ISSUES OF CONCERN

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purely academically, then my answer is no. As Ambedkar concluded, there is no racial difference across castes in India; all Indians belonged to same racial stock. Castes have essentially their origin in tribal identities, superimposed by hierarchical social structure which is fortified by religious ideology. Over the years they became the life-world of people. Castes, rather caste system, have evolved into a very intricate system, with cybernetic characteristics of self-organizing and self regulating, which explains their longevity. In contrast, race is essentially biological and is marked by the hereditary transmission of physical characteristics. Racial diversity of Asia’s peoples, from Nordisk familjebok [34] (1904) Race is discerned in terms of gene frequencies differing between groups in the human species. Scientific research shows that the genes responsible for the hereditary differences between humans are extremely few as compared with the vast number of genes common to all human beings regardless of the race to which they belong. As there is as much genetic variation among the members of any given race as there is between different racial groups, the concept of race is dismissed as unscientific. Races arose as a result of mutation, selection, and adaptational changes in human populations. The nature of genetic variation in human beings indicates there has been a common evolution for all races and that racial differentiation occurred relatively late in the history of Homo sapiens. Theories postulating very early emergence of racial differentiation stand scientifically refuted. Thus, there is nothing natural in both race as well as caste. Attempts were made to classify humans since the 17 th century as an extension of classification of flora and fauna. From that they began attributing cultural and psychological values to the ‘racial’ groups and evolved theories of superiority of races. This approach, called racism, culminated in the vicious racial doctrines of Nazi Germany, and especially in anti-Semitism. Castes, originally the innocuous tribal identities while settling from the nomadic phase to settled agriculture, came to become the ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification when the varna system was overlain on the society. As tribal identities itself they were in huge number unlike races spread over the vast area of subcontinent. With hierarchized notion, their number swell to such an extent that any determinate ordering became impossible, giving rise to invisible contentions between castes for superiority with others in vicinity and in turn preserving the macro structure of castes. Thus there is a difference between race and caste for sure. Casteism & Racism But when it comes to racism and casteism, which are the systems of discriminations, the difference collapses. Both involve inequality and prejudice based on birth and descent. Both 14 Issues Of <strong>CONCERN</strong> No. 7 February 2016
are covered under the broader social rubric of identity. Both are ascribed and hereditary identity. While racism emphasizes skin colour or some other physical feature, the casteism stresses hierarchy based on birth with supposed religious and social justification. Their practice in daily life is reflected in differential treatment, discrimination and prejudice against people who do not form part of one’s coherent and homogeneous social groups/community (race or caste). Thus, on salient parameters of practice, both the systems appear similar. Promotional poster [35] for World Conference Against Racism, 2001 The issue whether caste and race could be equated flared up during the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), organised by the United Nations in Durban in 2001. Since there is no UN forum on castes, the Dalit groups collected there contended that caste discrimination also should be included in the conference. India had signed and ratified the convention in 1969 but had not yet given accession and succession. According to Article 1 of the Convention, the term ‘racial discrimination’ meant ‘any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.’ The stand of the government was that while it is committed to eliminating discrimination in all forms, it did not consider caste as part of ‘racial discrimination’. The government as well as its sponsored intellectuals claimed that ‘caste is not race’, and that ‘caste is not based on descent’. They were wrong. It was not a question of race and caste being equal, the issue was whether racism and casteism, the praxis of them, were equal or not. The answer is unequivocal yes. How did most political parties deal with Casteism - right from Dalit massacres (such as Khairlanji), all the way to Subtle Discrimination? For political parties, as explained above, caste has been the staple food. No political party participating in Indian elections, which are based on the FPTP system, can ignore castes. Not even the parliamentary communist parties could really ignore the caste arithmetic. The caste arithmetic includes all kind of dynamics depending on the situation. It includes promoting consolidation of castes as well as splitting them; it may February 2016 Issues Of <strong>CONCERN</strong> No. 7 15
Page 1 and 2: ISSUES OF CONCERN EDUCATE · AGITAT
Page 3 and 4: we spend time in and finally in the
Page 5 and 6: of Casteist discrimination & abuse
Page 7 and 8: sectors of economy enabled by new t
Page 9 and 10: caste famers. The Green Revolution,
Page 11 and 12: was a clear opportunity for the new
Page 13: caste marriages have happened; typi
Page 17 and 18: their gains. It is not a moral prob
Page 19 and 20: excluded for centuries did not qual
Page 21 and 22: Regular Features Book is division o
Page 23 and 24: Documentary The Death of Merit [44]

ISSUES OF CONCERN

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