Caste and Religious Conflicts- Challenges to Civil Society

Prof. Dr. Bhaghabanprakash

• India is probably one country in the world where twenty religious streams flow together and yet refuse to converge. Added to these are a complex hierarchy of three thousand and odd castes, sub castes and communities out of which about 500 follow more than one religion simultaneously. In 1980 another 3743 backward castes have been added to the long list of positive discrimination privileges. If that sounds strange, these religious groups, castes and communities use 18 official languages and speak about 1800 dialects.
• Old India used to rank people into groups based on heredity within rigid system of social stratification. Members of caste groups were restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation while marriage outside the caste was prohibited, social status was determined by caste of one's birth people from each caste were perhaps not very different from what we today call "professionals" or "experts" but they didn't have the facility to cross socially mandated functional boundaries.
• Thus the post independence social landscape coupled with constitutional provisions has given caste and religion new identities. In 1947 India outlawed the caste system and introduced a positive discrimination mechanism and in 1950 the constitution officially abolished untouchability. While it separated religion and the state but, it did not separate the caste and the state. This eventually led to a number of caste and sub caste conflicts. Both 'upper' and 'lower' caste groups and sub groups are now busy forming caste-based 'Mahasabhas' to promote their social identity and political bargaining power.
• Democratic India today is a melting pot of about 600 political parties. Most of these, either overtly or covertly practice caste, religion and community politics. Complicating the situation further, caste and religious leaders are establishing and asserting new authorities, finding new means to transmit their faith to the new generations. Both organized and unorganized religions compete in the religious marketplace for new recreates, for conversion and recon version. This has led to ethnicization of the political and social arena. The country is ruled by a coalition of 20 local, regional and national parities each lobbying for space in the important decision making process. We are now more an electoral democracy than a liberal democracy.
• Continuous dissension conflicts and power games within caste and religious and in political arena is another worrying factor. Come Christmas and Easter, Indian Christian groups lock horns with each other over which language to be used in the celebration of Mass or which church should get how much for proselutisation, conversion and other welfare activities. Come Mohurram and intra religious clashes suddenly surface within the Muslim community. Upper caste Hindues and backwards dalits, tribes and backwards fight endlessly about who should get how much of the international cake. Scarcity, blockage and opposition- the conflict triangle- perpetuates the fights.
• Thus we see Kondhs fighting Panas, Gujjars fightings Minhas, Kurmis fightings Yadavs on interpretation of their caste identities. For instance, in Kandhamal, Orissa schedule caste groups fighting for tribal states has now acquired the character of a religious conflicts. Similarly caste conflict between Keuta / Kaibarta / Dhibar and dalits has now gone to orissa high court. We are witnessing a revers sankritisation in india with castes and sub castes completing in favour of grading down their own social staters to avail of larger benefits out of the positive discrimination architecture. Now there are even talks and assurances of reservation for the upper castes groups to garner their voting strength. Consequently Dalits have joined hands with Brahimins to remain in power. Backwards and muslims are herding together to keep away nationalist Hindu parties and so on.
• Old social categories convert into new forms of identities and develop new vehicles of participation in the modern state of India. In this process tribal and local caste groups merge their identities to become socio-political communities, dialects come together to symbolize group identification. Mass based political parties and their charismatic leaders are ever willing to pander to these local sentiments.
• But then, the maligned caste system in India despite its serious pitfalls has also helped the country in preserving some of its cultural, commercial and professional traditions. Famous historian and philosopher some social scientists give credit to India's caste and personal deity that succeeded in making India one of the two surviving civilizations. Out of the 21 civilizations, 19 have already disappeared.
• One positive outcome of caste-based Indian society is the instance of the vaishyas-the merchant caste, a devoted group of risk taking entrepreneurs and experts in accumulating capital and goods. Whatever the classical liberal might say, but the facts are out in the market for everyone to see that, in the open market, globalised world they have now given a competitive advantage to the country. In the recent Forbes list of Indian billionaires, Vaishyas, the 3^rd layer of the caste hierarchy, dominate the list from India. And surprisingly, every engineer in India, mostly belonging to the upper caste, now vie with one another to become a Vaishya by acquiring a degree in business administration popularly knows as MBA.
• Thus India has not one but three caste systems running in parallel- a social caste, a political caste and of late a professional caste cutting across all caste denominations. Similarly each religion in post independent India has now assumed two identities-a religion and a political religion.
• Then there are fight on turban, scarf and on purdah, on talaq and alimony, on beard, its size and shape. A political party in the past had enthusiastically ran a hate compaign on Tilak, Taraju and Talwar-the traditional caste symbols. For, it is easier to find a "hated other" to unite against. If you have to unite Hindus scare them by telling Islamic conspiracies and if you want unite minorities, shout continuously  about how your 'Majhab' is in danger by Hindutua forces. Unite the dalits by telling them about Manubadis and 5000 years of oppression and Hindus by telling 500 years of invasion or the upper caste by harping on meritocracy. Hate is always a more powerful emotion then love. On the other hand, it is also interesting to find orthodox Hindus offering candles and prayers in Churches and devout Catholices celebrating Dewali by placing oil lamps in their chaples. Instances of Hindues and Muslims celebrating ID & HOLI together are not very rare in the new India of today.
• In the Indian parliamentary system, politicians rise to power on the backs of caste and religious minority. Of late, playing on the sentiments of religious majority has also become a political ladder. External support to such groups complicates the issue further. For instance, the American Baptist Churches not only maintains close relations with the two million tribals NAga  converts there, but it even encourages them to battle with the Indian state for freedom. In his article "Abuses in Nagaland" (Christian century, july 15, 1998, the Executive Director of the ABC's International Ministries, John Sundquists, even states that Nagas are a vital Christian nation facing severe pressure from the Indian government. In Indian news papers one often finds ads from some Middle East countries asking only Muslim candidates to apply for jobs. Transborder loyalties and external support to various groups in India is a continuous source of worry to right thinking citizens.
• In most of india's neighborhood, civil societies are in a bad shape, struggling to break loose of the state control and breathe fresh air. Almost all the countries surrounding India are either theocracies with state religion, or autocracies and dictatorial regimes or ruled by single political atheistic ideologies with all the trapping and traits of dogmatic religions. Thus, Indian civil society can't look up to them for inspiration. Consequently, south Asian civil society solidarity on vital human development issues remains illusive.
• While religion divided India, caste has fragmented it further into 6000 parts. Evocation of Islamic unity in pre-independence India created Pakistan. Similarly evocation of linguistic unity in Pakistan created Bangladesh. Thus all the three factors i.e. religion, caste and language were used as instruments for political mobilization and conflicts. Eventually they became movements to address group and sectarian demands.
• Civil society in any country has a large space outside the government, market and the family. Therefore civil peace building needs societal involvement, institutional alliances, and not working alone and crying in wildness.
• Therefore building a civil consensus in a socially fragmented country is a big challenge for the Indian civil society. For, multiple divisions disable the civil society to come together on common platform to challenge and change the conventional power dynamics. Change is needed not only in educational, cultural and community situation but also in areas of caste and religious and social exploitation. In order to articulate common social concern like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and environment the country needs a vibrant civil society where its members rise beyond their caste and religious identities and power-politics.
• Further transforming traditional communal societies and consolidating these into a larger modern civil society has become a painful process in India-complicated by recurring ethnic conflicts, caste rivalries and religious clashes. Civil society involves private citizens acting collectively to express their interests, ideas & preferences, to check and change the authority of the state. Since civil society is the realm of organized social life, is open, voluntary and bound by set of shared values, caste and religious loyalties weaken its structure. It indirectly affects the nation building process.
• Relatively equal income distribution, social mobility, tolerance for others point of view, respect and recognition of diversity, rule of law and informed political participation are some of the important values that constitute a mature civil society. Members of such a society need to develop adequate objectivity to address issues like inequity by caste, class and ethnicity and issues related to human rights and social justice. Issues like gender justice, abortion, polygamy, euthanasia, freedom of the womb, reproductive health, social beliefs and negative traditions exploitation, exclusion and marginalization can not be addressed effectively without cooperation of caste and religious groups.
• There is a common talk in corporate world and economic circles outside the govt that "our economy grows at night when the govt is asleep". Yet, it would not be out of place to state as regards castes and religious conflicts, our 'netas' never sleep and keep the issues alive and on the foil until the elections. There is an integral link between the structure of civil society and the multi-caste, multi ethnic and multi-religious social landscape. A civic engagement and understanding between these two entities is essential to eliminate potential tension and conflicts.
• An enlightened civil society can play critical role by identifying underlying causes, in resolving inter-group and inter community conflicts, by creating an effective atmosphere, by clarifying perceptions, by focusing on individual and shared needs, by generating  options, alternatives and choices, by facilitating on doables and by developing mutual benefit agreements, by changing attitudes and behavior, by managing power and social differences, by encouraging participation and playing a catalytic role.

• The silver line is –there signs that the strangle hold of caste and religion is                breaking down and would gradually lose their appeal and influence. As inter-caste and interfaith matrimony and liaisons increase, urbanization, liberalization and globalization expand, education, employment, social and professional mobility gain momentum and the consequent social and group control weaken, the size of socially neutral arena in Indian landscape would also rise. Civil society is expected to grow stronger as a result of these emerging trends. Hence we can look forward to moving from a caste based a casteless society in 22^nd century, not because of our democracy or secularism but on the shoulders of millions of socially unattached young women and men of today who would quicken the process. Education and reservation together would destroy India's social caste and political caste by end of the new century. The process has already started with about a percent Indians already losing their caste and religious identities.
• Yet, the challenge would remain. As states become weaker, service delivery system corrupt, communities and families fragile, mass media commercialized and individuals indifferent, serious issues of human concern and human values could be pushed into the back burner. Millions of poor Indians are to be empowered to lead lives with decent living and dignity. These would require collective thinking, partnerships and action by an organized civil society from time to time.

Epilogue: Recently (Jan' 2009) the Madras High Court, in ruling has said that a child can choose the caste of either parent. It would help immensely if this principle is also extended to the religions of the parents. A child born to a caste or religion need not be imprisoned by the faith or caste of its parents.