Evolution theory suggests that mutations play a very important role in the survival of species, especially when the environment for survival turns hostile. There is no reason why this theory cannot be extended to ideas, ideologies, and institutions. When an idea loses its shine, it has to mutate to survive. It could happen with caste, too, as politicians again give this institution renewed importance.
Before we come to caste, it is worth giving examples of ideas, ideologies, and institutions mutating to survive.
When capitalism’s future was threatened by the Great Depression, it morphed into socio-capitalism with the creation of the welfare state. When Marxism failed multiple times to make class consolidation work across countries and even within one country, it mutated to focus on culture and identity politics for survival. Today, wokeism is another name for cultural Marxism. When the Chinese Communist Party faced internal discontent after failing its own people multiple times, it mutated to embrace capitalism with Chinese characteristics. If America and Europe got their welfare state, China got authoritarian capitalism.
The same has happened to companies, and it’s called diversification, or not putting all eggs in one product or service. Large Indian, Japanese, and Korean companies have always been conglomerates, but ITC, which still makes very good margins on its core cigarettes business, has mutated into a multi-product conglomerate. With its main product line threatened by taxes and growing health concerns over cancer, it got into hotels and fast-moving consumer goods to ensure long-term survival. While focusing on one product or service is what delivers real innovation and growth, dependence on one product can be dangerous for corporate survival.
Like the Chinese Communist Party, Indian political parties have been mutating, too. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the first to realise that it could not grow a national footprint purely by vending mild Hindutva. Close identification with the upper castes and small businesses (“the Brahmin-Baniya party” of yore) was not enough. It has embraced OBC (other backward castes) politics with a vengeance in the 1990s, and now is fully into it. Hence, the recent announcement of a caste census.
In terms of economic ideology, it has moved from Centre-Right to Centre-Left. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP was a party of privatisation and deregulation; under Narendra Modi, it is more cautious. There has been no privatisation since Air India was handed over to the Tatas, though there is still talk of privatising IDBI Bank this year. After opposing “revdis” (freebies), the party has accepted freebie culture as unavoidable in electoral politics. And Congress, a party whose pre-1991 vote bank comprised minorities, upper castes, and the Scheduled Castes, is mutating too. With the upper castes moving to the BJP, OBCs are the new targets for vote accretion.
The purpose of giving these examples is to ask a question about caste: does it have the capacity to mutate as an institution for survival? By caste, I am referring to jatis (which are vocational or geographically connected social groups) and not varna, which is a theoretical arrangement of society in some hierarchical order.
Caste for coalitions
We cannot predict the future, but some things are obvious. When an institution has been under attack for centuries, and it still survives, one has to assume that its will to survive is not gone. Here are some points to note.
First, BR Ambedkar’s call for the annihilation of caste is no longer a viable proposition. Various subaltern castes (the non-upper layer jatis) have begun to use caste identities for upward mobility.
Second, when caste remains a potent weapon for political mobilisation in a first-past-the-post electoral democracy, where elections can be won with 35-38 per cent of the vote (sometimes even less than 30 per cent, as in Uttar Pradesh during the SP-BSP years), it is not going away anytime soon.
Three, the mistake anti-caste warriors make is to assume that caste is only a system of discrimination. Not quite: it is also social capital. In a diverse, low-trust society, caste provides the internal cohesion and trust factor that enables capital formation and redistributive welfare within one social group. And in India, even small jatis, though scattered, tend to be larger than 5-10 million in size, which is larger than half the countries now in existence. Just as religion-based charity helps the poor within one community, caste-based organisations support their less well-off members and also deliver reasonable assurance on finding marriage partners.
Four, as technology starts replacing labour, and as social media and digitisation remove the human element from relationships and transactions, there is likely to be a greater breakdown of social contact and face-to-face communication. This will inevitably lead to alienation and anomie in individuals—as we are seeing in the West. In this situation, one must ask: should we be trying to destroy the one institution—caste—that still enables an individual to connect to community and remain socially connected? Or merely call for its reform and become more inclusive?
Five, when human institutions start breaking down—whether it is marriage or social groups—the state has to step into the breach. But since States cannot function without accumulating more and more powers to intervene in human lives, human beings will become mere identificatory entities—social security and Aadhaar numbers. The State cannot create community or foster relationships, which is what makes humans human. Homo sapiens are social animals.
Caste is one form of social linkage that has endured over centuries. It has also mutated over the centuries. From being fairly flexible and affording some mobility pre-CE, it became more closed and inward-looking when society faced external threats, especially the Islamic invasions, which brought entirely different ideas about god and society. These ideas posed a threat to pre-existing social coherence in India and made the caste system more rigid and resistant to change. The British, of course, added to these rigidities by trying to force-fit all jatis into varnas.
But mutations happened anyway.
Between the seventh and 17th centuries, the broad-based Bhakti Movement enabled castes to transcend their identities by focusing on devotion to god without over-dependence on priests, rituals, and traditions. The Bhakti Movement in various parts of India did not eliminate caste, but gave each of them a larger and direct connection to god.
Post-Independence, caste has steadily grown to become a vehicle for political mobilisation.
Castes are also learning to build coalitions and reframing their purposes, focusing on caste pride and reducing inter-caste animosities.
Also read: India is the most compelling story of the present era. We mustn’t squander this opportunity
Identities will remain strong
In the north, Chamars are now selling T-shirts with the caste name emblazoned on them. They are no longer seeking any annihilation of caste, for this will impact their exclusive identity. Moving from caste shame to caste pride is now being enabled in the “caste system”—an unthinkable idea just a few decades ago.
In southern Tamil Nadu, two martial castes—the Kallars and the Devendrakula Velalars—which have had a history of violent conflict, are now trying to end this enmity (with some help from Sangh parivar activists). The idea is to sell caste pride along with cross-caste friendships. Suya Jati Patru (love of one’s own caste), Pira Jati Natpu (friendship with other castes) is the idea being promoted, and seems to be working, according to S Gurumurthy, a Sangh ideologue.
Today, we use the term “Dalit” to describe all underprivileged castes and tribes, but caste pride and caste identities may well transcend the artificial Dalit identity. If the BJP wants various castes to embrace a larger Hindutva identity, it can do so not by de-emphasising caste (as the RSS has done so far), but by building genuine caste coalitions and institutions to resolve caste conflicts.
In the West, the attempt to build a coalition of non-dominant group identities—as epitomised in the acronym LGBTQIA+—is not very different from building new caste-like identities under a broader umbrella. In India, the umbrella may be the terms “Dalit” or “Hindutva”, but the important point is that the identities that people are already attached to will remain strong.
Castes in India are learning to reform and mutate, for economic, political, and social reasons. It is not going to be easy to annihilate in the foreseeable future.
R Jagannathan is former Editorial Director, Swarajya. He tweets at @TheJaggi. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)