Caste and 'Modernity'

Author(s): V. K. Natraj
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 51/52 (Dec. 27, 2003 - Jan. 2, 2004), pp. 5406
-5408
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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villages in Shahpurblock,haveprivateschools.
5 As for the 'GoMP's position towards school
quality', readersare referredto subsection6.2
of my paper.

District' in Anne Vaugier-Chatterjee(ed),

Education and Democracy in India Today,
Manohar, Delhi.
National Institute of Advanced Studies (2002):
MarginalisedCommunitiesand Dysfunctional
Schools: Local EducationReport,Khategaon,
Madhya Pradesh, National Institute of
Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
Govinda, R (2003): 'Dynamics of Decentralised Noronha, Anjali (2003): 'The Community in
Management in Primary Education: Policy
Charge:Shades of Experience from Madhya
and Practices in Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh', ch 5 in Govinda and Diwan,
Pradesh',ch 9 in Govinda and Diwan (2003),
pp 99-121.
Raina, Vinod (2003): 'Making Sense of
pp 203-35.
Govinda,RandRashmiDiwan(2003): Community
CommunityParticipation:ComparingSchool
Education and Watershed Development',
Participationand Empowermentin Primary
Education, Sage Publications, New Delhi.
chapter8 in Govindaand Diwan, pp 182-202.
Jha,Jyotsna(2000): 'EducationGuaranteeScheme RajivGandhiShikshaMission (2000): From Your
andAlternativeSchooling:CommunityBased
School to OurSchool, Governmentof Madhya
Initiatives in PrimaryEducation in Madhya
Pradesh, Bhopal.
Pradesh' in RGSM, pp 161-233.
Sharma,Amita(nd):'TheManagementof Primary
Teachers: Improving Primary Teacher
Kothari, Brij, P G Vijaya, Sherry Chand and
ProvisionthroughBetterManagement:A Study
Rajeev Sharma(2000): A Review of Primary
Education Packages in Madhya Pradesh,
of Madhya Pradesh', Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha
IndianInstituteof Management,Ahmedabad,
Mission, Bhopal.
December.
Sharma,Rashmi(1999): 'WhatMannerof Teacher:
Some Lessons from Madhya Pradesh',
Leclercq, Francois (2002): 'The Impact of
Education Policy Reforms on the School
Economicand Political Weekly,34 (25), June
19, pp 1597-607.
System: A Field Study of EGS and Other
Srivastava, Ranjana (2000): 'Evaluation of
Primary Schools in Madhya Pradesh',
OccasionalPaperNo5, CSH,Delhi,November.
Community Based Primary Schooling Initi- (forthcoming): 'Is the Education Guarantee
ativesin MP:EducationGuaranteeSchemeand
Scheme Bringing Madhya Pradesh Closer
AlternativeSchools' in RGSM, pp 234-80.
to Universal Elementary Education?
Vyasulu, Vinod (2000): 'In the Wonderlandof
Preliminary Field Evidence from Betul
Primary Education' in RGSM, pp 143-60.

References

Caste

and

'Modernity

V K NATRAJ
is a personalised response to
This
M S S Pandian's paper on modernity
('One Step Outside Modernity: Caste,
IdentityPolitics 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 startby mentioning 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
thatlike all uppercaste men I have chosen
to be indifferentto caste but more because
some of my reactions are likely to have
been conditioned by my upbringing and
experience. Indeed I venture to suggest
thatthis is trueof 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
5406Economic

the 'experience' of those dissimilarly

placed.
Let me begin withthe good news. Pandian
is absolutely right in remarkingon the fact
that uppercastes often refrainfrom speaking 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 explanation 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 relation to caste. Educated urbanupper castes
can be (or at least feign to be) indifferent
to caste because at their level of social
interaction it does not have much significance. It is rarefor this class to experience
social rejection. However, this is by no
means the whole story. Brahmins, in
particular, must be aware that their counterpartsfrom 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 arrogance 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 forgotten - 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 represent 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 brahminI have now and then found
myself in a quandary and so, I know,
have several others of my caste. The more
insistently brahminamong my caste affiliates 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 brahminand so can I
be trusted?There areexceptions 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. Something 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 acceptable 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

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December 27, 2003

declamations.I need also make no particular effort to assist the cause of those less
fortunatelysituated.This sort of 'positiontaking' is quite common. A good example
is the shrill tones in which hordes of
'scholars' and activists railed against
Hinduismand 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 returnto Pandian's paperhis problem
is that he seems to be looking at Indian
society in a somewhat simplistic framework. It is dichotomous, 'us' and 'them'
or in his idiom 'the other'. In the process
the layered, graded nuanced discrimination 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 grumbleabout 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 problems involved in this. The first is that
discriminatory practices are not confined
to the brahmanicaland uppercastes. Much
the largest proportion of violence against
dalits in the villages is perpetratedby the
intermediate castes (I should clarify that
my reference is only to the states in the
south, especially Karnatakawith which I
am most familiar). This is well known, yet
when this point is made in meetings and
seminars one often gets the remarkthrown
back that ultimately this is traceable to
uppercaste 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
Economic and Political Weekly

violence and the other where it originates.

Even if the origin is in upper caste hegemonic 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, Mitrawith
reference to the Mandal agitation and
Srinivas on the general principle of reservations. 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-Mandalagitation with
anything like the ferocity which the north
did. That apart, the opposition to reservations 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 disapproval of what they perceive is pampering 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. Particularlyinterestingis 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 centers of excellence in India do much less
than what is requiredin relation to positive
discrimination. In theory they are protagonists of the policy and have produced high
quality work on the subject. The truth is
that many who inveigh against the invocation of merit and excellence find it
difficult to take an unequivocal stand how

equity andexcellence can be blended.There

is another piece of irony here. Srinivas
drawsflak fromPandianfor tryingto protect
"caste from the pollution of politics" but
interestingly Srinivas has also been criticised for drawing most of his materialfrom
the realm of politics to illustrate the tenacious persistence of caste in Indiansociety.
Poor Srinivas, damned either way.
As S Rohini has observed Pandianquotes
selectively. Let us take a look at the beginning 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 practising 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 brahminhousehold. I do think Pandian reads too much
into the selected passage from Narayan
and in Narayan's generation the nonvegetarian 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 approach 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 bringsme 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 preferredcourse of study or employment under
the state is socially justifiable. How does
one answer the question:"Should I pay for

December 27, 2003

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5407

the alleged sins of my ancestors?" The

problem is that the upper castes do not
realise that those who benefit from reservations 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
opportunityto pause andconsider the issue
from a macroperspective. I know of a very
gifted young brahmingirl who was unable
to pursue her graduate studies despite an

excellentrecordbecauseof reservations.
It is anothermatterthatshe has now distinguishedherself in anotherfield.
I am also at a loss to understandhow
Rohinican so easily reduceNarayanand
Srinivasto "minorfigures like a fiction
writerin Englishanda sociologistwhocan
by no stretchof imaginationfit into the
cap of a nationalfigureor be regardedas
anopinionmaker".Obviouslyshehaslittle
timeforwritersinEnglishbutwhySrinivas

should receive such harsh attention is hard

to decipher. One last point: Pandian wants
caste to figure prominently in public discourse. Need he have used so much of his
energy and generally felicitous prose to
urge the point when caste is such a ubiquitous 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

guidanceof M C Kapilashrami,
director,NIHFWand the stewardship
of B B L Sharma,acting head of the
departmentof statisticsand
demography,a DemographicData
Centrehas been establishedto study
the concepts, definitions,classification
and the methodologyof data collection
adoptedin variouslarge-scalesample
surveyscarriedout in the country.
NIHFWtrainshealthprofessionals
(withoutchargingany course fee for
the regularcourses till now) from the
states which are somewhatlagging
behind.An attempttowards
commercialisingan institutionof such
a kind would increaseinequitiesin
health. Bose's statementaboutNIHFW
drawingheavily on guest faculty for
the short-termtrainingcourses is based
on his impressions.The secretary
(F W), governmentof India,who is the
vice-chairmanof the governingbody of
NIHFW,duringhis recentvisit to the
instituteemphasisedthe need to invite
more of eminentguest faculty for the
trainingcourses.
It has been resolvedby the Central
Council of Healthand FamilyWelfare
that steps should be takento train
medical/healthofficers who are
responsiblefor the implementationof
the programmeat districtlevel in
public health,managementand health
sector reformsand that shorttraining
in these areasbe made a prerequisite
for officers posted at the districtlevel.
Coincidentally,the institutehas been a
pioneerin developingsuch a course.
Tripurahas alreadyimplementedthe
CentralCouncil's resolution.
I distinctlyrememberB N S Walia,
formerdirector,PGI and the then
chairmanof NIHFW'sPAC mentioning

populationresearchas the mandateof

IIPS, Mumbaiand advisedNIHFWnot
to assume that as a major
responsibility.Even with the current
crippledstrengthof faculty, the
researchcomponenton nationalissues
concerninghealth and populationhas
not been dismal. Many studies have
providedvital inputsto policy-making,
planningand evaluationof different
programmes.To name a few, the
expenditurefinance committeein the
ministryof finance suggestedthat the
NationalCancerControl(NCCP)be
revised in the light of
recommendationsgiven by NIHFWin
the evaluationreportof NCCP;
secretary(health)as well as former
secretary(FW), commendedthe efforts
of NIHFWin providingestimatesof
HIV in the country.Four laboratory
process/productshave been patented
and one being readyfor release to
industry.The study on different
dimensionsof healthcare of the
elderly is expectedto have a bearing
on the policies relatedto geriatriccare.
A study on the functioningof male
and female healthworkersis expected
to be completedsoon and would also
have substantialpolicy/programme
implications.Bose has rightly
mentionedthat almost half the faculty
positions are lying vacant.Despite all
that, the institutehas not been crippled
and is simmeringwith activities.Based
on my experienceof workingin several
organisationsin India and abroad,on
the whole, I have yet to see a comparable
institutionof this kind in India.
Certainly,the institutecan do even
betterwith full faculty strength.

[The views expressed are personalto the author.]

Letterstoeditor_
(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
andparticipationin 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 thoughtprovoking 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
5408

N K SETHI
New Delhi

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