A ‘Revolutionary Verdict’

Balakrishna Ganeshan

The Supreme Court in a landmark judgement recently upheld the state government’s power to create sub-classification within the reserved categories for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The judgement has brought to the surface, the fault lines that exist within the community. While the Chamars of Uttar Pradesh and Mahars of Maharashtra have been opposing the sub-classification, the Valmikis of Uttar Pradesh, Madigas from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and Arunthathiyars have come in support of the court’s verdict.

One of the case studies which the judgement relied on was ‘The Many Omissions of a Concept: Discrimination amongst Scheduled Castes’ by Ravichandran Bathran, which establishes the heterogeneity amongst the Dalit communities.

Bathran converted to Islam in 2022, and is now known as Mohammed Raees. He belongs to the Chakkiliyar community. His mother was a former manual scavenger. He is also the founder of the independent media organisation Dalit Camera. Though he is a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Southampton, South Africa, he engages in sanitation work, cleaning septic tanks and asserting that there is dignity in the line of work. 

Ever since the judgement was delivered, Raees has been advocating that the judgement would lead to the uplift of marginalised communities within the SC fold. Terming the judgement “revolutionary”, Raees said that he welcomes it. According to Raees the judgement is anti-caste and would lead to the elimination of discrimination even among the Dalit communities. The sub-classification within the reserved categories will help provide representation to hitherto underrepresented groups like the Valmikis, Maangs, Mathangs, Madigas (state) in academia and jobs.

Raees said that the sub-classification will have an impact on academia and jobs, where currently people from castes like Valmikis are absent. “It is an anti-caste judgement. In academia and jobs, Valmikis of UP are not there, and there is violence committed against them,” he said. Raees bemoans that among the Dalits nobody speaks about manual scavenging and addresses their issues.

A tall leader from the Dalit community, former CM Mayawati, had opposed the judgement arguing that the sub-classification would lead to divisions amongst the community. She said that while earlier only the Parliament was empowered to include or exclude any caste or tribe from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, now any party, which is in power, can give an “unfair advantage” of reservation to their preferred caste groups for creating vote banks.

Raees says that the judgement calls for the annihilation of caste even among Dalits. “The judgement acknowledges that there is discrimination within Dalits. Do all the SC’s sit and dine together? No. We are already divided. Let Mayawati or Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan give data proving this wrong.” “Instead of just maintaining a brotherly relationship, Dalit communities should stop practising endogamy and support intermarriage between various groups,” he said.

Rahul Sonpimple, founder-president of All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA), criticised the apex court’s judgement, saying it was based on a hypothesis and there is no actual data about caste groups and the violence they face. There is no empirical evidence to suggest the ‘dominance’ of certain SC communities officially, he said.

Reacting to the criticism, Raees said, “There is a Usha Mehra committee report on SCs in Andhra Pradesh. There are reports from Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana as well. These reports have proved the dominance of certain communities in jobs. This argument is a diversion. Chamars and Mahars have been dominant in the political field too.”

“How many Valmiki MPs are there? In Tamil Nadu, there are five Paraiyar MPs, two Pallar MPs and only one Chakkiliyar MP, that too a nominated one. We are not underrepresented, you are taking away our opportunities by contesting in our areas,” Raees said.

Mayawati has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its verdict. “Irrespective of the judgment, the Dalit leaders need to acknowledge the violence against certain Dalit communities,” he said.

Raees said while Dalit leaders in North India have disagreed with the judgment, political parties in the south have welcomed it. “Nobody opposed the judgment from Tamil Nadu because of the progressive politics followed here due to the Dravidian movement. It is a land with ideology. Apart from Kanshiram and Dalit Panthers movement, there is no ideology to root out caste in North Indian states. But in the Dravidian land there is a strong anti-caste movement including in Telangana.”

Raees, while thanking the judgement for creating an anti-caste discourse in the mainstream, said he wants the government to ensure that a certain number of people from within the Dalit community is represented in all spheres.

When asked about the concerns regarding a large number of posts reserved for SCs and STs remaining unfilled because of ‘suitable candidates’ not being found and the impact of sub-classification on already skewed representation, Raees said, “This is a long-standing issue. But only when the sub-classification issue comes up do they cite this. When have all the Dalits come together to fight against this earlier? Has there been any movement? Even now there is no movement. All they ask is for the sub-classification to be withdrawn.”

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 11, Sep 8 - 14, 2024