After attempting to divide Hindus by castes, politicians now aim dividing in the name of religion

 Daya Sagar
Those who drafted the Constitution in 1949 had assessed that the known socially discriminated castes/groups were suffering of the worst social and educational backwardness resulting in continued economic and administrative backwardness. So, in the Indian Constitution and while drafting The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 only socially and educationally discriminated castes from amongst Hindus were included. The test applied was the social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of the historical custom of untouchability. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 in a way adopted in full the list drawn in 1936 for Schedule Caste (depressed castes) by the British. Later the Buddhist and Sikh leadership suggested that caste discriminations existed amongst them also and hence castes from Sikhs and Buddhists were also included in SC in 1956 and thereafter. Unfortunately other religious leaders were not that truthful to their people and they did not accept the reality of caste / sect discriminations. Had they accepted such discriminations prevailing amongst them also, I am sure the scope of schedule castes (list) would have been expanded and the politicians would have been checked from cultivating caste / religion based differences amongst Indians. But now some politicians are misquoting the facts and are misleading their innocent community members by professing that they have been discriminated in India by including only the Hindu in the reservations for the Schedule Castes and are demanding religion based reservations. Whereas, first they should be frank enough to accept that socially depressed classes do in practice exist in every religious community and they should disclose such castes for including in the schedule of socially and educationally backward castes. I may be corrected in case my reading is wrong.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suggested for a Muslim quota and inclusion of Dalit Muslims in SC category at a conference held by All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz on 1st July 2010 in Patna. In the words of Nitish Kumar, “In India caste has deep root, people change their religions but not castes. So, persons belonging to SC category whether they are Muslims or other should be treated in the same manner. Discrimination on the basis of religion is not good for democracy. At the time when I was MP, I had raised the issue to remove the condition of religion from Article 341, but unfortunately it has not been done till date,”
No doubted what Nitish Kumar had said regarding Muslim quota could be debated. But one thing that need be well received from Nitish Kumar is that those who change religion (since in their opinion they had been facing caste based discrimination / social backwardness in the religious society the one they abandoned), may still keep on facing discrimination like social untouchability even after change over into the new religion / society. That means that it was wrong and unfair to attribute the alleged curse of caste based / profession based social discrimination to only to those who held the “Hindu” faith.
Had leaders of Hindu /Muslims / Christians truthfully accepted in 1949 -50 (i) that the castes and social discrimination are not limited only to those who profess or / and identify themselves with Hinduism but it could be there in any society: and (ii) had the Muslims/ Christian social leaders also named any socially discriminated castes amongst them , then the accepted socially and educationally backward segments / castes from amongst the muslims / Christians / Parsis / Buddhists too would have been included in ” depressed classes” (SC) category in 1950/ 1956 itself. Even now it can be done under the provisions of Art-341. But the question, if done so, whom would the politicians use for vote bank politics?
And had the leaderships been truthful to their fellow community and India nation, the reservation for the SC in 1950 would have been kept 15 to 16 % instead of 12.5% as was kept in 1950 and about 18% as against 15% as increased in 1970 or even more if depressed classes / socially discriminated from all religions were nominated for inclusion in SC. This way the politicians, thereafter, would have been surely checked to a reasonable extent from exploiting the Hindus / Muslims/ Christians / Sikhs in the name of religion. Why not force the politicians to do it now? Worst sufferers have been the Muslims since being a much larger religious minority their innocence has been more targeted for votes by all political parties that has instead of helping them have pushed them more into the ‘darks’ of backwardness and isolation.
Concluded
(Daya Sagar, a Sr. Journalist and Social Activist can be reached at [email protected])