Shunya's Notes

On Caste Privilege

(Cross-posted on 3 Quarks Daily, where it has received many comments.)

An early goal of British imperialists in India was to create a class of local elites in their own image. They would be, wrote Macaulay, ‘interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.’ An elite class did emerge, not surprisingly from the socially dominant upper-caste Hindus of urban India.

These elites, chin-deep in caste identities, saw themselves as innately superior to other Indians, mirroring the class- and race-based prejudices of the British. No wonder they got along so well. Later, when these Indians opposed the British, they used the same language of political rights and liberalism that the Europeans preached at home but didn’t practice in their colonies. It was this elite class, led by Anglicized lawyers and bureaucrats, that succeeded the British. In the first Indian parliament in 1952, Brahmins, who account for under 5% of the population, cornered almost 25% of the directly elected seats; altogether the upper-castes, about 20% of the population, claimed over 85% of the seats.[1]

In a representative democracy, the idea of ‘representation’ is that an upper-caste Hindu man can fairly represent the interests of the lower-castes, minorities, and women. But one can persuasively argue that this did not happen in the early decades of the Indian republic. Deep disparities along caste lines remained; religious minorities grew alienated; women remained marginal as before. India was effectively a democracy of the few, by the few, for the few.

Since the 70s, India has seen the rise of caste-based politics. Built on the idea that only a member of your own (or proximate) caste can represent your interests, its primary driver was the failure of upper-caste politicians to represent the lower-castes, and the latter realizing the power of their vote. Votes began fragmenting along caste lines, not the least because—besides being central to one’s social identity—caste shaped one’s share of opportunity, deprivation, and discrimination in life.

When the lower-castes began mobilizing and putting up their own candidates, the elites grew anxious and began decrying the rise of caste-based politics and vote banks. ‘So regressive!’ they complained, ‘a betrayal of the spirit and ideals of democracy!’ But of course, with hardly an egalitarian bone in their bodies, they had played a rigged game all along. Their anxiety, above all, came from a visceral fear—fear of the ‘impure’ masses, fear of losing their privileges, fear of being overrun by the boors. In no area is this anxiety more evident than in the debate on caste-based affirmative action, aka reservations, in public sector jobs and college admissions.

Writing fifty years ago in The Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon lamented ‘the unpreparedness of the elite, the lack of practical ties between them and the masses, their apathy, and, yes, their cowardice at the crucial moment in the struggle.’ These elites, he wrote, ‘simultaneously resisted the insidious agenda of colonialism and paved the way for the emergence of the current struggles.’

Fanon had in mind the post-colonial elites of North Africa, but his remark is no less apt for the Indians. India needed a real program of socioeconomic justice—via, say, land reform, universal education, and fighting caste discrimination. What legislation the elites did pass they didn’t push far enough. Instead, they consolidated their domination over politics, the economy, education, cultural institutions, and the media—for instance, the richest 10% monopolize more land now than in 1951.[2] Having done quite well for itself, self-congratulation has come easy to this class. In an attempt to restore some balance, this insider, dear reader, will now relate to you its benightedness.

Blocked by Caste

Is urbanization and industrial development defeating the inequities of caste in India, as many upper-caste Indians like to believe (using it to buttress their opposition to caste-based reservations)? Well, not quite.

Cities do offer greater anonymity and a diversity of jobs unrelated to traditional caste occupations, thereby weakening many, perhaps even the worst, forms of rural casteism. An office-going Brahmin is unlikely to worry about being polluted if he brushes against a Dalit in a crowded bus, or object to eating out lest a Dalit prepared the meal. But even as many old caste abuses have vanished or weakened in the face of urbanization, others have arisen or evolved into malignant forms. Industrialization is indeed a turbulent force for the caste system, but it is not in itself a socially progressive force. Depending on the injustice and inequities already present, capital and industry can deepen preexisting social privileges and discrimination, which seems to be the case in India.

As many historians of caste have noted, caste in the urban milieu has morphed to behave more like an ethnic community, whose members not only harbor notions of "ethnic" distinctiveness but also a strong consciousness of rank vs. other caste communities. This continuing lack of egalitarianism then poisons urban civic life. It impacts hiring decisions; access to rental housing, health care, and public services; response from law enforcement; judicial verdicts; etc. In our age of economic liberalization, even the Indian private sector oozes discrimination from all its pores. If this is a surprise, a recent and extensive study, Blocked by Caste, should decisively dispel the belief that the private sector is mostly caste-blind and hires based on ‘merit’. It shows that equally qualified Dalit and Muslim résumés are much less likely to get picked than upper-caste ones, and exposes other "hidden nuances of caste prejudice in the language of globalisation that contemporary India speaks."

Below are two reviews of Blocked by Caste. The obvious question this study raises is: shouldn’t affirmative action be part of the strategy for equalizing opportunity in the private sector? I've included another related study (and here is a story about housing discrimination in Delhi).

The economics of caste inequity

"HR bosses, one and all, swore by merit in their choice of candidates and were dead set against reservation of jobs. But, the commitment to merit was voiced along with the conviction that merit tends to be distributed by caste or region! Such stereotyping, [the authors of the study] found, made it impossible for highly qualified, low-caste applicants to be hired for their skills and accomplishments. In sum, employers were not “caste blind” as they claimed."

Caste & the labour market

"There is a myth, however, that caste does not matter in the urban milieu and that, with the anonymity of the big city and with education and associated job and occupational mobility (assisted by affirmative action), traditional caste-based discriminatory practices disappear." ... "Caste discrimination not only persists but has taken new forms and penetrated into new systems."

Dalit is a Dalit even in a ‘free’ market

"Sirswal, 75, had started off as a sweeper but is now one of the oldest businessmen in Panipat, Haryana. He quit his sweeper’s job once his handloom unit was on its feet. His success, he says, came largely because he hid the fact that he was born a Valmiki Dalit. Customers who discovered his caste origins shunned him. Banks would not give loans because caste matters to them too, and Dalit entrepreneurs are too few and far between to work the system as a group like the upper castes do."

The Battle for Niyamgiri

The "Avatar style" battle between the big bad British corporation Vedanta Resources and Dongria Kondh, an endangered Primitive Tribal Group in Orissa, India, has attracted the attention of Bianca Jagger.

For generations, the Kondh of Orissa, in India, have lived on a fertile mountain which they revere as a god. But since the arrival in 2008 of a British aluminium refinery, their land has been poisoned and the villagers imprisoned. Now, the tribes people are making what could be their last stand.

Also check out this interesting video story on the Kondh's plight that I found on Survival International. 

Gloom Boom & Doom

Marc Faber is the pessimist's economist, a "contrarian" who has been frequently right, and publisher of the investment newsletter "The Gloom Boom & Doom Report". His website is even adorned by the Dance of Death paintings by Kaspar Meglinger. In this wide-ranging lecture, Faber analyzes the recent past and the future of global economics (1 hr, 8 mins). If you prefer a bullet-point summary, here is a decent one.

Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay

Comparing China and India has become a popular pastime in some quarters, including aspects of their national economies, political systems, infrastructure, human development, environment, and more. In this audio interview, Romesh Vaitilingam interviews Pranab Bardhan of UC Berkeley about his new book ‘Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India’. It is a brisk yet insightful overview (via Robin Varghese/3QD).

Click below to listen. 

NREGA: A Progress Report

Here is an excellent investigative piece full of very human stories on what I think is India's first and only economic safety net for its citizens. Launched in 2006 via the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), it promises 100 days of employment to one member of every rural household each year. However, things have not gone according to plan and Mehboob Jeelani tells us why.

Until 2004, India had 456 million people living below the international poverty line. Yet after four years of NREGA, the number of poor, which was expected to decline, has increased from 456 to 488 million. So what went wrong?  ...

NREGA can appear as a success. After all, some records show the government provided employment to 44.1 million people in the last four years. The Ministry of Rural Development believes it has rescued thousands of farmers from debt through cash payments. The scheme has decreased urban migration by 30 percent, according to a survey by the Centre for Civil Society, and has increased the bargaining power of unskilled labourers, forcing private contractors to pay as much as 130 rupees per day to compete with NREGA. Through the construction of shovel-ready projects, NREGA has also vastly improved rural infrastructure. If the 2009 election results are any indication, wrote Mainstream weekly, NREGA and the money it injected into rural India ensured the re-election of the Congress. Thus, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister to return to power after completing a full five-year term since Jawaharlal Nehru.

But NREGA hasn’t been an unqualified success. Today, the same welfare economists and grassroots activists who championed NREGA openly criticise it. They contend the government is killing a good scheme. Dreze and Roy think the government, instead of ensuring NREGA’s proper implementation, is watering down the social welfare elements by converging it with other government programmes. Several studies, including governmental ones, acknowledge widespread corruption in NREGA—fabricating vouchers is just one method of diverting funds. Caste-based discrimination is widespread. There is also a lack of political coordination between the Centre and state and local bodies. Most importantly, the promise of 100 days of guaranteed employment hasn’t been fulfilled. This leads one to wonder, four years on, what’s gone wrong with India’s Keynesian scheme?

Is India a Flailing State?

In this interesting paper, Lant Pritchett argues that India, despite its economic strides and democracy, is a "flailing" state:

How does one reconcile the contradictions of a booming economy and democracy with world class elite institutions and yet chaotic conditions in service provision of the most rudimentary types?  I argue that for India we need a new category.  I argue that India is today a flailing state---a nation-state in which the head, that is the elite institutions at the national (and in some states) level remain sound and functional but that this head is no longer reliably connected via nerves and sinews to its own limbs.  In many parts of India in many sectors, the everyday actions of the field level agents of the state—policemen, engineers, teachers, health workers—are increasingly beyond the control of the administration at the national or state level.

The contrast with China could not be more striking.  In China one worries that, due to the lack of the processes of democratic representation the head of the state, while capable, is beyond the control of the citizens.  Yet, at the same time one reads of local government officials being executed for corruption.  Clearly the head has a strong interest in retaining control of the administrative apparatus of implementation. 

More here.

George Soros on the Future of Economics

In this lecture series, Soros offers some resolutely liberal and philosophically rich food for thought on economics—an odd thing to say, I'll admit, for a multi-billionaire hedge fund manager. All five lectures and Q&A are hosted on this Financial Times page (one, two, three, four, five; 5-7 hours). The first lecture appears below and is a bit most abstract/conceptual; later ones are more concrete/practical.

"George Soros unveils his latest thinking on economics and politics during a lecture series hosted by the Central European University (CEU) from Oct 26-30, 2009. These lectures are the culmination of a lifetime of practical and philosophical reflection. Mr Soros discusses his general theory of reflexivity and its application to financial markets, providing insights into the recent financial crisis. The third and fourth lectures examine the concept of open society, which has guided Mr Soros’s global philanthropy, as well as the potential for conflict between capitalism and open society. The closing lecture focuses on the way ahead, closely examining the increasingly important economic and political role that China will play in the future."

The Century of the Self

Watch this remarkable BBC documentary by Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self. It examines how those in power in the last century—including PR professionals and politicians—exploited Freudian insights into human nature to make money, engineer consent, and manage the masses. It raises profound questions about the "Self" that we all believe we inhabit and shape ourselves, the tectonic shift occurring in our roles from citizens to consumers, and its implications for Anglo-American democracy. It looks at the routine use of focus groups to classify consumer demographics in a culture of increasingly self-absorbed individuals and "shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population." It also has some rare archival footage. (Thanks to my friend Louise Gordon.)

Read more here. Below is part 1, here are part 2, part 3, and part 4, each about an hour long. It's well worth the time!

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Econ 101 Rap

John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek explain the markets, yo!