The minority vote bank myth

A younger colleague got worked up after reading yet another article on how Congress has for the last 67 years exploited the Muslim vote bank. The writer of the article is a Muslim (Shahid Siddiqui) and an ex-editor of Nai Duniya. Normally, I would provide the link, but I find the article so bad that I will not do it.

Here is how I responded to my colleague:

Dear ...,

This guy is from MP and probably bought over by RSS.
It is not true that for 67 years, the game is going on. It is only in the last 30 years that a Muslim vote back has taken shape. Immediately after independence, the rightists were not non-entities, but many of them were in the Congress. Others who were distributed in formations like the Swatantra parties were non-entities and the fight was between Congress and socialists of all hue (communists, Lohiaites).

Incidentally, the idea of a Muslim vote bank can make sense in UP, Bihar or Kerala - it is absurd to think of it in the National context - after all, they are no more than 18% of total population. Does it require much thinking?

The reality is the other way around. BJP survives on the Hindu vote bank. Too bad for them that the majority has had other interests.

Congress also willy-nilly played into Hindu vote bank - there are many instances of this - indecision on Babri mosque/temple beginning 1949, the Punjab politics in the eighties, etc. Nehru was less concerned with going to temples, but Indira made it a rule that she visited certain Hindu temples regularly. This was done not just because she was a believer. She married a Parsi (an atheist actually) against family wishes. She visited temples to cater to the Hindu psyche.

It is true that now Muslims are wooed by parties, but earlier Congress was not the only party they voted for and wherever they did it, it was for a variety of reasons. The Bihari and other Hindi speaking Muslims in Kolkata voted for Congress in the sixties and even seventies because they identified with leaders in the states they came from. This changed as the left culture took roots. Muslims started voting for left from late seventies onwards until the TMC took them away in the last ten years.

So, Shahid Siddiqui's analysis is biased and incorrect. There are many such self-proclaimed experts, who are prejudiced one way or other and they keep mis-informing people.

The real nature of democracy and electoral politics became apparent to parties only in the last thirties. There is not just a Muslim vote bank, there is the caste bank, the gender bank. Parties work on these equations very carefully because of electoral compulsions and that is all that one should see in it.

A literature festival and a call for a postnational South Asia

[A final version of this is published as 'Talking Literature' in EPW, 28 Dec 2013, p.142)

For years now, many of us including this writer have written opinion articles pleading for a federation or a EU like structure in South Asia with open borders across India and Pakistan. It was nice to be reinforced on these lines being in the audience for the Hri Research Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange, a unit of the Kathmandu-based Himal Sothasian magazine, session on trans-National writings across South Asia in Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF). The session hosted Kanak Dixit, editor of Himal, Babar Ayaz and Mira Hashmi from Pakistan, Farrah Ghuznavi from Bangladaesh and Ashok Ferry from Sri Lanka. There were other sessions hosting writers from the different countries of South Asia, including one with Nighat Gandhi, who claims a multi-National identity.

To be honest, I have always wondered why the lit-fests are not called the city-English-lit-fests. Typically, these have a couple of sessions in what is now called 'Bhasha' (BLF was pleasantly better than the typical with several sessions on Kannada poetry, literaure and also other languages like Tulu, etc.) and otherwise mostly it is a show by the Englishwallahs for the Englishwallahs, the ones with the burden of looking modern and yet carrying the remnant provincial feudal values on their shoulders and living under the illusion that just because they share the English language with so many others across the globe, they have a global character. But then being only marginally away from them, I go to these melas and end up finding something or other that makes me feel good. The HRI session conducted by Laxmi Murthy was one such thing. Kanak started with referring to the post-national South Asia (Shivam Vij recently wrote an article on the idea at http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130927&page=9d, wondering if it should be called pre-nationalism), and he strongly argued that we need to look beyond the lived half-century of Nationalism in South Asia. The session was mostly on writing, focussing more on the increasing set of names from the non-India parts of South Asia, as Laxmi put it. Then as usual there was some talk about writing in Bhasha and about translations (Navanita Dev Sen from the audience pleaded for awards for translators). The day before, the well-known poets and critics Ashok Vajpeyi, K. Satchidanandan and others had nearly exhausted the Bhasha issue. I wondered if these were enough to take us to post-national South Asia scenario.

There is a measured silence in most discourses on development and politics in South Asia on the impact of military expenditure in subverting development efforts. In India, there are the usual arguments, with Pakistan and China around you, how can you cut down on defense. Similar arguments prevail in Pakistan and China. In a recent analysis, published in this magazine, of the National budget and military expenditure, Gautam Navlakha points out that 19% of the budget is spent on defense. This is, of course, what is revealed. There are expenses like maintaining the intelligence agencies, the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons and secret purchase deals of highly expensive modern conventional weaponry, etc., which are not subject to audit and are not revealed to public eyes. Compare that with the near 10% on education and similar amount on health-care. Is it really possible to have any meaningful development without diverting funds from the military? And without an educated aware people, is it possible to counter elements of jingoism? The answer to both these questions is no and hence 'post-National South Asia' remains an unfulfilled dream. The writers can only do their bit but the material realities of an insane world are far too overwhelming.

So the writers told us about realities that are common to the entire subcontinent. Kanak Dixit asked for 'the courage to critique one's own state and ... to have empathy for the other states'. Farah Ghuznavi, while talking of difficulties in publishing a book in the USA, mentioned the family as the only social service agency available to deal with mental health patients. The context was about the pressures from publishers to change her writing – one publisher wanted her to talk about mental health services in villages in her novel, and she refused because none exist, and the publisher then refused to publish her book. Babar Ayaz's book 'What is wrong with Pakistan' was released during the HRI session, and talking of the defects of the Nation-state Pakistan and the terrorism in and beyond Pakistan, he also mentioned the Hindutva and the Sinhalese chauvinism. Laxmi Murthy rightly asked when will we write a book titled 'What is wrong with India'. Mira Hashmi, in words full of wit and humour talked of the love for Hindi cinema. There was a lot of cinema talk in the fest including the presence of the great Gulzar himself.

To meaningfully talk of a post-National South Asia, we need to raise our voices against expenses in South Asia on external and internal security heads. Our arguments are simple. The territorial disputes have to be resolved by negotaitions. We can use the international bodies, the United Nations and the international courts and agree to come to terms. Once settled, with GPS and what not, there could be a permanent open border surface trade between India and China all the ensuing benefits. Perhaps the situation with Pakistan is more difficult. And yet, there are multiple solutions, if only there is a desire to seek them. For instance, consider a twenty-five year moratorium on arms in Kashmir followed by a referendum for a free Kashmir. In the mean time, a UN peace-keeping force can monitor the situation. Perhaps with open borders the Kashmiris will agree to live the way they are today, a part in India and a part in Pakistan. Perhaps they will seek a unification of the severed body and independence. In any case, with open borders like acoss the several countries in EU, it hardly matters how the administration is managed. Living within a 'National' paradgm, this will never make sense. But then how do we counter the jingoism, the 'Kashmir hamara avichhinn ang hai' rant! One way to do that is to demand significantly higher levels of investment in quality education and a far greater emphasis in education on theory of knowledge acquisition, and the ability to distinguish prejudiced beliefs from justified true beliefs. Granted that education per se is no guarantee that jingoism will disappear but education is certainly a requirement. Not sufficient but a necessary condition. Where will the money for such investments come from? There is no alternative to reclaiming what is lost to militarism. An often asked question is 'does China spend any less on military?' No, they spend more, but that is for the Chinese people to fight against. And is there any reason to doubt that there are as many pacifists in China as anywhere else on the planet! Besides, the human development indices for China are more than a few decades away for us to catch up with.

Back to the question of English, I wonder what would be the probability of Babar Ayaz turning up here if his book was written in a Pakistani zubaan? Very little, really. Such is the nature of these fests. Living in times when translations sell in no less numbers than the original, it is a shame that there are so few translations available. Aiyaz Sahib was very happy to learn from me that for more than my life time, transliterated versions in Devnagari of the likes of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri have been available for us to read. It was nice to see that in spite of speaking in fluent Hindustani, Gulzar probably drew the largest audience. But then it is not literature alone, but much more the cinema connection that brings people to him.

Shabnam Virmani and her co-performer Vipul of the Kabir project fame ended the festival and that indeed was a gala event. A soulful evening in the open space of that otherwise far from literary Crowne Plaza warmed up the Deccan chill.

comment on article on Shahbag

Comment on 'The Divide over Shahbag: An Effort to Engage the ‘Enemy’by Biswajit Roy published in the latest issue of Frontier

The confusion about left and its position on religious communities aside, what should be clear is that in spite of a clear pro-liberation sentiment in Bengal, the mainstream political parties have passively, if not actively, encouraged the islamists by allowing the anti-Shahbag rallies uncontested. A clear statement from them asserting that democratic, just, trials of war criminals must be pursued and that Shahbag sans the demand for capital punishment, represents a legitimate sentiment, would not have hurt any electoral prospects. In this sense, Biman Bose's pro-Shahbag statement should be welcome. What the general reticence towards speaking against the islamists has done is that it has strengthened both them as well the Hindutwa forces. 

Anyone claiming to have grown up in Bengal for a number of years, getting educated there, and claiming to have not much information or knowledge about the Bangladesh liberation war and the war crimes, is obviously lying. One does not have to accept lies in taking up the cause for the minorities. Such an attitude does more harm to the minorities than good.

proudly there

Hesitantly went up to the stage when Rajiv (next to me in the picture) called my name to join them. Now I feel proud that I was there in the corner. This was the first appearance of Jiten Marandi in an academic setting (University of Hyderabad) after he was released from jail. He spoke well, sang songs. His wife and child have been arrested and jailed as soon as he was released. He sang a song about the child seeking the father's love. Meeting Varavara again with a huge hug from him was another gift of the day. Most of the students are from the tribal students forum in the campus. Rajiv is an AISA activist.

What a pleasant break from an otherwise mundane existence.

Daughters of our Earth, Zindabad

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Let us fight

This is a historic moment.

The violence that happened with the 23 year old was nothing new. What is historic is what it has done to us. The battle between us and those who want darkness to engulf our lives is out in the open.

No space to the obscurantists. 

We will fight. 

Women WILL wear what they want, 

Women WILL go wherever they want, wnenever they wish. 

Let the messengers of the dark God keep their 'Bharat' to themselves. We live in our Bharat, not theirs. This Earth is not owned by them. It is ours.

Daughters of our Earth, Zindabad. Women, Zindabad.

Three comments on affirmative action

In a recent discussion in a highschoolscience Google group on under-representation of underprivileged castes in the civil society institutions (initiated by an article written by Jean Dreze), I posted a few comments.

1.  Over the years, I have always found it amusing and at the same time agonising how we non-Dalits discuss the issue of reservation.

First, it is always as if we have a choice in the matter. In some ways, it is justified because we keep on finding ways to counter reservation (by greater privatisation in education sector, for instance). But the fact is that the issue is not something that we can decide. I am not so sure about the OBC, but the Dalit context is and will be determined by Dalits. We happen to control the apparent discourse on it - for now. We were able to keep reservations effectively non-operative (except in states like TN) until about fifteen years ago when the courts started intervening in the matter.

Second, in spite of enough data available (now even on Wiki) on how reservation has changed the percentages of Dalits (and OBCs) in different category of professions (in Govt. jobs - albeit at a slow rate), we keep on wondering if reservation has helped at all.  Enlightened commentaries do not indulge in the more widely prevalent 'in my uncle's office that fellow owning so many houses in the city is taking advantage of reservation' kind of dialogue, but we carry doubts in the deepest corners of our minds. This in spite of the new provisions to weed out the creamy layer.

And the issue of the poor among the forward caste -  Many of them are willing to take up menial jobs far away from their native place, but are they willing to take up the same jobs as what Dalits do in their own villages - NO and that is why reservation for poor among the forward caste is less justified than for Dalits. Nonetheless, there should be reservation for them.

This is not to undermine the serious issues that we should worry about - the gender issues, the extremely neglected groups like nomadic communities, etc.

Finally because of the essentially feudal nature of our society, we remain casteist by default with unwritten reservation for forward castes (taking care of our kin and friends is a mandatory value that we learn from childhood and practice all our lives). Anyone with an open mind can see the effectively large scale reservation for forward castes that is operative in our institutions.

It is useful to compare the situation with African Americans in USA. No average white believes that the average black may be equal to them - there is no quota and yet there is a wide acceptance of the idea that the world has to change. We are so deeply feudal that in spite of quotas and constant talk about the issue, we have kept ourselves an exclusive structure. As a friend used to say - there is one phrase that describes us - khandani badtameezi.

2. comment by Anshumala:

Reservation and the overlap of caste and class is an extremely complex issue for Indian society, requiring very rigorous analysis. i wonder if this has been done in terms of a larger theory of caste by sociologists. Can anyone throw light on such work?

Uma Chakravorty, in a lecture on the matter, gave a very deep insight, which struck me as very perceptive. The question to her was- 'All other social inequalities across the world have been seriously challenged by the oppressed and even been countered to a considerable extent. Why is caste inequality so persistent?'

She said- 'The caste hierarchy is a multi-layered hierarchy and has been designed in such a way that every single layer is below some layers, and above some others (other than the lowest of the low, the untouchables). Since every layer derives some power over those below it, they are loathe to challenge it. It is easier for a two-layered system to be challenged (like gender, like colored/non-colored)  by the disadvantaged. The caste hierarchy can only be seriously questioned by the lowest layer, but they have never been able to gather social strength enough to topple the system. (Of course, Mayawati, using the game of upper castes herself, coming to power is a significant social/historical event, but will it actually challenge the caste hierarchy? Let sociologists and historians comment

My response: If any one is seriously interested in the sociology of caste issues, is this the way to pursue it? Look, do a Google search on caste studies experts and you will find a host of them. In spite of severe neglect of Ambedkar over many decades, there are now several Ambedkar studies centers across the country. All of them pursue Dalit/caste issues in addition to all other visions of the great man. Go to them and seek the answers. In Delhi, where you are located, I can name at least a dozen experts on caste issues, my friend Surinder Jodhka in JNU, for instance. EPW has been publishing articles for aeons for those who really want to read them. I mentioned in my previous mail that even Wiki has some data available now.

I would seriously work on providing links for commentaries and data had I not been convinced that most of us are actually pathologically prejudiced and happily ignorant of this state of mind we possess.

BTW, Uma is right in her arguments in a macro sense. But there is really no contradiction that is two-layered. Certainly, the race is not such a context, the gender is not such a context. Yes, the complexity of the caste layers in South Asia is of a high order, and all that Uma said is correct. But all that only means is that we need to tune the reservations even finer and ensure that the provision is implemented fully (which was not done until the mid-nineties).

And as for the eradication, it is happening and it will be done not by us debating reservations, but by Dalits forcing us to accept the change. The sooner we realise this, the better.

3.  Vijaya's comment-

When I was a young and still in college, I remember telling my father that there was one surefire way to destroy the caste system in just one generation. All that was required was for the government to enact a law that would ban same-caste marriages. You could marry any one you wanted provided your partner was not of the same caste. He just laughed at my naivety. 

I am still not sure that anything less crazy or less drastic has a chance of succeding.

 

Subbu's comment:

 i would like to relate an experience with resource teachers in Hyderabad. these were among the best teachers from schools and DIETs called for a social science book writing workshop.

As a part of a discussion i threw a question on caste - it was a somewhat ambiguously worded question, so that it was not easy to judge my opinion on the matter.

I was shocked to find that almost all participants thought that caste was a good thing - it gave protection to people, gave them support in need, gave them culture and tradition, and if you marry outside caste you are likely to suffer as you wont understand the culture and traditions of the spouse, etc etc. So caste was seen by them as a community and a cultural vehicle. When i questioned them about possible problems in the caste system, they agreed that this idea of high and low was not good - we should treat all as equals. 

I was too shocked to take in the full meaning of this grand and innocent defence of caste system having all along treated it as a bad word. 

Actually, we seldom understand the working of caste in these terms - as a way of integrating diverse communities within a heirarchical framework while allowing them a degree of social and cultural autonomy. Marriage is a part of this system and reinforces it. 

the question of integration today is more complex. If we want to further integrate all these diverse communities by dissolving their individual identities what are we integrating them into. It turns out to be essentially an upper caste/class elite cosmopolitan culture which takes the garb of democracy and equality. To what extent will the future culture be inclusive and give space for the diversity will determine the outcome and not magic solutions.

A second issue is social protection. Our social security systems and civic administrations are so weak and police protection so partial that people resort to caste community protection in times of need. the need for this has actually increased as traditional livelihoods have been eroded and people have entered unstable markets with little skill back up.

Surprisingly this seems true not just of 'socially backward' communities but also very forward communities like Brahmins, Thakurs, Banias and such like.

I dont really understand how reservation and other such mechanism work in this context. They may certainly ensure a more physically inclusive atmosphere in the educational institutions and administration. By physical i mean they accomodate people from diverse communities. However, i dont see a cultural inclusiveness and in fact a cultural cleansing  eliminating  subaltern caste cultures. To some extent we can hold the example of Tamilnadu as scale - the one state which successfully challenged the hegemony of the Brahmins (who fortunately were not supported by an equivalent of Thakurs in the south). The nearest we have to a more inclusive culture and it is rich in problems.

 

 

My comment:
Vijaya's note reminded me how as a young man once I wrote a bunch of postcards (never posted after a couple of friends looking at it ridiculed me) asking friends to commit to a intercaste marriage, adoption of an orphan, etc.

On a more serious note, caste identity is one thing - and inequality based on the identity is another. It is interesting how we mix these two things - why, I wonder.

As concerned citizens, we put serious efforts in countering many social ills, but reservation is something we accept only because laws force us to do so. Let me give an example. I work in an institution where they do not have reservation. There is a lot of emphasis on human values. All students have to take 'human values' courses, which are basically discussions between a couple of elders (teachers/mentors) and a group of students. Responding to sceptics questioning how this may considered a humanities course, a formal syllabus was designed, assignments are given regularly, all kinds of sophisticated material is used as resources, etc. There are Jeevan Vidya shivirs that every student has to go through. Most young students hate the whole thing, but a large amount of manpower and other efforts are used for this. The reason is an awareness that there is a crisis of values and a commitment to a certain perspective on human values.

When it comes to reservation based on caste or religious identities, the clever argument against it is that dont you see what happens to these poor kids in IITs, they have to live with everyone looking down upon them, there are suicides, etc. There is no question of using resources similar to that used in the 'human values' project to address the vulnerability of potential underprivileged entrants.  Not a surprise, we are largely a upper caste Hindu majority institution.  Seen this way, privatisation in education is partly an agenda of the upper castes to counter reservation.

Identity and marriage are not the issues - it is discrimination that reservation aims to counter.  TN is an example where reservation has worked. That there are complications is true, but it has served the purpose and today even in the general category, a large number of OBC and SC/ST candidates (who are not using the reservation provision) are performing as good as forward caste candidates. Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT-M talked to us on this a couple of years back.

Other than the laws, what we need is a firm response of rejection to discriminatory casteist and communal mores. And we do not usually have this - far from it. Going around campaigning as a teacher activist in Panjab University a decade ago, I have heard openly derogatory remarks against SC teachers in broad daylight in the middle of public streets. We need laws to prosecute individuals who exhibit such arrogance on caste, communal and gender lines, but we also need the conviction and courage to develop a culture that rejects it. I am not sure we 'liberals' possess such conviction and courage - if anything, my conviction is that we are indifferent to it in practice.  I have the suspicion that not all of the 'identity' discourse is really innocent and devoid of parochial motivations.  The lack of faith in the apparently less cultivated coming from the underprivileged is all around us - all we need to see is the extent of their representation in the bodies that we belong to (as pointed out by Dreze in the article that Anjali posted and many such articles keep appearing). It is a pathology that needs to be addressed head on and reservation is one such approach.

Obama

I will never be able to explain to my daughter why I felt sad when I saw the lead by Romney in the early results of US presidential elections. And the joy of seeing Obama re-elected. When the first black mayor of NY city, David Dinkins, was elected in 1989, we were in a small town, Harda, and we celebrated it. My daughter, born in 1990, does not like Obama for good reasons (she dislikes Romney even more).

I saw on TV how so many people cried when Obama won in 2008. Oh to imagine a man of colour as the president of the USA! Its funny how we felt part of those crowds, even though we are not citizens of their country. Our hopes from him may not have been fulfilled, but we still want him to be there, certainly more so than Romney. A silly desire may be, but still so.

So much has changed in the world. And yet, so much suffering remains. It is only when we think of the past, we realise that things have changed for the better in some areas. And it has been a hard struggle by millions of people to achieve whatever little has been achieved. The bad news is that the struggle must continue. La Luca continua.