A Distant Rainbow

This introductory chapter traces the origins and resilience of the idea of India as the world’s largest democracy. Democracy was neither a gift of the Western world nor uniquely suited to Indian conditions. India was in fact a laboratory featuring a first-ever experiment in creating national unity, economic growth, religious toleration, and social equality out of a vast and polychromatic reality, a social order whose inherited power relations, rooted in the hereditary Hindu caste status, language hierarchies, and accumulated wealth, were to be transformed by the constitutionally guaranteed counter-power of public debate, multiparty competition, and periodic elections. Efforts to build an Indian democracy are said to have done more than transform the lives of its people. India fundamentally altered the nature of representative democracy itself. India’s democratic credentials, however, face new scrutiny as a result of the executive excesses of a populist demagogue as governing institutions crumble. The chapter argues that India’s democratic decline actually goes back further. It looks at the destructive effects of the long-standing neglect of the social foundations of India’s democracy and considers the possible mutation of democracy into a strange new kind of government called despotism.

Caste Exclusion and Health Discrimination in South Asia: A Systematic Review

The caste system is social stratification system that has been used over the last 3 millennia. This review aims to investigate caste-based inequity in health care utilization in South Asia, particularly focusing those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, commonly known as Dalit communities. A systematic methodology was followed; key databases (including CINAHL, Medline, SocINDEX, PubMed, Nepjol, JSTOR, and ASSIA) were searched for relevant articles published before October 2019, using comprehensive search strategy in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. In total 15,109 papers were found, and from these, 9 selected papers were included in the review. The papers focused on studies in both India (n = 7) and Nepal (n = 2) and utilized a range of methods including qualitative (n = 2), quantitative (n = 3), and mixed methods (n = 4) approaches. The review identified 4 main themes: stigma, poverty, cultures and beliefs, and health care. Caste-based inequity impacts upon all aspects of an individual’s well-being including violence and everyday life risks. Caste also impacts upon individuals’ opportunities to access education, employment, and health care. Dalits appear to experience this more significantly due to both poverty and their caste status, which increases their vulnerability to health risks.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ORDER KNOWN AS CONSTITUTION [SCHEDULED CASTES] ORDER 1950 IN THE LIFE OF DALITS IN KERALA

Untouchables, depressed class people, Chandalas or politically known as Dalits and officially recognized as Scheduled Castes in India are historically placed in different religions. They share a common history of oppression, economic deprivations and denial of human rights. Though they belong to different religions, their common cultural ancestry is an undeniable reality. The Presidential Order known as Constitution [Scheduled Castes] order 1950 limits the Scheduled Caste Status only to such untouchable people who profess Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism. The order excludes Dalit Muslim and Dalit Christian from the ambit of Scheduled caste status. The article problematizes the historical and political contexts in which the exclusion of certain castes happened and the contemporary historical realities that necessitate the inclusion of Dailit Christians and Dalit Muslims into the Scheduled Caste List and how the denial aborts political and cultural unity of Dalits across different religions.

Alcohol intoxication resistance and alcohol dehydrogenase levels differ between the honeybee castes

Various animal models are used in the study of alcoholism, with the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) among them. Here, we tested the hypothesis that foragers show higher intoxication resistance to alcohol than nurses, an issue thus far not investigated. To this end, we measured the latency to full sedation when exposed to alcohol in foragers, nurses and reverted nurses. In addition, we measured alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) levels in these worker castes. Caste status was confirmed by comparison of the size of their hypopharyngeal glands. We detected high intoxication resistance to alcohol and presence of ADH in foragers. In nurses, we detected significantly lower intoxication resistance to alcohol and no ADH. These between-caste differences cannot be explained by the age difference between castes as in reverted nurses, characterized by similar age to foragers, we detected an intermediate intoxication resistance to alcohol and no ADH. Our results suggest possible natural exposure to alcohol in different castes of workers. As such, we further develop the honeybee as a model in alcoholism-related research and open new research avenues.

IV—Philosophical Foundations of Anti-Casteism

The paper begins from a working definition of caste as a contentious form of social belonging and a consideration of casteism as a form of inferiorization. It takes anti-casteism as an ideological critique aimed at unmasking the unethical operations of caste, drawing upon B. R. Ambedkar’s notion of caste as ‘graded inequality’. The politico-legal context of the unfinished trajectory of instituting protection against caste discrimination in Britain provides the backdrop for thinking through the philosophical foundations of anti-casteism. The peculiar religio-discursive aspect of ‘emergent vulnerability’ is noted, which explains the recent introduction of the trope of ‘institutional casteism’ used as a shield by deniers of caste against accusations of casteism. The language of protest historically introduced by anti-racists is thus usurped and inverted in a simulated language of anti-colonialism. It is suggested that the stymieing of the UK legislation on caste is an effect of collective hypocrisies, the refusal to acknowledge caste privilege, and the continuity of an agonistic intellectual inheritance, exemplified in the deep differences between Ambedkar and Gandhi in the Indian nationalist discourse on caste. The paper argues that for a modern anti-casteism to develop, at stake is the possibility of an ethical social solidarity. Following Ambedkar, this expansive solidarity can only be found through our willingness to subject received opinions and traditions to critical scrutiny. Since opposed groups ‘make sense’ of their worlds in ways that might generate collective hypocrisies of denial of caste effects, anti-casteism must be geared to expose the lie that caste as the system of graded inequality is benign and seamlessly self-perpetuating, when it is everywhere enforced through penalties for transgression of local caste norms with the complicity of the privileged castes. The ideal for modern anti-casteism is Maitri (friendship) formed through praxis, eschewing birth-ascribed caste status and loyalties.

Ambedkar on the Haughty Face of Dignity

Can a concept such as dignity, with roots in hierarchy and exclusion, serve as the constitutional basis for advancing egalitarian justice within a democratic political community? This article highlights some concerns, via engagement with the work of Indian constitutional architect and anti-caste champion B.R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar strongly associates dignity with upper-caste status in Hinduism, and with dispositions to haughtiness or arrogance toward lower-status persons. His analysis has implications for recent treatments which frame dignity as a property which is possessed equally by all persons and is suitable for grounding egalitarian justice within political communities. In such accounts, dignity is shown to entail a defensive disposition and indignation against others as potential rights violators. This introduces tensions between the dignitarian foundation and in some cases very expansive social justice aims. Ambedkar offers an alternative conception of innate worth or worthiness, entailing dispositions to openness and inclusiveness, rendered as fraternity, Deweyan social endosmosis, and ultimately the Buddhist maitri. Such an approach avoids some tensions between dignity/indignation and egalitarian aims, while also offering a way to conceptualize human and non-human animal relations that avoids simply reinscribing status hierarchies.

Cultural Crisis of Caste Renouncer: A Study of Dasnami Sanyasi Identity in Nepal

Jat Nasodhanu Jogiko is a famous mocking proverb to denote the caste status of Sanyasi because the renouncer has given up traditional caste rituals set by socio-cultural institutions. In other cultural terms, being Sanyasi means having dissociation himself/herself with whatever caste career or caste-based social rank one might imagine. To explore the philosophical foundation of Sanyasi, they sacrificed caste rituals and fire (symbol of power, desire, and creation). By the virtues of sacrifice, Sanyasi set images of universalism, higher than caste order, and otherworldly being. Therefore, one should not ask the renouncer caste identity. Traditionally, Sanyasi lived in Akhada or Matha, and leadership, including ownership of the Matha transformed from Guru to Chela. On the contrary, Dasnami Mahanta started marital and private life, which is paradoxical to the philosophy of Sanyasi. Very few of them are living in Matha, but the ownership of the property of Mathatrans formed from father to son. The land and property of many Mathas transformed from religious Guthi to private property. In terms of cultural practices, Dasnami Sanyasi adopted high caste culture and rituals in their everyday life. Old Muluki Ain 1854 ranked them under Tagadhari, although they did not assert twice-born caste in Nepal. Central Bureau of Statistics, including other government institutions of Nepal, listed Dasnamiunder the line of Chhetri and Thakuri. The main objective of the paper is to explore the transformation of Dasnami institutional characteristics and status from caste renunciation identity to caste rejoinder and from images of monasticism, celibacy, universalism, otherworldly orientation to marital, individualistic lay life. Both philosophical orientation and behaviors are transformed. Who are the Dasnami Sanyasi? Why did the Dasnami Sanyasis campaign for the identity? How has the Dasnami Sanyasi been changing? Based on key informant interviews, observations in different Dasnami Sanyasi communities, their historical institutions, and self-reflection as a member of Dasnami Sanyasiare methods of data collection.

Casteism and Marriage in Igbo Society: A Study of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price

The most prominent and pronounced form of casteism that prevails in the Nigerian society is the discrimination against Osus. Osu is a caste determined by heredity irrespective of the individual’s religious faith and practices. Though coming from a society where individual merit and achievement entitles one to the highest indigenous title and social prestige, Osus cannot aspire to one for their stigmatized caste status. Under the colonial influence, Osus became the first people to be educated, which made them the earliest Nigerian-Igbo elites, but this privileged class status too could not provide them an inroad into the mainstream of the Igbo society, which makes the Osu identity paradoxical. In this article, we attempt a reading of how the exclusionary practices of Igbo marriage ritual contribute in constructing the Osu identity as perpetually marginalized and, in doing so, how the Igbo society throws its preoccupation with individual merit and achievements as the keys to social respectability to the wind through Buchi Emecheta’s third novel The Bride Price. The novel is a study in different forms of marginalizations and liminalities, which raises questions about agency as it exposes the paradoxes on which the social life of a tribe is riveted.

Kula Gauravam, Transnational Migration, and Class Mobility

Perceived from the outside and inside as a cohesive community, Kammas (a dominant caste in Coastal Andhra) self-project themselves as a group that has always extended the frontiers of economic advancement, including through transnationalization. Despite the sense of community cohesiveness, there exist layers of class stratification within this community. In this chapter, I argue that the notion of kula gauravam (caste pride) and kutumba gauravam (family pride) play a significant role in creating aspirations among the non-elite Kammas to become rich like others in the community and motivate them to bridge this class gap. To ‘middle-class’ Kammas then, transnational migration and urbanity become central precepts around which this, once rural and peasant, community has attempted to jump the scale of class to recreate their rightful economic status akin to their high-caste status (refurbished from a Sudra to a Kshatriya status in the last century).