8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 1/12

Caste in Class PoliticsAuthor(s): Georges Kristoffel LietenReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 14, No. 7/8, Annual Number: Class and Caste inIndia (Feb., 1979), pp. 313-315+317+319+321-323+325+327-328Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4367351 .

Accessed: 19/01/2013 03:05

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

 .JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of 

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

 .

 Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

 Economic and Political Weekly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AM

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 2/12

C a s t e

n

C l a s s

P o l i t i c s

Georges

Kristoffel

Lieten

Despite progressive

intentions

and

legal provisions,

fortified

.by

the socialistic rhetoric

of

the

ruling

class

parties,

Indian

political,

social and economic

life

by

and

large

has not become more

egalitarian

or

less

fragmented.

As

elsewhere in the

wtorld,

there

is no dearth

of

contradictions. A correct

evaluation

of

the

natuxreof

these

contradictions

is

of

utmost

importance

in the assessment

of

the

political

issues

the

country

is

confronted

with.

it is

necessary to

separate

class

contradictions

from non-class

contradictions, to

separate real con-

tradictions

from

false

contradictions,

and

to reduce

variouis

kinds

of

contradictions

to the

basic one.

The problem

is

highly

complex.

It

is related

to

the

nature

of

the

socio-economic

formation, to

the

dialectic

relationship

between

base and

superstructure,

to

the

historic

role caste

associations have

played

and to

the political

perspective the

left

political

parties

have

written

down

in

their

programmes.

The

former

two aspects

should

theoretically

reveal

the

extent

to

which

caste

has been

transcended by

class,

both

economically

and

socially.

The latter

two

aspects

should

throw

some

light

on how

caste and

class

organisations relate to

each

other in

practice.

INDIAN

SOCIETY, spread out over

a

large

sub-continent, has been

fragmented

throughout its history. Even during

the

so-called

golden

age

of the

Guptas,

no

political

unity

had

come

about.

Social and

economic

unity

were

totally

absent. Marx's condemnation of

the

idyllic

village

community

which

rest-

rained the

human

being

within

the

smallest possible

compass

and

enslaved

it

under traditional rules

of

supersti-

tion

and distinctions

of

caste' is

echoed

descriptively by

A R

Desai:

the

caste system

socially

disintegrated

the

Hindus

into an

ever

increasing

nnmber of

proups and

sub-groups.

The

caste system

was uindemocratic

and authoritarian in the extreme,

...

each caste

being

considered inferior

to those

above it and

superior

to

those below it ...

It prevents the

growth

of

a

nationality

and

the

development

of

a

democratic

state.2

The

British

conquest brought more

than

half the

Indian

territory under a united

political

rule

and

introduced

new

eco-

nomic

activities. It

thereby

created

a

working

class, a new

middle

class and

a

national

bourgeoisie which

lauched

the

nationalist

movement leading

up to

the

establishment of an

independent,

multinational Indian

state,

including the

princely states but excluding Pakistan,

Thirty

years after

the

establishment

of

that

state one

can rightly

ask thc

question

whether

the

fragmentation,

separation

and

obscurantism

of the

past have

been

overcome

and what has

been

the actual

ro-le of

caste and class

organisations. We

know that the

poli-

tical

leaders of

the

young Indian nation

introduced

constitutional

clauses for-

bidding any form

of caste

or religious

discrimination

and

declaring India

a

secular

state.

The new

India

moreover

introduced a

system of

progressive dis-

crimination in favour of the depressed

castes

and tribal

population,3

and

established

a parliamentary system

with

universal franchise.

Desp)ite the progrressivententions and

le?al

provisions,

fortified

by

the

social-

istic rhetoric of

the

ruling

class parties,

Indian political,

social

and economic

life by and

large 'has not

become

more

egalitarian

Or

less fracrmented.

As

else-

wlhere

in the world there

is no dearth

of

contradictions.

A

correct evalulation

of the nature

of these contradictions

is of utmost

importance in the

assess-

ment

of the

political

issuies the country

is confronted

with.

Tt

is necessary

to

separate

class contradictions

from non-

class contradictions.

to

separate

real

contradictions from false contradictions,

and to

reduice

various kinds of

contra-

dictions

to

the basic

one. Against this

background

we want to analyse

caste

struggle and class struggle.

Among the various

grouips

within

Indian

society that

are in opposition

to one

another, the following

opposites

can be classified.

Hindu-Muslim

Hindi

-

non-Hindi

Sunni-Shia

tribal-non-tribal

caste-harijan

male-female

urban-rural

agricultural-in.Justrial

employed-unemployed

Wc,rker-capitalist

landless labourer-rich

peasant

sharecropper-landlord

At

a first glance

it is obvious that some

of

these

contradictions

reflect

an

un-

equal

relationship between

two groups

which

actually

originates from

the far

more

relevant, antagonistic

contradi-

ctions existing

within the two

unequal

groups. It is

clear for example

that

al-

though there exists an "urban

bias in

Indian

planning" in

fact the

tendency

of

capital to

concentrate

in certain

pockets and extract surplus from agri-

culture),

the

contradiction

between

monQpoly

capital and

industrial

labour

within the

urban centres is

more seri-

ous, in

fact

antagonistic, than the

dif-

ferences

existing between

monopoly

capital and

the

capitalist-landlord

nexus. As

a matter of

fact in the Indian

socio-economic

formation

the latter

groups represent

an uneasy

marriage,

disturbed

by conflicts,

crises and

un-

equal

participation in

profits

and gains

but kept alive

because of class

inter-

ests separate

from the

classes below

them.

It

is

also

clear

for

example

that

most

women do suffer

from

a

triple

handi-

cap:

the

exploitation by

moneylenders,

landlords, black

marketeers,

corrupt

buireaucrats,

raders,

small-scale

capital-

ists,

multinationals, etc; their

often

inferior position

compared

to men in

puhllic

and

private

life;

and

the

sole

responsibility

for

householdwork.

At

the

same

time,

however,

it

follows

from

1-e fact that

since families are

the

units

of

production,

consumption and

repro-

duiction,

the more

important contradic-

tion, that between exploited and ex-

ploiting classes,

is

taken

up

jointly by

grandparents,

parents and

children of

male

and female

gender. As a conse-

quence, without

jointly fighting

the

l)ourgeois-landlord

state, neither

men

nor

wcmen nor

their children

will be

al)le to

create

conditio)ns for

the libera-

tion of

themiiselvesand of

o.hers.4

In the

recent

past

there

has

been

an

ongoing

process initiated

by

Western

academicians

and

development-aid

orga-

nisations

to

give

more

importance to

some of

these contradictions

women,

rural

areas, slum

dwellers

-

in

order

to deflect

the

Indian

people from

their

313

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 3/12

Annual

Number

February

1979

ECONOMIC AND

POLITICAL

WEEKLY

struggle

against

the

real sources

of

their

repression

and

exploitation.

A

far more

probable

deflection

to

take

place,

however,

is caused

by

another

set

of

contradictions

which

are

deeply

rooted in

Indian

consciousness

and, unlike

the

former,

do not

have

apparent economic roots. The conflicts

seem

to

function

within

the

realm

of

ideas

and

cultural patterns.

Closer

investigation,

however, reveals

that

behind

the

apparent

religious,

regional

and

linguistic

differences,

economic

causes

are

the

determining

factor.

The

Sunni-Shia conflict

is

a

clear

example of

this

type

of contradiction.

While

the

Shia

Muslims,

who

do

not

believe

in

the

first three

caliph

succes-

sors

to

the

prophet

Mohammed

and

venerate

only

the

fourth

successor,

Hazrat

Ali,

were

the

feudal

lords domi-

nating social life in the Oudh region,

their

Sunni

counterparts,

who

accept

all

four

caliphs

as

true

successors,

were

poor

peasants

and

artisans.

A

combi-

nation of

the

gradual

decline

of

the

Shia

nawabs

during

the

recent

decades

and

ascent

of

a

considerable

number

of

Sunnis

in

trade

and

business

with

the

continuing

miserable

existence

of

the

great

bulk

of

Sunnis

and

ruinous

deve-

lopments

for

a

section of

Shias,

gave

rise

to

a

conflict

situation:

the

richer

Sunnis,

long-suffering

under

the

cultural

and

political

subjugation

by

Shias,

and

helped by their downtrodden co-religio-

nists,

now

take

recourse

to a

doctrinal

dispute in

order

to

assert

their

newly

won

status.5

It

is

clear

that

in

the

Shia-Sunni

example,

upper

class

sections

within

a

community

make

use

of

fanatic

crowds,

adhering

for

their

safety

and

survival

to

their

religious

symbols,

in

order

to

settle

intra-class

scores

and in

order

to

divert

the

poor

masses

from

their

own

political

struggle

against

the

common

enemy.

As

it

happens,

equally

between

Muslims and

Hindus,

Nirankaris

and

Akalis, Maharashtrians

and

South

Indians

and

between

the different lin-

guistic

communities

(Tamil-Hindi,

Assamese

-

Bengali

Gujarati

-

Marathi,

flindi-Urdu,

etc)

it can

be

easily

demonstrated

that

vested

interests

are

fanning

the

flames

of

religious, com-

munal,

linguistic,

regional

suseeptibi-

lities

for

their

own

partisan

ends

and

that

the

major

task

the

democratic

movement

in

India

is

confronted

with

is

to

quiet

down

the

tension,

restore

harmony

on

these

issules

and

to

concen-

trate the attention on the burning eco-

nomic

andl

political

demands.

A

far

more

serious

theoretical

and

particularly

political

problem

emerges

around

the

issue

of

caste

conflicts,

especially

when

the

depressed

castes

are involved.

Throughout

the history

of indepen-

dent

India

innumerable

concerted

attacks by caste Hindus on the lower

castes

have

been recorded.

The

struc-

tural

continuity

of the

Indian system

which

is

not

upset

by changes

in

party

dominance

is also

observable

in

the

treatment

of low

caste

Hindus.

The

last

two

years,

since

Janata

came

to

power,

have

not been particularly

awful.

On

the

contrary,

if one

takes

the

trouble

of aggregating

the

incidents

in

any

year

that

Indira

Gandhi

was in power,

one

has

to

come

to the conclusion

that

the performance

under Janata

has

been

quite

normal.

Recent caste incidents, however,

thanks to

the hightened

democratic

consciousness

in India,

have

received

major

puiblicity.

After

the upper

caste

rampages

in

Belchi,

PuDri,

Dharmapura,

Kanjhawala,

Agra,

Villupuram,

Marath-

wada,

Kaila,

etc,

the

question

has

been

posed

again

as to wvhether

he

Indian

left has

been

paying

enough

attention

to

"caste

war"

whether

they

have

done

enough

to

organise

and

come

to

fhe

defence of

the

depressed

castes.6

The problem

is

highly complex.

It is

related

to

the

nature

of

the

socio-

economic formation, to the dialectic

relationship

between

base

and

super-

structure,

to

the

historic

role

caste asso-

ciations

have

played

and

to the

politi-

cal

perspective

the

left political

parties

have

written

down

in

their

programmes.

The former

two

aspects

should

theo-

retically

reveal

the

extent

to

which

caste has

been

transcended

by

class,

both economically

and

socially.

The

latter two

aspects

should

throw

some

light

on

how

caste

and

class

organisa-

tions

relate

to

each

other

in

practice.

MODES

OF PRODUCTION

AND IDEOLOGY

The concept

of

modes

of production

with their

internal

contradictions,

the

discovery

of levels

in

society,

the

basis

and

the

superstructure,

and

the

neces-

sity

to

turn the

class struggle

into

a

political

movement

for

the

overthrow

of

the state

are three

of

Karl

Marx's

most significant

contributions

to social

sciences.

Unfortuanately,

hese

complex

notions

have been

too

often

represented

in a

simplified

form.7

Part

of

the

proble-

matic of

the

co-existence

of

and

con-

tradiction between two modes of pro-

duction

in

India

is currently

the

target

of

discussion

among historians

and

economists.8

One

part

of

the

proble-

matic,

the

analytical

nature

of

caste

and

class in the

past and

present,

remains

somewhat

left

out

from the

investiga-

tions.

The

questions

as to

what

was

the

class

function

of

caste

in

the

an-

cient moodeof production and as to what

extent

changes

in

the

economic

struc-

tutre have

resulted

in

the

disappearance

of

caste

as

an

ideological

and

social

institution

have

only

been

dealt

with in

a

very

generalised

way.

Social

stratification

in

India

from

presumably

ten

to

five

centuries

BC

onwards

has

been

codified

ideological-

ly

in

the

varna

system

as

a

rationalisa-

tion

of

the

relations

of

productions

prevalent at

that time.

Its

major

strength

of

resistence

against

change

lay

in

the

fact that

the

real

structural

unit

of

the

system was not the varnas but the in-

numerable

localised

and

proliferating

jatis.

Within

the

local

limit

social

mobility

of

the jati

groups

provided

the

system with

an answer

to

new

produc-

tion

techniques

and

new

economic

activities:

Its

flexibility

made

it

possible

for

it

to

adjust

itself

to

the

two

revolu-

tions

which

in

Europe

createc

slavery

out

of

the

ashes

of

primitive

communism

and

feidalism

out

of

the

ashes

of

slavery.9

The

Indian

socio-economic

formation

in

pre-colonial

times

was,

moreover,

characterised

by

a

number

of

features

which

distinguish

it

from

European

feudalism,

usually

clubbed

around the

concept

of

Asiatic

Mode of

Produc-

tion10:

autarchic

village

economies with

an

integrated

system

of

agriculture

and

industry,

communal

relations of

produc.

tion

in

the

sense

that

the

individuals

through

caste

and

jajmani

system

had

an

inseparable

link

with

the

community

and

an

inalienable

right

to

a

share

in

the

produce

of

the

land

and

of

the

village

industry.

Although

there

was

no

real

private

property in

land,

it

was

the small ruling section of the commu-

nity

which

co-shared

the

land

and

had

it

cultivated,

commonly

or

privately,

by

clients,

tenants,

agricultural

labourers

or

slaves.

Jati

as the

structural

unit of

the

varna

system

functioned

within

this

socio-economic

systern.

Its

eulogising

protagonists

described it

as

the

most

harmonious

example

of

idyllic

village

republics

in

which

the

different

jatis

were

juxtaposed

to

each

other.

Accord-

ing

to

the

famous

description

of

Wiser

in

1936,

each in

turn

was

master,

each

in

turn

was

slave."

This

idealisatior

persi.sts

in

the

functionalist

approach

(,f

314

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 4/12

ECONOMIC

AND

POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual

Number

February

1979

Western

and

Western-dominated

anthro-

pologists.

Perhaps

the

most

blatant

apology

for the

system

can

be found

in

the

writings of

Ishwaran:

"Practically

no

resentment is

generated

by

the

social

system

against

itself, because

it

provi-

des

a

rationalisation

for all its

structu-

ral and most of its detailed

aspects."12

Although

each

caste

plays

a vital

role

in

political

life

"for the

services

they

perform

are

practically

indispensable",

in

the

utopian

village

the

"wishes

of

the

people

do

not

like

the

same

rights

for

all

individuals".13

Even

the

widely

appreciated

Srinivas

toes

this

line.

He

complains

that

since

many

are

speaking up

for

classless

and

casteless

society,

"most

of

us...

are

bamboozled

into

agreeing

with

some-

thing

merely

because we

are

afraid

to

be

mistaken for

being

'reactionary'

".

According to his view "caste is so

tacitly

and

so

completely

accepted by

all,

including

those

who

are

most

vocal

in

condemning

it, that

it is

everywhere

the

unit

of

social

action".15

Louis

Dumont,

going

one

step

fur-

ther,

described

the

caste

system

as

"a

relation

of

mutual and

assymetrical de-

pendence".16

His

opinion,

however,

that

the

reciprocity

"assures

subsistence

to

each caste

proportionally

to

his

status",'7

brings

him

back to

Wiser's

position

of

caste

harmony

and

caste

bargaining.

This structuralist-functionalist ap-

proach

merely

tries

to

analyse

the

visible

structure of

appearances

without

any

attempt to

come to terms with

the

deeper

social

structure,

fails

to

go

beyond the

assumption that

"hierarchy

is

rooted

in

religion",

and

remains

within the

premise

that

the

ideational

pattern

constructed

by

the

ruling

classes

is the

only

possible

term

of

reference

for

research.

As

long as

the

tendency

vJersists

of

assuming

that the

caste

ideology

of

Indian

society

in

the

past

was

the

expression

of

social

harmony

devoutly led by a divine Brahmanical

caste,us no

progress

can

be

made in the

direction

of a

discovery

of

inequality

between

classes,

of

exploitation and

oppression

and

in

the

direction

of

the

need

for

a

progressive,

class

based

alternative.

The

historical

treatment

by

Nam-

boodiripad in

his

study

on

Kerala re-

mains,

nothwithstanding

its

briefness, a

useful

tool

to

work

with.

The

division

of

society

into

the

intellectual

(Bhrah-

rnana),

soldier

(Kshatriya),

business-

man

(Vaisya)

and

finally

all

manual

workers who owed their labour to the

previous

hree

categories

Sudra)

was

in

essence

a

class

division:

"unlike

in

Europe

where

primitive communism

was replaced

by

a

system

which

divided

society into two classes

-

masters

and

slaves

-

the

primitive communist

society of

India was replaced by a

system

which divided

society into

castes''.9

The exact nature of the class catego-

risation

in Indian society in the

past

has recently

been analysed by

Claude

Meillassoux.

He distinguishes

sharply

between

class relation and

patron-

client

relations, and calls the latter type

of

relationship "offshoots

from the class

relations"

since the group of

clients

who

specialised in specific

activities,

far

from necessarily being

exploited, on

the contrary

profited, through

media-

tion

of the patron who

maintained them,

from

the exploitation of

the labouring

classes (slaves, serfs,

agricultural

workers, etc). The client relationship,

as

his

schematic view

clearly

illustrates,

was

only a

derived, secondary

relation-

ship whose

functioning depended

on

the class

relations that fed them.20

Unfortunately

the

patron-client

rela-

tionship

represented by

the

jajmani

system

has

too often

been

confused

with

the totality

of social relations

in

medieval

India,

as

a consequence

of

which

the class relations

became even

more

ouncealed

than they

already were

due

to the peculiarities of the

caste

system. Despite

the lack of much

de-

tailed research in this regard, one can

safely assume

that in the past a con-

siderable percentage of the

Indian

population

was drawn into neat

class

relations.21

In

pre-capitalist

modes of

production,

however,

the

economic

classes did

not

come

to full

ideological

and

political

articulation.

In this

type

of

society

infrastructure

and

superstructure

can-

not

be

dissimilated

into two

separate

structures:

"kinship

relations function

as relations

of

production, political

rela-

tions

and

as

current

ideologies.

Here,

kinship is therefore both infrastructure

and

superstructure".22

Kinship

tribes

which

according

to

Marx were

present

in

their

most

rigid

form

in the

institution

of

caste,23

functioned

as

elements

of

the

relations

of

production

and

as

the

elements

of

the

political, ideological and

legal

re-

flection

of

this

material

basis. This

in-

tegrated

structure made

the

institution

of caste

so

deeprooted

that it

could

miaintain itself

throughout the various

pre-capitalist economic formations

in

India. The

original

tribal

kinship

society gave way successively to slavery,

feudalism and

even the emerging

capi-

talist

modle

of

prodluction

in which

the

tribal

kinship

groupings,

proliferating

into castes and

sub-castes,

ac-ted as

pillars

in the

changing relations

of

production.

Considered

as such,

tradi-

tional Indian

society

combined rela-

tions of production characteristic

of

the

ancient

classless society

with the

modes

of production of a class society.

With

the

introduction,

however,

of

comm-odity

production

under the impact

of the colonial

capitalist

economy,

the

kinship

based modes

of production

came

under severe

stress.

The forces

of pro-

duction

had outgrown

the pre-capitalist

mode of production,

and could

develop

further

only outside

this

structure, as

happened

in Europe.

Within

emerging

capitalism

the forces

of production

took

such huge strides

that it

took hardly

one

century

for

the European

mercan-

tile

companies

to conquer

India,

which

had been

till that

time at

least equally

developed,

economically

and politically.

Changes

introduced by

the

British

colonial power,

both at

its infrastruc-

tural

and

at its

superstructural

level,

penetrated

deep

into the Indian

system.

The

various

characteristics

of caste

were

considered logically

to be broken

down

swiftly by

the

revolutionary changes.

The

new land

system,

which

made

land

a

freely

marketable commodity

avail-

able

for

purchase

by persons

of

any

caste

and which discarded

the

heredi-

tary

rights

in the

produce

of the client

castes as no longer economically ratio-

ral; the

steady

de-industrialisation

of

household

industry

and

the

gradual

increase

of

factory

production

in

industrial

areas;

a modern

transport

network

and

expanded

trade

which

interconnected

locally

isolated

villages

and

castes;

a

new

political

system

with

British administrative,

juridical and

educational institutions;

a

new land

revenue

system

leading

to

rising

in-

debtedness

and

pauperisation;

and

other

changes

ulndermined

the

vocational

basis

of

caste,

its

economic

rationality

its iinteractional

restrictions

and its

spatial

and

political

isolation.2'

In

his

famous

journalistic

article

"The

Future

of British Rule

in

India",

Karl Marx understood

the

British

mis-

sion

in

India as both destructive and

regenerative.

He observed

that the

East

Indian Company

had

already

broken

up

the

self

sufficient

inertia

of

the

villages

by uprooting

the

native

industry,

but that

while the

work of

regeneration

had hardly

begun

the dis-

solution of

society

in stagnant,

dis-

connected units

had survived

their

vitality.

Marx,

however,

anticipated

this to happen, and to sound the death

knell

of the caste

system: "Modern

Industry,

resulting

from the

railway

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 5/12

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL

WEEKLIY

Annual Number February 1979

system,

will

dissolve

the

hereditary

division

of Indian

labour,

upon

which

rests

the

Indian

castes,

those

decisive

impediments to

Indian

progress

and

Inidian

power".25

The

prediction did

not

come about

in

the short

run and

only

partially

in

the

long rLun ecause of three factors Marx

di(d not take

sufficiently

into

account

in

his

journalistic

propositions:

the

sharply

(lecreased

transforming

potential

of

capitalismI, he

peculiar

articulation

of

basis

and

superstructure,

and

the

reac-

tioniaryuse

made

of

obsolete

ideologies

and

institutions

by

the

ruling classes.

The

structure

of class

formnation

n

modern

India is

related

to the

impact

of

these

three

factors.

STRucTURA,

RESTRAINTS

ON

CAPITALISM

The

transforming potential

of

capita-

lisni in the third world has turned out

to

be

less

than

originally

expected.

Similar

revolutionary

developments

as

in

Europe

during

the

last

three

centu-

ries

would

have

led

automatically to

widespread

industrialisation

and

to the

concomitant

remoulding

of

agricul-

ture

along

capitalist lines.

Experience

has

taught

and

recently rnore

and

more

studies

have

come to

the

conclusion

that

the

predicted

development

will

be

extremely tortuous,

if it

comes

about

at

all,

and

that the

only

answer

lies

in

the

radical

soluition of

the

agrarian

problem

as a

first

step. Half a century ago, how-

e

ver,

(Iduring the

period

that

the

class

party

of

the

Indian

working

class

was

being

formed,

the

theory

of

swift

de-

colonisation,

which

imiiplied

he

process

of

increasing

industrialisatioii

and

the

resuilting

solution of

the

agrarian pro-

blem

by

the

mere

pulling

force of

industrial

capitalism,

had

taken

hold of

M

N

Roy and R

P

Dutt.

Both

had a

foremnost

idleological

influence

on

the

early

Communist

Party

of

India.

It

followed

from

Dutt's

premises

that

"if

the

future

of

India lies

with

large-scale

induistry,

then

the

political

future

equally certainlx lies with the indus-

triial

proletariat.

2

6

Lenin's

then

already

published

study

on

imperialism,

as

the

highest

but

moribund,

decaying

stage

of

capitalism

inmplicitly

questioned

such

a

formational

leap

towards

capitalist

restructuring

of

the

colonial

world.

One

of

the

reasons

why

capitalism in

India

could

not

transform

the

socio-

ecoInonilic

f)rrnation

niiore

fiundamentally

has

a

clear

bearing

on

the

survival

of

caste

practices as

w,ell. The

revolution

to

be

introduced

bv

the

colonial

power,

writes Namboodiripad, "had serious

limitations

in that

it

was carried

out

TABLE

:

OCCUPATIONAI.

L

EVELS BY CASTE

(Per Cent)

Caste

Occupational

Levels

Harijans

Low Lower-

Middle

Other

RajputsBrahmins

Castes Middle

Iligh

Castes

Agrictultural and other

unskilled labourers 42

23

10

9 2 7

Farm

tenants,

semi-skilled

workers, washermen,

l)arbers,

shoemakers,

potters,

construction

workers, etc

14 10 15 6 7

5 8

Smiall independent occu-

pations

-small

farnm-

owvners, small retailers,

etc 33 43

43 49 25 52 34

Skilled

occupations

-

p.liceman, drivers,

mechanics, low status

wvhite

collar, etc

8

9 15 19 9

20

17

Big

land-holders, top

level professional and

managerial occupa-

tions, big

business-

men, etc

3

15

17 17

57

16

39

Total 100

100

100 100

100

100

100

Source: Anil Batt, "Caste, Class

and

Politics",

Delhi

1975, p

40.

ly

a

class

which for its own

survival

as the

ruling class

in

a

foreign country

had

necessarily

to seek

political allies.

Such

allies they

readily

found in

the

representatives

of

those very

classes

and

strata

whose

domination in

society

was

to have been

completely eliminated

if the revolution was to be full and

real."2

7

Other

impediments created

by the

imperialist-feudalist

combine are of

course the

drainage

of

potential

capital

accumulation,

the

strangling

of

small-

scale

industry and indegenous

techno-

logy, the

ruination of the home

market,

the

immiseration

and pauperisation

of

the

great

majority of the

agricultural

population, etc.

The

phenomenon of class

partnership

lbetween

the most

reactionary class of

feudal (and

capitalist) landlords

and at

the other extreme the monopoly bour-

geoisie and

imperialism, has

continued

in

independent India.

Commodity pro-

duIction

and circulation

have been intro-

cluced

blut

pre-capitalist relations

of pro-

duction,

the

iscolated

position

of

villages

and the

extraction of

surplus for

mere

consumptive

purposes

retain a

struc-

tural

dominance on

agriculture.28

In

this light one can see the evil

prac-

tice

of caste

oppression, particularily

untoucbabilitv'

and

terrorisation of low

castes and

tribals,

as

the

result of

"the

growth

of feudal or

semi-feudal land-

lordismii and of the new rich on the

same

feudal, caste and

social basis, and

of their

grip

over

the

village economy

and

life".29

Nevertheless,

despite this

retarded

development

of

capitalism

and

the in-

tegration

of

feudal and

capitalist

struc-

tures, caste

barriers in

economic

life

have been broken

down

and class

diffe-

rentiation within many jatis has deve-

loped sharply.

While only

a small per-

centage

of

people work in

their

own

caste

profession, mnembers

of many

different castes

are engaged

in

the same

economic

activity, whether

it be in the

agricultural,

industrial,

govemmental or

the

so-called

infolrnal sector.

This eco-

nomic

disintegration

within the jati is

not of recent

origin,

as is

evidenced

for

example by the

Census

Reports

around the turn of

the century.

Vir-

tually

all

observers

agree,

moreover, that

especially

during the

recent

decades

greater

occupational

mobility towards

caste-free professions has taken place.30

Ini

the early

fifties

Kathleen Gough

observed the

following,

representative

picture in a

smnall

illage in

Tanjore:

Exactly half

of

Kumbapattai's

adult

Brabmiiins re now

employed in

town

as

erovernnient

servants, school

tea-

chers or

restaurant

workers. Of the

r

emainder

some oxvn up

to :30 acres

of

landcl,

others as

little as three.

One

ruins a

(grocerystore an(l

one a

vegetariani

restaurant.

Among

the

non-Brahiniiis

(milost)

have

abandoned

their

traditional work.

Todlav

all

the

non-B3rahmins

except Potters,

Village

Temple

Priests,

Smiths,

Washermen

and l3arbers (who, in whole or in

part,

retain

their

traditional

work)

and

the

Koravas who

are

government

.317

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 6/12

ECONOMIC

AND

POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual Nuimber

Februiary

1979

servants, are piedonminantly

dependent

On

agiricultuie

or

horticulture.

Irre-

pcclt ise

ot caste.

however,i-

out

of

56

n

nl

of these

castes are

now

paddv

trIl('rs,

shop -kcepers.

or

wage

work-

tlrs

in

a ci(Tar

factory

in town. Amlon(r

t-h

43

nioin-Bi-ahui.i:ls

whQei.ab-a--

a

ri

ciiI

ti re th+- iw

-Ce f

eni-jloyiIieiit

(0

v

r-cr

ultivaitoi,

coitract

labour,

(nivl

coolies, tenalnts) varies in a

io.ann(

i not determined

lby

caste.

The

pa'ltans

have wvithout

exception

rt

Tnailned

in agricultural

xvork.-1

The

sane

class

position

is thus

occupied

by mei-nbeis

of

virttually

all

jatis.

Anil

Bhatt's

data

of caste-w,7ide

occupational

level (St

(

Table) hl0ow

strikingly

that

caste statu.s

is

not

congruent

with

class

statis,

althouclh

lowN

er caste

are

natur-

allv

to

be found mainly

among

the

categYories

6f

agrictultuiral

labourers,

un-

skilled

labourers

and tenants,

and

the

higher

caste

groups

are

more

concent-

rate(d

in

the

occupational

categories

of

lani(dlor-ds, ntrepreneurs, professionals,

etc.

"Every

caste,

sub-caste

and

reli-

gious

community

contributed

its

own

share (some

more an(d

some

less)

both

to the

bourgeois-landlord

as

wvell

to

the

proletarian-semiproletarian

peasant

classes.

Class

society

was

thuis

emerging

withini

the

very

framewvork

of an

essen-

tially caste

society."i'

The

role

of caste has

thus

become

a limiting

rather

than

a determining

factor.

It remains

limiting

in the

sense

that

it is

very

unusual

to take

up

the

traditional

occupationi

of another

caste,

especially- if it is ritually ranked lower,

an,d

in

the sense

that

the

entry

into

modern,

caste-free

occuipationis

s

pre-

determined

as in

all

othelr

class

socie-

ties

bv

the

soci

o-econoim1ic

statias

(wealth,

educationi,

coninections,

etc) of

the

individutals

(not

the

jati)

concerned.

As

evervwhere

else

in the

so-called

free

market

economies,

entrants

into

the

so-

called

labour

market are

comipetitors;

n

economies

with structural

unemploymenit

and

ongoing

immeseration,

the

com-

petition

within

the

class,

stratified

and

divided by sectional

interests,

is bound

to

grow

more vigorous.

In

India,

there-

fore,

certainly

in the

economically

less

expainding

areas,

a low

class

individual

will

be

confronted

with

more

serious

resistance

if

he

wants

to take

to

land-

ownership,

teaching

or entrepreneurship

than

if he

decided

to give

up

his

tradi-

tional calling

for coolie

work.

Similarly

entrepreneurs

are in

a

position

to

restrict

employment

opportunities

for

members

of a

specific

group,

for exam-

ple

their

own

caste

or

another

caste,

in

exchange

for

political

or

pecuniary

a(dvantage.

The

preceding

picture

indicates

that

althouigh class position is not ascribed

by caste

and

indiv;idual

mobility

along

the class

ladder

in

variovs

occupational

puirsuits

does occur

as a rule, the

restricted

economic possibilities

as a

conse(ftence

of' the stronghold

of

semi-

feud(lal

an(l imperialist

elements

on

the

*-Xonoinu.

structure.

help

in

confining

the

people

withini sectional,

self-assur-

ingr ideological categories of the past.

It is

becausse

of

the enormous

reserve

army

of

unemployed

people

that

the

restrictive

function

of caste does

not

have

a

dvsfunctional

impactY

RELATIV.-,E

AUT0ONOMY

OF

SUPERS1RUCT UBE

The second

factor

wvhich.hasprevent-

t(d

a

clear

formation

of

classes of

a

capitalist

society

is the relative

auto-

nomy,

of

the superstructutre.

In

a

previous

section,

it was pointed

out

that

kinship, systems,

of

which

caste

is a particular

rigid

example,

are

not

actually

ideological

reflections

throwin

up

in

the superstructure

but are

the

units

of the

relations

of

productioni

themselves.

This

makes

them

extremely

stubborn social

institutions

wvhich,

after their economic

basis

has

been

destroyed, nmay

continue

to

persist

in

inistitutioins

and social

conscioutsness.

In the

analysis

of classes

and

class

consciousness

one

cannot but

refer to

the fanious

passage

in

the Preface

to

the "Critique

of Political

Economly",

wr;itten-

n

1857:

"In

the social

pro-

(luctioni

of their life

men enter

into

definite relations that are indispensable

alnd inidependent

of their

will, relations

of

production

that

corre.spond

to

a de-

finite stage of

development

of their

mlaterial

productive forces".:"

The

statement

has

often

been inter-

preted

as referring

to unilateral

eco-

nomic determinism

to

the extent

that

classes

are

being

determined

at the

economic level

and reinforced

at the

superstructural

level.

This

view arises

out

of

an approach

which

substitutes

"sa

one-sided, nechanical

interpretation

for Marx's

complex

dialectical

model".35

The two founders of scientific so-

cialism

themselves

were aware

of this

aberration. Since the

social

science dis-

cipline

in

those

days

was

still

almost

excluisively

of the

idealistic

variety,

Marx

and Engels

in their half

a

century

long

argument

with

the

idealist

inter-

pretation

were bound

to lay

the

main

emphasis

on the derivation

of ideology

and human behaviour

from

basic

eco-

nomic structure.,.

Towards

the end

of

his

life in a

letter

to a German

com-

rade,

Engels

wrote that

this

weakness

ha(l given

adversaries

a welcome opportunity for inisunder.-

standings

... [It is not]

that

because

we deny

an independent

historical

clevelopment

to

the

various

icleologi-

cal

spheres

which play

a

part

in

historv

we also

deny

themn

any

effect

upon

histoi-y.

Tshe basis

of

this

is

the

coninion

undialectical

conception

of

eains

( anld

effect

as rigidly

opposed

pol]

S1

the

total

disre

gardingr

of

inter-

In another

letter,

writSen

some

years

earlier, he made the inr1erconnection

an(l

non-homogeneity

of the

two

struc-

tuires

even

more

explicit:

According

to

the mater-ialist

concep-

tion

of history,

the tlti7nate

deter-

mlining

element

in histoizv

is

the

prodtnction

and

reprodutctioni

of

real

life.

More

than

this neither

Marx

o-,it hav.e

ever

asserte(l.

Hence

if

somebody

twists

this

into

saying

that

the economic

element

is

the only

dletermining

one,

he transforms

that

propr.sition

into a

meaningless,

ab-

stract,

senseless

phrase

...

WVe

make

ouir

history

ourselves,

btt,

in the

first

place,

under

very

definite

assump-

tions

an(d

conditions.

Among

these

tlh-o ( conomic ones are ultimately

(lecisive.

But

the

iolitical

ones,

etc,

a(In

indleed

even

the

traditions

which

haunit

hbuman

minds

and also

play

a

part.

althouigh

not

the riecisive

one.37

A "non-reductionist

materialist

analysis

of

politics",38

asserting

the

relative

autonomy

of

class

struggle

from

eco-

nomic

class

structure,

provides

us

with

a tool

to

explain

the

emergence

of

modern

classes

and

the

resilience

of

ol,d

stratification

systems

and values

in

traditional

societies.

A

"class

in

itself" (the

economically

constituted

class)

does

not

lead

auto-

maticallv to the class "for itself" (a

self-conscious

class).

Although

Marx

has

never rigorously

defined

the

concepts

of

class

for itself and

class

in

itself,

he

has

repeatedly

stressed

that

the

forma-

tion

of

classes

depends

to a

consider-

able

extent

on class

struggle:

"The

separate

individuals

form

a class only

in so

far

as

they

have

to

carry

on

a

common

battle

against

another class;

otherwise

they

are on

hostile

terms

with

each

other

as

competitors."39

In

other

writings

also

the

political

preconditions

for class

formations

were made

abund-

antly

clear.40 In

other

words,

the

ques-

tion

of

political

organisation

is crucial

in

the

task

of

transcending

the inter-

ests

and

consciousness

of

sectional

groups

towards

class

consciousness.

The ideal

type class,

subsuming

all

individuials

of

the

economic

class

is a

distant

ideal,

but with

organisational

forms

adequate

to

the

socio-economic

structure

more

and

more

sections

can

b)e

drawn

into the

antagonistic

classes,

can be

imbued

with

class

consciousness

and

can

even be transformed

into

a

revolutionary

class.

Two

major

consequences

of this

in-

sight are, first, that political organisa-

tions

shoul1der

important

tasks

in

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 7/12

ECONOMIC

AND

POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual

Number

February

1979

the

actual

class formation

or

deforma-

tion;

and,

second,

that

class in a

parti-

cular

country

is not

an

integral

con-

cept,

various

fractions

can

remain

outside

their

own

class

until

they

are

touched

by

class

struggle and

mobilised

by their

class

organisation.

In the endeavour to constrtict

"'schematics of

class relations" in

his

work

"Terms of

Trade

and

Class

Rela-

tions" Ashok

Mitra

was

confronted

with

the same

dilemma,

and

came,

presum-

ably

on

the

authority

of

Georg

Lukacs,

to

the

same conclusions.

He

asserts

that

notwithstanding

the

heterogeneities

within

the

analytical

categories

w7ith

more

or

less

similar

economic

interests,

"elements from

within

the

partly-form-

ed

mass

-

either

on

their

own,

or

assisted

by

elements

from

outside

may

nonetheless

try to

spark

off

a

prio;

consciousness

of

interests for

the

yet-

to-l)e-class.

P'rovided

such. a

conscious-

ness

is

fostered

at

different

levels, and

o0 . a

sustained

basis,

the

actual

forma-

tion

of

the

class

mav

turn

out

to

be

a

direct

function

of

this

endeavour

itself".41

The

resilience

of

caste

in

social

and

political

life

in

many

areas

can

there-

fore

lbest

be

explained

in

the

followving

terms:

caste

practices

continue

because

class

practices

have

not

yet

become

domiinant

at

the

political

level.

Political

movements

in

India

are

not

onlyl

a

reflection

of

the

extent

to

wXhich

cla;ss has transcended caste but, at the

operational

level,

have

at

the

same

timie

a

miajor

impact

on

caste

or

class

polarisation

ancl

c-onsciouisness.

This

proposition

actually

leads

us to

the

last

b)ut

one

argument

in

the

light

of

which

the

programmatic

understanding

of

the

Left

in

India

will

be

assessed:

the

role

plaved

by

caste

based

move-

ments

in

the

struggle

for

independence,

progress

and

democracy.

CASTE-BASED

MOv

EN-IENS

It

has

generally

been

argued

that

at

least in the struggle for independence

caste

consciousness

wvas

weakened

consideral)ly,

and

that

"the

presence

of

foreign

rule

w

as

a

permanent

stimulus

to

the

Indian

people

to

unite

on

a

national

basis".42

Narrow

caste,

paro-

chial,

provincial

and

communal

consci-

ousness

were

reportedly

undermined

by

the

growth

of

the

national

movement.

This

claim

cannot

be

rejected

outright

hut

should

not

be

exaggerated

either,

as

is

usually

the

case

in

the

glorification

of

the

nationalist

movement.

Although

this

movement

uinder

the

control

of

the

emerging Indian national bourgeoisie

had

to

take

mlore

and

more

resort

to

mass

actions

after the

first

world

war,

and

although

some of

its

finest

leaders

were

secular

throughout,

most

of

the

top

leaders

in

the

organisation and

the

second

rank

leaders were

steeped in

casteist

and

religious

worldviews

which

had

pernicious

effects on

the

masses.

Gandhi for example utilised (Hindu)

religious

traditions

dear

to the

(Hindu)

peo,ple in

order

to

enhance

their

parti-

cipation

in

the

national

movement.

This

approach,

however, also

enhanced

the

hold

of

religion

and of

religiouis,

soci-

ally

reactionary

organisations.4"

Indeed,

political

movements

during

th,

independence

struggle

were

rather

to)

often

based

on

such

unreliable

grounds

as

religious

fanaticism

and

sectarian

anti-Brahmanism, that

tragic

conse(quences

were

bouind

to

erupt.

Propaganda

against

British

colonial-

ism along Hindu as well as Muslim

religious

lines

aroused

tremendous

hostilities xvhich

could

and

ultimately

were

diverted

into a

holocaust. It

directly

plaved

into

the

hands of the

colonial

administration.

Propaganda

against

the

caste

system

by

caste

based

movemnents

on

the

other

hand

were

often

directlv

instigated

or at

least

suip-

portedl

by the

colonial

powver,

basically

as

a

Nveapon

o

break the

iinited

natio-

nnal

miovement.

Organisations

w,vhich

undertook

to

fight

the

caste

systemll

(Brahm1)o

ainaj)

or

to

reform

it

(Arva

Samaj)

as

wvellas to oppose British

colonialism

were

rather the

exceptions.

By

and

large

caste

movements

in

the

past

have

tendled to

oppose

the

main

strtuggle of

the

people

and

collaborate

with

the main

enemy

in

order

to

scope

)ersonal

material

advantages

for

the

already

advanced

sections

within

the

jati.

IIarclgrave,4

'

and

in a

similar

way

liti(lolph

and

Rudolph,"

have

distin-

guished

three

types

of

political

mobil-'

isation

along

caste

lines.

While in

the

vertically

integrated

structure

(paro-

chial culture) the traditional ruling

caste

(or

endogamous

sub-caste)

mar-

shalled

political

support

and

economic

subservience

from

the

dependent

client

groups

(lower

castes

or

caste

factions).

in

the

integrated

structures

political

cleavages

were

established

b)et?een

entire

castes

through

direct

ideological

appeals

against

the

vertical

structtures

of

traditional

societv.

Caste

movements

at

this

stage

of

"integrated

p-olitical

culturre''"

ere

often

able to

organise

cohesion

and

solidarity

within

the

caste

grouping

over

a

wide

geographic

area,

and

intensify

the

caste

cleavages in

the

process. Howvever, s

Hardgrave

argues:

With

upward

mobi]lity,

the

range

of

diversity

within

the

caste

increases,

and

in

so

far as

society

begins

to

differentiate

interactionally

between

various

levels

of

the

caste,

elabora-

tion in

caste

ranking

wvill

decline

and

caste

solidaritv

will

decrease.

At

the

integrated

stage,

political

solidarity

is

minimal,

Nvet

the

very

success of

the

communitv

in

fulfilling its

aspira-

tions accelerates internal differentia-

tion

and

the

formation

of

distinct

class

segments

-within

the

group."

Thus, even

wvithin

the functionalist-

b)ehaviouralist

approach it

is

conceded

that,

as

the

traditional

correspondence

of

caste

stattus-class

position

is

over-

taken by

the

upward

class

mobility of

a

section

of

the

ascriptive caste

group,

segments

of

caste

communities

start to

distinguish

interactionally

between

class

segments

of

the

caste

and

political

support

will

get

diffused:

in

the

"dif-

ferentiated

political

culture"

class

divi-

sions

assume

increasing importance.

This

behaviouralist

pattern,

of

course,

is

not

onlv

influenced

by

the

internal

(lifferentiation

and

degree

of

success,

l)ut

also,

and

probably

most

decisively

1)v

the

(levelopmnent

f

the

basic

move-

inents

of

the

Indiani

people:

the

natio-

nalist

movement,

the

deinocratic move-

nient

and

the

strtuggle of

the

xNvorking

class

an(d

the

peasantry.

Leaders

of

the

caste

mnovements

w

ere

able

to

mobilise

vertical

attachment

as

long as

the

basic

mlovenments

remiained

weak

or

non-

existent, as

long

as

they

did

not

be-

come

social

f-orces drawing people into

actioni

ani(

provi(ling

themi

with a

new

co

nsciousness.

The

objective

fact,

however,

of

de-

pressed

sections

of

the

people

fighting

a(gainst the

suipposed

cauises of

social

oppression

and

economic misery

point-

ed

to a

new

kind

of

politics.

Although

national

and

class

exploitation

and

repression

remained

concealed behind

caste

oppression,

objectively

the

caste

movement,

even

if

fighting

within

the

varma

stratification,

were

not

caste

movemiienits

n

the

traditional sense

any

longer. They were simtultaneously the

expression

of

the

class interests

of

a

collaborating rich minority

jockeying

for

a

higher

political

and social

status

uniider

he

protective

patronage

of the

colonial state

power,

and

of the awak-

eninig

discontent of

the

oppressed sec-

tiois.

The

natuiral social

order

as

well

as

class

organiisation

of

the strata

closest

to the

spoils

of the

colonial

state

were

the

endogamous

caste

group-

ings

at the

top

of

stuch

widlely

ramifie(d

major castes as

the

Reddvs,

Nayars,

Vokkaligas,

Nadars,

Vellalas,

jats,

Ahirs,

Kayasthas,

Kurmis, etc.

They

pro-

vided the necessary

ideological

(casteist)

and

organisational

leadership

to

the

821

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 8/12

Annuial Number

February

1979

ECONOMIC AND

POLITICAL

WEEKLY

endogainouis lower

class groupings

of

their

own

caste

when it became neces-

sary

to

involve

these sections

in

action

for

the

remiioval f

social disabilities.

Remiloval f the disabilities

according

t') the Srinivas-ian

upward

mobility

miodel n the fornm f

sanskritisation

was

l)uullnd o fail in the case of low class-

depressed caste category

because

of

their

economic dependence: "their

caste position allows

the

[upper caste]

to

commanid the ideological

apparatus

of

the

caste

system".' Experience

show ed

that

this ideological apparatus

was also used against the uipper.class-

depresse(d

caste

categorv.

Even

though

th.e

ritually defiled landlords

and wealthy

trader.s

sanskritise(d

their wvays, they

wvere rustrated

in

their

attempts

to

win

interactional recognition

by

the

allied

opposition

of the

high

castes.

They

had to tturni rom

the "sacred" to the

'"secuilar",

and create an]

instrument

of

the entire caste as

an

instrument

of

social

an(l

political

mobilisation.48

Exanmples

f

subch

airly

simlilar

move-

mients are

the

Satvashodhak

Movement

in

MNaharashtra,

hich

recentlv

was

the

subject

of

dehate betwveen

13

T

Ranadive

anid Gail

Oiuvedt,'9

the

caste

associa-

tions

in

Kerala, ancl

the

non-Brahmin

movement

in

Tamil Nadu.

EVOI.UTION

OF NON-BRAHUMIN-ISM

During

the

latter half of the nine-

teenth centuiry sections of the sudra

castes

in Madras

Presidency (Vellalas,

Kammiinas,eddis,

Navars, Balija Naidus,

Chettis,

Nadars

etc)

were

clearly

on

the

rise. Their further advance

was

par-

tially

blocked

by

the

strong positions

of

auithoritv

small

grouips

of Brahminis

occupied

in

public

life.

Brahmllins

en-

ded

to be

quiite strong

also

in the

leadership

of

the nationalist

miovement

in

'Madras, not as a corollary to their

Brahminical status,

but

because

their

caste group included

strata

which oh..

jectified the contradiction

of the Inidian

national bourgeoisie wvith he colonial

order.

At

the

same time, many of

them

vwe-rembued

with

religious and

obscurantist ideas. The latter charac-

ter

became

extrenmely

ronouinced

with

the

revivalism

of

Annie

Besant and the

flome Rule

League.

This

gave ample justification to non-

Brahmin

sections

who started the

justice

Party

in

1916,

in

order

to

"oppose

any

measure that would

undlermine,

British

auithoritv

in

Inedia

,who alone are able-

to

hold

the

scales even

betwveencree(d

ancd

class

and

develop

a sense of' unity

between

warring groups".50

Such declarations of loyalty to the

government were the

rule rather than

the exception in the

non-Brahmin move-

ment,

in the colonial as

well

as in

the

post-colonial tune.

In

retuirn for

it.s

suipport,

the elite

expected

to

fincl

its

way injto

government

services:

"to

ssup-

plaint the

Brahmlinis

w

hile keeping the

untouichables

at a

good

economic,

ecdi-

cational and( political distance".i'

Initially thc caste

association

wvas

a

Useful tool in the hands

of

the

aspiring

civil

servants, traders and

landowvners.

It;

funcetioni wvas

not

onlv

to

establis;ii

the

respectability

of

their

caste

sectioni.

buit at the same

time

to convince

the

governmcnt

that

they

hacl

the

backintg

of

the

whole

community,

and

%N7ere

therefore formidable

political allies

who

shouild be

rewvarded.

The

caste

conii-

1iuminiity

x

osc needs

w

ere largely at

variance

with that of the

self-styled

leaders,

however, before long

came

nuicder

he spell of the nationalist

move-

ment.

Bv

the end of the thirties

the

scales of

suipport

within

mnany

Tamilian

non-Brahmin castes had

shifted

to

Congress,

partially

under

the

impact

of

Kanmaraj,,

n(d

as a result

the

old

Justice

Party had become

practically defunct.

While

the elitist

anti/Brahmin

asso-

ciations

were rendered obsolete

in

the

era

of mass

politics,

the Indian

National

Congress

allied

itself

wvith the

ol(1

feudal

order,

obscurantist

ideas

and(i

IBrahminical

institutions,

and

hence

called

forth a

new reaction

by

Dravi-

dian

leaders

who

perceive(d

the

reac-

tionary

ideological

structuires

and

insti-

tuitions

and not

the coloniial

yoke

as the

cauise of

poverty

and

injustice.

"'Periyar"

Ramaswanmi

Naicker, alit -

nated

from the

conservative

Congress

leadership

in

the

twventies,

herefole

decided

to

leave

the MI-CC

and

start

the

Self-Respect

NIovement,

an

aniti-

religious, pro-British

movemiient

aimeld

at

overthrow%ving

he caste

system

alto-

gether.

It

insisted on

equality

betwveen

m en

and

wvomen,

attracted the

lower

castes

and

classes, spread

rationalist,

egalitarian thinking

based

on

the idea

that

religion and

caste

institutions

are

the core

of

all

evil.

For a

brief

spell

he

donned

the

cap

of

socialism.

lIe

organised

somne

meetings against

the

feudalist zamindari

system

but

aban-

cloned

it

definitely

before

long.52

The

leadership

of

the

movemenit,

which just before independence

turnecl

inlto

the

separatist Dravida

Kazhagam

and

after

independence

into

(Annia-

durai's) DMK,

came

largely

from

lower-

middle classes.

Gradually DMK and

ADMK

made their peace

with

God and

gave up

the

fight against

caste. Since

hoth parties were integrated into the

dlominant

class structure (national hour-

geoisie

and

landlordism),

they

were

not

interested

in

either

realising.

or

pro-

paganiclising

their

original

programme

since

it

wouilcl

necessarily

entail an

uin-

compromising

attack

on the

economic

structures.

According

to

B

T

Ranadive,

the

earlier form

of

anti-Brahminist

op-

position becomes its real content, re-

.sulting

in

compromises

both

witl

feudal

relations

and

imperialism.

The

new

intelligentsia,

the

product

of

Western

educatiQn nurtured

among

the

non-Brahmins,

act

as

a

bourgeois

itntelligentsia,

give

up

the

uncompromis-

ing

principles

of

their

heroes,

merge

in

the

ruling

party

to

head

its

ministries,

suppress

the

people

and

keep

the castes

intact.53

.As

a

matter

of

fact,

the

discrepancy

betwveen

earlier

ideology

of

the non-

Brahmin

miovemenit

nd

the actual

prac-

tice

today is the expression of the iron

Ilas of

history: while

the

vast

majority

of

their

kinsmen

remained

sociallv

and

economically

oppressed,

their

further

mobilisation

by the

advanced

classes

would

only

be

along

the

lines of

religi-

ouIs

and

particularistic

sedatives.

This

recourse

to

illuisions in

order

to

mobi-

lise

vertically

stratified

suLb-groups

f

the

horizontal

classcs

reveals

the

po-

tentially

reactionary

character

of

caste

organisations.

CASTE

AssOCIAIIONS

Not all scholars take this view though,

and some

are

even

positively

enthused

h the

contributions

caste

associations

have

played in

the

fuirtherance

f

demo-

cratic

and

egalitariani

ideals

in

the

country.

Since

the

Indian

masses

wvere

politically

illiterate,

wvrite

he

Rudolphs.

the

caste

associations

have

played

a

great

role

in

the

suiecess of

political

democracy

by

helping

India's

mass

electorate

to

participate

meaningfully

and

effectively:

"Rather

than

providing

the

base

for

reaction,

caste

has

absorbecd

and

synthesised

some

of

the

new

demo-

cratic

values."

According to

this

view,

caste has not

only

survived

but

has

also

transformed

and

transvalued

itself

in

the

sense

that it

contributes

to

under-

mining

the

inequalities of

the

old

order

by

helping

to

level

its

values

and

privileges:

By

initiating,

managing

and

encourag-

itng

the

efforts

of

lower

castes

to

become

twice-born,

to

don

the

sacred

thread

symbolising

high

ritual

rank

and

culture

it

in

effect

if

not in

inten-

tion

drains

the

caste

hierarchv oi

meaning

by

homogenising

and

demo-

cratising

it.

WVhen

most

men

can

wear

the

sacred

thread

or

achieve

power and status without it, it will

have lost its capacity

to

divide

ancl

distance

them from

each

other.

And

322

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 9/12

ECONOMIC

AND POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual

Ntumber

February

1979

ly providing

a structure

for the

pur-

suiit of

political power,

social

status,

an(i

economic

interest,

the

paracom-

nunitv

b)ased

in caste

sentiment

and(I

interest miiakes

secular

concerns

and

representative

deemocracy

comprehen-

sible

ancl manageable

to

ordinary

In(diains.

54

Caste

sentiment,

not class

sentiment,

should

thus provide

the structure

in

which

"ordinary

Indians"

vould

l)e

marshalled

into a

position

in w7hich

they

could cotmprehend

representative

demo-

cracy.

The members

of

the

caste

asso-

ciations tend

in

the early phases

to

re-

tain the

mnore intense

loyalties

charac-

teristic

of

ascriptive

associations

and

to

be,

as

a consequence

"less

subject

to

the

crosscuitting

pressu-res

that affect

members

of

mnore

strictly.voluntary

asso-

ciations",

while

in

the later

phases

"its

rewards

serves to suistain

caste lovaltv

anid idlentification".)5

Inidian

politicians

seem to have

learnt

a

number

of

thinigs

from the advice

by

the respectable

American

political

scien-

tists.

Manx'

political

parties

taking

part

in

"(lemocratic

politics"'

in

the&i

bid

lfor

securing

a

m1cass

basis have

tturned

to

the existing

jati structures

and

sentiments.

In

conditions

of

blocked

economic

development

annd the

crying

nteed

for economic

reforms

it is

of

miiajor

imlportance

for

the

b

ourg<eois-

landlord classes

to prevent

class

consci-

ousness

from

coming

to clear

formationi.

Caste

consciouisness

helps

the

rulin(g

classes both in diverting sections of the

wNorking

classes

towvards

a fight

against

each

other and(I

owvards a

fig,ht for

sec-

tional deeman(ds,

w-hich

in

turn W0oul

I

consolidate

the positions

of power

of

corrupt

politicians.

I-lowsoever

casteist,

communalist,

parochialist,

political

parties

behave

for

purposes

of

miiobilisation

and

elec-

tioneering,

it

evolves

uinder the

clomii-

nation of

the

ruiling

class

forces.

The

contending

ruling groups

in

general

have

to

resort

to group

politics

in

their

scramble

for political

power

and

eco-

nomic survival in a crisis-ridden eco-

nomy.

At one

time the

UP

ministrv

Molintedl

s many

as 50

ministers.

All

of

themi,

in their

claim

for a stake

in

office and corrtuption,

had

to

bid for

th(,

stupport

of a sizeable

social

base.

The

formal identification

wvith

specific

casteist

layers

provided

itself as

a

srnort-

cut.

A

propagandistic

concern

for

demo-

cratic

and

socialist

values

seems

to

determine the interest

the so-called

backward caste

politicians

have deve-

loped

in

the machinery

of caste

reserva-

tion. One would have expected the

gradual elimination

of reservation

as

the

difference

between

"forward"

and

"hackward"

castes

narrows down

and

as

the disparities between and

within

hackw;ard

ommuinities (lo not make

for

a

unitary

approach

on caste

lines

only.

The

struiggle

between

reservationiists

an:1

anti-reservationists.

by

strengthening

caste

consciousness,

1W

splitting

the

ranks

of all

the

suiffering

people

and

byv

tying

the

milasses to

communal

and

corrupt

lea(lers

who at the

samie tiiie

are staunchlyN

enitrenichedl anid

intereste(d

in the continuation

of

the

present

socio-econoomic

structuires, reiniforces

thb.

reactionarv

character

of caste

politics.

Hlowever,

the

potentially

reactionarv

character

of caste

politics

has not

always

bcen

able

to nmanifest

itself.

Caste

communtinities

hat

are

economically

dliffe-

rentiated between a

small

wealthy layer

ait the

top

and a vast

majoritx

of

work-

ing class,

peasants

ani(d poor miiiddle

classes lose

their

capacity

for

indepen-

(lent

mnobilisation

along

caste

lines,

especially

if, at

the stage

that

the

Major

civil

1rig(bhts

have been

attained,

secullar

party

politics

has

managred

to

come

up

as a

powe-rful

alternative.

For

exanmple,

the caste

associations

of

Nadar-s

ancd Ezhavas

in

the

South,

ermbodying

considerable

edtucational.

*commnercial

and

social

inteirests,

had

to

tuirn

away from

political

organisations

to

puirely- social

refornmn

movements.

Both

the

Nadar

hMahajana Sangami

(NMS)

and the

Ezhava

SNDP

Yogam

as

voluntary

organisations

claimiiing

to re-

present

all

mnembers of the

ascriptive

caste

reservoir,

couldI

do

so only

if

thev

withdraxv

fromn

political

involvement.

les.

the

association

split.

The

NMS, once

ardently

compaigni-

ing

for

Justice

Party and

Dravida

Rtuz-

hegam.

in

the

1952

elections

c3)uld

do

1*;) mllore than

call for the

election of

a

Nadar

and(l from

the

18957

elections on-

wards

it

had to

refrain

froml

issuiing

any

elcetoral

advice at

aIll56

In

the same

way

the

SNDP was

unable

to influence

the

party affiliation of

their

members

and was not in a position to join thb.

commuiiinal

forces in the

struggle

w%hich

led

to

the

overthrow

of the

first

commu-

niist

miiinistryin

the

state.57

Some

church

organisations

w

hich

till

recently

had

pontificated.

amiong

their

harijan

converts

againist

commii-iunisin

w

ere

e(quiallv

confronted

Nvith

the

(lileminma

of

i)reaking

uip the

church

commllunity

altogether

or

abandoning

their

political role

considerably.

The

sharp class

cleavage

in

Kerala,

for

example, between

Syrian

Catholics,

w,,ho

have

shown

themselves

by

and

large

to

he

on the side of landlords, plantation

owners,

rich peasants,

merchants,

indus-

trialists,

etc, and

the class interests

of

non-Syrian

Christians

and Catholics

re-

sulted in

political

desintegration.58 A

similar

development

occurred

within the

Nayar

commnnitv

led

by

the

Navar

Service

Societv

anci

within the Muslim

conmnmuinity. The

presence

within these

ethnic

grotips, of a large

layer of

mi-iddle

classes,

however,

makes it still

possib)le

for the

t.ipper

classes

to

miiaintain

their

(griip

over

a section

of the

commnunity

along

ommuniiiiiial

ndl

casteist,

conserva-

tive lines.

Even

radicalised

leaders,

like father

Vadakkan of

the

Karshaka

Tozhilali

Party in

Kerala

and

Shibu

Shoren

of the

Jharkhand

Morcha in

Bihar

under the

force of

events may,

wvith

their

sectional-based

following.

move

towards

collaboration

with leftist

class

parties

but

NNvill,

wN7ith

all

or

part

of

their

following,

return to the

fold

of

the

riuling class party,

as

happened

dl:ring the Enmergeincy.

This

experience poses

for the

leftist

movement the

problem

of

w;hether

co-

operationi

xvith

caste or

tribe

organisa-

tions

contrilutes

to

the

undermininig

or

consolidation of

the grip

of

separatism

on

the

peasanitry,

wNhether

caste organi-

sattions

can

be

diverted

to

class

organisa-

tiolls.

In aredas

where

the

cconlom'ic

and

pl

itical

class

formation

has

progressed

not

so

far

this

dilemtna (loes

not

exist.

The

reciprocal

support

of caste

and

class

organisations

in

the

strugTgle

for

struetuiral

reforms

is

absent

here.

Manx

liarijan

organisations

have become

a

uiseful

tool

in

the

hand(Is

of

the

land-

lords

to

serve

their

interests

under

con-

d1

ions

of

the

clesintegration

of

the

jajmanii

system

of

contract

labour

anid

the

rising agricultural

tension

whebn

the

agricultural

labourers

ancl

smiall

pea-

sants

are

verging

tow

ards

independent

n-

obilisation.

Although

the-y are

often

officially

patronised,

finianiceId

aind

pro-

vided

wvith

an educated

leadership

from

within

the

caste

xvith

the

official

aim

of

uiplifting

and

emiiancipating

the

caste commtunity,observers have rightly

asked the

question,

wv-hether

the aim

is

not

accommliiodation

rather

than

emancipa-

tion.

In

a

revealing description

of one

suich

(Gan(lhiain)

movem-lenit,

he

Halpati

Seva

Sangh, Jan

Breman

conclucdes:

"The

HSS

is an

crgalnisation

for the

Ilalpatis,

but

not

of

them.

The

leader-

slhip

is solidly

in

the

hands

of

members

of

high castes

... For

[the

Halpatis]

it

is an

obscure

body,

affiliated with

the

governmenit

and

representing

external

initerests. It

is

therefore

doubtful

whether the

HSS may

he called

an

emancipation movement at all. Its aims

andl

methods rather

seem to

prevent

32.3

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 10/12

ECONOMIC

AND POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual

Number February

1979

mobilisation."59

LEFT AND

DEMOCPATIC

MovEMFNT

The

most

common

allegation

one

hears

about the

communist

movement

in

India

is

that

it

has

not

paid

sufficient

attention to caste

oppression

and

that

it was only concerned with class

struggle,

that

it mistook the

caste

society

for a class

society and hence

was bound(

to

remain a

foreign

body

within

the

Indian context.

Catchy

assessments

of a

theoretically

bankrupt

policy

alternate with

self-complacent

observations

about the

nearly total

im-

potence

of

the left.

Such

an assessment

seems difficult

to

maintain

especially

in view

of the

geo-

political

differences in India.

If

there

are

areas

in

India

which

are

virtually

untouched

by

commutnist

influence,

then this certainly is not due to a

theoretically

wrong

interpretation

of

the

caste

factor,

since

this

interpreta-

tion

is

common

for

the

all-India

level

and has made

possible

the

dominant

position

of

left

politics

in a

number

of

states

and

districts. As

a matter

of

fact,

it

is

solely the

commuinist move-

ment

which

has so

profoundly

under-

stood

the

Indian

context

that in

the

areas

where

it is

strong

caste

has lost

its

strength.

It is

possibly

the

greatest

achievement

of

the

communist

parties

that

in

these

areas

the caste

system has

been

undermined

to a

considerable

ex-

tent,

both in its

operational and

func-

tional

aspects.

It is by now

common

knowledge

that

Bengal and

even

more

Kerala, which till

recently

represented

the most

rigid and

extreme

caste

system,

have

made

incomparable

progress in

this

respect.60

This

development

has

not

been acci-

dental.

It

has

always

been

part and

parcel of

the

aim of

the

movement to-

wards

social

justice and

strengthening

of

democracy. The

programme

of

National

Democracy of

the

Communist

Party

of

India,

for

example,

mentioned

specifically:

It

will

abolish

social and

economic

oppression

of one

caste

by

another,

as

also

all

social and

personal bans

and

prohibitions

imposed

bv the so-

called

upper

castes on

lower

castes,

especially the

scheduled

castes, in

the

name

of

custom,

tradition or

reli

gi

on.

Such

oppression

shall

be

made

punishable by

law.

it will

pursue a

policy

of

giving

financial

and

other

assistance

for the

educa-

tional

and

cultural

advancement

of

the

people

belonging

to

scheduled

a,nd

socially

oppressed

castes,

to era-

dicate

these

inequalities.6'

The realisatioin of this aim, according

to

the communist

parties,

can

only

come

about as

a

consequence of

the

unremitting

effort

to

organise

the

com-

mon

fight of

all oppressed

people against

the

economic

structures

which are

the

direct

cause

of the

continuing

caste

separatism.

This

common

struggle,

moreover,

has to be

fought within a

particularly

dangerous

context:

We are

familiar in

our

country with

the

use of

communal appeal to

divide

the

people....

Thus the

crisis-ridden

bourgeois

landlord

classes are resort-

ing to

the

whipping up of

diverse

divisive

and

reactionary agitations

and movements.62

This

point

is

worth

bearing

in

mind

when

one

evaluates

the communist

reticence

towards caste

movements.

The

cautionary

approach

is reinforced

bv

two

other factors.

In

the first

place,

it

has

been

the experience

that

the

communist movement

on

the

micro-

level has often been identified as a

caste

party as

a

result of the

massive

support

it

received from

the

agricul-

tural

labourers

belonging to a

particular

caste.

The

CPI(M)

in

Thanjavur

for

example

has

been

pigeon-holed by

its

enemies as a

party of

the

pallans.63

In

the

second place, the

struggle for

status

amelioration of a

particular

caste

community

is

a

potential

danger for

the

status of the

equivalent

as well as

the

higher castes

belonging

to the same

class

spectrum.

This is

the case

with

the

neo-Buddhist

movement

which

shows a

growing

distance

between

the

Mahar Buddhas

and the

non-converted

Mahars and

other

harijans,

who, are

making less

progress

and are

hence

antagonised. By

a voluntary

act on a

mass

scale, it

has

brought

isolation

upon

itself:

This

isolation has

created

antagonismn

and

tension

and has

made the

prob-

lem

of

consolidation

difficult.

There

is an

alienation

from the

other

Hari-

ian

communities.

The

Nav-Bouddhas

have

no

involvement with the

larger

Harijan

community

or even

with the

problem

of

untouchability.

Having

made

considerable

progress,

politi-

callv and educationally, they are now

concerned

wvith a

breakthrough at

the level

of higher

education, and

with

political alignments

with other

parties

w-hich would

be

advantagreous

to

themselves.

There

is

no

evidence

of

anv

desir-e

to

take ulp

leadership

for

the

Harijan scheduled

castes

of

the

region, let

alone

the

Harijans

all

over

the countrv.

4

In view

of

the

three

foregoing factors.

the

communist parties

in

India

keep

stressing

the

need to rescue the

masses

from

the

pernicious

influence of

caste-

movements.

Another,

possibly

the most

decisive

factor

which

makes

co-opera-

tion

with

caste agitation

totally impo;-

sible, is the

unwillingness on

the

side

of

the

caste

movements

to

co-operate

with

the

leftist

movement

in

a

common

anti-caste

fight

for

democracy.

Whether

t'iv

different

democratic

movements

can

be

drawn

into

a

broad-based

offen-

sive

depends not

merely

on

whether

the

communist

parties

have

attained

the

stage

of

absolute theoretical and

practical

clarity,

but

ultimately

on

whe-

ther

the

non-communist

democratic

currents

allow

themselves to

be

drawn

into

the

alliance.

Although

it

is

a

process

of

mnutual

approach,65

one

notices

again

and

againr that

all

the

blame

is

put

on the

organised

left

parties,

even if

in

the

particular

area

they

are

virtually

absent.

The

Marathwada

riots are

very

illustrative

of

this

tendency.

Although

the

progressive

movement

supported

the

Dalits

in

their

demand

for re-

naming

of

the University after Ambed-

kar,

the

symbol

of

the

pro-British,

later

pr-o-Congress,

anti-communisto

revival-

ism

of

one

of

the

harijan

jatis,

the

dalit

leadership

at

no

time

was

prepared

to

lu(,k

for

alliances

with

the

left

and

thereby

fortify

its

positions

against

the

provoked

attack:

"The

catch

is

that

caste

gives

them

an

identitv

today.

They will

have

to

risk

losing

that in

order

to

wvork

n

a

broader

basis."66

Gail

Omvedt

obstinately

refuses

to

take

this

into

account

in

a

recent

article

"Class

Struggle

or

Caste

War?".

Although

she mentions that the Dalit

Panthers

had a

traditional

suspicion

of

the

left,

focused

on

cultulral

ari(

reli-

gious

issues,

provoked

a

split

wvith

the

o+her

sections

and

divertecl

the

radi-

cal

issuies

to

continue

their

leader-

ship,

she

puts

all

the

blame

on

the

non-dalits,

and

particularly

on

the

various

shades

of

communists

who

are

alleged

to

be

"theoretically

disarmed

[bv]

the

Marxist

denial

of

caste...

Having

denied

the

reality

of

caste

except

as

an

illusory

part

of

the

super-

structure,

it

is

no

wonder

that

commu-

nists

have

never

initiated

and

led

a

democratic movement aimed

specifically

at

abolition

of

caste

discrimination".67

This,

of

course

is

totallv

at

variance

with

the

facts

not

only.

in

areas

where

the

communists

are

strong,

but

even

in

Marathwada

itself.

According

to the

observations

of

Omvedt

herself:

The

left

has

not

neglected

Dalits.

Commuaists

in

fact

have

stood

by

them

under

attack,

defied

social

customs,

broken

dow7n

social

harriers

in

their

own

lives

and

in

the

lives

of

others.

Whether

Dalit

agricultural

labourers

have

been

organised

on

a

village level in a way to give them

the

strength

to

really

defy

the

eco-

nomic

andl

social

oppression

of

the

.325

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 11/12

ECONOMIC

AND POLITICAL

WEEKLY

Annual

Number

February

1979

village

rulers,

it has

been by

Com-

munists

...

"68

Omvedt

fully

condones

the

anti-com-

munist

Dhale group

which

took

full

control

of the

movement

and provoked

a split

within

the Panthers

who

had

a

broadly

class revolutionary

vision

and

who wanted to formnome kind of unity

with

all

the

oppressed.

In

her

explana-

tion

of why

the split

occurred

she

lines

up

with

the

reactionary

ideology that

it

was

the

"outsiders"

who

were

the

ource

of

Dalit

alienation:

The

splits

in the

Panthers

that

did

occur

were

stimulated

at least

to

some

degree

by

the

intervention

of

outside

political

parties

and

by

the

heavy-handed

way in

which

the

Com-

munists

inside

the

Panthers

pushed

"class"

for

it became

very

easy

for

those

still

suspicious

of

Marxism

to believe

that

this

theme

was

com-

ing

from

"outside"

and represented

just another form by which upper

caste

leftists

were trying

to

"use"

them.69

The familiar

story

of outsiders,

common

to

Rudolph-Omvedt

and

the ruling

class

circles,

has been

used again

and

again

in order to

prevent

the

more

class

conscious

activists

from penetrat-

ing

into

sections

which

were

still

imbued

with sectional,

corporatist

con-

sciousness.

It

overlooks

the fact

that

for

harijan

labourers

harijan

entrepren-

eurs

are

also

outsiders,

who,

if

they

start

organising

all

the

harijans,

de-

finitely have ulterior motives.

The spontaneist

emergence

of

class

consciousness

has

been

refuted

by

history itself.

The alleged

pernicious

influence

exercised

by

'outsiders'

on the

anti-caste

movement

in

India

has

equally

been

refuted.

The

first push

to

the

organisation

of

adivasis,

girijans,

paraiabs

and

sudras

has

been

given

by

'outside'

elements.

The

crux

of the-

matter, however,

is that

the

'outsiders'

were successful

in

their

anti-caste

efforts

to the

extent

that

they

were

able

to

combine

the

anti-imperialist

and

anti-feudalist

struggle

with

the

struggle

for day-to-day

economic demands. The

fonnation

of

class-conscious

classes

in

the process

is

a direct

function

of class-

based parties,

and

has,

moreover,

conti-

nuously

been

hampered

by

organisations

who

want to

restrain

the

consciousness

of

the

Indian

people

within

the

frame-

work of caste.

Economic

development

towards full-fledged

capitalism

alone

will not cause

the

emergence

of classes

free

from

caste

consciousness.

The

continuing

hold

of

Christian

Democra-

tic P'arties

on

the

electorate

in

Europe

shows

that

the

social

and

political

structure in India is not very different

from

that

in

Europe.

Notes

1

Karl Marx,

"The

British

Rule

in

India",

in Marx and Engels,

"On

Colonialism",

Moscow,

nd,

p

38.

2

A

R Desai,

"Social

Background

of

Indian

Nationalism",

Bombay

1959,

p 224.

3

For a description

of the

different

ofihcial views on the definition of

backward

castes,

see:

Marc

Ga-

lantar,

"Who Are

the Other

Back-

ward

Classes",

in EPW,

October

28,

1978,

pp

1812-28.

4

Possibly

the

best

article

so far

is

Mythily

Shivaraman's

"Towards

Emancipation",

in

Social

Scientist,

Special

Issue

on

Women,

1975,

pp

76-103.

5

Arun

Sinha,

"Sunni-Shia

Conflict",

in

EPW,

November

11,

1978,

pp

1841-42.

6

In Maharashtra

it has

even

led

to

the breaking

away

from

the

CPI(M)

by

Sharad

Patil.

7 Presumably

'non-vulgar'

marxists

have preferredto call the simplified

analysis

'vulgar

marxism',

but

as

Hobsbawn

has

pointed

out,

the

initial

impact

of

Marxism

neces-

sarily

had to

take

such a

simplified

form

which

nevertheless

had

an

immense

liberating

force.

As

a

matter

of

fact,

"the

diminishing

returns

on

the

application

of vulgar

marxist

models,

have

in recent

decades

led

to

a

substantial

sophis-

tication

of

Marxist

historiography".

Hobsbawn,

"Karl Marx's

Contribu-

tion

to

Historiography",

in Black-

burn (ed),

"Ideology

in

Social

Sciences",

London

1972,

p

282.

8 See

the

articles,

replies

and

over-

views in EPW, Social Scientist,

Journal

of

Contemporary

Asia,

and

others.

9

E

M

S

Namboodiripad,

"Castes,

Classes

and

Parties

in

Modem

Political

Development",

in

Social

Srientist,

November

1977,

p

8.

10

The concept

of

a

separate

Asiatic

Mode

of Production

is very

much

under discussion.

It

is probably

useful

to follow the

line

of

argu-

ment of

Godelier,

who,

in

reviving

the

concept,

wants

to

"remove

the

dead parts

and

change

it

into

a

new

concept",

dropping

particularly

the inclusion

of oriental

despotism

ancd

the alleged

stagnation.

See

Codelier. "Perspectives in Marxist

Anthronology",

Cambridge

1977,

un)

119ff.

11

WV

nd

C

Wisher,

"Behind

Mud

Walls".

1963

edition

Berkeley.

The

recorded

empirical

evidence

does

not

tallv

with the organic

ideal,

for

in the researched

village.

Brahmins

combine

the

right

of

high

birth and

economic power,

and

"if

anyone

fails to recognise

the

existence

of

this

authority,

he

is reminded

of it

so

effectively

that

he

does

not err again"

(p 15).

12

K

Ishwaran,

"Shivapur:

A

South

Indian Village",

London 1968,

p

174.

1.3 Ibid. p 182.

14

M N Srinivas

"C-aste

in Modern

India",

Bombay

1962,

p

71.

15 Ibid, p 41.

16 Louis

Dwnont,

"Religion,

Politics

and History in India", The Hague

1970, p 67.

17 Louis Dumont, "Homo

Hierarchi-

cus", London 1966, p 32.

18 C Bougle, "Essais sur le

regime

des castes", Paris 1927, was

one

of the first researchers to attack

the illusion of a metaphysical

nation and to talk sarcastically

about

the

cash-minded Brahmin

(pretre-speculateur).

19

E

M

S

Namboodiripad,

"Kerala:

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow",

Calcutta 1967, p

26.

20 Claude Meillassoux,

"Are

there

Castes in India?" in

Economy

and

Society, February 1973, pp

89-111.

21 Dharma Kumar,

"Land and Caste

in South India", Cambridge

1965;

Hirokazu Tada, "Disintegration

of

the Peasantry in India",

in Deve-

loping Economics, Tokyo,

March

1975, pp 94-106;

Komarov and

Kotovski, in Walter Ruben (ed)

"Die

Okonomische

and

Soziale

Entwicklung Indians",

Berlin

1961;

Kathleen Gough, "Colonial

Econo-

mics

in

South India",

in

EPW,

March

26, 1977, pp

541-554.

22

Godelier, "Perspectives

in

Marxist

Anthropology", Cambridge 1977,

p 123.

23

Karl

Marx, "Pre-Capitalist

Econo-

mic Formations", London

1964,

p 76.

24

Economic and

infrastructural

deve-

lopments have been

described

profusely but only

in

very

few

studies has the impact on the

caste

structure

been

included.

See

Jan Breman, "Patronage and Ex-

ploitation", Berkelev 1974,

and

Kathleen

Cough

in

E Leach,

"As-

pects of Caste

in

South India,

Ceylon and

North

West Pakistan",

Cainbridge 1960.

25

Karl

Marx, "The Future Results ot

British

Rulle

In.

India",

in

Marx

and

Engels,

"On

Colonialism",

op cit, pp 87-88.

26

R

P

Dutt, "Modern India"

London

1927, p 60.

27

E

M

S

Namboodirinad

in

Social

Scientist, op cit, p 9.

28

The

integration of feudalism

and

capitalism has

been

analysed

in

a

forceful way by Pavlov, Rastyanikov

and

Shirokov, "India: Social and

Economic Development", Moscow

1975.

28

CPI(M), Note submitted to the

National Integration Council,

1968.

30

G

S

Ghurye, "Caste, Class and

Occupation", Bombay

1961,

Anil

Bhatt, "Gaste, Class and

Politics",

Delhi

1975; Andre Beteille,

"Caste,

Class and

Power".

Berkelev

1965;

M N

Srinivas, "Caste in

Modern

India",

Bombay

1962; Joan

Men-

cher, "Caste Upside

Down", in

Current Anthropology, 1974,

etc.

31

Kathleen

Gough, "Caste in a

Tan-

jore Village",

in

E Leach, op cit,

pp

11-60.

:32 E M S Namboodiripad in Social

.Scie1ti.st,

op cit, p 18:

3.

Gerhard

Haucek,

Klassengesellschaft

no'7

This content downloaded on Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:05:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8/10/2019 Caste in Class Politics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/caste-in-class-politics 12/12

Annual

Number

February

1979

ECONOMIC AND

FOLITICAL

WEEKLY

und Kastenwesen, in Sigrist

and

Marla, Indien, Bauernkampfe,

Berlin 1971, p 143.

34 Marx and Engels, "Selected works",

Moscow 1969, volume I, p

503.

35 Meszaros,

in

Istvan Meszaros,

"As-

pects of History

and Class

Con-

sciousness",

London

1971, p

86.

36 Marx and Engels, "Selected Cor-

r

espondence", Moscow, nd pp

541-2.

37

Ibid,

p 498.

38

Stuart Hall,

in Alan Hunt

(ed)

"Class and Class Structure",

London 1977, p 59.

39 Karl Marx, "Pre-capitalist Econo-

mic Formations", London

196-,

p

132.

40 See the articles of Stuart Hall and

Alan Hunt

in

Hlunt,

op

cit.

41

Ashok Mitra,

"Terms

of

Trade

and

Class Relations", London 1977,

p

94.

42 A II Desai, op cit, p 232.

43

M

N

Roy,

"India

in Transitiou"

1922, reprinted Bombay 1971,

p

109.

44

R

Hardgrave,

"The Nadars

of

Tarnil Nadu", Berkeley 1969.

45 Rudolph and Rudolph,

"The

Modernity

of

Tradition", Chicago

1967.

46 Hlardgrave, op cit, p

203.

47 DLjurfeldt

and.

Lindberg,

"Behind

Poverty:

The Social

Formation

in

a Tamil

Village",

London

1975,

p

222.

48 Ilardgrave, op cit, p

129.

49

Social Scientist,

March 1978

and

J)une

1978.

50

E

F

Irschick,

"Politics and Social

Conflict in Shuthern India",

Berkeley 1969, p 48.

51

Irschick, op cit, p 183.

52

Arulalan,

"The

Relevance

of

Penr-

yar:

Caste

or Class Struggle", in

Radical Review, Madras May 1971,

l)P

15-24.

53 1B

T

Ranadive, "Towards an Under-

standing

of

the Non-Brahmin

Movement"

in Social Scientist,

March

1978, p 88.

54

R

ud

olph

and

Rudolph, op cit,

p

36.

55

lbidc,

1)

33.

56

Llardgrave, op cit, pp 197-201.

57 Kathleen Gough, "Kerala Politics

and

the 1965 Elections", in Inter-

national Journal of Comparative

Sociology, 1966, pp 69ff; G K

Lieten, "Education, Ideology and

Politics",

Social

Scientist,

Sept-

ember 1977, pp 3-20.

58

M

Turlach, "Kerala", Wiesbaden,

1969; J Vadakkan, "A Priest's En-

counter with

Revolution", Bangalore

1974;

F

Houtart

and G Lemercinier,

"Socio-religious Movements in

Kerala", in Social Scientist, June

and July 1978.

59

Jan

Breman,

"Mobilisation

of

Landless

Labourers",

in

EPW,

March

23,

1974, p

495.

60

For

Kerala,

I refer

to the

last

section

in

G K

Lieten,

"Progres-

sive State

Governments",

in

EPW,

Januiary

6,

1979,

pp 29-38.

61

CPI,

Programme of

the.

Communist

Party of India, adopted by the

eigth

congress,

New

Delhi

1968,

p

51.

62

CPI(M), Work

Report

(Political)

of

the

Central

Committee,

1972,

pp

79-81.

63

NI

Shivaraman,

in

Gough and

Sharma,

"Imperialism

and

Revolu-

tion

in

South

Asia", New

York

197.3,

pp

246-266.

64

Sunanda

Patwardhan,

"Change

among

India's

Harijans",

New

Delhi

1973, p 157.

65

The

breakdown

of

the

century-

long

antagonism

between

commu-

nists

and

christians,

particularly

in

Latin

America, has

become

possible by

the

emergence

of

radi-

cal groups within the church, and

is a

clear

example

of

this dual

approach.

66

Amrita

Abraham,

"A

Report

from

Marathwada",

in

EPW,

September

9,

1978,

1540.

67

Gail

Omnvedt,

"Casfe

Struggle or

Caste

War?"

in

Front. er,

Sept-

emiber

30,

1978,

p

40.

(68

Ibid, p

35.

C9

Ihid,

p

37.

nswvering

t

n a t i o n s

R

g r o w i n g

n e e d s

V i a y a

B a n k

Vijaya

Bank

gYives

iberal

finlance

to

-

all industries small, medium or

large.

Of

course,

the

project

must

be

viable

and

serve a

purp-ose

useful

to

the

country.

Schemes

sponsored

by

Gove-rnment

or

Research

Institutes

-

get

priority.

A

Ask

your

nearest

Vijaya

Bank

for

details.

-

Registered

Office:

Light

House

Hill

Ro)ad,

Mangalore-5175003.

Administrative

Office:

2,

Residency

Roadc,

Bangalore-560025.

Chima:M.

SUNDER

RAM

SHETTY

_

.328