Rethinking ends and means

The intellectual crisis that is unfolding in India today is much worse than any other crisis, cultural or political, in that it bears a greater cause for worry on the question of the country's democratic future. It is not easy to dismiss out-of-hand the allegation that many of India's prominent opinion leaders conduct themselves more like traders of knowledge"" their research agendas often set by Western funding agencies""than as free thinkers with a profound interest in the truth. This criticism applies even to those who publicly claim to represent supposedly indigenous intellectual traditions.

It is curious that when Al Gore made a case for the environment, India spawned a large number of environmentalists, and now that Bill Gates is championing AIDS awareness, there is a fast-growing tribe of public health experts, while both these issues presented serious challenges long before the endorsement of American do-gooders.

Seen in this context, it is refreshing to see a well-researched book on an important theme few have had the nerve to grapple with, such as untouchability. This book of essays was recently released by HRD Minister Arjun Singh at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre, with Professor T K Oommen and filmmaker Shyam Benegal, among others, taking part in the event.

In a mature democracy, any book with such disturbing content deserves far greater public attention than Untouchability in Rural India has got so far. It is disturbing because it offers a grim enough portrait of the problem to provoke the question: has India ever had a comprehensive policy to deal with it?

The book has a foreword by Babu Mathew. Among other illuminating parts, it has a special chapter on the violence suffered by Dalit women""who're double victims. The study is based on a survey conducted in 2001-02, of 565 villages across 11 states: Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh), Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. This unprecedented field study is unique in its scope; even the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs), the apex government body entrusted with the protection of the rights of these marginalised groups, has never carried out such an exercise. If Gujarat is noticeably absent from the abovementioned list of states, it is because one of the chapter's co-authors, the noted sociologist Ghanashyam Shah, had earlier investigated rural Gujarat together with I P Desai as a separate case.

The book's central argument is that untouchability has not only survived, it has taken new forms, and has now been adapted to new socio-economic realities. Also, perhaps most shockingly of all, there is no correlation between economic growth and eradication of rural untouchability.

One major finding is that there is some variation among various states""in Kerala and Punjab, the incidence of untouchbility is the lowest, confined to only a few spheres of operation. But in states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it prevails heavily in both public and private spheres. What, however, could have enriched the narrative at this stage is the analysis of deeper socio-political factors that explain these regional variations.

The very persistence of a gruesome practice in India, despite legislation having turned it into a cognisable criminal offence, raises worrisome questions about the country's dedication to the Rule of Law. Dalits are nearly 17 per cent of the population, a majority of them below the poverty line. According to research presented in this book, this inhuman practice exists in some form or the other in more than 80 per cent of the villages under study, most extensively in private and religious spheres and less visible in public and political spheres. In every tenth village, Dalits are still not allowed to wear new clothes, sunglasses and chappals, use umbrellas or ride bicycles.

The most blatant practice of untouchability in the public secular sphere relates to water and cremation/burial grounds. In nearly half the villages surveyed, Dalits do not have free access to common drinking water facilities. As many as 40 per cent of schools practise untouchability while serving mid-day meals, making Dalit children sit in a separate row. Even in one-third of elected village panchayats, elected Dalit and non-Dalits sit apart. Even NGOs are not immune.

These revelations should sadden us all. They expose the failure of various regimes that have governed India in the name of the dispossessed, and thus of the dream of a humane India. How would Gandhi have reacted to all this? It is anybody's guess.

UNTOUCHABILITY IN RURAL INDIA

Edited by Ghanashyam Shah, Harsh Mander, Sukhdeo Thorat, Satish Deshpande and Amita Baviskar
Sage
Price: Rs 295; Pages: 216