Gobind Thukral

FOR ages caste has been integral to social system in India. Caste in fact, has been so omnipresent in Indian history that it has blurred our sense of history. Caste defines the core of Indian tradition, and it is seen today as a major threat to modernity.

Whatever be the merit of the argument that there was need of dividing the society on the basis of work in order to develop skills, bring in professionalism and sharpen craftsmanship, the prickly and rigid caste divisions became oppressive and completely negated its basic purpose if any? The caste system is a tyrannical hierarchical social system is seen as part of a design by the ancient rulers and religious leaders.

It is well recognised that the caste system emerged with the earlier phases of the division of labour. Over the period it became a coercive mechanism in the hands of the elite to enforce a mandatory unrecorded contract wherein the peasants and craftsmen would usually part with the surplus, leaving only a part of the product not even enough to survive. Over the centuries it stifled new ideas and blocked inventions. A minority enjoyed at the cost of majority who slogged and suffered, leading to degradation of human beings and consequent caste wars.

D.D.Kosambi, a mathematician and a historian in his celebrated book, ‘The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline’ finds the origin of the institution of caste in the Aryans’ transition in the later Vedic times from pastoralism to food production, to agriculture, wherein the aboriginal food-gathering tribes were assimilated into the new food-producing economy as exploited as Sudras, with occupational specialisation leading to proliferation of sub-castes or Jatis, within the broader framework of caste-class hierarchy. Kosambi finds caste as an overwhelming factor in determining the nature of labour organization, land tenure, surplus appropriation, access to land, inputs, credit and the market.

The ‘Chaturvarna’ or the occupational definition on a hereditary basis emerged with the division of labour and specialisation of labour developed from an agricultural basis. In this model the duties and rights-the functions and aspirations-of an individual were automatically determined by birth as a member of one of these castes based on the political philosophy known as the ‘Varnasrama’ norm. Manu who is known in the Hindu aphorism as the ‘supreme law-giver’ in his Manusmriti’ enumerated how the four varnas are to be viewed as two main classes in society.

Mahatma Gandhi opposed the doctrine and practice of untouchability consistently throughout the last quarter-century of his life. His views, however, in regard to some other aspects of the caste system changed gradually. In the early 1920s he held that the caste system, fixing people's "duties and occupations", was "a natural order of society"; every Hindu "must follow the hereditary profession"; and "prohibition of intermarriage" between people of different varnas was "necessary for a rapid evolution of the soul". But later he gradually became "a social revolutionist", advocating intermarriage between Brahmins and Untouchables in order to dismantle the entire caste system "root and branch", and acknowledging that "When all become casteless, monopoly of occupations would go." the Mahatma proved a force in providing dignity to the untouchables, or Harijans as he called them. New nomenclature is Scheduled Castes or Dalit.

In The Discovery of India, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote that “Almost everyone who knows anything at all about India has heard of the caste system; almost every outsider and many people in India condemn or criticize it as a whole.” Nehru did not like the caste system any more than he admired the widely heralded “spiritual” foundations of Indian civilization. He noted that caste has resisted “not only the powerful impact of Buddhism and many centuries of Afghan and Mughal rule and the spread of Islam,” as also “the strenuous efforts of innumerable Hindu reformers who raised their voices against it.” Nehru thought that caste system would disappear through the force of basic economic changes. We find evidence since then of the changing caste equations in India.

He also emphasised, “The conflict is between two approaches to the problem of social organisation, which are diametrically opposed to each other: the old Hindu conception of the group being the basic unit of organisation, and the excessive individualism of the west, emphasizing the individual above the group.” Nehru was clear about the conceptual contours of the debate over the caste system.

Punjab and Haryana experience

During the past many decades, there had been reform movements that were engaged in removing untouchability and bringing the Dalit into the mainstream of our society. Sikhism from 16th century was one prominent religion that struck at the roots of morbid caste structures. In north India, Arya Samaj played a significant role in obliterating caste disparity. There were other reform movements too all across the country. Mahatma Gandhi succeeded to a level in integrating these poor and oppressed people whom he called Harijans, the children of God. He encouraged them to come to the political fold to fully participate in the freedom movement as equal partners. One of his popular journals was named as the Harijan and he often stayed among the Dalit to emphasise equality.

At another level increased means of transportation and communication, the fast paced industrialisation and greater emphasis of the government of India and the state governments through reservation in elected bodies; parliament, state assemblies, local self government institutions like municipal committees and panchayats pushed the cause of scheduled castes and backward classes. Reservation in government jobs has played a very significant role in the amelioration of these poorest of the poor. The UPA chairperson, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh have been pressing along with many other political parties to reserve jobs in the private sector also.

In Haryana untouchables were outcasts, people considered impure or polluted to rank as proper human beings. Prejudice defined their lives, particularly in the rural areas, where nearly three-quarters of India's people live. Untouchables were shunned and humiliated by higher caste people. They were made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and insulted in many more ways.

Yet in Haryana the Arya Samaj movement played a significant role in bringing back the untouchables to the manifold of Hindu society which was backward looking for long time for different historical reasons. It is now setting new caste equations. Since a modern industrial state that requires a large skilled workforce cannot be built when the society is sharply divided on caste basis, it becomes imperative to get rid of these caste cleavages.

Fortunately the state government for a range of reasons adopted an egalitarian approach to build a casteless society. In addition to reservations in elected legislative and local self government institutions, it offered reservation in government recruitments. It took upon itself the tough job of educating the scheduled castes and backward classes to strengthen them socially and culturally and be equal partners in society. Through a slew of incentives, today the Dalit in the state are being helped to get educated and take up skill improvement. These steps are certainly helping the downtrodden to get back their dignity.

These egalitarian policies and practices apart, getting fully integrated in a society so viciously caste ridden is much beyond the work of the government. It requires an enlightened public, an awakened society that yearns and struggles for renaissance. Here the role of social reformers, public intellectuals, educationalists and teachers besides an enlightened media is of greater significance.

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Sustainable farming catching up in Punjab

Amarjit Singh

IT is unfortunate that Punjab with the total area of 2.5% of area of the country consumes 18% of the pesticides consumed in the country – exclaimed one of the participants of the training camp on natural farming (Kudrati Kheti). This aptly describes the reason behind emergence of Kheti Virasat Mission and what they have achieved in the last 4 years of their existence was quite evident all through the 3 days of the training camp.

With participants coming from Gujrat, Haryana and Rajasthan, the state level training camp really turned into a national level one. The experts on the issue who attended and passed on their teachings included Dr. Omprakash Rupela (former principal scientist ICRI SAT India), Dipak Suchade , expert in Natueco farming – a practice of organic farming from Devas, MP and Dr Raghunath expert in Non Pesticidal Management NPM from Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad.

I think the camp provided a wonderful platform for experts to pass on their knowledge and farmers to discuss their doubts and learn new techniques. The audience comprised of a big range of small farmers with about a quarter acre (primarily from Gujrat) to large farmers owning more than 100 acres. In that context, I believe that the questions that came up broadly represented the complete class of farmers across India.

There was both passion and discontent floating around amongst the farmer participants. Some of them were really passionate about natural farming aligning with the philosophy of poison free Punjab. On the other hand there were also few who were discontent with the produce they were getting and the question – Jhaad kitna aaya (How much was the produce?) was the first one to come in any session and response to any energetic farmer’s experience telling. Such a mix was a true evidence of genuine evidence of hard work put in by KVM people in convincing these farmers to practice organic farming (even if it is on a smaller percentage of their big land holding) and also bringing such critical issues to the forefront in a common audience. Till the time such issues are resolved widespread adoption seems unlikely and the only way to resolve it is through a dialogue and not putting it behind the agenda during these public camps.

Dipak Jee was probably one of the most passionate person in the camp – every time he demonstrated the different steps involved in the process of Natueco farming, he will get completely immersed and the pleasure was quite apparent on his face and his activities. He patiently addressed some tough, into the face questions from farmers giving convincing answers almost all the time. Wherever he went too deep into philosophical ideology behind natural farming, Dr. Rupela chipped in with his wonderful Punjabi extending those justifications on practical grounds and sometimes even with scientific explanations. They formed a very fantastic team together.

The amount of effort that went into the planning and organization was quite evident. The sessions seemed to be hand picked so as to cover all the major issues – ranging from introductory sessions, practical demonstrations of the technique of Natueco farming, interactive question and answer sessions to addressing the marketing challenges through success stories of independent farmers were all very relevant, involved the audience and lead to quite a lot of healthy discussions.

The idea of comparative studies of Dr Rupela wherein he wanted some of the farmers to come forward to take up two plots of 1 acre each with organic farming practiced in one and chemical in another seemed really bright. The ultimate objective is to demonstrate practical benefits of organic farming on the specific soil structure of Punjab and to test a conglomerate of organic farming approaches that can be practiced on such a small piece of land. It was quite interesting to see that the number of farmers that came forward for such a study were more than what Rupela wanted.

Finally, such a successful camp wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the team of KVM. They made all the prior arrangements for the successful coordination, pitched in at the right moments to steer the direction back to the topic whenever it was digressing, involved the whole community of audience, tried to address the language barrier amongst the audience and the speakers and plethora of other small and big activities. It was all done quite successfully. An interesting and differentiating factor was that the organization runs primarily in a Sangat mode - extending the Sikh philosophy of getting personal funds from the donors and members while not buying into the large funds from big organizations. Any support to the organization, small or big, surely goes a long way in converting the dream of chemical free Punjab into reality.

Organic groundnuts, organic kinnoo and processed rose water other amazing stuff was on offer for the palates all through the three days which told their own story of success of the chosen few who have dedicatedly pursued organic farming with the right approach. Their taste will linger on, lined with deep encouraging discussions held all through the camp, for a long time to come.

[The author is currently Assistant Professor at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. He is interested in exploring how technology (particularly widely available mobile networks) can be used to help in rural setting. If you have any ideas about how technology can benefit you, please send a note to him. He will be very interested in getting ideas on ground wherein technology can be used for the masses instead of the selected few.]

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2013 Parvasi Bhartiya Divas likely to be linked with Gadarites

Gurpreet Singh

THE annual Parvasi Bhartiya Divas that was first organized in 2002 is often linked with Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation, who had launched a passive resistance movement against the British occupation of India. It coincides with the return of Mahatma Gandhi to India from South Africa in January, 1915. However, the 2013 Parvasi Bhartiya Divas might be dedicated to the Gadar revolutionaries, who had also returned to India to face gallows.

It was in 1913 when the Gadar Party was launched in America. Unlike Gandhi, who preached non violence, the Gadar Party leaders believed in an armed struggle but like Gandhi they also traveled back home with a mission to free India from the British rule. Most of them migrated to America and Canada for economical reasons, but the systematic racism and discrimination by the British system in those countries had transformed them into revolutionaries. They returned to India to incite rebellion when the world war broke out, but did not succeed. Many of them were either hanged or imprisoned for life. Gandhi had also faced racial discrimination in South Africa. Despite the fact that both Gandhi and the Gadarites had a common ground against the British imperialism and had returned to India to pursue freedom struggle, they differed in adopting ways to achieve liberty.

Since 2013 will be the centenary year of the Gadar Party, the India’s Ministry of External Affairs might dedicate the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas that year to the Gadarites. The Joint Secretary of the Public Diplomacy division of the ministry, Navdeep Suri assured that this issue will be examined and the Indian Consulate in San Francisco will be engaged to make this happen. The Gadar Party headquarter was based in San Francisco. The Gadar memorial that houses the relics of the revolutionaries exists right at the place where the party headquarter once operated and is currently managed and controlled by the Indian Consulate.

Incidentally, Suri’s grandfather, Nanak Singh, who was a famous Punjabi writer, had also authored books on the Gadar history. He wrote one novel about Kartar Singh Sarabha, a towering martyr from Punjab and one of the founders of the Gadar Party.

Interestingly, a special session organized by the Punjab government at the eighth Parvasi Bhartiya Divas made no mention of the Gadar movement even though the Gadarites were largely Punjabis. So much so, the centenary of the Swadesh Sewak, the first Punjabi newspaper to be launched by the Gadarites from Vancouver on January 10, 1910 was ignored by the Punjab government.

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The Eighth Pravasi Divas

Bal Anand

I don't want to sound overly judgemental in my perception or belittle the much labored event by a Ministry still struggling to come out of infancy and over dependence on the MEA but so ably led by indefatigable Keralite Vylar Ravi. The perceived impression that exercise has been assuming the character more of a fasion show of 'Pardesi Models' some how refuses to disappear.

This time -the eighth edition of Bhartya Pradesi Divas- the 'Desi Lords' led by the Chief guest Lord Khalid Hamid of Hampstead, Baron Prof Bhiku Parikh,Lord Megh Nath Desai( of Sai Baba hair style) were conspicuously noted to be roaming about at different ramps doling out generously 'the wisdom rooted in the values of the lost Empire' to tackle the complex global issues of Inter -faith accommodation; India's Place in world; Achieving 9% Growth in India etc.The much touted.

Distinguished Global Indian Oration' delivered by the eminently acclaimed economist Prof Jagdish Bhagwati was also found short on inspiration and innovation.While Baron Bhiku's presentation on India's foreign relations, 'supported' by irrepresible Shshi 'Twitter' Tharoor was at least able to incite a Medea controversy,other learned presentations were largely ignored by the omnipresent medea.

The much mentioned announcement by Prime Minister about 'Right to Vote' for the NRI's during the next General Elections found few takers for different reasons.It was also pointed out that the major share of NRI's remittances(around US$ 22 Billion) comes from the Gulf workers.While the Chinese Diaspora has been the leading investors in the development projects,the share of Indian Diaspora's share has been only 5% of the Foreign Direct Investment.

The states level sessions with the CM's of Gujarat,J&K,Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Dy CM of Panjab making presentations were considered useful with Narender Modi,speaking in chaste Hindi ,and Omar abdullah with his witty plain speaking being most impressive.Sukhbir Badal promised the NRI Commission in Panjab while earlier in the seminar a Panjab advocate Anil Malhotra had referred to mechanism of fast track courts for the NRI cases. The Panjabi NRI VIP's from Canada were more in the news for social events outside conference.

The news flashes from Australia about attacks on Indians cast a long shadow on the the proceedings of the conferences with Vyalar Ravi making a strong statement that Government Australia must do more to protect the Indians.Three years back, the increasing number of Indian students in Australia had been hailed as a valuable positve factor in bilateral relations.

With Bharat Samman Awards given to many more of mother India's children living abroad,the Mela cocluded with pious declarations to meet again after the Common Wealth Games with Delhi transformed into Global city!

[The writer is a former Ambassdor]
 

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