained that economically deprived brahmins should not enjoy a claim on reservations. Having said that it is only fair to add that the problem takes on a different complexion at the individual level. It is not easy to convince an upper caste boy or girl that her failure to secure admission to a pre- ferred course of study or employment under the state is socially justifiable. How does one answer the question:"Should I pay for

Economic and Political Weekly December 27, 2003 5407

the alleged sins of my ancestors?" The problem is that the upper castes do not realise that those who benefit from reser- vations are often the BCs not the dalits and yet unthinkingly they too target the latter. All the same it is not realistic to expect a young person who feels deprived of opportunity to pause and consider the issue from a macro perspective. I know of a very gifted young brahmin girl who was unable to pursue her graduate studies despite an

I

excellent record because of reservations. It is another matter that she has now dis- tinguished herself in another field.

I am also at a loss to understand how Rohini can so easily reduce Narayan and Srinivas to "minor figures like a fiction writer in English and a sociologist who can by no stretch of imagination fit into the cap of a national figure or be regarded as an opinion maker". Obviously she has little time for writers in English but why Srinivas

should receive such harsh attention is hard to decipher. One last point: Pandian wants caste to figure prominently in public dis- course. Need he have used so much of his energy and generally felicitous prose to urge the point when caste is such a ubiqui- tous factor to all but the most insensitive. Also should he not concede to the dalits the autonomy to choose or reject modernity, a freedom that the rest of us have. SI1 [The views expressed are personal to the author.]

Letters to editor_ (Continued from p 5306)

not a prerequisite for participation at MFC meets. Anybody interested in the above issues is invited to attend the meet. MFC is not a funded organisation and neither does it raise funds for conducting its meetings.

For details about submission of papers and participation in the meet, please contact the undersigned at saromfc@vsnl.net; Ph: +91 11 26968 972, 26562401 or through the mfc web site: www.mfcindia.org.

N B SAROJINI, New Delhi

Scholarship on Population

A shish Bose (EPW, November 1, 1F2003) has written a thought- provoking article. Though it raises controversial issues that could be debated, the message emerging from the article is loud and clear. We need not increase the demographic database injudiciously. For better policy decisions and effective planning, the need of the hour is to analyse and consolidate the already available valuable data.

Ashish Bose is the chairman of the Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW). He has also been the chairman of Review Committee for NIHFW. Based on his suggestion and realising the importance of massive demographic data provided through various sources, under the

guidance of M C Kapilashrami, director, NIHFW and the stewardship of B B L Sharma, acting head of the department of statistics and demography, a Demographic Data Centre has been established to study the concepts, definitions, classification and the methodology of data collection adopted in various large-scale sample surveys carried out in the country. NIHFW trains health professionals (without charging any course fee for the regular courses till now) from the states which are somewhat lagging behind. An attempt towards commercialising an institution of such a kind would increase inequities in health. Bose's statement about NIHFW drawing heavily on guest faculty for the short-term training courses is based on his impressions. The secretary (F W), government of India, who is the vice-chairman of the governing body of NIHFW, during his recent visit to the institute emphasised the need to invite more of eminent guest faculty for the training courses.

It has been resolved by the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare that steps should be taken to train medical/health officers who are responsible for the implementation of the programme at district level in public health, management and health sector reforms and that short training in these areas be made a prerequisite for officers posted at the district level. Coincidentally, the institute has been a pioneer in developing such a course. Tripura has already implemented the Central Council's resolution.

I distinctly remember B N S Walia, former director, PGI and the then chairman of NIHFW's PAC mentioning

population research as the mandate of IIPS, Mumbai and advised NIHFW not to assume that as a major responsibility. Even with the current crippled strength of faculty, the research component on national issues concerning health and population has not been dismal. Many studies have provided vital inputs to policy-making, planning and evaluation of different programmes. To name a few, the expenditure finance committee in the ministry of finance suggested that the National Cancer Control (NCCP) be revised in the light of recommendations given by NIHFW in the evaluation report of NCCP; secretary (health) as well as former secretary (FW), commended the efforts of NIHFW in providing estimates of HIV in the country. Four laboratory process/products have been patented and one being ready for release to industry. The study on different dimensions of health care of the elderly is expected to have a bearing on the policies related to geriatric care. A study on the functioning of male and female health workers is expected to be completed soon and would also have substantial policy/programme implications. Bose has rightly mentioned that almost half the faculty positions are lying vacant. Despite all that, the institute has not been crippled and is simmering with activities. Based on my experience of working in several organisations in India and abroad, on the whole, I have yet to see a comparable institution of this kind in India. Certainly, the institute can do even better with full faculty strength.

N K SETHI New Delhi

5408 Economic and Political Weekly December 27, 2003