Nationalism and Globalization Theories

• "From Nationalism to Globalization" is the guiding topic

Is Benedict Anderson's Theory Applicable to India?

• Print and capitalism relating to national consciousness suits Europe more than India
• The hypothesis can be applied to colonial India if capitalism is not considered
• Print existed on a reduced scale in colonial India
• Print played an important role in developing nationalist ideas

Ernest Gellner's Theory of Nationalism

• Gellner disagreed that the imagination of nations always comes before the creation of states
• Gellner suggested that stable state boundaries create the precondition of ongoing state and subject relationship
• Gellner suggested that early capitalist industrial economies were essential

Can Gellner's Theory Be Applied to India?

• Early capitalist industrial development was the pre-condition for nationalism, according to Gellner
• This theory cannot explain India's nationalism because there was barely any industrial development until the 1960s

Definition of Capitalism

• Capitalism is an economic system
• The means of production of goods or services are privately owned and operated for profit under capitalism

The 'Mentality' of Nationalism

• The Gellerian idea that states eventually produce nations was discouraging for Indian nationalists
• Indian nationalists spoke about Italy and Germany's nationalism as it reflected a helpful mentality
• Italy and Germany were places where national identity had power
• National identity helped drive a political movement of unification into a state

Questions for Further Discussion

• Could mentality of being organized as a nation exist in the pre-modern period?
• Is is nationalism a modern phenomena?

Collective Cultural Identities in the Pre-Modern Period

• Pre-modern collective identities had a cultural rather than political basis
• People were aware of a list of common mythical, literary, and religious doctrines

Examples of Collective Cultural Identities

• There was a public sphere of Sanskrit literature
• Northern and southern artists discussed common literature through Sanskrit
• Common culture can be complicated

The Mewar Ramayana

• The image is from the Mewar Ramayana, prepared for Maharana Jagat Singh
• Jagat Singh was the ruler of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan
• The Ramayana was prepared in the middle of the 17th century

A Mural From Tamil Nadu

• The image is a Ramayana scene from the ceiling of the Sri Andal Temple mandapa
• The temple is located in Srivilliputhur, Tamil Nadu, India
• The painting is from around the 17th century

The Two Layers of Cultural Commonness

• Cultural commonness can be first or second degree
• First degree commonness is based on language
• A Tamil speaker may understand some Hindi without fluency
• One may speak and understand a language without fluency

The Importance of First and Second Commonness

• People knew the distinction between first and second degree commonness
• Bengali Vaisnavas and Gaudiya Vaisnavas in the same region are an example of first commonness
• Followers of Vaisnava faith in other regions like Vrindavan is second commonness

Teleological Narrative

• Indian nationalism's political interest involved highlighting aspects of the past
• Stories about the nationalist period used certain parts to create a seamless story
• Modern history could be viewed as a process to prepare of independence
• Teleological thinking explains things based on the end purpose
• In this case, the end purpose is the creation of the Indian nation

Problems With a Teleological Narrative

• The teleological narrative hides the differences between different stages of nationalist imaginary growth

Early Phase of Indian Nationalism

• The revolt of 1857 is regarded as the first war for independence or the beginning of Indian nationalism, nationalists say

What Are the Important Characteristics of Nationalism?

• Opposition to colonial rule is the fundamental criteria for determining whether something is nationalism, making the 1857 revolt important
• The beginning of the Indian National Congress cannot be recognized as the beginning of nationalism, as it was loyal to the British

What Factors Helped Nationalism Develop in This First Phase?

• The first helping factor was a growing sense of specialness amongst groups of people
• The second factor was a politicization of the idea of specialness extending to the belief of freedom from foreign rulers

How Did the Feeling of Specialness Rise?

• Traditional Indian society based importance on control of land, military or religion
• Some traditional elite members used literacy to learn English and work for the British

Educated Indians' Closeness to British

• Regional division existed between regions introduced to western education and others
• The modern elite in Bengal and Madras Presidency helped British professionally

Religious Patriotism vs Nationalism

• Modernist elites thought they had affinity with the British because they were fellow literate people
• They began to regard people from neighbouring areas in Bihar and Assam as culturally backward
• Bengali elites did not move towards the idea of a nation
• They moved towards the belief in regional patriotism for Bengal language and literature

Changed Perception: Rising Discontent Against the British

• From the 1860s, examples of discontent with the British appear in Bengali literature
• The discontent targeted slow economic growth
• Lack of representation in the government was one target

Discontentment Through Literature

• The colonial administration kept a watch over any seditious activity
• Direct expression of political ideas was difficult, so literature provided a means to express discontent in secrecy
• Literature used words hard for colonial administrators to understand, especially those who did not know Bengali

Bankim's Role

• His historical fiction showed that people should believe in something bigger than Bengal's territorial expanse
• He told educated Bengalis to see Indians of other regions as essential parts of their nation rather than backward 'others'

Gandhian Movement: Mobilizing the Nation

• The forms of expressing discontent against British rule differed
• Gandhi's mass movements combined the interest of the elites and masses
• Gandhian nationalism enabled an imaginative connection between the elites and masses

Ideological Positions on Religious Identity

• India needed to be be founded on common identity
• Religious communities could provide that identity

Mahatma Gandhi

• Gandhi said that if a person's religion was significant to them, others would understand their religion too

Jawaharlal Nehru

• Nehru said that religion should be a matter of private observance, and public institutions should be secular

Cultural Commonness to National Commonness

• First and second degree cultural commonness were adapted to modern political construction by Indian nationalism in the 20th century

After Independence: Creating Plural Society

• There were different ways to imagine Indian nationalism
• The Indian solution didn't deny religious identity
• A national identity was added to other identities, creating a 'plural society'

Linguistic Reorganization of States: An Example of Plural Society

• The States Reorganization Act of 1956 reformed Indian states' boundaries based on language
• Maharashtra and Gujarat were created in 1960

Banal Nationalism of the 1970s

• The close association of the state to nationalism had certain implications
• Marginal groups began to ask whether it was their state or not
• From the 1970s, political groups based on lower-caste identities said the constitutional promises of reform did not address caste based inequalities

Does Globalization Hinder the Existence of the Nation State?

• The world has different forms of capitalist economy
• Economic globalization has resulted in the understanding that certain 'common goods' such as the environment must be commonly managed by all nations
• Globalization is leading to new ways of thinking about nationalism

Terminology Changes Regarding Caste

• In the late 1880s, Jyotirao Phule used the Marathi word Dalit to refer to outcasts and untouchables opposed by Hindu society
• The term "Depressed Classes" was first used in the 1921 census
• "Scheduled Castes" is first mentioned in the Government of India Act of 1935
• "Harijan," meaning 'Children of God,' was coined by Mahatma Gandhi

Colonial Period: Depressed Classes

• Before independence, the British identified Untouchables as a social category
• In the 1931 census, depressed classes were defined according to ritual impurity
• Depressed Classes were renamed Scheduled Castes in the Government of India Act of 1935

B.R. Ambedkar's Role

• Ambedkar pressured the British to introduce quotas for the administration's Untouchables
• The Government decided in 1934 that 25% of vacancies would be reserved for Muslims, with 8.3% for other minorities, including Untouchables representing 12.5% of the population

Political Representation for Dalits: Separate Electorate vs Reserved Seats

• Ambedkar wanted to improve the Dalits' political representation
• He demanded a separate electorate for them
• Gandhi objected, saying it would divide the Hindu society
• A compromise called the Poona Pact was established
• The Pact established a system of reserved seats granting 148 seats to the Untouchables in the provincial assemblies
• The Pact removed the principle of separate electorates demanded by Ambedkar

The Constitution's Perspective

• Article 17 abolishes Untouchability and prohibits its practice in any form
• Untouchability is not defined

Principle of Proportionality in the Indian Constitution

• Reservations in favor of Dalits and Adivasis in the education system, in the, and in assemblies were instated in proportion to their percentage in society
• Though the number of Scheduled Castes increased, the proportion of Dalits has remained about the same
• Proportionality is decided by the Census, informing the government of each category's number

Why Has the Number of Scheduled Castes Increased?

• New religious groups' low caste categories have become eligible for recognition as Scheduled Castes
• Sikh Dalits were admitted to the social category in 1956, and Buddhists were admitted in 1990

Two Political Systems

• One system involved 4 candidates chosen from depressed classes by people from the depressed classes
• An election takes place after this decision
• The other system involves certain seats reserved for depressed classes by the Delimitation Commission

The Different Political Systems

• Ambedkar wanted to retain the system that enabled local Dalits in any reserved constituency to select four candidates who would contest elections
• Congress leaders wanted to abolish the system
• Ambedkar felt no reserved seat MP or MLA could be elected without at least 35% of Dalit votes
• Congress ignored this, again
• This resulted in a system where even if a Dalit MP and MLA were elected on a reserved seat, they were not specifically accountable to members of their own community

What Remains Unchanged

• Several laws have remained dead letters
• The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act of 1993 was meant to eliminate manual scavenging of human excreta but has not been implemented in many places

Positive Affirmation Actions

• The Untouchability (Offences) Act was passed in 1955, reasserting that Untouchables cannot be prevented from entering any public place and should be given respect
• The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) was passed in 1989 to introduce special provisions to protect Dalits and Adivasis from physical and verbal abuse

Atrocities Against the Dalits

• Atrocities continued despite the 1989 law
• In 1968, 42 Dalit agricultural laborers were locked in a hut and burned alive by upper-caste local dominant castes in Tamil Nadu due to asking for better wages
• In 2006, a similar development occurred in Maharastra, where upper-caste people killed four members of a Dalit family who were resisting land expropriation

Why Do Atrocities Against Dalits Take Place?

• The police refuse to register their complaints
• When they do, upper castes discourage witnesses from testifying
• Many Dalits continue to be poor and live in villages where the benefit of reservation in education is out of reach

Dalits and Politics: B.R. Ambedkar's Experiments

• Ambedkar had 2 strategies consisting of building a political party to represent the working class, or just Dalits alone
• He formed the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1936, aiming to represent workers and peasants
• The ILP didn't succeed at attracting much support beyond the Dalit community

Ambedkar and Republican Party of India

• ILP was replaced with the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF), promoting the cause of Dalits
• This approach also failed
• The Republican Party of India (RPI) was born incorporating the features of the SCF and ILP
• RPI was open to other religious minorities, lower castes, and tribes

Republican Party of India

• The Republican Party of India gained importance in Northern India in the 1960s
• The alliance between Dalits and Muslims altered Dr. Ambedkar's project, from coalition of lower castes to religious minorities

The Rise of Bahujan Samaj Party

• Kanshi Ram, BSP's founder, was from a Chamar family in Punjab
• His family had benefitted from the opening up of the army to Dalits during the colonial period
• His father and uncle had held military posts

Challenges in the context of Caste

• Nowadays quotas are being taken by the Dalits whose father or mother have already benefited from positive discrimination policies like reservation
• The Supreme Court has suggested that the elite "creamy layer" of Dalits should be excluded from quotas

Demystifying Caste: Outcomes of The Class

• Learn about the various misconceptions about caste
• Reflect on our understanding of caste today

The Caste Into Which One Is Born Determines One's Occupation

• This statement is false
• The varna system of ancient law books prescribe the occupations that each varna has to follow
• People in the same caste engage in different occupations
• The fact that caste names always correlate with an individual's profession is untrue

What Do Ancient Texts Say?

• They assert everybody must follow the dharma of their varna
• The Dharmashastras divide society into four varnas
• People can follow the duties of other varnas in times of emergency or acute distress

Caste Mobility in Times of Adversity

• A Brahmana may receive Vedic instruction from a non-Brahmana, walk behind him, and obey him
• The Brahmana becomes the more honorable of the two once the study is completed
• One may teach, officiate at the sacrifices of, and receive gifts from people of all classes
• Each preceding occupation is more honorable
• One may live by the occupations of a Kshatriya when these occupations are unavailable
• When those are unavailable, by the occupations of a Vaishya

Caste Designations Are Changeless

• This statement is false
• There are instances of castes changing names and behavior to receive positive treatment
• There are groups of castes moving to a new area and receiving a name in that area
• For example, the Chettiar merchant caste, or the Pahari mountain people.

Chettiars: An Example of Change in Profession

• The Chettiars came from Chettinad, Tamil Nadu
• They are formally referred to as the Nattukottai Chettiars or Nagarathars
• Nattukottai means "people with palatial houses in the countryside" in Tamil
• Nagarathars means "city dwellers, traders and temple-based people" in Tamil
• Chettiars were traditionally merchants and traders in gems before being involved in banking
• They emigrated from India to Ceylon, Burma, and Malaya because of British presence

Breaking the Caste Barrier

• In 1999, Siddhant Paswan, a Dalit, became Siddhant Kumar
• With a few months to go for secondary school board exams, he followed his older brothers in picking a neutral surname
• Hiding identities was a way of avoiding the shadow of caste discrimination when joining job queues

Castes Relate To Each Other In Mutually Accepted Hierarchical Patterns

• This statement is frequently false
• In any given locality, some castes may differ in their hierarchical opinions
• Disputes erupt over the correct local hierarchy
• Cast rankings can change over time

Everyone Called By The Same Caste Name Is Related To Everyone Else Called By That Same Caste Name

• This statement is false
• Some castes whose members make pots are called "potters," but not all of them are related
• Not every "Ambani" is related

Castes Are Uniquely Hindu

• This statement is false
• Castes exist among other faiths, such as Jains and Sikhs
• Caste exists outside of Hinduism when referring to regulations around marriage and other societal groups
• Marrying within a caste, and avoiding other castes is practiced just as strictly by Jains and Christians.

Hinduism Legitimizes Preferential Treatment According to Caste

• This statement is occasionally false
• The Bhakti movement goes against such preferential treatment
• Alternative religious and non-religious movements have also criticized the same, such as E. V. Ramamswamy Naicker

Controversy Around Buddha's Views on Caste

• Buddha declared all four castes were equal
• He called the brahmanas' claim to superiority to be empty
• He also described the life goals of the three upper castes and made no mention of the goals of the sudras
• Buddha ignored the Sudras

E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar)

• There is no god, there is no god, there is no god at all
• The inventor of god is a fool
• He who worships god is a barbarian

Social and Religious Reform by E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker

• He was born into a Hindu trading family
• After a pilgrimage to Varanasi, he commented on the Brahmanical exploitation in Hinduism
• He took part in the Vaikom Satyagraha around Sree Mahadeva Temple in Kerala in 1924-1925

Castes Have Been Abolished

• India's constitution proclaims it is illegal to discriminate against the untouchable
• India's constitution does not address caste directly
• The United States made racial or gender discrimination illegal, but does not officially recognize race or gender