Scheduled Castes: History & Terminology

Changes in Terminology

• The Marathi word "Dalit" was used by social reformer Jyotirao Phule in the late 1880s to refer to outcasts and untouchables who were in opposition to Hindu society.
• The term "Depressed Classes" was first used in the census of 1921
• The "Scheduled Castes" term was first mentioned in the Government of India Act of 1935
• "Harijan" means "Children of God," a word coined by Mahatma Gandhi.

Colonial Period: Depressed Classes

• Before Independence, the British identified Untouchables as a specific social category
• In the 1931 census, the depressed classes were defined by their ritual impurity regarding access to wells, schools, and temples.
• The Government of India Act of 1935 renamed the Depressed Classes to Scheduled Castes.

B.R. Ambedkar's Role

• Ambedkar pressured the British to introduce quotas for the Untouchables in the administration.
• In 1934, the government decided to reserve 25% of administrative vacancies for Muslims and 8.3% for other minorities, including Untouchables, who then constituted 12.5% of the population.

Political Representation for Dalits

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

The Constitution's Perspective

• Article 17 abolishes untouchability and prohibits its practice in any form, however untouchability is not defined

Principle of Proportionality in the Indian Constitution

• Reservations in favor of Dalits and Adivasis in the education system and assemblies had to be in proportion to their percentage in society
• The number of Scheduled Castes has increased, but proportion of Dalits has remained relatively stable
• The Census informs the government about the number of each category, which is how proportionality is decided.

Increased Scheduled Castes

• New religious groups have become eligible with the recognition of their low caste categories as Scheduled Castes and for example, Sikh Dalits were admitted in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990.

Two Political Systems

• System 1: 4 candidates from depressed classes are chosen first by people from the depressed classes, then the election takes place
• System 2: Seats are reserved for depressed classes by the Delimitation Commission

Different Political Systems

• Ambedkar wanted to keep the system where local Dalits in any reserved constituency could select 4 candidates to contest elections.
• Congress leaders wanted to abolish the system
• Ambedkar believed that in reserved seats, no MP or MLA could be elected without obtaining at least 35% of Dalit votes in addition to the largest number of votes.
• Congress ignored this
• The resulting system was where even a Dalit MP and MLA elected on a reserved seat wasn't specifically accountable to their own community

What Remains Unchanged

• Several laws remain unenforced
• The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act of 1993 aimed to eliminate manual scavenging of human excreta, but it has not been implemented in many places

Positive Affirmation Actions

• The Untouchability (Offences) Act passed in 1955 reasserted that Untouchables not 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 and violence.

Atrocities Against the Dalits

• Despite the 1989 law, atrocities continued
• In 1968, 42 Dalit agricultural laborers, who asked for better wages, in Kilvenmani, Tamil Nadu, were locked in a hut by upper-caste local dominant castes, and burnt alive.
• In 2006, upper-caste people in Khairlanji, Maharastra, killed four members of a Dalit family (including the mother, her two sons and the daughter) who were resisting land expropriation.

Why Atrocities Take Place

• Police often refuse to register complaints, if police do take the complaint the upper castes discourage the witnesses from testifying before the judges
• Many Dalits remain poor and live in remote villages where benefits of reservation in education struggle to reach the population.

Dalits and Politics

• Ambedkar had two strategies: either build a political party representing the working class or concentrate on Dalits alone.
• In 1936, he formed the Independent Labour Party (ILP) to represent workers and peasants.
• The ILP did not succeed in attracting the support beyond the Dalit community.

Ambedkar and Republican Party of India

• The Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) replaced the ILP and promoted the cause of Dalits.
• The effort failed and the Republican Party of India (RPI) was born. A combination of the SCF and ILP.
• It 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 shifted Dr. Ambedkar's focus from a coalition of lower castes to religious minorities.

Rise of Bahujan Samaj Party

• The founder of BSP, Kanshi Ram, was from a Chamar family in Punjab; his family had benefitted from army opportunities available to Dalits during the colonial period, which meant his father and uncle held military posts.

Challenges

• Dalits whose parents have already benefited from positive discrimination and policies like reservation are the ones that are taking current quota opportunities.
• The Supreme Court wants the creamy layer of Dalits to be excluded from quotas.