Untouchability in : Is it being Operated Only With ‘Sacredness’ or Holding Some Materials too?

Presented by Safrin B. International Institute for Population Science, Mumbai, India. The concept of

The segregation of people in Hindu society and allocation in different sections of works ..

Caste- The chaturvarna (The system of four varnas)

-- The priests -- The and rulers -- The traders, merchants and minor officials -- The unskilled workers (Further divided into around 4000 endogamous jaatis i.e. sub- )

Caste- The chaturvarna (The system of four varnas)

-Brahmin- The priests -Kshatriya- The warriors and rulers -Vaishya- The traders, merchants and minor officials -Shudra- The unskilled workers (Further divided into around 4000 endogamous jaatis i.e. sub- castes)

Outside these varnas- the ati- (Harijans), the untouchables

An ancient legal text “ ” (Laws of human) A book

“..for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds he () caused the , the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet...”

“.. in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate (dues and) occupaons to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet. To he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda), sacrificing for their own benefits and for others, giving and accepng (of alms); the Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gis, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain from aaching himself to sensual pleasures; the Vaisya to tend cale, to bestow gis, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to culvate land. One occupaon only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes. Man is stated to be purer above the navel (than below); hence the Self- existent (Svayambhu) has declared the purest (part) of him (to be) his mouth.

Concept of caste..

Division of people in hierarchical scale of entlement, of dues, of puries and polluon.

These puries and polluons sele into an elaborate system of ancestral occupaons.

“Manu Smriti” (Laws of human)

1250 BC (Sir William Jones) 1000 BC (Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel) ------18th century philologists

One of the first texts translated by Sir William Jones...

...during the British rule of India in 1794 .. ...used to formulate the Hindu law by the colonial government. A jusficaon of caste “division of labour” – Healthy for smooth funconing of different kinds of works!

A jusficaon of caste “division of labour” – Healthy for smooth funconing of different kinds of works! ------Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

A jusficaon of caste “division of labour” – Healthy for smooth funconing of different kinds of works! ------Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

“.. Enclosed class”

“.. The study of the origin of caste must furnish us with an answer to the queson—what is the class that raised this "enclosure" around itself?”

“..It is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other” Discriminaons against

-Use of public roads -Drinking from public well -Hindu temples -Privileged caste schools -Women to cover their upper bodies in public -Tying broom to their waist to sweep away the polluted foot-prints -The very shadow is not to be touched by -Undisputed right over the bodies of women by upper- caste men.

Current scenario..

- Road, drinking water, temples, schools. - Meeng, crossing, even seeing.. - Beang up of dalits for their food habits - Honor killing - Pushing of dalit students to suicide - Beang and Killing of dalit men - Raping and killing of dalit women

Pracce of , recent evidence

Thorat Amit and Joshi Omkar, 2015

India Human Development Survey, 2011-12 Current scenario.. Examples-

Khairlanji incident: Current scenario.. Examples-

Khairlanji incident: Four members of a family were murdered in a small village called Kherlanji in Maharashtra. ...for "opposing" the requision of their field to have a road built over it. -The two women among these were paraded naked in public, abused sexually and hacked to death.

Current scenario.. Examples-

Khairlanji incident: 29th September 2006 Four members of a family were murdered in a small village called Kherlanji in Maharashtra. ...for "opposing" the requision of their field to have a road built over it. -The two women among these were paraded naked in public, abused sexually and hacked to death.

Current scenario.. Examples-

Assault of dalit men over skinning dead cow, Gujarat:

Men belonging to a local “cow protecon commiee” are stripping the dalit men, tying them to a car before brutally beang up with iron pipes and scks. Current scenario.. Examples-

Assault of dalit men over skinning dead cow, Gujarat: 11th July, 2016

Men belonging to a local “cow protecon commiee” are stripping the dalit men, tying them to a car before brutally beang up with iron pipes and scks. Una movement, Gujarat, July 2016 Una movement, Gujarat, July 2016

Keep your mother cow, Give our lands back.... Objecves

With the central objecve-

To invesgate into the economic privilegeness of, or the dependancy by the households belonging to different castes in India Objecves

• To investigate into the main sources of income and level of income of Indian households belonging to different castes in India during 2011-12.

• To examine the pattern in the amount of land holding and land cultivation in the households by different castes in India during 2011-12.

• To examine how much was the largest amount of loan received by households belonging to different castes during a reference period of 5 years and to investigate into the main purposes and sources of taking those loans.

Data

• India Human Development, second wave 2 (IHDS II)

Ø 2011-12

Ø 42,152 households

• Caste is covered in detail

To cover the experience of untouchability, all the Scheduled Caste (SC) households were asked this question- “In your household, have some members experienced untouchability in the last 5 years?”

Results Sources of main income

Allied Profes agri./ Non sion/ Agri. Organiz Cultiva Artisan/ agri. Petty Salaried Pensio Caste categories wage ed Others Total tion Independ wage shopkeeper n/ labour business ent labour Rent worker etc. Brahmin 26.8 1.9 1.3 7.5 11.5 1.6 32.5 12.8 4.1 100 Forward/General (excluding 25.6 2.4 5.8 14.8 14 2.3 24 7.8 3.3 100 Brahmin) Other Backward 26.1 3.4 9.6 24.1 12.2 1.2 14.9 4.8 3.6 100 Castes Scheduled 13.8 2.1 21.1 31.4 6.7 0.3 17.4 4.1 3.2 100 Castes (SC) SC untouchables 15.8 1.3 21.2 40.3 5.9 0.2 10 3 2.3 100 Scheduled Tribes 35.5 1.8 14.5 26.2 4.1 0.2 13 2.9 1.8 100 (ST) Others 24.1 4.2 5.1 33.4 11.9 1.2 15.7 3.1 1.4 100 Total 24.4 2.7 11.1 23.5 10.7 1.2 17.8 5.5 3.3 100 Mean HH income per capita

70000

59,400 60000 Metro urban Other urban Rural

48,732 50000 41,688 39,940 39,416 40000 38,039 34,519 33,817

In rupees 32,054 30000 25,517 23,097 24,168 21,016 18,968 20000 15,943 15,036 11,407 12,498 10000

0 Brahmin Forward/General Other Backward Scheduled Castes Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes except Castes without experiencing experiencing untouchability untouchability Mean land holding (in acres) Mean land holding (in acres) 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 Brahmin 2.75 2.80 2.77 Brahmins

except 3.46 3.48 3.45 Backward Castes Other 2.94 2.91 2.87 Castes without untochability experiencing Scheduled Kharif 1.54 1.49 1.43 untochability experiencing Scheduled Rabi Castes 1.54 1.52 1.46 Scheduled Summer

Tribes 2.43 2.42 2.42 Mean amount of loan taken during last 5 years, from 2011-12

250000 Metro urban Other urban Rural

209064 200000

170705 166000 150520 150000 141678 129222 121856 102589 106691 105651 97228 100000 86857 80352 73890

52627 50000 37824 33509 38292

0 Brahmin Forward/General Other Backward Scheduled castes Scheduled castes Scheduled Tribes castes except Castes without experiencing Brahmins experiencing untouchability untouchability Purpose of taking loan (during last 5 years) Scheduled Scheduled Forward/ Other Castes Castes General Scheduled Brahmin Backward without experiencing Total Purpose of loan except Tribes Castes experiencing untouchabilit Brahmin untouchability y Buy/Improve a house 9.3 13.1 12.4 15.9 9.6 11 12.8 Buy land 3 1.7 1.2 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.4 expenses 16.3 13.1 19.6 21.6 24.3 20.4 18.8 Agriculture/ Agricultural 25.8 23.8 20.2 11.6 10.5 26.3 19.5 equipments Business 6 11.5 8 5.4 4.7 4.8 7.8 Household 9.8 11.7 12.6 14.1 14.2 15.6 12.7 consumption Vehicle 7.3 4.5 2 1.8 0.6 1.9 2.6 Educational 4.8 3.5 3.8 4.4 2 3.1 3.8 Medical expense 14.5 13.7 16.2 19 25.4 12.3 16.3 Others 3.2 3.4 4.1 5 7.3 3.1 4.2 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Source of obtaining the largest amount of loan during 2007-08 Scheduled Forward/ Castes Scheduled Other General without Castes Scheduled Source of loan Brahmin Backward Others Total except experiencing experiencing Tribes Castes Brahmin untouchabilit untouchability y Employer 3 2.2 2.3 2.9 4.5 2.3 1.1 2.5 Money lender 8.6 11.7 21.5 22.2 30.3 19 23 19.6 Friend/ 31 31.9 34.8 36 36.6 36.4 16.6 34.2 Relatives Bank 42.5 41.6 30.4 22.4 15.2 26.7 38.9 30.8

NGO/ 4.6 5.5 2.9 5.6 3.6 4.4 4.9 4 Community

Self help group 1.8 3.2 4.4 8.1 7.1 6.4 9.4 5 Kishan credit 6.8 2.2 2.5 0.8 1 3.2 2.7 2.3 card Others 1.9 1.7 1.4 2 1.7 1.6 3.5 1.6 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Discussion

• Enclosure of households experiencing untouchablity and other Scheduled caste househlds in the works of waged labour, contrasting to enclosure of Brahmins and other forward castes in the salaried works and cultivation

• Huge gap in land holding

• Loan: The high dependency on bank by the forward castes and high dependency on money-lenders by the untouchables for taking that loan, reflects the differences in the social relations due to differences in their economic need and privilege. Limitaons

• Detailed analyses on the pathways of resource holding, occupations, social behaviors

• Data is available only for 2011-12

• Detailed quantification of some related historical facts

However, relying on the basic facts of existence of untouchability and its operations in modern India, and, the extend and pockets in which castes exist, there are scopes of further survey and research. Thank you