Reserving new energy

The caste system continues to be rampant in every walk of Indian life. In villages like Chakwada, for example, Dalits still can’t touch the water sources though animals freely drink from these. People in urban areas think they are above caste feelings. But when asked if they are going to marry their children to Dalits, they are cold to the idea. There are subtle indirect ways of trying to find out the caste of each other, if not directly. And without it, the profile or introduction remains incomplete. This obsession with social background is absent in other religions.

With the help of reservation in government jobs and education, Dalits have come to participate in the mainstream, to some extent. In spheres where there are no reservations, such as in the media, judiciary, export-import sectors, businesses and highly skilled jobs, Dalits are entirely non-existent.

At the time of writing, there are no reservations in the private economy of India unlike the Affirmation Action principles practised by businesses in America. A related question emerges: why has the Indian economy not been able to pose a challenge to global companies and products? Tell me one Indian product which is a global brand? Businesses do most of the research and development in America but in India R&D is taken care of by the Government while businesses simply utitlise and thrive on them. The participation of creative Dalits would bring new energy to the Indian economy and directly spur the creation of original products which would gain immediate international attention.

In America, without any legal strictures, businesses provide African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans with employment keeping in mind their populations. In the ’80s, the American media realised that there were only 2 per cent African-Americans in the media. This stunned editors and owners of mainstream newspapers and they began an active campaign to recruit minority community candidates, whom they trained and employed. A subsequent survey showed that as a result of these efforts, African-American participation rose to 8-9 per cent. Last year, in Michigan University, a White student—who had secured more marks than an African-American but who still failed to get admission in a law course—challenged the Affirmative Action rule but lost the case in the US Supreme Court by a margin of 5-4.

One of the reasons why Indian brands, products and services have never been able to match up to Western standards is because of the exclusion of hardworking, honest and creative Dalits from the economic life of India. It shocks me that some corporate houses are heard opposing reservations saying that private businesses are the result of their own hard work and money. Would the Indian software industry have flourished as it has if there had been no IITs and IIMs? If Dalits are employed in the private sector they will be paid according to their contributions. It won’t be a free lunch.

The revenue collection of the Indian Government is about 8.5 to 10 per cent of total GDP. In developed countries, it is about 25 per cent and even in less developed economies, it ranges from 16 to 20 per cent. In the West, the source of government revenues is mostly income tax, while in India, most of it is excise and customs. There are thousands of rich businessmen who evade taxes.

I hope the verdict of the 14th Lok Sabha teaches a lesson of how the anguish and deprivation of the poor, Dalits and minorities threw the NDA out of power. The BJP focused only on the upper caste rich and lost. The middle class likes to delude itself that caste is dead. Yet it is the same caste system that consistently prevents the growth of a sense of belonging to the country and feeling of responsibility and concern for one another.

When the British tried to open the doors of public education to Dalits, they met with resistance from dominant castes. Several British writers wrote how difficult it was to change the social and cultural mentality of dominant castes.

Foreigners ruled over Indians because Indians themselves do not treat each other like fellow human beings. We simply do not believe in each others’ talent; we pull each other down because of a subconscious belief that some are ‘‘higher’’ and others are, by definition, ‘‘lower’’. If the Indian industry opposes reservations, it is because of this same mentality which lays out a red carpet for foreigners but which denies fellow Indians like Dalits an equal place under the sun.

Today, there are policies facilitating FIIs, the World Bank, MNCs and the IMF, yet industrialists don’t protest. FIIs possess a shocking clout over capital markets. Indian corporate houses should fight these forces instead of fighting against reservation for Dalits. If Dalits get opportunity to get ahead in life, the nation as a whole will benefit. Dalits are a productive caste, throughout the country it is they who grow the grain and tend the fields. By the same token, the Dalit entrepreneur can become an engine of growth for India, a consumer, a payer of tax and a creative member of the economy, if only he is included.

The author is national president, Indian Justice Party