POLITICS OF RACE AND CASTE: we do not need the UN to solve our
internal problem
by R. Upadhyay
To have a meaningful understanding of the on going debate on inclusion
of Caste in the agenda of UN sponsored WCAR(World Conference Against
Racism), it is better to analyse this move of the NGOs in the historical
background of the growing awareness of Human Rights. Although the
origin of the racist thinking cannot be fully traced, the idea of the
superiority of the white race over all others is consciously or
unconsciously linked with the initial notion prevailing among some of the
intellectuals of Caucacian race of Europe, that their race was ordained by
God to rule over other inferior (?) races. This notion got a further
boost after the overseas expansion of the Western European Countries and
the colonial powers, which used racial discrimination against the
so-called inferior races. With the passage of time and
conceptualisation of rational thinking at intellectual level, some
sections of people started realising the need for ethical values of life
and the very concept of racial superiority became a debatable point.
The post World War intellectual turbulence following the atrocities
committed by Axis Powers against ethnic and political minorities and
slaughter of Jews at the hands of the Germans gave the lie to the
concept that "all human beings are born free and equal".
Subsequently with the emergence of United Nations Organisation (UNO), one
of the major goals under its charter was to promote and encourage respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all people, regardless of
race, sex, language, or religion. It adopted a Universal Declaration
of Human Rights on December 10, 1948 and held an International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial discrimination in 1965.
Later, it also set up a committee to review and monitor Racial
Discrimination all over the world. India became a party to this
convention after signing it in 1968.
However, even after the breakup of colonial empires, forces hostile to
the indigenous Indian civilisation with their Euro-centric imperialistic
cultural designs remained active with an objective to disintegrate the
Hindu society particularly after the Hindu revival movement in
post-colonial India. With their clout among the political
authorities in Western Powers and also within Indian polity, they promoted
the NGOs to work for their mission. The on going debate to include
caste discrimination in the agenda of the World Conference Against
Racialism (WCAR in Durban from August 31) is therefore, viewed by the
nationalist forces in the country as an attempt to alienate the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the Hindu society.
In the light of the convention referred to, some of the NGOs
particularly those claiming to be the champions for Dalit's cause in India
both at national and international level became active. Their
attempt to bring the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within the
purview of racial discrimination was to promote the design of Euro-centric
forces to impose their religious and cultural exclusivism on scheduled
castes, which could be possible only if they succeed in disintegrating the
Hindu society.
Despite the determined stand of the government that caste-based
discrimination is an "internal" matter of India, Dalit
activists associated with NGOs made it a point to globalize the issue with
an argument that caste based discrimination and racial bias are the two
sides of the same coin. They have "charged the government with
drawing the saffron curtain over the issue of human rights within the
country". They are not even convinced with the theory of
well-known social anthropologist like Andre Beteille, who said,
"treating caste as a form of race is politically mischievous and
scientifically nonsensical". Citing the ineffectual attempts
made in the past to identify and define race in India, Beteille says,
"I am now convinced that identifying the races in the population of
India will be an exercise in futility..." Beteille further
said: "We cannot throw out the concept of race by the front door when
it is being misused for asserting social superiority and bring it again
through the back door to misuse it in the cause of the oppressed" (
"Race and Caste", The HINDU, March 10, 2001)
Contrary to the view of social anthropologists and the stand of
Government of India that caste system in this country is beyond the spirit
of anti-racial movement, the Committee to Review and Monitor the Racial
Discrimination, which is empowered to interpret the spirit of the
convention rejected them in its meeting held in August 1996.
Emboldened with the report of the Committee to Review and Monitor the
Racial Discrimination all over the world, Dr. Ambrose Pinto, executive
director of the New Delhi-based Indian Social Institute (An outfit of
Roman Catholic Church) said, "The U.N. needs to change the title of
the Conference in such a way as to include caste
discrimination". Martin Macwan, national convener of the
National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights also supported his views.
Ignoring the views of the Dalit Movement activists, the External
Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in his inaugural speech in the first
meeting of the NCWCR in New Delhi on February 7 said, "We are
strongly opposed to all such attempts. We must ensure that the Conference
does not lose sight of its focus on racism." Abid Hussein, a
member of the NCWCR also said: "Caste-based discrimination and racial
discrimination are evils. It is important to eradicate them from
society. But it is not fair to take the Conference as the venue for
fighting caste-based discrimination. One must remember that it is
not a conference on taking up every kind of discrimination prevalent in
society."
Taking advantage of the draft declaration of WCAR, the self styled
champions for Dalit's cause launched an aggressive campaign against the
stand of Government of India on this issue and got the support of their
fellow travellers in media, academicians and political parties.
Eduardo Failario pointed out in the Rajya Sabha that "India has its
own constitutional remedies for the ills of casteism but it does not
prevent us from receiving global solidarity to address this multinational
problem as we do in the case of other global issues like child labour,
women, ecology, AIDS and Human Rights" (Indian Express dated August
24, 2001). But how far the global solidarity at the cost of diluting
the spirit of the sovereignty of the nation will help the Dalits of the
country is a million dollar question. Equating caste discrimination
with AIDS etc is something, which is apparently not based on sound logic.
Every country has its own social problems, which are required to be
resolved within the framework of the prevalent laws of the land. If
insurgency, terrorism, and other social evils like dowry and illiteracy
could be tackled with the help of constitutional provisions, why should
caste discrimination be discussed in an international forum? Can we
discuss the logic of reservation for Dalits and OBCs in Government jobs,
legislature and academic institutions, which may come within the preview
of Human Right violation – in international forum? In the name of global
solidarity, India cannot place its sovereignty in international forum for
scrutiny. The argument of the Dalit Rights activists that "The
culture of Dalits cannot be equated with the dominant caste culture"
shows their poor knowledge about Vedic culture, where there was no caste
discrimination. Even Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, the founder of Dalit Movement
in India said, " In spite of the composite make-up of the Hindu
population, there is a deep cultural unity and caste is a parceling into
bits of a larger cultural unit"(Organiser dated September 2, 2001).
The UNO achieved considerable success in its fight against colonialism
and apartheid. But ironically, even after over half a century of its
existence it continues to be a play ground of not only the western powers
but also of the powerful forces behind the western cultural movements,
that are engaged in imposing their faith on the weaker sections of third
world population. It had also affected the effectiveness of the UNO
to promote its real agenda and as a result the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights hardly achieved any positive visible effect on its member
countries.
Governments with questionable human rights records, such as China,
criticize the UN’s attempts to promote human rights, saying that such
actions interfere with their internal affairs. The Arab World in its
fight against the Jews repeatedly denounced Zionism as a "tool of
imperialism". It got the support of some super power in its
attempt to utilize the UN forum and accordingly succeeded in pursuing the
latter to adopt a resolution in 1975 equating Zionism with racism.
Even though the General Assembly voted 111 to 25 for its repeal in 1991,
the Arab World has not given up its efforts and again pursued the NGOs for
inclusion of Zionism in the draft declaration of WCAR. The Zionists
on their part maintained that their movement was never against the Arab’s
right of self-determination but they have been defending the right of
Jewish people for their national liberation. Presently Zionism is
based on the principles of autonomy and safety of the state of Israel and
the right of any Jew to settle there to provide the guarantee of a Jewish
nationality to any Jew in need of it. With this conviction, Israel
took a strong stand and threatened to boycott its participation in WCAR if
the latter forced to include Zionism in its agenda. USA also
supported Israel on this issue.
On the other hand India appears to be the only country in the world,
which hardly sends a strong protest against the issue detrimental to its
sovereignty. Even though Government of India did not agree for
inclusion of caste in the draft declaration of WCAR, it did not react in
the manner Israel had reacted. Unfortunately even the sociologists
or the media did not come forward to counter the aggressive voices raised
by the NGOs for discussing the domestic issue at international forum
effectively. Such soft attitude of the Government encouraged the
NGOs in the roll of foreign funding agencies to internationalise its
domestic issues.
Caste discrimination particularly untouchability in Hindu society was
one of the major concerns of the Government in the post-colonial
India. The Indian constitution therefore, made ample provisions to
guard against this social evil. The Supreme Court, Human Right
Commission, Scheduled Caste Commission have all reviewed various laws
enacted by parliament and reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes in the governance of the country as well as in educational
institutions and a number of other measures adopted by the
Government. But instead of educating the discriminated section of
Indian population to avail the opportunity provided by the Government, the
Dalit Rights activists work as a tool in the hand of the forces of vested
political and personal interests. Even the affluent section from
amongst the Dalits come under the influence of the foreign funded NGOs and
exploit their own people for their political and personal interest.
According to a newspaper report 46 NGOs in India are accredited to WCAR.
Most of them are known to be associated with Dalit movements in the
country. Despite the known stand of anthropologists and sociologists
that caste cannot be equated with race, these self-styled NGOs working for
Dalits cause maintain, "caste discrimination is racism".
In India there are number of castes and sub castes belonging to the same
race and there has been discrimination even within the various sub sects
of Dalits due to a number of factors like political, social and sectorial.
There are instances of fight within the Dalits for garnering the benefits
being provided by the Government to them. The on going caste
consolidation for sharing political power is another important factor for
caste tension in the country, though it has no similarity with the caste
discrimination as it was before Independence. Social segregation of
different castes and sub castes does not mean any discrimination against
each other. It is more or less a segregation of different clans,
which is prevalent in some form or other in different parts of the
world. Therefore, if caste discrimination is discussed in present
context, it may open a floodgate to globalise the domestic issues, which
are against the concept of national sovereignty.
How the Varnashram Dharma (professional units) of Hindu society got
transformed into birth rooted caste system and denied social hierarchy to
some of its segments (belonging to same race) may be a debatable issue but
it cannot be equated with racial discrimination. The historical
onslaught on Hindu society and the errors committed by it might have
polluted the indigenous Vedic social order, which had no caste
discrimination as Euro-centric historians project it. But the
post-colonial Governments have been serious in their efforts to correct
such errors by providing an opportunity to the socially discriminated
castes for their social, educational and economic upliftment. It may
take a long time but the move in the right direction. The stand of
the NGOs in raising their voices for discussion of caste discrimination in
an anti-racial conference of WCAR is therefore, not based on sound
logic. On the other hand it gives credence to the allegation that
their main objective is a move to discredit the Government and garner
foreign funds from the international agencies in the name of Dalit's
cause.
Outwardly the activities of the NGOs working for Dalit's cause may look
quite rational but in the absence of any specialized agency at Government
level to scrutinize their behind the scene objective and the alleged
misuse of the huge amount of foreign funds being received by them gives an
impression that their intention may not be as pious as they claim.
Their aggressive campaign in the present context is a pointer that the
move is not simply an event but a part of an agenda to isolate the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from Hindu society and create social
disorder as alleged by the Hindu nationalist forces in the country.
By and large, a number of the NGOs in India accredited to the UNO and
associated with Dalit Movement, are said to be a part of the Christian
Movement- sponsored Liberation Theology. With huge amounts of
foreign funds at their disposal, the main task of the social activists
associated with Church institutions like Indian Social Institute, William
Carries and others are to alienate the ‘Dalits’ from the cultural
mainstream of the country and provide an opportunity to their masters to
convert them to Christianity. Their support to the move of the NGOs
justifies the allegation. John Dayal, Secretary General, All India
Christian Council said, "The main thing here is to get international
exposure for the issue of caste" (Frontline in its issue dated August
31, 2001). The Christian missionaries in India have been demanding
reservation for Dalit Christians like the Hindu Dalits but the Government
has rejected it on the ground that the concept of caste discrimination has
no relevance in Christian society. An impression is gaining ground
that these foreign funded NGOs are the safe houses of the lobbyists, who
are working for various international agencies engaged in destroying the
cultural heritage of the country. Unfortunately, the media has hardly
taken any interest to look into the allegations deeply and bring out the
truth. Instead it is simply projecting the views of the NGOs without
any scrutiny. This has therefore, created an adverse impact on the
credibility of the media.
‘Human Rights Watch’, a Washington-based organization flashed an
uncalled for notes to Government of India before the commencement of WCAR
that "it should establish a programme and timetable to enforce the
abolition of untouchability" ( Economic Times dated August 29, 2001 )
Any patriotic citizen and nation with self respect should have sent a
strong protest against the notes of Human Rights Watch, as it is an
interference in the domestic affairs of the country but the issue was
raised in parliament with the support of some of the political parties,
which encouraged the NGOs in India to raise their voices aggressively
against the Government. The event has therefore, created an
impression that these NGOs are playing into the hands of the forces, that
are trying to internationalise the domestic issue of India, which is
contrary to the spirit of national sovereignty The history of the denial
of opportunities to the Dalits and their exclusion from all social,
political and economic institutions is gradually losing its relevance due
to the awareness of various Governmental and non-Governmental
institutions.
The NGOs responsible for raking up the on going controversy have only
contributed to rise of social tension without any visible benefits to the
Dalits. Their Dalit movement is primarily a move to pressurise the
Government to provide reservation benefits to the Dalit Christians with
the main objective to disintegrate the Hindu society and fulfil the task
to bring Asia under the "grace of Jesus in third
millennium". Propounding the concept of liberation theology the
cultural lobby of the west helped the western super powers to put a break
on communist movement. The present move is to counter the rise in
spiritual movement being helped by the Hindu revivalist forces.
People of the country in general and Government in particular are
therefore, required to be careful against the nefarious designs of the
forces responsible to create social disorder in Indian society.
(The analysis is based on the personal perception of the writer.
E-mail: ramashray60@ yahoo.com)
