Graphic Politics in Eastern India by Choksi Nishaant;

Author:Choksi, Nishaant;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Caste and Community in Jhilimili

Caste has always been a difficult concept to define and apply in tribal areas such as Jhilimili. Colonial administrators and Indian intellectuals often saw resident communities such as the Santals as not fully included in the caste system. This differing experience, or inexperience, with caste led the famous Dalit scholar and activist B. R. Ambedkar, the author of the Indian Constitution, to assert that Adivasis lacked the “political sense” to become incorporated fully into the anti-caste struggle (Ambedkar 2014: 248).1 However, as sociologist André Béteille has repeated, the dividing lines between what are considered “tribes” and “castes” are blurry and often difficult to distinguish (Beteille 1986, 1998, 2006). Perhaps what has been more relevant than any given social distinction between tribe and caste has been what Amita Baviskar has called the “strong spatial dimension” to the categorization of “indigeneity” in India that has linked the culture of groups like the Santals to the ecology in which they inhabit (Baviskar 2007: 35). Indeed, proponents of the Jharkhand movement such as the scholar-activist Sanjay Basu Mullick have transposed the spatialization onto the territory of Jharkhand itself, arguing the due to the prevailing Adivasi culture, “in Jharkhand, the caste system was never a dominant social reality” (Mullick 2003:vii).

Yet from what I saw in Jhilimili most caste Hindus, particularly upper and artisanal castes, viewed the Santals and other Scheduled Tribes as ritually polluting (achut). For instance, they would not share vessels with Santals, as the dietary habits of many Santals included consumption of beef and pork, which were considered impure. In addition, upper and artisanal castes were also critical of the fact that for many Adivasis, physical relations between unmarried men and women were tolerated, liquor had greater acceptance, and ritual involved animal sacrifice. These traits were considered evidence of general “backwardness,” which they attributed to their “culture.” In this discourse, Adivasis such as the Santals were forever locked into a backward status that, in everyday social relations, created many of the same effects as subordinate caste status.

Yet the most frequent way I heard caste discussed in Jhilimili was in relation to people’s interactions with state institutions and agencies. When asked what about one’s “caste” (most often the English word “caste” is used in this reference, as opposed to Indic terms like jati), one usually responds with the terms “general,” “Scheduled Tribe (ST),” “Scheduled Caste (SC),” or “Other Backward Classes (OBC).” These terms refer to the legal designations of persons based on patrilineal lineage that shape their relation to state institutions and electoral politics.2 In West Bengal, as in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Bihar, Santali speakers are considered “ST” or “Scheduled Tribe.” ST communities are labeled as “socially or educationally backward” according to the Article 340 of the Indian Constitution,3 legally enjoining the state to uplift these communities into the “mainstream” society through targeted reservations. The concessions to these communities include special quotas to increase their enrollment and success rate in schools, reserved seats in elected bodies, eligibility for government stipends, and quotas in government jobs.

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