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Internal Classification of Scheduled Castes: the Punjab Story

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Internal Classification of Scheduled Castes: the Punjab Story 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.
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