COMMENTARY

“in direct recruitments only and not in Internal Classification of promotion cases”.2 Learning from the Punjab experience, the state government Scheduled Castes: of Haryana too decided in 1994 to divide its scheduled caste population in two blocks, The Punjab Story A and B, limiting 50 per cent of all the seats for the chamars (block B) and offer- ing 50 per cent of the seats to non-chamars Surinder S Jodhka, Avinash Kumar (block A) on preferential basis. This arrangement worked well until Much before the question of n the recommendations of the 2005 when the Punjab and Haryana High quotas within quotas in jobs Ramachandra Rao Commission, Court directed the two state governments reserved for the scheduled castes Othe government of Andhra about the “illegality” of the provision in Pradesh decided in June 1997 to classify response to a writ petition by Gaje Singh, acquired prominence in Andhra its scheduled caste (SC) population into A, a chamar from the region. The petitioner Pradesh, Punjab had introduced a B, C and D categories and fixed a specific cited the Supreme Court judgments twofold classification of its SC quota of seats against each of the caste against the sub-classification of scheduled population. When the Andhra categories roughly matching the propor- castes in the case of Andhra Pradesh. tion of their numbers in the total popula- Though, the Punjab state government case went to court, Punjab had to tion. This was done in response to the pow- quickly worked a way out of it and turned rework its policy. It is useful to erful Dandora movement by the madigas the official order of 1975 into an Act in closely examine the Punjab case demanding a rationalisation of the quota view of the political urgency in context of to see if the internal classification system. However, the state government’s the forthcoming elections to the state directive was struck down by a single assembly, the legal tangle is far from SC of s for quotas in jobs has judge bench of the high court of Andhra resolved. served a purpose. Pradesh in 1998. The Andhra Pradesh gov- ernment persisted with its decision and The Punjab Case proposed to turn it into an Act, which was Of all the states of the Indian union, Pun- duly passed by the state assembly in the jab has the highest proportion of SCs. The year 2000. The act was also challenged in SC population in Punjab has also been the high court but this time a five-member growing at a rate much higher than the bench found nothing unconstitutional in rest of the population. In 1971 the propor- sub-classification of the scheduled castes tion was 24.7 per cent. It went up to 26.9 of Andhra Pradesh and rejected the appeal per cent in 1981 and further to 28.3 per against it. However, when the case went cent in 1991. However, in the following to the Supreme Court, the court took a decade it grew at slower rate and was negative view on the act and stuck it down 28.85 per cent in 2001. Punjab also has a in 2005. Implications of this judgment much larger proportion of seats reserved were however not confined to the state of for the SCs (25 per cent against 15 per cent Andhra Pradesh alone. at the national level). Much before the question of “quotas Like elsewhere, the SCs of Punjab are within quotas” for the scheduled castes divided into different communities with became a controversial subject in Andhra distinct social identities and experiences Pradesh, the government of Punjab had of economic development. According to the introduced a twofold classification of its official list Punjab has a total 37 SCs. How- scheduled caste population. It was on ever, a large majority of them can be club- May 5, 1975, that the state government bed into two or three clusters. The first sent a letter to the offices of its various de- cluster of mazhabi Sikhs and the balmikis/ partments directing them to offer “50 per bhangis constitute a total of 41.9 per cent cent of all the vacancies of the quota re- (30.75 and 11.15 per cent respectively) of served for scheduled castes … to balmikis the total scheduled castes population. Simi- and mazhabi Sikhs, if available, as a first larly, the second caste cluster made up of preference from amongst the scheduled the ad dharmis (15.74 per cent) and caste candidates”.1 In a subsequent official chamars/ravidasis/ramdasi Sikhs (25.85 directive, it was further clarified that the per cent) together constitutes another 41.59 proposed classification of quotas applied per cent. The remaining 33 caste groups

20 October 27, 2007 Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY constitute only 16.51 per cent of the total Notwithstanding the Akalis claim of Akalis over the Congress Party. As a senior scheduled castes population of Punjab.3 representing all Sikhs, there have always bureaucrat from the social welfare depart- For various historical reasons, those been sharp political differences within the ment of the Punjab government told us in from the second cluster of Punjabi SCs have Sikh community. Caste has remained an a personal interview: been much more mobile and politically important factor that shapes the internal …nearly all the chamars and ad dharmis voted active than the rest.4 It was among the power structure of the Sikh community. for the Congress Party and similarly the maz- chamars of the doaba sub-region that the The Akali Dals have all been dominated habis voted for the Akalis. Mazhabi Sikhs are generally proud Sikhs which made them a nat- famous ad dharam movement appeared by the Sikh upper castes, the khatris and ural ally of the Akalis. Giani Zail Singh wanted during the 1920s. Not only did the move- the jats. On the other end, the dalits to break this alliance and that was perhaps the ment give visibility to the community, it also among them, who constitute anywhere political reason why the quota classification emphasised the need to educate children between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of the was introduced. and encouraged entrepreneurship among total Sikh population, have remained on Similarly, the balmikis with a substan- its followers, who were almost entirely the margins of “community affairs”. In tial presence in urban Punjab could go made up of the local chamars [Juergens- fact the dalits among Sikhs showed little along with the “Hindu” politics of the Jan meyer 1988]. The ravidasis and ramdasis, enthusiasm for a separate Punjabi Suba Sangh in a communally charged politics. who too are originally from the same com- fearing increased domination of the upper It is in this context that one ought to see munity, have also done much better than caste jats in the local rural setting. the quota politics of the Congress Party the balmikis and mazhabi Sikhs in the The Sikh Akali leadership which had during the 1970s. Even today the balmikis field of education and in securing quality earlier worked from within the Congress and the mazhabis look back at Giani Zail jobs under the quota system. Notwith- Party also began to pursue an autono- Singh as a messiah. As one of their recent standing the growing appeal of the term mous political agenda during the post- leaflet applauds him, he was someone dalit for self-description across caste com- independence period. They were ex- who: munities and the continued use of the tremely successful with the elections of …was an exceptional human being. As the category scheduled castes by state agen- the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak chief minister of Punjab he tried to under- cies and popular media, the internal dif- Committee (SGPC) and aspired to rule the stand and feel the pains and aspirations of ferences among different communities state of Punjab. However, the Congress the balmiki-mazhabi Samaj from the depth continue to be as important as they would continued to command allegiance of a of his heart. Unlike other political leaders he did not merely deliver speeches and seek ap- ever have been. fairly good proportion of Sikhs, parti- plause from the audience but also did some- cularly those from non-dominant caste thing positive by allocating 50 per cent of Quotas and the Political Process groups, the urban traders and the “back- the SC quota for us in 1975 (from a leaflet of The contemporary state of Punjab was ward” and “dalit” caste groups. It was to adi dharam Samaj 2006). carved out of post-Partition united Punjab consolidate this vote bank within the dalit As a political strategy, the classification in 1966 on the insistence of the Akalis. communities that the state government of of communities for the quota would have The Akalis who claimed to represent the Punjab under the leadership of the then indeed been unpopular with the other ma- political aspirations of the Sikhs had chief minister Giani Zail Singh decided in jor cluster of dalits in Punjab. However, launched a movement for reorganisation 1975 to introduce a classification among the proportion of Sikhs among them has of the province within the framework that the SCs of Punjab for jobs reserved under been relatively small and the danger of it had been evolved by the central govern- the quota system. It may be relevant to consolidating with the communitarian poli- ment on linguistic reorganisation of other mention here that irrespective of the po- tics of Akalis was limited. provinces of India. However, given the litical party in power, Punjab chief minis- manner in which the language question ters have all come from the dominant Quotas and Identity had been communalised in Punjab, the landowning caste of jats. The only excep- History of active dalit politics in Punjab is demand for a separate Punjabi speaking tion was Zail Singh who was from a “back- fairly old and goes back to the early years state, a Punjabi Suba, was ipso facto also a ward” caste group. As mentioned above, of the 20th century. It was in the 1920s communal demand for a Sikh majority of the 25 per cent jobs reserved for the SCs, that the ad dharam movement was initiated state [for details see Nayar 1966; Jodhka 50 per cent (or 12.5 per cent of the total) in Punjab by Mangoo Ram among the 2006]. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first were to be offered to mazhabi Sikhs and chamars of the doaba sub-region. The ad prime minister, was vehemently opposed balmikis on priority basis. dharam movement of Punjab has been one to the Akali demand. However, the central The mazhabi Sikhs with nearly 31 per of the most successful of dalits mobilisa- government eventually gave in to the Akali cent of the SC population of Punjab are the tions in the entire subcontinent. Not only demand and the state was reorganised in single largest group of dalits in the state. did it succeed in mobilising a large number 1966 by taking out areas where majority Compared to the dalit caste groups of the of local dalits against the caste system and of population reported themselves as chamar cluster, the mazhabis have always for a separate religious identity [see for Hindi speakers. Though much smaller in been far more enthusiastic about the Sikh example Juergensmeyer 1988], it also size, post-1966 Punjab had nearly 60 per religion and Akali politics. This would succeeded in spreading the message of cent Sikh population. have obviously meant an advantage to the education among them. Today the ad

Economic & Political Weekly October 27, 2007 21 COMMENTARY dharmis are perhaps the most progressive Writing on the history of the community government and an ideologue of the balm- community among the scheduled castes of in the region, Prasad makes a similar iki movement, R L Sabberwal, for example Punjab. The other sections of chamars point about the urban migration of Pun- told us in an interview: have also been politically quite active. The jabi chuhras to Delhi during the colonial The chamars have had an advantage over well known dalit leader Kanshi Ram, for period. He writes: us. Their involvement with leather work example, hailed from a Sikh ramdasi and shoe making naturally made them en- Tied to an occupation, the chuhras found it trepreneurs and traders. They were quick to family of Ropar district. hard to get jobs in other spheres of life, least exploit the new opportunities as they came In contrast, the chuhrah cluster of the of all things that paid more than the glori- with urbanisation and reservation. We have dalit castes (balmikis and mazhabi Sikhs) fied skills of refuse removal. While the Brit- had no such tradition. Our occupation kept has been far less mobile. In the rural ish hired certain oppressed castes into the us backward. railways and into the construction trade, setting mazhabi Sikhs have been closely the chuhras and allied dalits had to perforce However, over the years things have associated with agriculture, mostly as work in the municipality as refuse removal. begun to change for the balmikis as well. wage labourers or “tied” servants of the …Over time, the link between the caste Secure employment as scavengers in the big landlords. However, rarely did they and its occupation became far more per- urban municipality is increasingly becom- own any agricultural land and only a few vasive then it ever was in the past [Prasad ing a thing of the past. The newly emerging 2000:45]. cultivated land as tenants in Punjab. As the scavenging contractor pays very low wages. official data shows, less than 5 per cent of Given all these limitations on the mobility With no education or specialised skills, the all the dalits are listed as cultivators and of balmikis and mazhahbi Sikhs histori- balmiki youth does not have many options. given their status, the proportion of mazhabi cally, their achievements in education Even those who get educated are invariably Sikhs among them would be even lower. would have also been limited. The assur- the first generation of the educated in their In terms of their geographical spread ance of employment in the municipality as families. It is not easy for them to compete they are concentrated more in the Malwa scavengers would have only discouraged with the relatively more mobile chamars sub-region of Punjab where the hold of big the balmiki families from pushing their and ad dharmis for the government jobs in landowners has traditionally been much children towards education. As a leader of reserved quotas. stronger and job opportunities outside ag- the balmiki community told us in an inter- riculture far lesser than the more urban- view in Ludhiana: Balmiki/Mazhabi Agitation ised doaba region where a large majority Surprisingly those who get jobs in the govern - It is in this context that when the termina- of dalits are ad dharmis or chamars. ment sector at a relatively senior level from tion of the classification of quotas was or- Though some of the mobile mazhabi our community invariably come from rural dered on July 25, 2006, by the Punjab and Sikhs have also moved to urban centres areas. Among the urban balmikis there has Haryana High Courts there was a sudden where they are employed as government traditionally been no aptitude for education. sense of anger and agitation among the servants or have become a part of the This point was further corroborated by balmikis and mazhabis of Punjab. They urban working class, a large majority of Ram Rattan Ravan, an important leader were quick to organise themselves and urban chuhras are known as balmikis. In of the balmiki community: formed a group called the ‘Balmiki and terms of occupation they are mostly The Municipal Act has worked against our Mazhabi Sikh Reservation Bachao Morcha’ involved with the traditional calling of community. It blocked our development and in a meeting called on July 30, 2006, in their caste, scavenging. Their migration to kept us attached to the traditional occupa- Jalandhar. The morcha gave a call of urban areas would have invariably been in tion of scavenging. Our people started get- Punjab bandh for August 4, 2006, against response to the growing demand for ting secure jobs without any education and the high court ruling and demanded therefore they did not feel the need of mak- scavengers in the municipality and middle ing any effort to get themselves or their restoration of 12.5 per cent reservation class localities. children educated. In the city of Ludhiana for the balmiki and mazhabi Sikh in While employment was available rather where we have several colleges and a univer- government jobs as per the 1975 notifica- easily, their urbanisation did not necessar- sity and all possible facilities for education, tion. In addition they also emphasised on ily bring any kind of social mobility even only two students from the balmiki com- the need of extending their demand for a munity could qualify to be doctors in more when some of them could earn well with similar share of seats in admissions to than 30 years. This mentality of depending regular salaries and pensions. In fact, pro- on the municipality service was rampant in educational institutions. In fact, they in- portionately the number of urban balm- our community and therefore was the big- sisted that without a separate quota in ikis engaged in scavenging work would gest challenge for us. Our struggle is not educational institutions, job reservations have only gone up with migration from only against the other communities but also made no sense. “We simply do not have against our own traditions. the village where only a small proportion candidates for better jobs because our of them worked as scavengers. Their local In contrast, the chamars had an inher- children find it hard to get admissions in identities too were that of ‘kammi’ or ‘sepi’, ent advantage over the chuhras because of the institutions of higher education”, was meaning regular farm workers, who were their traditional involvement with leather the repeated argument. known for their secular occupations, even work and a certain degree of autonomy. According to The Tribune of August 5, though status was invariably determined This fact is repeatedly emphasised by 2006, the bandh was quite successful and by their position in the caste hierarchy. balmikis. A retired officer of Punjab life in major cities of Punjab was completely

22 October 27, 2007 Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY paralysed for the day. The newspaper us on October 10 in Patiala that he will in Punjab. Though we do not have any reported: soon issue an ordinance and extend the data for Punjab but figures given by the quotas to seats in educational institutions, Gurnam Singh Commission for Haryana Members of the balmiki community led by he did not do anything”, he continued. appear quite revealing. The share of the their leaders held demonstrations in differ- SC ent localities in protest against the decision In the meanwhile legal validity of the more depressed category of s of the of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to Act of 2006 was challenged in the Punjab category “B” (which included the local cancel 12.5 per cent reservations for balm- and Haryana High Court by one Hardip balmikis and mazhabis) in the class I jobs ikis and mazhabi Sikhs in government jobs. Singh on October 10, 2006. Even though it went up from 17.6 per cent before the in- They blamed the government for not adroitly did not issue a “stay order” on the Act, the troduction of classification to 46.4 per cent presenting the case due to which the reser- vations were cancelled. They demanded the court accepted the appeal for hearing and in the recruitments made after the classifi- restoration of 12.5 per cent reservations not has also issued notices to various depart- cation. The difference was even more only in government jobs for them but also in ments of the Punjab government about the striking in the case of class II jobs where it educational institutions. disputed status of all the new appoint- went up from less than 8 per cent to 48 per They urged the state government to bring ments made under the Act, leaving the cent. Similarly in case of the class III jobs, a legislation in the coming session of the SC state assembly for making equal distribution balmiki-mazhabi struggle for quota in ed- the share of the more depressed s went of reservation between balmiki/ mazhabi ucational institutions in limbo. up from 10 per cent to nearly 49 per cent.5 Sikhs and ad dharmi Samaj to avoid any The experience of internal classification confrontation in future. Conclusion of the scheduled castes in Punjab and The bandh was followed by a gherao of The ongoing debate and disputes on the Haryana is certainly much more than in- the members of the legislative assembly question of extending the quota to Other stances of competitive vote bank politics. on August 18. In order to consolidate and Backward Classes (OBC) students to central The value of the Punjab case also lies in mobilise the “community”, the morcha government funded institutes of higher the fact that it has been in operation for also began a “foot-march” from the town education has made it a politically difficult more then 30 years and does ask for a of Sangrur on September 10, 2006. The question. The nature and intent of the mo- close and sympathetic examination, and marchers were to reach Amritsar in nine bilisation on the part of medical students perhaps extension to other regions of the days covering much of Punjab. opposed to the OBC quotas and the exten- country. Given that elections to the state assembly sive media coverage accorded this have were so near, the balmiki-mazhabi move- tended to polarise popular opinion on the Email: [email protected] ment obviously made the Congress govern- subject of reservations. In the given context, ment jittery. They quickly framed a legis- it seems one could either be “for” or Notes lation to convert the “1975 directive” into an “against” the idea of reservations, gener- 1 Official directive, government of Punjab were col- lected from the office of the department of social wel- “act” and presented it to the state assembly ally speaking. It even makes it difficult to fare, government of Punjab, Chandigarh. on the last day of its session, i e, on Sep- distinguish the OBC reservations from the 2 Ibid. The official directives also did not apply to the reservation of seats for admissions in educational in- tember 17, 2006. The draft bill was unani- reservations for scheduled castes and stitutions. 3 All these figures are based on 1991 Census and were mously passed by the legislature assembly scheduled tribes which have had a very collected from the office of the department of social and it became an Act on October 5, 2006, different political and sociological context. welfare, government of Punjab, Chandigarh. 4 See Juergensmeyer 1988, Jodhka 2004, Puri 2004, after being approved by the governor. Such a polarisation of public opinion is Ram 2004, Judge 2004. Though passing of the Act could for the not only politically unfortunate, but it also 5 As quoted in Adhikar Yatra (2006), a leaflet by Adi Dharam Samaj, and organisation of the Punjab time being circumvent the high court makes it difficult to critically examine valmikis. judgment on quota classification, it failed some of the more contentious issues on to satisfy the balmiki and mazhabi Sikhs the subject in a dispassionate manner. The References because the said Act had no provision for question of reservation certainly cannot Jodhka, S S (2004): ‘Sikhism and the Caste Question: Dalits and Their Politics in Contemporary Punjab’ extending the quota to admissions to be collapsed into a single and undifferenti- in Contributions to Indian Sociology (ns), Vol 23, educational institutions. Leaders of the ated subject. The sociological and political pp 165-92. – (2006): ‘Regions and Communities: Social Identities in morcha attributed this to the continued context of SC and ST reservations has Contemporary Punjab’ in Rajendra Vora and Anne Feldhaus (eds), Region, Culture, and Politics in India, domination of chamars in the Congress been very different from that of the issue Manohar, Delhi, pp 299-316. politics and state bureaucracy. “Of the 105 of OBC reservations and the policy related Judge, P (2004): ‘Interrogating Changing Status of Dalits in Punjab’ in Harish Puri (ed), Dalits in or so IAS officers from the scheduled caste issues concerning the former are also dif- Regional Context, Rawat Publications, Jaipur, pp 100-31 category in the state of Punjab only three ferent from the latter. Juergensmeyer, M (1988): Religious Rebels in the Punjab: belong to the balmiki-mazhabi communi- The question of internal classification The Social Vision of Untouchables, Ajanta Publica- tions, Delhi. ty”, pointed out Ram Rattan Ravan. He was recognised to be an important issue Nayar, B R (1966): Minority Politics in Punjab, Princeton also mentioned the fact that at the time of long back in 1975 in the state of Punjab, University Press, Princeton. Puri, Harish (2004): ‘The Scheduled Castes in the Sikh the framing of the Act even the social much before it became an issue with the Community: A Historical Perspective’ in Harish Puri (ed), Dalits in Regional Context, Rawat Publications, welfare minister was from the chamar/ more depressed dalit groups in other parts Jaipur, pp 190-224. ravidasi community. “Though the then of the country. Interestingly, it also worked Ram, Ronki (2004): ‘Untouchability, Dalit Consciousness, and the Ad Dharam Movement in Punjab’, Contribu- chief minister Amarinder Singh promised without any problems for nearly 30 years tions to Indian Sociology (ns), Vol 38, pp 323-49.

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