[Assam] A question on caste.....

[Ram Sarangapani]

This is from CNN (today).

I always thought this caste question was always brought about in college
admissions, scholarships, jobs, and possibly in other places where
'reservations' were required by law.

I wonder, how this question asked in the Indian Census forms make it any
different.

--Ram


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/27/india.census.caste/index.html

Caste question on census angers IndiansBy *Sara Sidner*, CNN

*New Delhi, India (CNN)* -- The national census in India is striking a raw
nerve in the country with a proposal to add a question it has not asked
since British colonial times: What is your caste?

Fifteen-year-old Chanda sits outside her handmade hut in a Delhi slum
playing a game with the only toys she has, small dusty rocks from the road.
She is spunky and street smart but has never been to school. She said the
national census workers came to her home and asked her a lot of questions,
including: "What is your caste?"

That question has not been a part of the census since 1931 under British
rule. The government's move to make it a part of the 2010 census is
generating strong opposition.

Groups of protesters opposed to it say the caste question can be used to
divide India. Some scholars say the British used caste to play one group of
Indians against another.

"This is going to harm, this is going to divide; this is going to finally
create anarchy. This is going to take further all the bad wrong things that
have slowly spread like poison, and there is no end to it," said Sonal
Mansingh, one of India's most renowned dancers and a member of a campaign
opposing the caste question.

Caste is a complicated, hot-button issue in the South Asian country. For
centuries, caste could determine where you live, your job, even who you
could marry and where you were buried, among other things. It has been used
to brutally discriminate against people, especially those in lower castes,
but in current times is also being used in a quota system to try to uplift
those who have typically been discriminated against.

In the Hindu tradition, four main castes are broken down into hundreds of
subcastes that can dictate your status in Indian society. Then there is one
level of society deemed to be unworthy of a caste -- so reviled that they
were called "untouchables." Now they are often referred to as Dalits.

Even now, particularly in villages, caste can dictate one's life. But slowly
the strict lines of the caste culture are dissolving, especially in the
cities.

Still, Chanda, who lives in a New Delhi slum, said caste was important in
her neighborhood.

"If I do inter-caste marriage my parents will kill me," she said, noting she
doesn't see a problem with a caste question on the census because it is a
part of life. Some from her community think it may bring them more
government benefits.

The government still uses a person's caste as a part of a quota system to
determine certain government benefits. The system sets aside a percentage of
government jobs or seats in schools for those from what are referred to as
scheduled castes -- those with traditionally little education and
opportunity.

The government is still deciding on whether caste should be included in the
census.

"It has been submitted to the group of ministers who are discussing it,"
said R.C. Sethi the Additional Registrar General in charge of the census.

But the caste question is already being asked, according to some who have
participated in the census.

"They asked, but no one here is opposing the caste question," Delhi resident
Rajesh Kumar Ahiwal said of his neighborhood. "Besides they can tell my
caste through my surname."

The debate over the issue is not over by a long shot as India tries to count
more than one billion people this year.

Jagdish C. Sharma, former secretary of India's Ministry of External Affairs
who helped start one of the anti-caste question groups, said that as India
secures its position on the world stage, there is no place for such divisive
measures.

"It is not in accordance with the spirit of the India constitution, which
talked about a casteless and classless society. Now, our attempts should be
to achieve that dream, to make that dream a reality rather than take such
retrograde steps when slowly these boundaries are erasing," Sharma said.