India: Caste – The Beginning of the End?

I am not religious. I was born a Hindu, and there are many aspects of Hinduism that I consider praiseworthy. Hindu philosophy (what little I have read of it) is profound and rational. At its best, Hinduism is a gentle way of life that preaches compassion and tolerance. There is room for speculation, discussion and debate. However, there are things about the way Hinduism is practiced that is truly detestable. The worst of these is caste. Caste (and the way casteism is practiced in certain parts of India) represents all those things about Hinduism I would rather forget.

Nowhere is casteism practiced more aggressively than in the Hindi-speaking heartland of North India, in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Together, these two states are the most backward in India, on virtually any parameter you select – whether it is economic development, literacy, gender equality, infanticide, healthcare, crime or primary education. Together, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar form about 30% of India’s population, and unless there is significant positive change in these two states, India’s dream of becoming an economic superpower can be forgotten.

So-called “lower” castes were persecuted for millennia under the garb of religious sanction. After independence, every Indian government irrespective of political persuasion has found ways to develop and maintain caste-based “vote-banks”, playing off castes against each other to obtain votes and power. This political tactic of divide-and-rule is still very widely practiced all over India. In more progressive parts of India, education, literacy and economic development have made a significant dent in caste-based politics, and though caste is still important, it is no longer all-important. It is not easy to eliminate thousands of years of institutionalized prejudice and it will take time for things to change.

Many right thinking people had given up hope regarding any significant change in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Which is why the re-election of Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar is such a refreshing development. As Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar has brought about much needed change in India’s most backward, benighted state. Instead of focusing on caste-based politics in a quest for power, Kumar has focused on economic development and security. The changes he has brought about in Bihar in the five years he has been Chief Minister would be considered modest in most other places. He has built roads and schools and put criminals in prison. He has provided modest livelihoods to the desperately poor. In Bihar, a state where there was no security, no roads, very little education and absolutely no economic development, these changes are truly revolutionary. There is still a long way for Bihar to go. It remains extremely poor and backward. But still, a beginning has been made.

Kumar’s shrewd tactic of focusing on security and economic development must have been a huge gamble, especially in a state where everybody assumed that the only way of obtaining power was propagating destructive caste and religion based politics. But against all odds, it has worked.

Does this mean the beginning of the end of destructive caste-based politics in India? I certainly hope so. It took thousands of years to build the destructive institution of caste. It may be too optimistic to think that it can be dismantled in twenty years. Can we dare hope that a start has been made?