Skim the Dalit creamy layer

Mail Today Edit Page, January 17, 2012
A golf- playing mother in Delhi badly wants her bright young kids to grow up preparing for the civil service examinations. Her father was in the service, so is she and she hopes her kids would keep the family flame live. And their entry into the service is almost sure. Not because her kids are endowed with a superior intellect or are extremely hardworking. But they belong to the elite among the Dalits who have apportioned the Dalit quota for just themselves stealing the jobs of the needy poor for perpetuity.
The golfer sure is not alone. Actually she is in illustrious company. The first Dalit President KR Narayanan’s daughter got into the Indian Foreign Service through the quota route. She wrote her exams, probably, when her father was a globetrotting diplomat destined for even higher things in life. What a travesty of affirmative action!
The ruling party, the Congress, has finally woken up to the misuse of quotas by the elite among the Dalits and decided to break the category into Dalits and Mahadalits. But it is more of a political act without any real application of mind. It has come simply because Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati belongs to the Chamar or Jatav caste which is the dominant group within the Dalits in north India. The Congress has merely flattered the Nitish Kumar government by copying even the term he used to split the Dalit quota without any application of mind. In Bihar’s case, the rat- hunting community of Mussahars, or other miserably poor farm labourers might get a slice of the quota cake for their children if the new policy is diligently implemented, but for the rest of the country the new policy really doesn’t make much sense. Interestingly, Chamars are also listed as a Mahadalit community by the Mahadalit commission set up by the Bihar government.
Elite
In India’s mind blowing caste matrix, there have always been elites among every caste group. Only rank outsiders have made the mistake of imagining the caste hierarchy as a strictly pyramidal structure where Brahmins are on top and the Dalits are at the bottom. Sure, it now suits the Brahmin to believe that such a structure existed in the hoary past. But the truth is something else. Just as many Brahmins lived off alms from the wealthy peasant castes, there was a class of leaders among the agricultural labourers.
Something akin to the Subedar Major in the British Army, the highest post a native could aspire for. Subedarsaab, as he was respectfully referred to by the young commissioned officer, was the real veteran who took his men to war, all the while letting the young officer believe that he was in charge.
Similarly, there were headmen among the slaves bonded to feudal lords. For instance, in some parts of Kerala they were referred to as Thalapulayan, literally the Head Pulayan. Like the Subedarsaab, the headman was treated with a modicum of respect, with his children spared of rape and beatings in a terribly oppressive system.
Dr BR Ambedkar had violently reacted to such a comprador class, while seeking a separate electorate for the Dalits during his momentous fight with Gandhi that ended in his defeat and the Poona Pact. He had then argued that if the electorate remains the same, only the loyal Head Pulayan would be chosen by the mainstream parties instead of Dalits choosing their real representatives. Ambedkar was proven right when he was defeated by the Congress candidate in the first ever Lok Sabha elections.
Ambedkar
Ambedkar’s vision of empowerment was of Dalits representing themselves with leaders emerging from within the community owing allegiance to no philosophy other than Dalit emancipation. Now, Ambedkar’s defeat is complete with the golf- playing beneficiaries of his great liberating tool stealing the quotas from the shanties of manual scavengers and keeping the biggest jobs in the country for their children forever.
Ambedkar coined the word Dalit against Gandhi’s ‘ harijan’ in order to establish a new order where the oppressed are no longer tied to the feudal dole- outs of the benevolent master. But feudal lineages of Dalit lords have sprung up instead of creating a brave new casteless society. This is well illustrated from the case of Meira Kumar who contests from a reserved constituency despite being the daughter of the legendary Congress leader and former defence minister Jagjivan Ram.
Is it not time to skim the cream and take it out of the Dalit decanter? The Congress’ move to provide a separate share of quota for Mahadalits, though it appears a step in the right direction, will only create a new creamy layer among certain extremely backward Dalit castes. Targeted quotas in the real sense will happen only if the creamy layer principle is applied, as in the case of other backward classes ( OBCs) and the most backward classes ( MBCs).
Move
The quotas have so far been dominated by the agriculture labour classes among Dalits like the Mahars of Maharashtra, Malas of Andhra Pradesh, Pulayas of Kerala, Pallars and Paryans of Tamil Nadu, Holayas of Karnataka and by Chamars in North India. These self assured castes never inter- marry or mingle with the manual scavenging castes like the Valmikis of north India or Thottis of the south.
It is no coincidence that Ambedkar was a Mahar, the first Dalit chief justice of India a Pulaya or the first Dalit President a Parava. They have been the traditionally empowered castes for various reasons. The Mahars have been warriors since the time of Shivaji and had actually defeated the Peshwa army, fighting for the British in the Anglo- Maratha wars. In fact, Ambedkar’s father and grandfather were Subedar Majors in the British army. Similarly, other agricultural worker castes among Dalits had greater access to information and education compared to the butcher, the leather worker and scavenger castes among Dalits.
But identifying these Mahadalits and giving them a special sub- quota now is a futile exercise because in just a few decades this would give rise to another elite group that would never allow the real Mahadalits, the scavengers and rathunters, to escape from their hell holes.
The need now is to ensure that a bureaucrat’s child or a minister’s daughter does not avail of this facility. Income need not necessarily be the only cut- off factor. But the quotas should definitely end with just one generation in the case of legislators, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and judges. The biggest challenge to our democracy arises from the growing tribe of Gandhis, Scindias, Pawars and Gowdas and now the neo- feudal families of Dalit elites are joining their ranks.