E-Paper
The economics of exclusion: How far have we come on caste?
As BR Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste turns 90, Roshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha explore how reality compares with the dream his manifesto held out.
Had it not been for BR Ambedkar, India’s social-political contract would be very different, and far worse.
Even before his crucial role in drafting the Constitution, Ambedkar’s standing compelled those at the frontlines of the anti-colonial struggle, and their leader, Mahatma Gandhi, to recognise and accommodate his criticism of India’s brutal social inequality.
His struggle for this equality was economic as much as it was philosophical. He was clear in his mind that true equality in the realm of the former would not come until the country had addressed the latter.
If the new democracy made more room for this, it was in large part because he remained strident and unrelenting in this push for change.
As his pathbreaking treatise, Annihilation of Caste, turns 90, let’s look at how the Republic of India has fared on his cherished ideals, based on the story key numbers tell.
WHO WE VOTE FOR
Basic political representation for the most socially marginalised was secured during Ambedkar’s lifetime, in the form of reserved seats for members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, in keeping with their population share.
On the more important question of representation in the executive — made up of the President and governors, prime minister, chief ministers and councils of ministers — there has been progress, but more for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) than SCs and STs. OBCs make up about 42% of the population, giving them more demographic weight than SCs and STs, who together make up about 25% of the population.
This appears to have helped increase OBC share in the executive. HT’s databases on the caste composition of councils of ministers and state chief ministers show this clearly. (See Charts 1A and 1B.)
HOW WE LIVE
In large part because of the way Ambedkar shaped the Constitution, reservations in educational institutions and government jobs, first for SCs and STs and then for OBCs too, set about attempting to address inequalities.
These affirmative-action provisions were coupled with punitive measures against overt caste discrimination. Yet, caste inequality and discrimination persist. The economic and assets gaps remain wide, and barriers to access remain strong.
SC and ST populations are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the poor. To be sure, there is a debate over intra-group inequality too, and growing political pressure to introduce differential provisions within existing reservation, so that such benefits, for instance, accrue to those who need them most.
These debates, rather than being seen as a mutation of the project for larger socio-economic equality, ought to be seen as the evolving dialectics of processes that remain core to the Indian democracy and economy. (See Charts 2A and 2B, on monthly per capita consumption expenditure.)
BATTLES THAT REMAIN
The larger philosophical project of caste annihilation still awaits momentum.
While the Indian democracy has made definite advances in battling poverty and furthering socio-economic gains for more of its population, it does not seem to have moved away from the entrenched value systems around caste.
This is best seen in statistics on caste violence (which remain high) and on inter-caste marriage (which remain low; see Chart 3).
In an irony that would have disappointed Ambedkar, it is often economic parity rather than larger philosophical goals that bring people from these different groups together; with the result that the underlying fractures, as he had predicted, remain.
ABOUT THE AUTHORRoshan KishoreRoshan Kishore is the Data and Political Economy Editor at Hindustan Times. He heads the newsroom's data journalism team, which produces Number Theory, a daily data-driven feature for the print edition and the HT app. Number Theory uses data analysis and story-telling based on it to add value to the newsroom’s daily coverage by putting stories in a larger context on a range of issues, including politics, macroeconomy, markets, global affairs and climate. Under his leadership HT’s data journalism work has established itself as a niche product in Indian journalism and pushed the boundaries of marrying academic rigour with news sense and speed. Along with writing and editing data stories, he has also been writing a weekly political economy column called Terms of Trade for HT Premium. A trained economist with an MPhil degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kishore has also been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies of India (CASI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with his journalistic work, his writings have also appeared in journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly and working papers for CASI and UNESCAP.Read More
- ABOUT THE AUTHORAbhishek Jha
Abhishek Jha is Assistant Editor-Data at Hindustan Times. He uses statistical programming to generate newsworthy insights from large datasets. He is part of the team that produces Number Theory, a daily data story feature of the paper’s print edition. Since March 2024, he has been writing Weather Bee, a weekly column for the Hindustan Times website. He is a chemical engineer by training, who specialises in stories related to weather, climate, and the environment. Jha has been at HT since 2018, where he offers data-driven perspective and analysis on politics, environment, weather, climate, economy and society. His work includes data coverage of elections in India and abroad, including the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections; the disasters and extreme weather resulting from changing climate, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, cold waves, and dwindling snow cap in the Himalayas; the factors that drive poor air quality in northern India; the changing patterns of land use; the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on labour market conditions; the changing pattern of consumer spending seen in the new consumer spending surveys; and social norms seen in the surveys such as the National Family Health Survey.Read More
