dna edit: The consequences of caste

They say death is the greatest leveller. Administrators in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, however, seem to think differently. In a regressive move, the Urban Improvement Trust there has allocated Rs5 crore to set up 47 caste-based crematoriums.

That such a practice violates the Constitution doesn’t seem to have deterred the administration. Even in their last rites, the dead are being subjected to a discrimination that goes against the spirit of humanism.

There is some truth to the BJP’s allegation that the new crematoriums are aimed at generating caste-based votes in a state that is headed for elections. However, the Congress alone is not guilty of this crime. The BJP as well as regional parties are equally adept at playing the caste card. This calculus is a core aspect of politics in India, for better or for worse — sometimes for the former, when it comes to affirmative action policies that have empowered millions with regard to education and economic hierarchy, but too often for the latter.

Witness the ongoing political debates as the 2014 general elections draw near; each one of them is, ultimately, framed in terms of identity markers such as caste and the resultant vote banks. Thus, while the ramifications of Narendra Modi being declared the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate on the party’s political alliances — such as with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) — may be debated in terms of competing governance models on primetime television, party leaders and the cadre both know well that statewide caste alliances are the most vital factor. Little wonder that there is a bone-deep cynicism to the deployment of caste in political rhetoric and policy.

Jaisalmer, in fact, is not the first time this has been expressed in the particularly ugly form of politics over death. From 1995 to 2005 and beyond, Dalits in Kandhaneri, Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, had to suffer humiliation at the hands of the upper caste Vanniyars when the latter came to know that a strip of land acquired by the district collector would be used as a graveyard by the Dalits.

And back in Jaisalmer, the discrimination on the basis of caste is so entrenched in these regions that the relatives of the dead see no wrong in refusing to perform the last rites in a crematorium that is not used by the people of that community. For them, these trappings are as essential in death as in life. This shows just how formidable the resistance to change is despite the law stating that caste-based discrimination is illegal, vide the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 — particularly given the lack of effective implementation.

Outrage is well and good; it is a tool the political elite utilises particularly well. But it means little when it is not allied to actions — when, in fact, those actions run contrary to both law and ethical norms as they do in this instance.