THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY SPECIAL NUMBER JUNE 1960

The formulation of the goal of a "casteless and classless society" for India by her leaders was a momen­tous event indeed. Suddenly, in the middle of the twentieth century, the most stratified society in history decided to work for an egalitarian social order, and took some steps immediately as an earnest of its intentions.

The Constitutional abolition of Untouchability, the provision of special safeguards for Scheduled Castes ana-Tribes, and the introduction of universal adult suffrage may be mentioned as some of the more important measures adopted.

Subsequently, legislation favouring industrial workers, abolishing zamindari, protecting the tenant-cultiva­tor from eviction and guaranteeing him a fair share of the produce were passed by the Central and State Governments.

A progressively steeper income tax rate, the imposition of an Estate Duty taxing inherited property and

a determination to extend the public sector and to limit the private sector are some of the other measures

adopted.

The determination to bring about an egalitarian social order stems from two sources; a genuine conviction that inequality is wrong and wasteful, and that the mass of the people will not work etuhusktstically for an order which will only benefit the better off.

Again, prudence requires that with two Communist neighbours in the North, India take steps to see that she has a working class 'which is contented and hopeful about the. future. Without tapping the enthusiasm of the ordinary people the great task of national reconstruction will not succeed.

I shall try in this essay to lay bare a few, only a few, implications of this decision. Even to do that I have to rely a good deal on mere impressions and guess-work. But the subject is as important as it is neglected and even an admittedly inadequate attempt is better than no attempt at all.

W H A T makes the I nd ian exper i ­ment at b r i n g i n g about an

egal i tar ian order so fascinat ing to sociologists is that it has to take note of that classic expression of inequa­l i t y viz., caste. I t is an ub iqu i tous ins t i tu t ion in Ind ia being found among H indus , Sikhs, Jains, Mus l ims, Chr ist ians and Jews. I t is the one ins t i tu t ion that cuts across re l ig ious, reg ional and class div is ions.

There is a widespread impression among educated Ind ians that caste is on its last legs, and that the edu­cated, urbanised and Westernised members of the upper classes, have already escaped its bonds. Bo th these impressions are w r o n g . These peo­ple may observe very few dietet ic restr ict ions, m a r r y outside caste and even reg ion, but this does not mean that they have escaped the bonds of caste ent i re ly . They show caste att i tudes in su rp r i s ing contexts. A n d they interact closely w i t h relatives who are steeped in caste att i tudes. On occasions they are not l o th to make use of caste ties. I have known an intercaste marr iage of nearly f o r t y years' s tanding in wh i ch the w i f e cont inued to have the att i tudes of a B r a h m i n . The son mar r i ed an Amer ican g i r l , and the Bania sub-caste of the fa ther gave the couple a b ig pa r t y to celebrate the occasion. The contradic t ions in the above

s i tuat ion may be left to the reader's imag ina t ion ,

, CASTE IN REGIONAL POLITICS

Caste is cer ta in ly undergo ing some changes. For the educated and urbanised midd le classes, jati is no longer the endogamous un i t . There is also a certain amount of inter-d i n i ng w i t h other castes (especial ly f o r the m e n ) . Occupat ional homo­geneity is no longer there fo r these groups. Bu t caste is st i l l s igni f icant in certain contexts. A Kayasth would l ike to vote fo r a Kayasth can didate in preference to a Ra jpu t candidate. The sub-divisions among Kayasths are becoming less re levant fo r mar r iage , i n te r -d in ing , etc. One may call this hor izonta l consolida­t ion , though 'ho r i zon ta l ' is not en-t i re ly an app rop r ia te term fo r even the sub-castes of the same caste, c la im mutua l super io r i ty , Ha r i j ans are d iv ided in to dozens of castes, and even w i t h i n the same l in ­guist ic reg ion, the Ha r i j ans usually f o rm a h ierarehy. But this has not prevented the H a r i j a n s ' corning to­gether for po l i t ica l purposes. "Cas te" f i n the w ider sense) lies are signi­ficant in modern Ind ia and every po l i t i ca l par ty , inc lud ing the Com­munists, have to take note of this fact though over t l y caste is denoun­ced by impor tan t po l i t i ca l leaders.

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There is a good case fo r a rgu ing that caste-consciousness and organi ­zat ion have increased in modern I nd ia . Witness f o r instance the p ro l i f e ra t ion of caste banks, hostels, cooperat ive societies, chari t ies, mar-r iage halls, conferences and journa ls in I nd i an towns. Anyone who wants to study the role of caste in admin is t ra t ion ought to pay a visi t to Mysore or any other southern State. There caste seems to be the single most impor tan t considera-t ion in the selection of candidates to posts and in thei r p romot ion , effi­ciency being a relat ively m inor con­s iderat ion. An analysis of the var i ­ous State cabinets since Indepen-dence would show the part p layed by caste in regional po l i t ics . The General Elections of 1957 awoke everyone to the impor tance of caste in vot ing. Every par ty t r ied to choose a candidate f r o m ' a local ly numer ica l ly st rong caste. The Com-munists invented a progressive term for i t : "socia l base". A n d they made sure that every Communist candidate had a social base.

I I

The concept of dominant caste wh i ch has emerged in recent sociolo­g ica l researeh is impor tant in this connect ion. A caste is dominan t when it wields economic or po l i t i ca l

The Indian Road to Equality M N Srinivas

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power, and occupies a f a i r l y h i g h position in the hierarchy, ( I n the t rad i t ional system, a caste w h i c h acquired economic or po l i t i ca l power d i d generally succeed in im-prov ing its r i tua l status.) (For a detailed discussion of this concept See my essay, ' T h e Dominant Caste in Kampura" , American Anthropo-togist. V o l 6 1 , N o I , February, 1959) .

The fact that dominant castes exist in many parts of I n d i a makes it necessary for us to try to under­stand the phenomenon. The L i n -gay at and Okka l iga of Mysore, Reddi and Kamma of Andhra , (foun­der, Padayachi and Mudal ia r of the T a m i l country, Nayar of Kerala. Maratha of Muharastra, Palidar of (Gujarat, and Rajput, Jat, Gujar and A h i r of Nor th India , are all exam ples of dominant caste. Tradi t ional ­l y , numer ica l ly small castes owning land in rura l areas, or wie ld ing poli­tical power, or inher i t ing a l i terary t r ad i t ion , could dominate. It was these castes which first took to West­ern education and the benefits which it conferred. Nowadays, w i th the. coming of adult suffrage, numerical strength has become very important and the leaders of the dominant castes help the pol i t ica l parties to secure vote , But the t rad i t ional forms of dominance have not entire­ly disappeared and neither has do­minance shifted ful ly to the nume­r ica l ly strongest castes. There are the beginnings of a shift and this is accompanied by inter-group ten­sion . But what is significant f rom our point of view is that there are in many parts of India castes which are decisively dominant .

D O M I N A N T CASTES I N L O C A L P O L I T I C S

Where dominance is confined to one or a few villages, the locally dominant caste dominates Pancha-yals. Where dominance is spread over a wider area, the caste becomes .significant in the polities of the region and State. For instance, the politics of Mysore State is unin te l l i ­gible without understanding the part played by Liugayats and Okkaligas. Even the Stales Reorganization Commit ter reported that Okkaligas were by and large opposed to merger of Mysore with parts of former Bombay, Andhra and Madras to form a bigger Kannada-speaking Slate. The Okkaliga leaders were afraid that in the new Slate the numerical strength of the Lingavats

w o u l d be greater than that of Okka­ligas, and that this wou ld lead to L ingaya t dominance. Recently, an ex-Chief Min is te r of Mysore, an Okkal iga, voiced the o p i n i o n that in the present state of affairs in Mysore no nom-Lingayat could hope to be­come Chief Minis ter .

The leaders of the dominant caste are shrewd and intelligent people. They have a feel ing for pol i t ica l power and economic oppor tun i ty . They have capital , and a local fo l ­l o w i n g . Since Independence, they have shown their enterprise in seve­ral ways: they have started bus lines, rice and Hour mills , d o t h and other shops, taken up contract work for the Government, and bu i l t house'? in towns for rent ing. The more adven­turous among them have gone into active poli t ics.

D E V E L O P M E N T O F F I C E R S S E E K

T H E I R A I D

The dominant castes have been quick to see thai they can benefit f rom the various development pro­grammes in rura l areas. A great amount of money is being spent on ru ra l development, and development officers are under pressure f rom above to show quick results. They can do this only wi th the coopera­t ion of the leaders of the dominant castes. No wonder then complaints are constantly heard that the deve­lopment programmes have helped only the wealthier section of the ru ra l popula t ion . The policy of de­centralisation has given more power and money to the dominant castes, ft would be very opt imis t ic to expect that they w i l l use ' this power and money for everyone's benefit.

While the leaders of the domi­nant castes are sensitive to economic and pol i t ical opportunit ies , they are socially conservative. They do not, for instance, l ike the condi t ion of Hari jans to improve . They have a vested interest in keeping Hari jans poor and ignorant . At the present time. Hari jans are their most impor­tant source of agr icul tura l labour, and if they become educated and conscious of their r ights they w i l l be a threat to the position of the do­minant castes. A n t i - H a r i j a n senti­ments are freely heard in the ru ra l areas: "Today they want to use our wells, and tomorrow they w i l l want to marry our daughters." Attempts bv Hari jans to exercise the rights given to them by the Consti tut ion, have led to violent, reprisals by the

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dominant castes. Har i jans have been beaten up and their huts burned down and they have been subjected to economic boycott . Har i jans are among the poorest sections of our agr icul tura l popula t ion and many of them are agr icul tura l servants of the land-owning castes. The conditions under which agr icul tura l labourers work are reminiscent of slavery. I have seen boys of 10-16 years of age being made to do all kinds of work f rom 5 a m to 10 p m for about f i f ty rupees a year, two meals two shirts and shorts. This was in a relatively prosperous area and only ten years ago.

E C O N O M I C C O N T R O L

it is clear that the Consti tut ional aboli t ion of Untouchabi l i ty and the passing of the Ant i -Untouchabi l i ty Offences Act , 1955, w i l l by themsel­ves not. help Hari jans much. Hari­jans must be freed from the econo­mic control of the higher castes. The best way to do this is to employ them in factories in urban areas. It has been found that ownership of land and membership of the j o i n t fami ly come in the way of their becoming efficient workers. (See Scar­lett Epstein, " I n d u s t r i a l Employment for Landless Labourers O n l y " , Econo­mic Weekly, July, 1959, Special Number) The p u l l o f land, even i f it be a quarter of an acre, and the obligations of j o i n t f ami ly , prevent the i nd iv idua l f r o m devoting himself to his j o b . Such a programme w i l l also have the advantage of t ak ing Harijans' away f r o m areas where they have been subjected to ind ign i ­ties for a number of years. It w i l l also have the effect of reducing the pressure of popula t ion on land,

I I I

I m p l i c i t in what I have said so far is the assumption that there is, broadly speaking, a coherence bet­ween the r i tua l and economic aspects of the caste hierarchy. That is, the higher castes are generally better off than the lower. M a n y local exceptions may be cited to the rule , but they do not seriously affect the va l id i t y of the general proposi t ion. This has been rendered possible by the fact that, historical ly, caste has been more flexible than is generally recognised. Castes which acquired economic or pol i t ica l power were able to raise themselves up in the r i tual hierarchy. Th i s process, occurr ing over a long per iod of t ime, has resulted in the upward move'

T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y SPECIAL NUMBER JUNE 1960

ment of r i c h and power fu l castes. The dominant castes of today are the products of this his tor ical process. W i t h strength of numbers, wealth and f o l l o w i n g , they occupy a stra­tegic posi t ion to exploi t the new opportuni t ies for thei r o w n advan­tage.

Western education is the door to higher posts in every l ine, and an analysis of the social composi t ion of students in colleges and post-gra­duate inst i tut ions w o u l d reveal the k i n d of relat ion w h i c h obtains bet­ween the t r ad i t i ona l h ierarchy and the new hierarchy w h i c h is coming into existence. Th i s problem has not been studied systematically on an a l l - India basis but a few studies which have been made in Poona and Haroda suggest that the t r ad i t iona l ly pr iv i leged groups main ta in a near-monopoly over educational oppor­tun i ty . The lower groups are not, by and large, tak ing much advan­tage of educational facil i t ies, espe­c ia l ly at the higher levels.

Generally Brahmins , Kayasths and Banias were the first to take to Wes­tern education and these groups s t i l l show a keener apprecia t ion of the value of education than others. The values of these castes favour education. A relatively poor B r a h m i n or Kayasth father may pledge his small house or few acres of l and to secure higher education for his son while a r i c h peasant may discourage his son f r o m proceeding to college because he is needed to help in supervising the cul t ivat ion of the ancestral estate. In fact, i t appears as though the land-owning non-Brah­m i n castes have had an i n i t i a l resis­tance to education and this resistance began to give way only three or four decades ago.

I V In many parts o f South I n d i a ,

Brahmins were the first to take advantage of the opportuni t ies affor­ded by Western education. By the beginning of th is century they had acquired a near-monopoly of posts in the government and dominated the l ibera l professions. Th i s was resented by the non-Brahmin castes, and they founded the Justice Par ty in 1917 in Madras to advance their cause. Dis l ike , i f not hatred, of B r a h m i n dominance brought toge­ther a l l non-Brahmins, a hospitable category w h i c h inc luded not on ly a l l H indus who were not Brahmins but also Musl ims, Christians. Parsia,

Anglo-Indians , etc. The leaders of the non-Brahmin movement deman. ded reservation of seats and scholar­ships in schools and colleges, prefe­rence in appointment to government posts and finally, representation in local self-government bodies. •

The Justice Par ty functioned as a pol i t ica l pa r ty w h i c h cooperated w i t h the B r i t i s h Government when the Congress was leading the strug­gle against the Br i t i sh . D u r i n g this per iod , the non-Brahmin leaders obtained a l l the concessions and pre-ferences w h i c h they were seeking, and several d i sc r imina tory rules against the Brahmins were b u i l t into the adminis t ra t ion . As a result of the j o i n t operat ion of the concessions and preferences in. favour of the non-Brahmins and d i sc r imina t ion against the Brahmins , the latter lost their pre-eminence. In fact it was d u r i n g this per iod that Brahmins migrated f r o m South India to towns and cities in the Nor th .

BENEFICIARIES OF NON-BRAHMIN MOVEMENT

The point which I wish to make is that in south Ind ia there was an early reaction against the Brahmin 's monopoly of the new opportuni t ies , and as a result, a few non-Brahmin castes have replaced the Brahmins. But it is impor tan t to note that the chief beneficiaries of the non-Brah­m i n movement are the h i g h non-Brah­m i n castes, usually the land-owning, dominant castes, and not the numeri ­cal ly smal l , poor, low castes or the Har i jans . I t is true, however, that a few indiv iduals amongst the latter rose to h igh positions, and even more impor tant , the castes f r o m w h i c h they came became aware, as a result of the Movement , of the im­portance of education as a means of i m p r o v i n g their pos i t ion .

In Independent I n d i a the dominant castes have become even more po­wer fu l thanks to the in t roduct ion of adul t suffrage. A n d they have used this power to strengthen fur ther their pos i t ion . Thus, in Mysore, the non-Brahmin movement was at first sought to be jus t i f i ed on the ground that Brahmins had throughout h is tory used their pr iv i leged posi­t ion as makers and interpreters of law to secure fo r themselves a l l k inds of advantages and at the ex­pense of the other groups. The ma in a im of the Movement at this t ime was to displace the Brahmin . Af te r this was accomplished, the

non-Brahmin castes competed among themselves fo r concessions and preferences. A m o n g the non-Brahmins, only the Har i jans were (and s t i l l are) treated as a group deserving special treatment, and everyone else was backward. The latter were not distinguished in to more and less backward . Under these circumstances each caste was allotted seats in colleges, posts in government and ministerships in the cabinet on the basis of its numerical strength. This has given rise to the widespread complaint that the " t w o major communit ies" are co l l a r ing a l l the benefits and the others are made to suffer.

But the Movement has certainly helped to dis t r ibute power, posi t ion and the means to both viz. educa­t ion , among several castes instead of conf ining them to one or two castes as before. A n d there is less wastage of talent than before though even now there is considerably wastage if we compare Ind ia w i t h any deve­loped country. But then the severe d i sc r imina t ion practised against Brah­mins was unfa i r as wel l as s tupid. It led to the immediate lowering of standards everywhere as people were chosen to posts on grounds of caste and not on grounds of ab i l i ty and character.

V Yet another aspect of caste needs

to be mentioned hen' . The associa­tion of each caste w i th one or more hereditary occupations and their gradation into high and. low have resulted in most Indians" developing a deep dislike fo r manual labour. V i l l age r s consider agriculture to be very tough work but manly and wor thwhi le , but at the same t ime they envy the man who earns his live­l ihood s i t t ing in an office chair w r i t i n g something and issuing orders to all and sundry. When a peasant owns enough land he retires f rom actual cul t iva t ion and confines himself to supervision of others' work . V i l l ag ­ers who have been to school show an aversion to ag r i cu l tu ra l w o r t . The i r a im is to get a white-collared j ob or to engage themselves in trade.

Villagers consider that an educal-ed man or an official— in fact, any­one whom they respect should not carry a heavy object, let alone do manual labour . Doing manual lab­our is the symbol of lowly status, just as not doing it is the symbol of h igh status. The same attitudes are prevalent in our offices. It would he interesting to make a study of the

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p r o p o r t i o n of peons to other staff in government offices, and also to make a study of how peons spent their ' w o r k i n g ' hours.

In the home too, there is a tend­ency to employ as many servants as possible. Th i s tendency is accentu­ated by the fact that I n d i a n men are generally i l l i t e ra te w i t h their hands and also because caste comes in the way of servants' d o i n g several k inds of work . The cook w i l l not wash the vessels, the servant w i l l not clean the lavatories, and the mali w i l l not sweep the garden.

I am ment ion ing the above facts to show that hierarchical attitudes are deeply ingra ined . They come out in unexpected places. Foreign social scientists are astonished that residential quarters bu i l t by the gov­ernment for its employees in De lh i should observe the hierarehical p r i n ­c ip le so scrupulously. Gran t ing the need fo r re la t ing housing accommo­da t ion to income-level, should each category of housing be bu i l t in com­pact blocks? Could not the differ­ent categories of housing be mixed in each block?

RURAL-URBAN OCCUPATIONS CONTINUUM

The t rad i t iona l association between a caste and an occupation has re­sulted in the prevalence of a certain con t inuum between ru ra l and urban occupations. Thus r u r a l Barbers when they migra te to towns either work in 'ha i r -cu t t ing saloons', Washermen start laundries, Smiths w o r k in fu rn i t u r e shops, Oi lmen sell, i f not press, o i l , Ma l i s work as gard­eners, Chamars w o r k in shoe shops and Brah/nins are teachers, lawyers and cooks. Pract is ing an occupation s imi la r to the t r ad i t iona l , and stay­i n g in an area where one's caste-fel lows stay, people c a r r y in to towns the hierarehical attitudes of the v i l ­lage. ( O u r towns are usually on ly demographical ly towns and not so­c i a l l y . )

Th i s is specially t rue of the poorer people and of the smaller towns. Residential areas in towns have ac­qu i r ed class values, and as usually there is also a certain amount of association of caste or ethnic g roup w i t h residential area, castes have a tendency to be pigeonholed, in ord i ­nary talk, in to classes. I am not stating here that al l members of a caste belong to the same class. Heterogeneity of class affiliation is greater w i t h the better off castes than w i t h the poorer castes. For instance. Brahmins and Kayasthas

would show greater heterogeniety than Har i j ans . T h e poin t wh ich I am t r y i n g to make here is that be­cause of the t r ad i t iona l association of a caste w i t h an occupation and because of the tendency for migra­t ion to occur in groups e i ther k i n or caste—there is a ru ra l -u rban con­t inuum. People in towns, especially smaller towns, re ta in caste attitudes and values. The pat tern of settle­ment makes possible the. identifica­t ion of an u rban area w i t h a easte and class. Our urban people con­tinue to l ive in a hierarehical w o r l d contrary to the popular impression that urban occupations, small fami­lies and absence of po l l u t i on enable people to live in ' f reedom'. This impression also fails to take note of the in t imate ties exist ing between people in towns and their relatives in villages. I have earl ier mention­ed the characterist ically urban ex­pressions of caste.

There is yet another feature of I nd i an industr ia l l i f e which reveals a close relation between caste and class. There is a tendency for a specialised task in a factory to become the monopoly of a caste or regional group. One may speak of 'workshop homogeneity ' . Thus in a Baroda factory, immig ran t s f r o m U P , non-B r a h m i n Maharashtr ians and lower caste Gujerat is . each tended to be segregated in par t icu la r workshops do ing the same k i n d of w o r k . Guja-ra t i Pat idars and Maharashtr ians f rom the upper castes preponderated in the white-collar jobs. I t i s f a i r l y wel l -known that in appointment to jobs in factories considerations of k insh ip , caste and region are. rele­vant. Appoin tments on ' r a t i o n a l ' considerations are s t i l l not many.

K i n l inks are a strong feature of I nd i an l i f e and they go beyond the nuclear f a m i l y . I n d i a n m o r a l i t y i s s t i l l very largely made up of k i n and caste obligations, and of the rules of re l ig ion . K i n s h i p obliga­tions are so strong that they tend to p reva i l over c iv ic mora l i t y . K i n ­ship loyalties tend to perpetuate class and caste differences and work ag­ainst egal i tar ianism. Even those who have to profess p u b l i c l y their belief in egal i tar ianism have strong k in ­ship loyalties. Th i s results in a divergence between their beliefs and conduct. When such divergence is widespread, people tend to be cyni ­cal. A n d cynicism is not the proper soil for rousing the necessary en­thusiasm in the people for the Five Year Plans. I t is surpr i s ing that

Ind ian leaders do not show keener appreciat ion of this fact.

V I

In brief, there are today two types of hierarchy, one, which is t r ad i ­tional and the other wh ich is emer­gent. The t radi t ional hierarchy is art iculated in rel igious terms hut i t has also an important economic side. Caste system functioned best in a feudal, stationary economy w i t h m i n i m a l occupational and spatial mobi l i ty . D u r i n g Br i t i sh rule cer­tain new social and economic forces came into existence which had the effect of making the structure less r i g i d . The abol i t ion of slavery was followed by the s tar l ing of coffee and tea plantations, migra t ion to Af r ica , F i j i Islands. Ma laya and Gylon , the s tar t ing of factories and mil ls in Bombay, Calcutta and other towns, and the new economic oppor­tunities made possible by the pol i ­tical and adminis t ra t ive integration of the. country and the development of communicat ions . Generally the higher castes benefited most f rom these opportuni t ies , but more rarely, the lower castes also d i d benefit (See V G Bailey, Caste and the Economic Front ier , Manchester, 1955 ) .

The B r i t i s h started the policy of g iv ing preference to the backward castes. The nationalist forces which were released under Br i t i sh rule, and certain Br i t i sh or European poli t ical inst i tut ions and ideas favoured ega­l i t a r i an i sm. In Independent India several measures, some of them al ­ready mentioned, have been adopt­ed w h i c h are designed to fight i n ­equal i ty and to "further egalitarian­ism. It must be mentioned here, however, that it was du r ing Br i t i sh rule that there came into existence, an Ind ian midd le class, which w h i l e not organised on national or region­al lines, had its own interests to mainta in and further. Th i s class is ful l of class and cast- attitudes and it is this class which has p rov ided the leaders, especially at local levels. The bulk of I n d i a n bureaucracy comes from this class.

BIGGER CAKE NOT ENOUGH

There are those who argue that everyone should concentrate on in ­creasing the size of the national cake and that it is obvious that the bigger the cake the greater the chances of everyone hav ing more. This argu­ment is advanced by those who are already get t ing a good share of the take. They do not realise that i t is not easy to convince workers that

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a bigger cake wi l l necessarily mean a bigger share for the. workers. And unless they are convinced that they and the country are going to benefit f r om the increased product ion, they w i l l not put forward their best. Me­thods which brought about prospe­r i ty to V ic tor ian England are slightly

but of date in the modern wor ld . Ind ian workers w i l l certainly com-pare their conditions wi th those of their Russian and Chinese counter­parts.

There are then two hierarchies in Ind ia , leaving aside the ' funct ional h ierarchy ' which prevai ls du r ing work ing hours. (Every f a rm , f i rm, factory and office has its own hierar­chy,) The Ind ian social structure underwent a modicum of l iberalisa­t ion under the Br i t ish, and the Ind ian Government has in i t iated several measures intended to reduce inequa­l i ty . But the measures are half­hearted and ful l of loopholes. Above all there is a fai lure to realise the magnitude and nature of the prob­lem. Intel l igence and commonsense are not harnessed in combating in-equality. Good intentions alone are not enough.

Constitutional Safeguards T H E Constitution of India prescribes

protection and safeguards for Sche-duled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes, either specifically or by way of general rights of citizens with the object of promoting their educational and economic interests and of removing certain social disabilities the Scheduled Castes were subject to. These are:—

( i) the abolition of 'Untouchability, and the forbidding of its practice in any form (Art. 17);

(ii) the promotion of their educational and economic interests and their protec­tion from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Art. 46);

( i i i ) the throwing open of Hindu re­ligious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus (Art. 25 ) ;

(iv) the removal of any disability, lia­bility, restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants. hotels and places of public entertainment, the use of wells, tanks bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort main tained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public (Art, 15) ;

(v) the right to practise any profes­sion or carry on any occupation, trade or business (Art. 19);

(vi) the forbidding of any denial of admission to educational institutions main­tained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds (A r t 29):

(vii) the obligation of the State to consider their claims in the making of appointments to public services and reser­vation for them in case of inadequate representation (Arts. 16 and 335);

(viii) special representation in Par­liament and Slate Legislatures for a period of twenty years (Arts. 330, 331! and 334);

(ix) the setting up of advisory coun­cils and separate departments in the States and the appointment of a Special Officer at the Centre to promote their welfare and safeguard their interests (Arts. 164, 338 and Fifth Schedule): and

(x) special provision for the adminis­tration and control of scheduled and tribal areas (Art. 244 and Fifth and Sixth Schedules).

The population of the Scheduled Castes is now estimated at 5.53 crores and that of Scheduled Tribes at 2.25 crores as a result of the issue of revised lists under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Lists (Modification) Order, 1956. Denotified Tribes number about 40 lakhs.

—India 1960.