The Court emphasized that the ultimate goal of education is to nurture responsible citizens who understand and uphold the core principles of the Indian Constitution. It urged the state to focus on this, especially as India celebrates 75 years of its Constitution. The Court granted the state a month to take action and submit an affidavit on the matter within six weeks.

Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih expressed concern over the UP-government’s failure to follow earlier directions, particularly those regarding the inclusion of constitutional values in education. They reaffirmed that without teaching values of equality, secularism, and fraternity, true quality education cannot be achieved, as per a Live Law report.

Background of the Case

In the month of August 2023, a minor Muslim student was scolded and hurled communal remarks by his school teacher Tripta Tyagi, for allegedly not doing his homework. The teacher also asked other students to slap the minor boy. She could be heard saying, “Go to any Muslim child’s area…” suggesting a pejorative statement. Furthermore, she instructed the fellow students to “hit harder”. The video of the incident went viral on social media and created nationwide outrage.

Following the incident, Tushar Gandhi filed a petition in the Supreme Court to ensure independent investigation in the matter. Subsequently, the teacher was booked under Sections 302 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code, which are non-cognisable offences. Only after a long delay and rap from SC, the FIR was finally filed by the police incorporating the additional charges under Section 295A of IPC, which deals with acts that deliberately and maliciously outrage religious feelings of any class, and Section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, which relates to punishment for cruelty to child.

The SC began hearing the petition in month of September 2023, and since then has issued several directions to the State Government with regards to the filing of FIR, invocation of relevant charges based on the evidence, admission of the victim student in the private school of their choice of school under the EWS quota, counselling of the victim and other students, and seeking compliance reports at various stages. The court has rebuked the State more than once for its repeated non-compliance of the court’s orders.

Prohibition on subjecting a child to physical punishment or mental harassment

On September 25, 2023, while hearing the petition, the division bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mittal considering the manner in which police had delayed action, the bench directed the investigation shall be conducted under the supervision of a senior IPS Officer, and the court also directed for submitting the compliance report to this Court on this aspect and for reporting the progress made in the investigation.

Moreover, in relation to ensure the good quality in elementary education, the bench directed that this is the obligation of the local authorities under Section 9(h) of the RTE Act.

The bench noted that “under sub-section (1) of Section 17 of the RTE Act, there is a complete prohibition on subjecting a child to physical punishment or mental harassment. If the allegations made by the parents of the victim are correct, this may be the worst kind of physical punishment imparted by a teacher inasmuch as the teacher directed other students to give physical punishment to the victim.”

“When the object of the RTE Act is to provide quality education, unless there is an effort made to inculcate the importance of constitutional values in the students, especially the core values of equality, secularism and fraternity, there cannot be any quality education. There cannot be quality education if, in a school, a student is sought to be penalised only on the ground that he belongs to a particular community. Thus, there is a prima facie failure on the part of the State to comply with the mandatory obligations under the RTE Act and the Rules framed thereunder” the strongly stressed.

No child is subjected to caste, class, religious or gender abuse or discrimination in the school

During the hearing on September 25, 2023, the bench observed that under sub-rule (3) of Rule 5 of the said Rules framed by the State Government, there is a mandate that the local authority shall be responsible for ensuring that no child is subjected to caste, class, religious or gender abuse or discrimination in the school.

The bench directed that “the State Government is under an obligation to enforce and implement the provisions of the RTE Act and the said Rules.”

The bench noted that the victim must have undergone trauma, and directed that “we direct the State Government to ensure that proper counselling is extended to the victim of the offence through an expert child counsellor. Even the other students, who were involved in the incident, in the sense that they allegedly followed the mandate issued by the teacher and assaulted the victim, need counselling by an expert child counsellor. The State Government will take immediate steps to do the needful by providing services of an expert child counsellor.”

State must make proper arrangements for providing quality education

The Court, in light of the gravity and sensitivity of the incident at hand, has directed that the State must address a critical issue. Specifically, the Court has emphasized that “the State will have to answer one more important question. The question is what educational facilities the State will extend to the victim of the offence for discharging its obligations under the RTE Act and Article 21A of the Constitution, which means that the State must make proper arrangements for providing quality education to the victim in terms of the provisions of the RTE Act. The State cannot expect the child to continue in the same school.”

Further directed that;

“The senior police officer appointed in terms of this order shall submit a compliance report as well as a report on steps taken in the investigation. He shall provide to this Court the copies of the transcripts of the conversation in the video clip of the alleged incident.”

“The State shall submit the compliance report on providing better education facilities to the victim of the offence and complying with the direction to undertake counselling of the victim and other students through an expert child psychologist. After looking at the report, we will consider whether further directions are required to be issued to ensure that there is no violation of sub-section (1) of Section 17 of the RTE Act.”

“The RTE Act is aimed at providing compulsory elementary education to strengthen the social fabric of our democracy. The emphasis is on giving equal opportunities to all to get access to the facilities of education. Moreover, there are detailed guidelines for eliminating Corporal Punishment in Schools laid down by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights established under the provisions of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005. We direct the State Government to place on record the said guidelines.”

The Supreme Court order dated 25.09.2023 can be read here

Related:

SC directs UP government to immediately sanction prosecution of teacher accused of instructing students to beat Muslim child

Supreme Court: Directs UP government to comply with directions and implement wholistic reparations

Lack of compliance with orders of the Supreme Court by UP government in Muzaffarnagar slapping case- a worrisome and “shocking” spectacle

The post No quality education without teaching equality, secularism, fraternity value: SC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Dear Rama,

It has been a while since I spoke and wrote to you. I thought of reaching out, but things have become worse. Our influential leaders claim we are all set to inaugurate a grand temple for You.

Lord Ram, You will remember there was a Mosque; we broke it to give You a space. We claim that You were born exactly in that very place where the mosque stood. The Hindu society extacted its revenge to show their love to You.

In an ironic twist, Hindus fervently sought a designated land for You, their Lord, despite Your known attribute as Sarvagata (one who exists everywhere).

I have always wondered if mortal men must take something away from someone to provide You with something ( Who is the Lord of everything). As disciples of You, we believe in Your omnipresence; after all, you are Sarvalokapati (Lord of all the worlds), Sarvavyapi (present in everything from the smallest to the biggest) and Sarvabhutatman (Soul of all beings).

Then why would we have to take something away from someone to pray to You?

You are Sarvabhutantaratma (residing in our souls), and you live in our hearts (as my mother would say). Then, your temple is just a place to participate in rituals that celebrate your life. How can we limit you to a temple despite assuming you are everywhere?

अगर ईश्वार डटा रहता सब जगह, सब काल।

इसने बनवाकर मंदिर, मस्जिद, गिरजाघर

ख़ुदा को कर दिया है बंद;

ये हैं ख़ुदा के जेल,

जिन्हेंख यह-देखो तो इसका व्यंाग्यल-

कहती है श्रद्धा-पूजा के स्थाइन।

कहती है उनसे,

“आप यहीं करें आराम,

दुनिया जपती है आपका नाम,

मैं मिल जाऊँगी सुबह-शाम,

दिन-रात बहुत रहता है काम।”

अल्लाि पर लगा है ताला,

बंदे करें मनमानी, रँगरेल।

In this contemplative narrative, Harivansh Rai Bachchan asks about the true nature of the Divine. He invites us to seek God beyond the sacred edifices in the boundless expanses of our hearts and the universe. He is playful with his words and tells us mandirs, churches, and mosques are just “prison” of Gods, As locking the God in these sacred places grants mankind the liberty to stray from the path of righteousness, indulging in whims and unrestrained behaviours.

A temple of Yours erected on the ruins of a mosque diminishes Your magnificence.

They say it heralds the advent of Ram Rajya.

Should I look beyond the mere concept of the temple and consider its implications for everyone? The nation is built on the foundations of diversity, home to many individuals from different backgrounds. With one in every five people being Muslim, respecting and acknowledging the multifaceted tapestry of our society rather than imposing a singular way of life is imperative.

When I ponder these matters, I worry that we must fully accommodate everyone. While the notion of Ram Rajya has been widely celebrated as a utopian ideal, I question whether it was indeed a philosophy you advocated during your lifetime. People have taken the liberty to interpret your life and teachings in a way that aligns with their particular way of living. That said, we must explore other visions of utopia within the Indian context and strive to understand what they entail. In a society as diverse and complex as ours, we may find better principles of co-living that can help us build a more inclusive and harmonious future.

This was a few years before. I entered the ancient city of Ayodhya and felt the excitement. The streets were beautifully decorated with countless lamps, and the sky was lit up with fireworks. The town celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights, which held a special significance this year. It marked the return of Lord Rama (You) to Ayodhya after 14 long years of exile.

हमें अदाएँ दिवाली की ज़ोर भाती हैं ।

कि लाखों झमकें हरएक घर में जगमगाती हैं ।।

चिराग जलते हैं और लौएँ झिलमिलाती हैं ।

मकां-मकां में बहारें ही झमझमाती हैं ।।

खिलौने नाचें हैं तस्वीरें गत बजाती हैं ।

बताशे हँसते हैं और खीलें खिलखिलाती हैं ।।1।।

गुलाबी बर्फ़ियों के मुँह चमकते-फिरते हैं ।

जलेबियों के भी पहिए ढुलकते-फिरते हैं ।।

हर एक दाँत से पेड़े अटकते-फिरते हैं ।

इमरती उछले हैं लड्डू ढुलकते-फिरते हैं ।

One of the best descriptions was by Nazeer Akbarabadi, an 18th-century Urdu poet commonly called the “People’s Poet.” Here, the poet vividly describes the vibrant celebrations of Diwali, where every home sparkles with the glow of countless lamps. The atmosphere brims joyfully as candles shimmer, and every household exudes festivity. Toys seem to dance, pictures come alive with music, and sweets like ‘batashe’ appear to laugh and bloom. The pink ‘barfis’ and ‘jalebis’ twist and turn, while ‘pedas’ cling to one’s teeth, and ‘imartis’ bounce around with ‘laddoos’ playfully rolling about.

For the people of Ayodhya, Diwali meant much more than just lights and sweets. It symbolised the return of righteousness and the establishment of ‘Ram Rajya’. As I interacted with the locals, they shared stories about Lord Rama’s just and fair rule, where every citizen was content and evil found no refuge. They described Ram Rajya as an ideal state of governance where justice was paramount and the ruler served with unwavering dedication. It was a vision of a utopia that many still aspire to achieve.

I am from Kerala, but I speak Tamil. We celebrate Oman, but it is a beautiful festival. Last year, I was in Kerala during Onam. The celebration of Onam was in full swing, featuring lively processions, colourful music, and traditional dance performances.

Unlike the famous festival of Diwali, Onam honoured a different figure — King Mahabali, a demon king. This piqued my curiosity about why such a powerful and feared figure would be celebrated enthusiastically.

During the Onam festival in Kerala, traditional attire reflects the festive spirit. Women wear an off-white saree with a golden border and adorn themselves with gold jewellery and jasmine in their hair. Men wear the “Mundu,” a white cloth with a similar golden border and a white shirt. To further add to the vibrancy of the festival, colourful “Pookkalam” floral designs are made outside homes.

They say, “Vamanna betrayed the King’s trust”. His subjects love him ( the asura king) more than the God ( Vamana). This made me think.

Ram Rajya and Mahabali’s reign epitomised utopian ideals, yet their foundations were distinct. Ram Rajya, rooted in divine governance, emphasized dharma and the triumph of good over evil. However, it bore shadows of inequality, especially towards women and lower castes, as evidenced when You asked for Sita’s trial or decided to end the life of Shambuka. I am not questioning Your decision, Lord, but we must put your position in the context of other ideas. You did not proclaim the idea of Ram Rajya; a small group decided to impose an idea convenient to others.

Conversely, Mahabali’s Kerala stands for egalitarianism. Despite being an Asura king, Mahabali championed a casteless society where love and mutual respect between the ruler and subjects were paramount. While Lord Rama’sRama’s return to Ayodhya is eternal, Mahabali’s visits are fleeting. Yet, the warmth with which she’s received during Onam is profound. People adorn themselves not for vanity but to bring joy to their beloved King. Onam celebrates a king’s vision of equality, even if it means defying divine conventions.

बेगम पुरा शहर को नाऊ।

दूख अंदोह तहिं न ठाऊ।।

ना तहिं बेरा, ना तहिं जाह।

ना तहिं बाद, ना तहिं गाह।।

अब मोहि बूलन हरि बेगम।

अस गह तहाँ न जाई न तेगम।।

In his poem, titled “Begumpura”, Sant Ravidas envisions a utopian city named “Begumpura,” which translates to “the city without sorrow.” In this city, there is no place for suffering, anxiety, or pain; a place devoid of any discrimination, be it based on caste (“बेरा”) or class (“जाह”). It is a harmonious place where disputes (“बाद”) and taxes (“गाह”) do not exist.

Sant Ravidas expresses a deep desire to be called by the “Hari” (a name for God) to this sorrow-free land, a place where no sword (“तेगम”) can come and inflict pain. The poet’s longing for a place where harmony and peace prevail and where there is no distinction based on caste or economic status is vividly portrayed in this poem. It reflects a dream of an egalitarian society where happiness and peace are not just individual experiences but shared by the community. It is a profound expression of a dream for a society grounded in equality and fraternity, free from discrimination and suffering.

Ram Rajya, Mahabali’s reign, and Begumpura. Based on Lord Rama’s rule, Ram Rajya is a divine governance emphasizing dharma but criticized for instances of inequality. Mahabali’s reign, celebrated during Onam, represents an egalitarian society where rulers and subjects share a deep bond of respect and love, defying divine conventions to uphold equality. Begumpura, conceptualized by Sant Ravidas, imagines a city free from sorrow, discrimination, and economic disparities, a haven of communal harmony and peace. Utopias are not just aspirational but also values the system a society chooses to embrace.

In a diverse society, having a single prescribed way of living would be inappropriate, especially if that idea is discriminatory. Begumpura imagines a bottom-up approach that benefits everyone, while Ram Rajya is a set of rules conceived to benefit only a privileged few. The debate of your act against Shambhuka is a story of different times; you played the role of a Man-King, and must have observed you showcasing the fallibility of man rather than the perfection expected of a deity.

Hey Lord Ram, you are known as Karunasagar (Ocean of Compassion); it is said that you are Sarvabhutahite Rata (Always Engaged in the Welfare of All), being the supreme guardian and caretaker of all beings. I can only envision you as a proponent of an egalitarian society, a figure who envisages a world brimming with love and free from discrimination.

अयोध्या के सुनहरे दरबार में, एक दयालु और न्यायप्रिय शासक,

भगवान राम ने दया भरी दृष्टि से, अपनी प्रजा की सेवा की।

उसने सबसे कमजोर की आवाज़ सुनी, उसने आँसू पोंछे,

उसके दयालु शासन में, सभी भय मिट गए।

In the golden court of Ayodhya, Lord Ram, a compassionate and just ruler, he served his people with a kind heart, listening to the weakest and wiping away their tears, eradicating all fears in his benevolent reign.

Seeking your blessing,

(The author is a financial professional with a master’s degree in economics. He is intensely interested in the arts, academia, and social issues related to development and human rights)

Related:

To Lord Ram, I write again for Hope

To Lord Ram, a letter of remorse and resolve

Lord Rama Anantatma & Anantaroopa: He who is the Infinite Soul & who has infinite forms

Lord Ram , Perfect Lord and Imperfect Bhakthi

Lord Ram, in my sixth letter I appeal to your diverse forms

The post Reimagining Ram Rajya: A heartfelt letter to Lord Ram on Unity, Equality, and Compassion appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Good

Since its inception, on paper at least, India’s Constitutional foundations declare its push to become a casteless society. The New India was founded on principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, andthe Indian Constitution was framed with a view to protect its people from being vulnerable to any kind of discrimination.

Article 14 of the Constitution underlines the right to equality before the law and Article 17 abolishes Untouchability. Caste however is not directly disparaged in India’s foundational document.

We have seen a lot of instances in this last decade of people exercising their liberty by determining an identity or themselves that foregoes caste and religion. In the 2011 Census, around 29 lakh people in India chose to not state their religion for the religion category.In 2014,the Bombay High Courthad directed the state not to compel any individual to declare or specify his religion in any form or any declaration, the Court quoted the apex courtwhich had observed:
“Article 25, as its language amplifies, assures to every person subject to public order, health and morality, freedom not only to entertain his religious beliefs, …but also to exhibit his belief in such outwardly act as he thinks proper and to propagate or disseminate his ideas for the edification of others.”

Similarly, the Madras High Court in 2016 affirmed that when a person or, in case of a minor, their parents do not wish or unable to disclose the religion and caste, the same need not be insisted upon in instances where they are seeking admission for their child.

More recently, during the 2017-18 academic year, more than one lakhschool students admitted to classes 1 to 12 in Kerala have left the caste and religion columns blank. In February 2019, M.A. Sneha became the first woman to receive a “no caste, no religion” certificate from the government.

These cases are a strong indication of the changing tide in the country where we see Indians are more self-actualised and are moving towards forming a more secular demographic.

The Bad

As heartwarming as these incidents are, and as hopeful as they make one feel for India’s future, are these examples are painting a complete picture? The Non-Savarna Indian would tell you a different side to the story. When you are bornDalit, letting go of your caste is often not possible.Far too often, others don’t let you. You can change your surname, convert to Buddhism,and you may still be primarily associated with what you were born into.  Even after getting a Harvard education, parting from your Dalit caste is about as easy as parting from your shadow.Letting go of one’s identity would also mean letting go of any state assistance offered to offset the societal disadvantages placed on your community. Ajay Kumar, the executive director of the NGO Rights which works for the upliftment of dalits, while commenting on the news from Kerala, noted, “It is easy for the privileged to sacrifice caste while dalits can’t do that. It has been only 60 years since dalits in Kerala have accessed education. Even today, they are not in a position to sacrifice their legitimate rights.”

The Ugly

Worse still, socio-political non-representation and callously chosen government policies can result ineffective invisiblity for the non-Savarna Indian.This amounts to a moreforced loss of identity, and is precisely why the under priviledged often organize their politics around group’s interests.

Dr. Ambedkar once said, “rights are protected not by law but by social and moral conscience of society.”Forced invisibility can show us why the state’s efforts to uplift the downtrodden haven’t had much effect on their social standing.

A simple example of forced invisibility is the manner in which the governments of the last two decades have handled collecting census data. As stated by the Census Board of India, the decennial census performsthe dual objective of collecting valuable information which assistsgovernments in planning and formulating policies, and providing the basis for reviewing the country’s progress in the past decade.Despite the crucial role the census plays in forming effective government policy, we haven’t collected caste-wise data since the 1931 census (except to count the number of people falling in the categories of Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes). To this day, we rely on the 1931 censusdata to caste-relatedpolicies.While a caste census was conducted in 2011,the Centre has been sitting on its findings over alleged worries of the results causing political strife and more demands for reservation.

In August 2019, nearly 100 villages in Thane and Palghar districts passed a resolution to boycott the enumeration process for the 2021 census until the government reverses its decision to not include the OBC caste data in the census, going back on its promise from last year. “If you aren’t counted, you don’t exist. You need to demand your visibility first to be able to ask for what belongs to you rightfully,” explained social activist Sunil Deore.

Identity politics is not the problem

Is it fair to not count caste-wise data over concerns of encouraging identity politics?

Identity politics involves people belonging a particular groupengaging in politics to protect their group interests. Going by this definition, one can see that identity politics, in fact, plays anintegral role in the democratic process. Progressive movements for women’s rights and queer rights have both come from identity politics.The use of identity politics only becomes a hindrance to the nation’s growth when it fuels tribalism, creating in an “us versus them” dynamic. As long as a group’s interests are in line with constitutional principles and align with the overarching interests of the country, identity politics only builds a fulfilling democracy. 

Another important point to consider is that caste-based and religious minorities often don’t have any other option but to rely on identity politics. Majoritarian political parties base their agenda on different forms of minority erasure, and while the supposed secular parties mayshow solidarity towards minorities, theyare rarely seen creating space for minorities among their ranks.

It is difficult to make policies that can benefit a community if they don’t have an understanding of that community’s struggles. For example, in an effort to prevent use of offensive slurs against the Dalits, the Centre directed private satellite TV channels and government departments to avoid using the term ‘Dalit’ and to use ‘Scheduled Castes’ instead. This advisory was in accordance with the orders of High Courts of Bombay and Madhya Pradesh.

However, what neither the Centre nor the High Courts had considered at the time was, being referred to as ‘SC’ has become offensive in practical usage, and the term ‘Dalit’ has been a term of empowerment for the oppressed community. This goes to show the need for minoritiesto be adequately represented in positions of power.Without the support of any other organisation, caste-based or religious minorities have no choice but to form their own factionsso as to participate in political affairs. In such cases, the only way to be heard is to be seen.

Conclusion

So how should the non-Savarna Indian navigate through issues of self-identity? In an ideal world, where every single Indian has been unshackledfrom the weight of their caste or religion, a “non-Savarna Indian” wouldn’t be defined as such⁠—the term wouldhold no significant meaning. They, too, would then have the freedom to derive their identity from what they choose.

However, at this time, when an equal society remains a dream for vulnerable communities, and being a minority means facing resentment just for being that minority, the road to obtain civil rightsis of collective, relentless struggle. Out of necessity, then, one identifies with the community that has banded together to be heard in socio-political discourse.
 

The post To Be or Not to Be: The Identity Crisis of the Non-Savarna Indian appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The argument against affirmative action or reservations has been obfuscated with false arguments around “merit” being posited; displaying a blind sightedness towards the historical marginalisation of oppressed groups. One of the most stark manifestations of this marginalised is caste based oppression. The myth spread by dominant caste groups is that affirmative action interferes with the opportunities of the “General” category groups and impacts the “efficiency” of administrative functions.

A recent judgment by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Judges UU Lalit and Justice DY Chandrachud, is an important step towards setting right the debate, placing emphasis on quantifiable data. It is also one of the first instances of a judgement using available empirical data to justify reservation. This judgment is also an eye-opener on the discourses around caste based reservation.

On Friday, May 10, the Supreme Court upheld a Karnataka state law granting reservations in promotions to state government employees belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

The judgment concerned a set of challenges against the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Act 2018, which facilitates a one-time promotion to SC/ST employees largely relying upon a “catch-up” clause. However, the judgment goes beyond merely commenting on the specific issue at hand and is likely to impact the attitudes and mind-sets in general, laying down a rationale as it does of principles of justiciable equity

A brief background and explainer on what has transpired so far
The Supreme Court’s Indra Sawhney vs Union of India (1992) has been hailed as a landmark judgment as it upheld reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). However, this judgment also held that reservations in appointments, under per Article 16(4) of the constitution, don’t apply to promotions.

What does article Article 16(4) say? This Article lays down that nothing in the article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backwards class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.

The Constitution (77^th Amendment) Act, 1995 was passed by parliament, inserting Article 16(4A) which allows the State to provide reservations to SCs/STs in matters of promotion, as long as the State believes that this category of the marginalised populations –the SCs and STs – aren’t  adequately represented.

Article 16(4B) provides that reserved promotion posts for SCs and STs that remain unfilled can be carried forward to the subsequent year. Article 16(4B) ensures that the ceiling on the reservation quota – capped at 50% by Indra Sawhney – for these carried forward unfilled posts does not apply to subsequent years.

Article 335 says that the claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State

A five judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in M. Nagaraj vs Union of India (2006) in which it validated parliament’s decision to extend reservations for SCs and STs to include promotions albeit with three conditions. These were:

• It required the state to provide proof for the backwardness of the class benefitting from the reservation
• It required the state to provide proof for its inadequate representation in the position/ service for which reservation in promotion is to be granted
• It required the state to provide proof to show how reservations in promotions would further administrative efficiency

The judgment soon faced criticisms as it was highlighted that it failed to recognise the centuries of discrimination faced by SCs and STs as it required the state to “reassess” their backwardness. Critics expressed apprehensions that if some of them fail to qualify the criteria for backwardness, reservations for SCs and STs in promotions could be denied.

This, it was claimed, was inconsistent with the preceding judgment in Indira Sawhney case.

In 2018, a five judge bench in the case of Jarnail Singh vs Lachhmi Narain Gupta reviewed the criticisms made against Nagaraj judgment and held that its insistence on collection of quantifiable data on backwardness in relation to the SCs and STs was contrary to Indra Sawhney but it approved Nagaraj’s insistence on proof for inadequate representation of classes for whom promotional posts are reserved, and on submission of additional proof that efficiency wouldn’t be impacted by such reservation, because of Article 335.

It was in this situation and with this judicial history that a two judge bench of the Supreme Court, while presiding over B.K. Pavitra vs Union of India-I, declared a 2002 legislation passed by Karnataka assembly invalid on the grounds that Karnataka hadn’t collected quantifiable data on the three parameters as required in the Nagraj judgment.

The 2002 judgment provided for consequential seniority to roster-point promotes based on the length of service in a cadre.

The Ratna Prabha committee was formed by the Karnataka government after the decision of the Supreme Court in the B.K. Pavitra case. The committee was headed by the additional chief secretary Ratna Prabha and was entrusted with the responsibility of submitting a report on the backwardness and inadequacy of representation of SCs and STs in the state civil services and the impact of reservation on overall administrative efficiency in the state.

The Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation Bill, 2017 was passed by the state assembly on the basis of Ratna Prabha Committee report.

Under Article 200 of the Indian constitution, the bill received president’s assent after it got mired in a controversy around whether a state legislature could or could not undo a Supreme Court’s judgment.

What happened on May 10, 2019 ?
In a judgment that is historic, in the B.K. Pavitra II matter, the Supreme Court (bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud) held that the state legislature has remedied the underlying cause which had led to a invalidation of the 2002 Act. The bench made curative legislation constitutionally permissible, and clarified that it isn’t an encroachment on judicial power.

Since the legislature could not  simply override the declaration of invalidity without remedying the basis on which the law was held to be ultra vires, it was important to remove the very basis of the SC’s former decision.

Commenting on the methodology by which the committee reached its findings, the bench said that the committee can’t be held to have acted arbitrarily in adopting recourse to sampling methodologies or to have based its conclusion on any irrelevant material. It said,
“We are unable to find that the Committee has based its conclusions on any extraneous or irrelevant material. In adopting recourse to sampling methodologies, the Committee cannot be held to have acted arbitrarily. If, as we have held above, sampling is a valid methodology for collection of data, the necessary consequence is that the exercise cannot be invalidated only on the ground that data pertaining to a particular department or of some entities was not analysed. The data which was collected pertained to thirty one departments which are representative in character. The State has analysed the data which is both relevant and representative, before drawing its conclusions. As we have noted earlier, there are limitations on the power of judicial review in entering upon a factual arena involving the gathering, collation and analysis of data.”

Catch up rule
A significant part of the ruling is its observation on the catch-up clause. On 1 October 1995, a two judge Bench of the Supreme Court held in Union of India v Virpal Singh Chauhan  (―Virpal Singh‖) that the state could provide that even if a candidate belonging to the SC or ST is promoted earlier on the basis of reservation and on the application of the roster, this would entitle such a person to seniority over a senior belonging to the general category in the feeder cadre.However, a senior belonging to the general category who is promoted to a higher post subsequently would regain seniority over the reserved candidate who was promoted earlier. This rule came to be known as the catch-up rule.”

Comments on “Adequacy of Representation”
The bench said, “The adequacy of representation has to be assessed with reference to a benchmark on adequacy. Conventionally, the State and the Central governments have linked the percentage of reservation for the SCs and STs to their percentage of population, as a measure of adequacy.

Benchmark of Efficiency can’t be grounded in Exclusion!
Regarding ‘efficiency’ it said, “The benchmark for the efficiency of administration is not some disembodied, abstract ideal measured by the performance of a qualified open category candidate. Efficiency of administration in the affairs of the Union or of a State must be defined in an inclusive sense, where diverse segments of society find representation as a true aspiration of governance by and for the people. If, as we hold, the Constitution mandates realisation of substantive equality in the engagement of the fundamental rights with the directive principles, inclusion together with the recognition of the plurality and diversity of the nation constitutes a valid constitutional basis for defining efficiency. Our benchmarks will define our outcomes.”

It added that if the benchmark for efficiency is grounded in “exclusion”, it will produce a “pattern of governance which is skewed against the marginalised.” It said that if the benchmark of “efficiency” is grounded in “equal access”, “our outcomes will reflect the commitment of the Constitution to produce a “just social order.”

Highlighting the grave dangers of not recognising the unequal footing on which marginalised groups, especially caste based groups are located, it said, “Otherwise, our past will haunt the inability of our society to move away from being deeply unequal to one which is founded on liberty and fraternity. Hence, while interpreting Article 335, it is necessary to liberate the concept of efficiency from a one sided approach which ignores the need for and the positive effects of the inclusion of diverse segments of society on the efficiency of administration of the Union or of a State. Establishing the position of the SCs and STs as worthy participants in affairs of governance is intrinsic to an equal citizenship.”

The judgment has significant and a long term bearing on the discourses on affirmative action as it smashes the misconstrued notion that reservations impact administrative efficiency. It draws attention to the fact that merit lies not only in performance but also in achieving goals such as promotion of equality, and not just a formal equality of opportunity but  the achievement of substantive equality.

It puts in perspective the historical injustices meted out to disadvantaged groups and the related socio-political reasons for reservations. The judgment also has a bearing for legislative intent. And policy makers need to heed the appeal that reservations and “efficiency” aren’t antithetical to each other.
 
 

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Dalit-Bahujan scholar Kancha Ilaiah, author of Why I am not a Hindu, has added Shepherd to his name to assert the dignity of his parental profession.

In his latest memoir, From a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual, the researcher has written about his struggle in academia dominated by the upper castes.

In the book released on Monday, Ilaiah has penned a poem highlighting the notion of equality and made an appeal to make schoolchildren sing the song as a prayer.

The prayer starts with the words “God you created all of us equal”.

At the book release, Ilaiah said the upper castes have never recognised the knowledge possessed by people who are involved in the production of resources.Ilaiah was criticised and physically attacked by the upper castes, particularly the trader community, in 2017 because of his criticism of the caste system.

“The Brahmin associations of the Telugu states in 2015 attacked my writings. They abused my name Ilaiah as unworthy name, my caste as unworthy of respect. In order to answer them I had to add the word ‘Shepherd’ to my name as mark of my parental profession as it is most respected profession globally both spiritually and socially,” he has written in the book released on Monday.

Ilaiah has appealed to youngsters and first-generation learners to pursue knowledge in life and not run after upper-caste girls and said English-medium teaching could bring social revolution for the deprived sections.
Ilaiah is the first intellectual among Dalit-Bahujans to pen his memoirs.

Prayer Song for School Children
God, You Created All of Us Equal
God, you created all of us equal,
God, you created male and female equal,
God, you created no caste among us,
God, you allowed no untouchability among us,
God, you created all of us equal,
God, you told us to work and live,
God, you told us to respect our parents,
God, we pray you as proud Indians,
God, you created all Indians equal.

From Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd’s

“From a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual—My Memoirs”
 

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Image: Amir Rizvi
 
How can this freedom of choice be reconciled with the aspect of necessity that is central to all scientific analysis?
 
In the context of social change, necessity has two different aspects, two different meanings. There is the realm of the subjective, the desirable, necessity as human need, and there is the realm of the objective, the inevitable, what necessarily must happen, what is compelled by underlying circumstances. Marx’s brilliant “Theses on Feuerbach” shows how both the subjective and the objective aspects of necessity can be encompassed into a single, integral, comprehensive and consistent world view.
 
In the very first thesis, Marx makes a number of assertions about science (rational materialism). In science, theory and practice are inseparable. Though science is objective, and conscious human activity subjective, it is incorrect to pose ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ as mutually exclusive opposites.  In scientific practice, the two aspects are merged.
 
“The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-changing can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.”
 
Feurbach‘does not grasp the significance of “revolutionary”, of “practical-critical”, activity.’
 
“The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth — i.e. the reality and power… of his thinking in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking that is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.”
 
All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.
 
Rational practice is simultaneously subjective and objective. Rational practice (science) , ispractical-critical activity. It is revolutionary.
 
Marx asserts that revolutionary activity is not an external add-on to science- but a necessary consequence.  Scientific practice, if it remains critical, realistic, consistent and true to the values of science necessarily becomes revolutionary.
 
Many years later, Engels expressed it thus: “… the more ruthlessly and disinterestedly science proceeds the more it finds itself in harmony with the interest and aspirations of the workers.”
 
With his ‘materialist conception of history’, Marx achieved what Democritus had asserted two thousand three hundred years earlier.  Marx’s 1845 breakthrough, opened the path, for the first time in human history, for all of reality, both natural and social, to become a subject of rigorous scientific inquiry.
 
Lenin summarizes the two intertwined aspects of social necessity in a single sentence:
 
 “Man’s consciousness not only reflects the objective world but creates it “
 
With all of reality becoming the subject of science, science itself ceases to be a subject, and instead becomes a powerful and distinct method for understanding and engaging with reality. Kosambi’s great achievement was to give a definition of science which can properly encompass this new comprehensive, universal role.
 
 
POLITICS
 
The strength of scientific theory lies in its predictive power. Within twenty five years of the Manifesto, the Paris Commune of 1871 in many ways appeared to be a confirmation of its predictions. Marx and Engels considered the Paris commune to be the realization of the first ‘worker’s state’ in human history. They studied it closely to discover in its practice, general principles for the worker’s movement. In the words of Marx:
 
 “It was essentially a working class government, the product of the producing against the appropriating class, the political form at last discovered under which to work out the economic emancipation of man.”
 
The writer C.L.R. Jamesdescribed the commune thus: “The Paris Commune was first and foremost a democracy”. It was governed by a body elected by universal suffrage. It was concerned with worker’s rights. Night shift work was banned in bakeries. None of the government functionaries was paid a wage more than that of a skilled worker. Women played an active role in its defence. The Commune lasted for 72 days after which it was suppressed by a bloodbath in which tens of thousands of workers were killed.
Perhaps for the first time in history, the democratic demand for “Universal suffrage” had been realized in practice, if only for two months.
 
Only a year after the Commune, in his speech at the congress of the International Working Men’s Association at the Hague in 1872, Marx had this to say:
 
“The congress at The Hague has brought to maturity three important points:
It has proclaimed the necessity for the working class to fight the old, disintegrating society on political as well as social grounds; and we congratulate ourselves that this resolution of the London Conference will henceforth be in our Statutes.
In our midst there has been formed a group advocating the workers’ abstention from political action. We have considered it our duty to declare how dangerous and fatal for our cause such principles appear to be.
Someday the worker must seize political power in order to build up the new organization of labor; he must overthrow the old politics which sustain the old institutions, if he is not to lose Heaven on Earth, like the old Christians who neglected and despised politics.
 
But we have not asserted that the ways to achieve that goal are everywhere the same.
You know that the institutions, mores, and traditions of various countries must be taken into consideration, and we do not deny that there are countries — such as America, England, and if I were more familiar with your institutions, I would perhaps also add Holland — where the workers can attain their goal by peaceful means. This being the case, we must also recognize the fact that in most countries on the Continent the lever of our revolution must be force; it is force to which we must someday appeal in order to erect the rule of labor.”
 
Tactics may change according to time and place, but certain general principles do not change- the working class must be politically active, and not restrict itself to non-political organizations. It must have its own party. It will prefer peaceful means, wherever these are available, but when suppressed by force, it will defend itself, with force, if necessary.
 
At the same time when Marx and Engels were becoming active in Europe, important changes were taking place in India. In the second half of the 19^th century, modern capitalist production was just commencing in India. A modern industrial working class beginning to be formed. In 1853 the first railway connected Thane and Mumbai. The first textile mill started functioning at Tardeo the next year, in 1854. However, when the country erupted in the revolt against the British rule in 1857, this industrial working class could not play a significant role because it had hardly come into existence.
 
 
EQUALITY
 
At this time, in India, yet another stream of political change was being born – a struggle for equality, for social change to abolish inequality and discrimination.  In 1848, Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule started their first school for lower caste women. In the next two decades of the eighteen fifties and sixties, the struggle against caste inequality and for social equality grew steadily in strength.
 
On the other side of the world, the abolition of slavery in 1865 following the victory of the anti-slavery Union army, under the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln, in the bloody American Civil War, was hailed by democratic forces all over the world.  Both Marx and Phule were deeply impressed by Abraham Lincoln.
 
In a letter written by Marx to Lincoln in January 1865, Marx articulates that as long as white workers tolerate racism in their midst, they cannot emancipate themselves from their own exploitation.
 
“While the workingmen, the true political power of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic… they were unable to attain the true freedom of labor, or to support their European brethren in their struggle for emancipation; but this barrier to progress has been swept off by the red sea of civil war.
The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American anti-slavery war will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead the country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.”
 
Phule dedicated his book ‘Gulamgiri’ “To The good people of the United StatesAs a token of admiration for their
 
SUBLIME DISINTERESTED AND SELF-SACRIFICING
DEVOTION in the cause of Negro slavery; and with an earnest desire that my countrymen will take their noble example as their guide in the emancipation of their Sudra Brethren from the trammels of of Brahmin thraldom.”
 
In 1873, Phule formed the Satyashodhak Samaj to work in an organized manner for the emancipation from caste domination. One of Phule’s disciples, Narayan Meghaji Lokhande was among the first to organize the modern industrial working class in India .Lokhande was a mass leader and labour organizer.  Along with the struggles against caste domination and for equality, the fight for labour rights was among the early struggles for democratic rights in India.
 
It is pointed out that the “Bombay Millhands Association” started by Lokhande was not a trade union. While this may be true, there is no doubt that what Lokhande initiated was a workers movement for basic labour rights concerning working hours, rest periods, leave etc. which later  became rights under legislation like the Factories Acts .Lokhande also worked actively for worker’s unity and communal harmony during the communal riots of 1893. He ultimately fell victim to plague in 1896, while working selflessly in plague relief activities.
 
By contrast the role of LokmanyaTilak in the labour movement is not without contradictions. Tilak opposed the first Factories Act, on the grounds that it was an instrument of the British industrialists to burden Indian manufacturers and render them uncompetitive. At the same time, he worked actively among the workers to organise nationalist resistance against the British, using the popular Ganpati festival and giving it a ‘sarvajanik’ form, for this purpose. Tilak was much revered by the workers for his militant and uncompromising anti-British speeches and writings.
 
In 1908, we witness the first mass political uprising of the Indian working class in the form of a six day strike by the Mumbai workers cutting across all industries, to protest the sentence of six years transportation against Tilak. Lakhs of workers came out on the streets in July 1908 and fought pitched battles with bricks and stones against British bullets. More than 200 were killed.
 
Lenin wrote about this uprising in the following words:
 
 “But in India the street is beginning to stand up for its writers and political leaders. The infamous sentence pronounced by the British jackals on the Indian democrat Tilak—he was sentenced to a long term of exile, —this revenge against a democrat by the lackeys of the money-bag evoked street demonstrations and a strike in Bombay. In India, too, the proletariat has already developed to conscious political mass struggle—and, that being the case, the Russian-style British regime in India is doomed!
 
Much has been written about Tilak’s social conservatism. But what must be understood is that his mind was not closed. His views were not static, and were evolving due to his close involvement with the masses, in particular with the labour movement. It has been pointed out that during the 1893 Hindu –Muslim riots in Bombay, whereas Lokhande held both communities responsible, and worked for communal harmony, Tilak in a meeting at Pune, held the Muslims as responsible, though encouraged by the British, and asked Hindus to retaliate. But after he returned to India in 1914 from 6 year prison sentence in Mandalay, Tilak became a votary of Hindu-Muslim unity. His bail application in Mumbai High Court in 1916 was argued by young barrister Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Both Hindus and Muslims crowded to hear him speak at mass meetings. On 1916, he addressed a meeting at Bhiwandi, before a mainly Muslim crowd, in which he was presented with a purse for Rs 5001. The Lucknow Pact between the Muslim League and the Congress in December 1916, was only possible because of the joint efforts of Tilak and Jinnah. Almost 100 years ago, at a mass meeting held in Godhra on 4^th November 1917, Gandhi, Tilak and Jinnah shared a common platform as the star speakers.
 
The epoch making event of the 20^th century is undoubtedly the October revolution in Russia of November 7^th 1917, and the establishment of a socialist worker’s state thereafter in the USSR. Lokmanya Tilak was deeply impressed by the 1917 Russian revolution. In 1918, he spent a year in Britain while conducting a defamation case against Chirol. According to reports of the British intelligence, Tilak was not interested in sightseeing at London, but spent most of his time in the office of the militant left wing paper “Daily Herald”, in discussions with leftist leaders like Lansbury, Williams, Hyndman and Saklatwala. The intelligence reports record that in his speeches in England Tilak repeatedly made laudatory references to the policies of the Bolshevik party in Russia, and particularly to their international policy.
 
This year we are observing the 100^th anniversary of the historic October revolution. During our commemorations, it would be important to revisit the Tilak archives to study more closely his writings and speeches in the final chapter of his life.

Also Read
— Can the working class shape politics?

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Muslim artisans making the pots for the Chhat pooja: Bihar

The recent Bill passed by the TRS government in Telangana that increased the quota for OBC (Pasmanda) Muslims and STs in public employment and education is flawed on many counts. Let me turn to the mathematics first. As we know the reservation structure in Telangana before the passing of the Bill was OBC 29% [Group A: 7%+Group B: 10%+Group C: 1%+Group D: 7%+Group E: 4%], SC 15% and ST 6%. The Bill has increased the OBC-E quota, which included 14 Muslim backward castes, from 4% to 12% and the ST quota from 6% to 10% thereby taking the quantum of reservations in the state to 62%.

The population of Muslims in Telangana is 12.68%. As far as Muslim castes are concerned while OBC-A includes Muslim scavengers (mehtars) and OBC-B includes the Muslim cotton carders (known variously as dudekula, laddaf, pinjari or noorbash) along with other Hindu backward castes, the OBC-E exclusively recognizes 14 Muslim caste groups. According to the Sudheer Commission Report (2016) about 81% Muslims were already covered in the existing OBC sub-quotas (A, B and E) and it were mostly the forward ashrāf castes like the syeds, pathans, mirzas, moghals, etc., that were excluded. One may therefore infer that 10.27% Pasmanda Muslims (81% of 12.68% Telangana Muslims) were already recognized in the OBC (A, B & E) quota before the passing of the recent Bill. However, the dudekula caste alone constitutes about 35% of Telangana Muslims and 4% of Telangana population. So after adjusting for the dudekula and mehtar castes the OBC-E group actually includes around 6% Muslim population. In that case the existing 4% quota for OBC-E was quite reasonable. The increase in OBC-E sub-quota from 4% to 12%, almost double the population that it actually encompasses, defies all rational argument to say the least.

How then does one interpret the recent move?

Before going further a few preliminary remarks would be in order here to contextualize the discussion:
A. Indian Muslims, like all religious groups, are differentiated into various caste groups. Historically, the high caste ashrāfs conceived Muslims as a ‘nation’ and mobilized for self-determination through the Muslim League before 1947 (When I say this I mean ashrāfs as a class. Indeed, a few nationalist ashraf Muslims like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and others opposed the Pakistan movement).

The 1946 elections which is dubbed as the consensus on Pakistan and in which Muslim League won handsomely was marked by a restricted electorate and ‘nearly 85% of the population was excluded…’. It is mostly the propertied and educated classes among Muslims, the high caste ashrāf, that voted for Pakistan and the vote of subordinated Muslim caste groups was not even put to test. In fact, lower caste Muslim organizations like the Momin Conference were actively contesting the two nation theory at the time, a factor much ignored in the dominant discourse.

It is due to the tragedy of the Partition that Muslims lost the reservations in Independent India that they enjoyed as a ‘community’ in the pre-1947 phase. One cannot simply demand a separate ‘nation’ and ‘reservations’ at the same time. The ashrāf class have already got what they desired—the nation-state of Pakistan—and now they have no moral claim left for reservations any longer. It is only the subordinated Pasmanda Muslims who can negotiate with the state for reservations now.  

B. Since the category ‘Muslim’ had already become a suspect category due to the Partition tragedy the ideologues of the Pasmanda movement have mostly preferred that similarly placed caste groups across religious communities be clubbed together for purposes of reservations.
In Bihar the OBC list is subdivided into Annexure I (Most Backward Classes) and Annexure II (Backward Classes) with most of the subordinated caste Muslims being recognized in the MBC category along with other Hindu castes. P. S. Krishnan has argued that sub-quotas like the “Backward”, “More Backward”, “Most Backward” and the “Extremely Backward” (Pichade, Ati Pichade, Atyant Pichade and Sarvadhik Pichade) could be crafted and similarly placed castes across religions and thereafter be judiciously accommodated. In this scheme while Extremely Backward refers to those castes which have neither skills nor assets (nomadic people or service providers), Most Backward to those who have no asset base but have skills (the artisans/craftsmen), the More Backward castes to the castes of small peasants, especially tenantry without rights, and the Backward to caste groups which have relatively substantial asset base but are yet socially backward. From the Pasmanda vantage point the Bihar Formula works well without triggering off communal polarisation and therefore the politics of exclusive ‘Muslim’ sub-quotas has been often criticized.   

C. Historically, religion has emerged as a political category in its own right and has been dominated by the interests of higher castes across religious groups in South Asia. It is indeed unfortunate that in the post-Partition phase due to their cultural capital and control over the community institutions, the ashrafs who had not migrated to Pakistan continued to represent the Indian Muslims. The persistence of the episodes of communal riots and symbiotic discourses of ‘Muslim backwardness’ and ‘Muslim appeasement’ whipped variously by high caste Muslim, Hindu or Secular nationalists have effectively worked to bury the substantive demands of survival and empowerment for the subordinated sections across religions. The limitations of secular-communal or majority-minority duopolies are too evident to be ignored now. I have called this the ‘post-minority condition’ elsewhere.

D. However, in the last few years with the substantive erosion of the state from employment and education, even the policy of reservations has become a useful tool for the hegemonic classes. The tendency to exploit the contradictions among the populace emerging from the principle of graded inequality in a caste-based social order is glaring. Hence, the politics of social justice has been effectively reduced to social engineering with all parties working to galvanise various caste/religious interest groups for electoral dividends. In this game reservation has become an affective rallying point for the bahujan salariat but has little to offer to the vast majority of other deprived community members. One has to rethink the overemphasis on the symbolism of reservations in social justice politics.

It is from the vantage point of the aforementioned discussion that one could understand the recent Bill. In all likelihood the revised quota will be struck down since it exceeds the Supreme Court ceiling of 50% for reservations and confronts the impossibility of being placed within the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution due to an unfavourable government at the Centre. While the TRS government credits itself for having realized one of the key promises in its manifesto by chalking out a 12% quota for ‘Muslims’, the BJP has predictably responded by suggesting that religion-based reservation may lead to creation of another Pakistan. While the almost coeval timing of PM’s recent statement concerning Pasmanda Muslims in Orissa (April 15) and the passing of the Bill by the TRS government (April 16) is indeed intriguing, commentators like Kingshuk Nag are not wrong in arguing that the Bill will pave the way for dangerous competitive communal populism and may advantage the BJP.

In fact, this drama could have been entirely avoided had the Andhra Pradesh government followed the Bihar Formula in 2004 itself when it first introduced the OBC-E category exclusively for Muslim caste groups. The subsequent Andhra High Court interventions rejecting this move as a ‘communal quota’ are sensible, but absolutely inconsistent because even OBC-C (which includes only Christian caste groups) and OBC-D (which includes only Hindu caste groups) are not technically immune from such a charge.

At the beginning of 2017 the AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi had asked the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ‘to exercise caution while increasing Muslim reservation to 12 per cent as it may give rise to legal complications and cause Muslims to lose the existing 4 per cent quota’. However, with both the AIMIM and Congress supporting the Bill now it seems that those fears have been probably allayed in their view. In fact, ‘Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri (Majlis) supported the Bill and suggested an official amendment to create BC-F category to cover those groups among Muslims who had been left out. He wanted the existing 4 percent reservation for BC-E group containing 14 groups should be retained as it is and the additional 8 per cent hike proposed to cover Syed, Moghal, Pathan and local Arab groups’.

According to this position, Pasha suggests that one must continue with 4% OBC-E and the remaining 2.41% ashrāf  Muslims (19% of 12.68% Telangana Muslims) should get 8% reservations as OBC-F. This suggestion is again problematic because reservation is not a poverty alleviation exercise. Only socially backward and underrepresented sections can be included in the OBC quota. Ashrāfs are not socially backward and are already overrepresented in the Telangana government services (the representation of Muslims in Telangana government services is 7.36% which would be mostly cornered by them). There is no case at all for inclusion of ashrāf  Muslims in the Telangana OBC quota. The poor sections among ashrāf, or any other group for that matter, have to be addressed by other affirmative action/poverty alleviation programs and not through reservations.

Broadly speaking, the recent Bill appears to be a short term ruse by the TRS government to galvanise the Muslim vote-bank. It is bound to pave the way for communal rhetoric from which BJP is bound to benefit in the long run. Indeed, if one chalks out a 12% quota for 6% Muslim population segment then the charge of ‘Muslim appeasement’ doesn’t really appear off the mark at all. While being critical of TRS one may also ask that if the BJP is really serious about Pasmanda Muslims then it must work towards ensuring inclusion of Dalits belonging to Christian and Muslim communities within the SC quota. This has been a long pending demand of the Pasmanda Muslims and the BJP at the centre is well placed to execute that.

All in all, the recent Bill appears to be an exercise in deception, unjust in its mathematics and has the potential to ignite a spiral of dangerous communal populism. The strategic blunders of secular politics have turned out to be the biggest blessing for the BJP over the past few years. Since this is now understood even by a lay person on the street yet the persistence of such self-defeating moves, such as the recent Bill, pushes one to ask further: are they merely innocuous strategic blunders? Or worse?    

[The author is Director, Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Exclusion Studies & Transformative Action (ACESTA), Glocal University (India). However, the views expressed here are personal. He can be reached at khalidanisansari@gmail.com]
 

Related Articles:

1. ‘Stop pandering to the elite Mussalmaan’

2. Politics over Muslim Personal Law and UCC: The Pasmanda Position

3. For Dalit-Muslim unity, Mayawati must focus on caste, not religion

The post Telangana Muslim Reservation Bill: Exercise in Deception, Unjust in Maths & Likely to Fuel Communal Populism appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A year after the deadly 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, and France is still grappling with its relationship with its minorities.

Fraternity is often forgotten. Didier Jansen/flickr, CC BY-NC

After it emerged that some of those who carried out the attacks were French nationals, many renewed longstanding criticisms that the outdated French “republican model” of integration and citizenship might be broken. The model’s objective was to achieve the integration of “nationals” – Bretons, Corsicans and others – and viewed from this historical perspective, it has proven to be somewhat successful. Most of these groups now feel “French”, and their cultural heritage and languages are recognised as part of French identity.

But the model was not designed to integrate the diverse range of groups in contemporary France. Instead, it serves to make minorities, and the difficulties they face in French society, almost invisible.
 

An outdated legal system

The French state’s policy rejects any references to national, racial, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities. This model is based on the idea that the state should interact with the individual only, not communities or groups, in order to give equal treatment to everyone. “Absolute equality” is seen as the best way to ensure the integration of all citizens, to the benefit of both the state and the citizens themselves.

As a result, French authorities have rejected any form of targeted measures for ethnic, religious or linguistic groups. In practice this has rendered minorities invisible and brought systemic forms of discrimination.
Legally, the constitutional principle of equality has been interpreted as prohibiting the government from collecting data or statistics on the racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds of its citizens, in any context. This means for example that the socioeconomic status of groups across any indicators based on racial, ethnic, religious or other grounds is unknown, and that the national census does not include any questions about race or ethnicity.

A 1978 law regarding “data files, processing and individual liberties” explicitly prohibits the collection and processing of personal data that reveals, directly or indirectly, the racial and ethnic origins, or religion, of any persons.

In practice, there is a dual impact of this prohibition. First, it means that no statistics exist regarding ethnic or religious discrimination, or discrimination on related grounds. Second, it has also been translated by courts and other institutions into rules which prohibit any forms of religious affiliation in the public sphere. It is under this “absolute” approach to equality and neutrality that the wearing of religious symbols has been prohibited.

Despite the lack of data, some groups feel they are being discriminated against, notably Muslims, “black” French and Roma populations.

Relatives of Bouna Traore who died in an incident which sparked the 2005 Paris riots, inaugurate a street sign ten years later. Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA

The level of discrimination against Muslims or other groups is hard to judge in reality, since, these are invisible in the statistics and official rhetoric of the country. While criminal law prohibits public incitement to hatred, there is a lack of a proper legal system to report and punish hate speech which largely remains unreported.

Following the terrorist attacks of 2015, this lack of hate speech monitoring was addressed by the government which launched a large programme to monitor hate speech.. But in general, there is a lack of data regarding ethnic and religious markers. As a result, anti-discrimination policies refer instead to the “banlieues” (suburbs) or “immigrants”, even when the concerned populations might be third or fourth generation French citizens.

The lack of proper demographic statistics has often led to unofficial numbers filling the gap, such as the claim that there are 5m Muslims in France. In reality, these figures are often based on the notion that descendants of people who have migrated from the Maghreb and North Africa are Muslims, creating an amalgamation between individual “descendants from immigration” and Muslims. Not only does the rejection of racial, ethnic, religious or linguistic data in the name of equality make minorities invisible, it also entraps them into other categorisations that paradoxically render them outsiders to the French process of equal citizenship.
 

France needs more ‘fraternity’

The historical weight of the 1789 French revolution and its approach to citizenship cannot be underestimated in today’s political and legal landscape. The “absolute” nature of equality is part of this legacy, with equality seen as the overarching principle in the constitutional edifice. This has been protected and enforced by the Constitutional Court on many occasions. For example, in 1999 the court decided that ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages would be unconstitutional on grounds of “absolute equality”, effectively barring the introduction of any form of minority rights into the French legal system.

But we argue that another founding principle, that of fraternity, could be used to counterbalance the negative effects of this strict interpretation of the law regarding equality. Of the three terms in France’s famous constitutional maxim, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, the legal significance of fraternity is the least understood. From a legal perspective, its definition has always been problematic, and as our new research has highlighted, it is unquestionably the “weak link” in the trilogy.

But a more flexible interpretation of the term fraternity may make it possible to recognise minority rights within the French Republican model – without going against the existing bloc de constitutionnalité, which comprises all the fundamental constitutional values of the country. So far, the dominant focus on equality has meant a rejection of data collected on origin, race or religion. Arguably, a focus on fraternity, which is also one of the fundamental constitutional values, could allow a much more flexible and encompassing approach to diversity within the country, and play an important role in diffusing the tensions that have been developing over the last few years.

France is a long way off making this legal connection between fraternity and minority rights. But in India, the supreme court has interpreted fraternity, a term introduced into the preamble of its 1950 Constitution by B R Ambedkar, as engaging minority rights to counteract caste-based discrimination and inequalities. Ambedkar believed that “without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint”.
France needs a new legal approach to its model of republican citizenship that would allow its minorities to feel much more integrated, respected, and protected by the legal system. This has to begin with identifying who those minorities are, on the basis of race, religion, language or related grounds – a message increasingly being relayed by French minority advocacy groups. The dormant constitutional principle of fraternity might hold the legal key to realising such a new departure.

This article was first published on The Conversation
 

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The Conversation

(Though this article is written in the Australian context, it is equally relevant to our own situation).

Australia’s appalling record of equity in education has once again been confirmed in the latest Closing the Gap report. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the report’s dismal findings present an opportunity to “recommit to achieving equality of opportunity for all Australians”.

But first we must agree on what we mean by ‘equality’. Is equality in education achieved by giving everybody the same thing? Or is it achieved by giving everybody what they need in order to achieve the same outcome?

The latter is the premise of the now-defunct Gonski model of education funding – where each student is given what they need in order to achieve, and that means some students would be given more because they need more.

However, the current government is instead pursuing a model of educational equality where everyone is given the same. What could be fairer than that, right?

This commonsense logic falls apart in the application.

If someone in a room is having a heart attack, we don’t administer CPR to everyone just to be fair; we give the specialist intervention to the person who needs it. So it is difficult to understand why this model of “give everyone the same” is so vigorously pursued in education, particularly when it appears to have been spectacularly unsuccessful over the years.

A long history of inequity
Our results in international tests, and in our own homegrown testing, reveal the most unsavoury of educational gaps. We are a country defined as “high quality, but low equity” in education. That means we produce high achievers, but the gap between those who achieve at school and those who don’t is one of the highest among OECD countries.

This is not a new phenomena; it has been a key feature of our PISA test results since we joined that particular international testing club in 2000. In fact, the equity gap is increasing. 14.2% of students were at level one or below in 2010, compared with about 13% in 2000. One proficiency level is about the equivalent of three years schooling – so we are talking about some very large gaps.

And while our slide down the international PISA ladder has prompted all sorts of funding initiatives to increase participation in science, maths and technology at school as we attempt to keep up with the international Jones’, we seem much less exercised about our world-leading educational inequity problem.

Why do we have this achievement gap?
There are many reasons posited for the achievement gap, not least the social and economic disadvantage that so often accompanies those who achieve poorly on measures of educational achievement.

Students who do poorly at school often come from disadvantaged homes; performing poorly at school usually means you will stay economically disadvantaged. It’s a chicken-and-egg cycle that education is supposed to be able to break – except that so far in Australia, it hasn’t.

Students who do poorly at school often come from disadvantaged homes; performing poorly at school usually means you will stay economically disadvantaged. It’s a chicken-and-egg cycle that education is supposed to be able to break – except that so far in Australia, it hasn’t.

Access to school learning is a crucial part of solution, but it is very difficult to do well in school when you don’t speak the language of school, and when the cultural references that underpin the curriculum are foreign to you.

It is hard to engage with school when it feels alien, when the school libraries, display walls, textbooks and curriculum are full of people and events that are difficult to relate to.

It is a struggle to find motivation to stay in school when it feels like the things that are important to you in your home life count for nothing at school.

It takes enormous resilience to keep turning up at school when you feel dumb because you can’t do the work, and you can’t do the work because it is being delivered in a language you are not fully proficient in – Standard Australian English. Nobody teaches you how this language works, but they do use a red pen a lot to show you how much you don’t know.

The importance of language teaching
Many of the underachieving students in Australian schools share one common attribute: they don’t speak Standard Australian English.

Achievement in Australian schools is dependent upon your access to Standard Australian English and mainstream cultural references. Schools have a responsibility to initiate all their students into both. This is best achieved by acknowledging, nurturing and using the existing cultural references and linguistic skills of the students, not by pretending they don’t exist.

Indigenous students are highly competent language users. Many arrive at school speaking more than one language or dialect, including Aboriginal English – which is a dialect distinct from Standard Australian English. Their linguistic competency should be the starting point for their instruction in Standard Australian English.

However, this kind of teaching requires teachers with skills in language and culturally responsive teaching – skills we do not currently train teachers for. While teachers speak Standard Australian English they have very little expertise in teaching it as an additional language.

Good money after bad?
Some point to the millions of dollars spent on education initiatives, and the subsequent lack of progress over the decades, as evidence that money is not the solution to this problem. This is the line used by both the current and former education minister as a defence for the refusal to commit to extended funding for education.

This argument is at best disingenuous, at worst ignorant. Education does cost money, and to achieve equality in education some of our students will require more resourcing than others.

Money must be targeted directly at interventions for those students who need them. Accountability must be linked to the educational outcomes of those targeted students, and those outcomes must be measured in far more nuanced ways than blunt and narrowly focused instruments like standardised testing.

Professional development
The starting point should be the professional development of teachers, specifically in language teaching and culturally responsive curriculum planning. This will give them the skills to target those in the ever-growing underachieving tail of Australian students.

(The writer is Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra).

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