#dnaEdit: Social vortex

The demand that Dalits who have converted to Christianity be granted the legal status of Scheduled Castes (SCs) has come mainly from Christian groups. They have raised the issue not now — but for more than two decades.

The ruling BJP-led NDA government, however, appears to be opposed to such a demand. The party argues that the shameful social discrimination against Dalits is peculiar to Hinduism. Dalits who choose to convert into Christianity cease to be Dalits once they have left the Hindu fold. In other words — Dalits who leave Hinduism stand to lose the SC tag and the legal entitlements that go with it. The BJP’s argument may make sense, though there is reason to suspect an ideological motive behind it. It can be argued that it is the BJP’s conversion agenda that is feeding the party’s argument against reservation for Christian and Muslim converts. This is akin to the BJP’s argument in favour of uniform civil code. The BJP is opposed to Muslim Personal Law because the party is against religious minorities claiming special entitlement. Its anti-minority bias is couched in legal language. Yet it must be said that the BJP’s position on reservation for Dalits who have become Christians — or on the issue of personal laws based on religion — cannot be dismissed outright. It appears to carry some weight regardless of the narrow ideological bias that drives it.

There is, however, the intractable fact that simply a change of religion does not alter social status of disadvantaged communities. The case of Dalit converts proves the point. Many of them left the fold of Hinduism because that seemed to them to be the only way of escaping the social shackles and the disadvantages. Unfortunately, however, they were not able to fully break out of the cycle of historic deprivation. It is true that the pull of Christianity was mainly in that it did not discriminate, in principle, on the basis of birth and caste. The social reality among Christians in India, however, is different. Not all of them have been able to able to escape discrimination even after their conversion into another religion. Recognising this shortcoming, some among the community leaders have joined the demand for recognition of Dalit Christians. The demand for reservation was also raised by Neo-Buddhists, the Dalits who embraced Buddhism following in the footsteps of BR Ambedkar. 

The general assumption is that there is no caste system among Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and that those Hindus who get converted to these faiths lose their caste tag. The flaw in the argument is that these religious minorities constitute a homogenous group. And there are no social fault lines among those communities as there are in Hinduism. But the point is  — if there is need for affirmative action for disadvantaged groups of Hindus, disadvantaged religious minorities should also then be eligible for affirmative action. It may not be possible to use the existing categories of SCs or even OBCs (Other Backward Classes), based on the social profiling of castes peculiar to Hinduism. 

The definition of disadvantaged groups is “socially and educationally backward”. At the moment it is being solely extended to Hindu caste groups. But the fact is that there exist “socially and educationally backward” groups also within other religious communities. Should these groups be denied reservation?  It would be naïve to believe that the discussion should not be politicised. It is bound to get politicised on all sides. The need is not to lose sight of the basic idea that affirmative action should reach all those who need it, irrespective of caste and creed.