A statue of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. Photo: Ben Piven

Caste has existed in India for over 3 millennia, and many people view caste - in addition to curry and the Taj Mahal - as one of India’s defining features.

With several thousand castes that each contain sub-castes and even smaller groups, the system varies according to geography and language.

Last week, India commemorated the 60th birthday of its Constitution, which banned untouchability.

The show focuses on:

• Cultural background: Upper/lower castes, Urban/rural differences, & discrimination

• Politics: reservation system, reverse casteism, & Dalit political party

• Big picture/U.S.: Dalit diaspora, parallels with black Americans, anti-racism movement

Joining Martin Savidge to discuss caste in India are Vivek Kumar and Corey Washington.

Guests:

Vivek Kumar is a sociologist at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. His areas of specialization are social stratification, Dalit movements and the Indian diaspora.

Corey Washington is a PhD student at Columbia University in New York. He is currently producing two documentaries about caste in rural areas of the Indian states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Worldfocus Signature stories reported by Martin Himel — India’s untouchables trudge through sewers and One woman fights for members of India’s lowest caste — explore the lives of Indians who perform degrading caste-based occupations.

Activists say that India’s PM has been reluctant to address casteism head-on. Photo: Flickr user LondonSummit

For more on the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Washington D.C. last week, Worldfocus spoke with Ramaiah Avatthi, a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

Currently a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, Ramaiah contends that Manmohan Singh has largely ignored the issue of caste-based discrimination and atrocities.

The caste system is the traditional South Asian hierarchy that consigns people, based on their birth, to ranked social classes.

Worldfocus: Do you think Prime Minister Singh avoided certain issues during his U.S. visit?

Ramaiah Avatthi: Before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International urged Obama to persuade Singh to address the human rights concerns, particularly caste violence against Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables). This group, also known as Scheduled Castes, constitutes 166 million in India — and up to 250 million in South Asia.

The two leaders focused on Afghanistan/Pakistan, the fight against terrorism, global warming, economic development and nuclear proliferation. Thus the scope for discussion of caste was very limited.

Worldfocus: How would you assess casteism in India today?

Ramaiah Avatthi: The Dalits are subjected to inhuman torture and humiliation when they try to live with dignity like other citizens of India. Their assertiveness is often met with dire consequences.

There have been incidents in the recent past in which some Dalits were forced to consume human excreta and urine. Some were blinded by pushing needle into their eyes. Dalits have been raped and murdered and sometimes paraded naked.

Some non-Dalit families, particularly in states like Haryana, choose to kill their daughters for their “crime” of falling in love with Dalit boys. They are denied the minimum wage and forced work for generations as bonded labor. Most child labor also belongs to Dalit communities. This is not a thing of the past but is very much a part of day-to-day reality in most parts of rural India.

Worldfocus: What concrete policy changes should PM Singh implement?

Ramaiah Avatthi: There are a number of Constitutional safeguards to protect Dalits from injustice and exploitation. But we need more welfare measures to improve their educational and economic condition and to ensure representation in decision-making bodies.

Worldfocus: Has the international community taken note of the Dalit situation?

Ramaiah Avatthi: With the relentless efforts of Dalit activists and civil society organizations in the last 50 years, the issue of caste has come to center stage at the UN. Yet, violence against Dalits continues.

According to our National Crime Records Bureau, the number of crimes against Dalits increased from 26,887 in 2004 to 27,070 in 2006. Even brutal crimes such as rape and murder are on the increase. For instance, the number of Dalits reported to have been murdered by non-Dalits was 654 in 2004 and 674 in 2007.

Similarly, the number of reported cases of Dalit women being raped by the non-Dalit men was 1157 in 2004 and 1349 in 2007. Why do crimes against Dalits continue unabated, despite powerful laws against atrocities? Is the law ineffective — or the government?

It is interesting to note what Martin Luther King said in 1955: “You have never had real peace in Montgomery. You have had a sort of negative peace in which the Negro too often accepted his state of subordination. But this is not true peace. True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. The tension we see in Montgomery today is the necessary tension that comes when the oppressed rise up and start to move forward toward a permanent, positive peace.”

It is also interesting to note what the Indian Prime Minister said in his speech at the White House on November 23: “India and the U.S. are bound by democracy, rule of law and respect for fundamental human freedoms.” This was a response to President Obama’s declaration that the relationship “between the U.S. and India is one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.”

The crux of the matter is whether such statements will remain merely rhetoric — or will actually promote justice for oppressed communities in both countries.

• Watch the Worldfocus signature video: One woman fights for members of India’s lowest caste
• Watch the Worldfocus signature video: India’s “untouchables” trudge through the sewers
• Read more in Worldfocus Perspectives: Indian nationalism begins to challenge caste destiny

- Ben Piven

Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi neighborhood, where most of the workers belong to the Dhobi (washermen) caste. Photo: Ben Piven

Multimedia reporter Ben Piven spent nine months researching and documenting for Caste in the City [PDF] on a Fulbright grant. He recalls his field research and the questions surrounding caste and Indian nationalism in the slums of Mumbai. Ben is currently completing his master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University.

Watch Worldfocus’ signature videos on Dalits in India.

The peppery aroma of snack carts permeated the humid air. Workmen gathered under a corrugated tin overhang to sip on mango lassis and sweet lime juice.

At the end of a long day of interviews in the scorching April sun, I was finishing up my fieldwork inside a predominantly Dalit slum called Ramabai Colony in eastern Mumbai. A passerby stopped to ask why I was conducting research on the relevance of caste in contemporary Mumbai.

“What is your caste?” he asked me in Hindi.

“We don’t have caste in America,” I responded abruptly. “America is different from India.”

I then paused for a few seconds, quickly becoming pensive. After 15 grueling interviews, I was not keen on explaining the nuances of American social stratification in my choppy Hindi.

On other days when I was in more edifying moods, I explained class distinctions in the U.S. and how the religion of my birth did not differentiate along caste lines. When folks demanded to know, I sometimes joked that I was a Hindu of the Hebrew caste.

To many ordinary Indian people, caste is a universal. Humans in every country must belong to a caste, they suppose. How could any society function otherwise? Some sanitation workers even believe that their filthy profession is predestined.

Across India’s biggest city, thousands of leather workers, washermen and rag pickers ply the same trade as their ancestors. But many of their children have become bureaucrats, factory workers and merchants. Dalits are members of the lowest rung of traditional Hindu society, and they are increasingly asserting their political and economic rights.

To be sure, the enigma of caste is not entirely unique to India. Yet its omnipresence on the subcontinent makes it as quintessentially Indian as curry, Gandhi, and the head wiggle.

Even so, some Indians place national unity far above caste. In front of the Bombay Stock Exchange - arguably the most important symbol of India’s 21st century prosperity - I interviewed a bank watchman named Yogesh Kumar Singh. A young migrant from poor, rural Uttar Pradesh in north India, he simply could not identify his own caste.

In a proud defense of his caste ignorance, he declared, “All castes are the same. We’re all basically just Indian.”

Singh turned toward the crowd of people who were observing the interview and said triumphantly, “The caste divide doesn’t matter because we’re all brothers.”

- Ben Piven

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Himel reports on the lowest form of work, for members of India’s lowest class.