Unmarriageability, subclassification and the persistence of caste— Part 2

This article, the second of a two-part series, presents the author's case for anchoring the reservation policy and explains why including economic backwardness in reservations contradicts social justice.

—

Read Part 1 here.

ON August 1, 2024, the Supreme Court allowed the sub-classification of the Scheduled Castes, thereby ruling that the 'creamy layer' within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be excluded from the right of reservation.

The Unmarriageables (i.e., the Scheduled Castes) should strategically placard the stigmas that contribute to social inequality in order to resist and counter the dilution of their reservation rights.

They need to reiterate that the purpose of reservation shall continue until the demise of Unmarriageability. Reservation is a tool for the removal of social inequality and there lies no reason for its removal until the Indian society reconstructs its structure based on social equality. Indian society must begin reforming itself with a ban on caste matrimonies.

Will banning caste matrimonies sensitise Hindus on the notion of marital equality? Will it purge the determination of status based on caste? None would hope much in this regard. A legal ban, at best, could make the caste matrimonies unlawful.

It cannot be a complete deterrent to the functioning of such caste conclaves. The Hindu society which is, by and large, endogamous, would not heed the strokes of law that hinder the practice of endogamy. Still, the imposition of a legal ban on caste matrimonies would be a significant development.

Caste matrimonies can be understood as resembling the optimisation seen in ant colonies. The behavior of ants, which live only in colonies, is driven more by the goal of ensuring the colony's survival than by the survival of the individual.

Also read: Weakest of the weak need constitutional protection, Punjab tells SC on Day 1 of subclassification within Scheduled Castes

Scientifically, ant colony optimisation refers to the foraging behaviour of ants, specifically their strategies to find the shortest paths between food sources and their colony.

Ant colony optimisation serves as an inspiration for both scientific and industrial applications in finding approximate solutions to discrete optimisation problems, and loosely, caste matrimonies can be considered to follow a technique similar to ant colony optimisation.

To the discrete caste requirement of each Hindu in the context of their marriage, caste matrimonies optimise the best possible alliances along with standard requirements such as the same language, region and status that are always considered and also complement the individual's specific expectations on education, profession, income, complexion and habits.

Caste matrimonies are successful in overcoming all the odds without contravening caste rules.

At the outset, caste matrimonies might appear to merely satisfy the caste urge of the prospective brides and bridegrooms. But it goes dangerously beyond that and when given a complete thought, what it has always promoted and continues to promote is the successful continuation of the age-old custom of endogamy.

Caste matrimonies are primarily guided by the purpose of sustaining endogamy, though they address other marital expectations of each individual. This explains why banning caste matrimonies is crucial.

A ban on caste matrimonies would be tantamount to disturbing an ant colony, thereby dislodging an army of ants nesting in it. It introduces perplexity among the Hindus, as in the case of ants.

Also read: A top-notch primer on reservations in India

If caste matrimonies are declared unlawful, Hindus would instinctively become desperate to find a detour to accomplish their endogamous custom. Exposing this detour is important, as is understanding their desperation.

The detour that the Caste Hindus would architect to continue their endogamous custom would expose the limitation of law in annihilating caste. While the desperation they exhibit would bring to light the much-ignored truth, caste stigmas and caste prejudices are the root cause of social backwardness prevalent in Hindu society.

Whatever progress a marginal section of the Unmarriageables has managed to achieve can be attributed only to reservation. The destiny of the Unmarriageables inseparably travels with the right of reservation.

Of late, the meaning of social justice has been largely tampered with by the Indian State itself. The 10 percent reservation for the economically weaker section (EWS) in the general category, which came into effect on January 14, 2019, has severely mutilated the concept of social justice.

The EWS reservation has revealed the Parliament's apathy and hostility towards the Unmarriageables. The dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 by the Supreme Court of India on March 20, 2018, is a warning to the Unmarriageables that the courts can also close the doors of justice.

It is needless to mention the inimical role played by the Indian media as it has had a notorious history against the Unmarriageables, which is evident even today.

The Unmarriageables face dark times as reservation based on social backwardness is gradually receding. The 10 percent reservation for the general category based on economic backwardness is nothing but the grand mausoleum that has been constructed to put the principle of social justice to eternal rest.

The remark by Nobel laureate, economist Amartya Sen should not be taken lightly: "If the whole of the population is covered by reservation, then that would be [the] removal of reservation."

The need of the hour is to retrieve the principle of social justice and the concept of reservation based on social backwardness. The reservation policy has been reduced to the logic of a poverty alleviation programme.

Also read: Sub-classification of Scheduled Castes: Homogeneity in forwardness, non-homogeneity in backwardness

'Poverty' has replaced 'social backwardness' as the rationale for reservation. The Unmarriageables are required to become resilient swiftly.

To bring a ban on caste matrimonies and turn the spotlight on the stigma of unmarriageability and the caste prejudice of the Hindus abiding by endogamy would, to an extent, bring to the fore the deep-dyed casteist mindset predominant in Indian society.

The exposure of the casteist mindset is required to reason out how caste stigmas and caste prejudices pave the way for social inequality and the social backwardness of the Unmarriageables.

A ban on caste matrimonies would bring a strategic justification for why reservation should be based on social backwardness and why economic backwardness can never become the basis for reservation whatsoever.

Such a band would be a strategic coercion on the Hindus to deal with their caste prejudices first instead of being so persistent to usurp an unjustified and underserved claim in reservation on the pretext of economic backwardness.

The ban on caste matrimonies would be an attempt to make half-baked scholars and policymakers concede that the introduction of economic backwardness in reservation is against the principle of social justice.

Reservation is a social justice mechanism against the social subjugation and discrimination met by the Unmarriageables. The ban on caste matrimonies is likely to reveal the deep-seated social stigmas and prejudices within Hindu society.

Highlighting caste-based reservation in matrimonies is definitely not an unrelated or distant justification to continue the reservation policy for the socially unprivileged. Reservation in education, jobs and legislatures has its roots in the reservation in marriages.

Reservation is simply an antidote to the caste system. The latter has caused the problem while the former is an arrangement trying to seek a solution.

Also read: Does the tongue belong to the 'Thakur' as well? In solidarity with Manoj Jha

It must be remembered that the justification for reservation is not social backwardness per se. Rather, the rationale arises from the fact that social backwardness stems from social (caste) stigmas and prejudices.

Therefore, if at all reservation is desired to be removed, it has to be preceded by the removal of caste stigmas, prejudices and disparities.

There lies another reason for the need to associate caste matrimonies with the issue of reservation. The Unmarriageables' effort to annihilate caste is usually seen by the Hindus as a humorous endeavour. In fact, they would continue to perceive so.

Hindus have nothing to fear from the Unmarriageables, nor have they anything to gain by the abolition of caste. To take the efforts of annihilation of caste lightly in itself is a blend of their wickedness.

To make the wicked tremble, the Unmarriageables should juxtapose the stigma of unmarriageability with the issue of reservation. They should succeed in banning caste matrimonies and its repercussions should be relied on to reiterate on the relevancy of reservation.

Reservation is a mechanism to attain social equality. Till then, the existence of unmarriageability should be a factor to assess the social inequality prevailing in this society.