Politics of Compensation: Mandal, Mandir and Women's Bill
Reservation for the OBC, the mandir-masjid conflict and reservation for women to one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha, have all one thing in common. They are based on the idea of "compensatory discrimination". For nearly a decade now Indian socio-political life has been rocked by "compensatory discrimination" through reservation of one kind or another. On closer scrutiny, it is found that this concept is one in the chain of Romantic ideologies churned out in the aftermath of Hegelianism. Like Marxism, Nazism, Zionism and many such ideologies, through a biased analysis of history it chooses to set right certain wrongs and compensate the perceived sufferers for their deprivation through the ages. It is radically different from Christian and Islamic "charity" or Asian "compassion" that seek to help any sufferer or downtrodden and have no yardstick to make some sufferers more deserving than others. The results of Mandal and mandir are there to see, it is worth investigating if "stri-mandal" can go another way.
The Mandal Outcome
At the time when socialist systems were collapsing elsewhere in the world and India too was faced with the challenge of leaving its socialist cocoon, the change was resisted by reviving the Mandal Commission Report. The professed aim was to promise jobs in public sector to a sizable number of people along caste lines for their upliftment. There was hope that the private sector will follow suit. But as the private sector cannot forgo efficiency and accountability, the State alone has to provide reservations. For this reason, the public sector was and is still being protected in size and employability to retain "command economy" under a different name. Instead of socialism, we have now "social justice", the disastrous results of which are beginning to emerge. While it has created bad blood on how much reservation is to be given to whom, it has also prevented the nation from progressing towards market economy by postponing infrastructural changes and rebuffing foreign investment. Moreover, it has not delivered the promised gains either.
Reservation as "compensatory discrimination" does not seek to eliminate the caste system, it merely aims to uplift some downtrodden castes, whether at the bottom or the middle of the caste ladder. Moreover, theorists of reservation are not clear about the manner of upliftment. They have borrowed the model of "affirmative action" from societies which do not have any rigid caste based hierarchy of jati (endogamic family) and varna (class based on purity level) as ours but only classes created by economic disparity. In such societies, now as always, economic advancement of a person, family or group, brings about a confirmed position into a higher class. But in the Indian system, prosperity alone has never upgraded the status of a caste (jati) into a higher varna. Upward mobility into higher class (varna) has been a complex phenomenon which comes after a few generations of struggle by a particular jati which also has to acquire the behaviour patterns of the next higher varna in food, social and ritual habits. Nevertheless, upward mobility has occured throughout the ages as one can make out from ethical codes, literature and ample researches of modern sociologists.
The present day reseveration policy, however, cannot provide upward caste mobility to a jati. though it may provide economic prosp- erity to some individuals. The beneficiaries have now a greater interest in sticking to their "down-trodden" jati label to ensure further benefits. No advantage now in a tiller (bhumihaar) revealing himself as a kshatriya as did Shivaji at his coronation. Now, instead of claiming closeness to Manu, or the line Sun or Moon (surya or chandra vamsha), it is better to be their victim. (Reflected in an extreme case of a woman in Kerala claiming that her son was not born of her brahmin husband but from a SC rapist). The "uplifted" person thus lives in a schizophrenic state, part of him wishes to move up into the higher varna and yet another part preserves his caste certificate. Reservation, thus, has not only reinforced the caste system and embittered caste hierarchical interactions, it has created new perversions. Above all, not only the forward castes, but even the majority of OBC's and STSC's feel cheated as the benefits of reservation are gobbled by the creamy layer of each category. Yadavs make hay, while Telis sulk.
The Mandir Aftermath
A similar "compensatory discrimination" for the Hindus by recla- iming the sacred sites of their famous temples from the "structures" or mosques built on their ruins, was at the root of "Ram Janmabhoomi" movement. The whole endeavour was steeped in cultural self-pity and lacked the ability to place Indian events in world history. Iconoclasm has taken its toll not only in India but in many places in the world. In Greece, the Christians erected churches on nearly all the sacred sites of Olympian religion from temple rubble. For destructions suffered centuries ago, the compensation for the present day Hindus can only be, freedom from fear of religious fanaticism of all kinds, including their own.
Economic setback was again the most damaging outcome of the Janmabhoomi agitation. It also diverted attention from the religious and cultural activity at local temples by focussing attention to a site far away from home. Collection of funds for the Janmabhoomi by the Sangh Parivar was also to, say the least, a dubious affair. Described by many as a counterblast to divisive Mandalism, the movement did not revitalise the Hindu community by breaking barriers of caste and orthodoxy. If it compensated anybody, it was the leadership.
Hopes from Stri-mandal
While Mandir is already on the back-burner of the BJP and Mandal a cause for despair, fervour for reservation has found new pastures: one- third seats for women in the Lok Sabha. Here the issue is seen not merely as India specific, but as the global problem of gender inequality. Hence credence is being sought for very vague, romantic notions such as ; men are showing a decline in initiative as much in their sperm-count; women as leaders are more solution-oriented and less agonistic; as leaders they shall order fewer wars, and so forth. On the other hand, criticism of this reservation has aired fears of the Parliament becoming a Dolls' House, a coterie of arm-chair seminarians , an upper caste beauty saloon and the rest. But while most of these dangers cannot but be shortlived, what may abide can be the same as in the case of Mandal and Mandir, namely the entrenchment in power of a creamy leadership. This feminine cream can be of all sorts, the seminarian, the lovely dancer, the OBC sanyasini, or the SC sister, the minority "motarmaa", but all the same, a super-sister, controlling her electorate in the traditonal mother- in-law style. That the desire to dominate is weaker in women than in men, is anybody's wager. Just as mothers-in-law assist bride-burning, and reinforce patriarchy and denigration of women, these women legislators may look for their pounds of flesh perpetuating the status quo. (The 101 British lady MPs are concerned with human rights violations in Kashmir but not with women rights in Afghanistan). Feminine reservation in legislature has no meaning without an agenda free from political ideologies. The sisterhood must pledge to materialize their agenda by even disregarding party whips if needed. In fact, more the independent women candidates the better, as can pursue the feminine welfare more freely. The agenda, itself will best evolve from a national discussion but it must prioritize elimination of glaring evils like forced prostitution, excessive child-bearing, wife-beating, dowry, purdah, female infanticide, caste barriers and molestations. To implement the agenda and change the social fabric should be the priority of women parliamentarians and not to demand more jobs for women or to promote the parties they come from. This means a protracted battle against male politicians from whom one- third seats have to be wrenched and a conflict with party hegemony in interpreting feminine issues and strategies. Political parties shall always try to derail the feminine agenda by making women legisltures serve the electoral agendas. The Mandalites have already harmed the feminine cause by demanding division of reservation for women along caste lines. This is the biggest danger because feminine problems are not class, caste or electorate specific, they are universal.
Indian Express, Edit Page, 2-7-97.