One Step outside Modernity: Caste, Identity Politics and Public Sphere

Author(s): M. S. S. Pandian
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 18 (May 4-10, 2002), pp. 1735-1741
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 Special articles

One Step Outside Modernity

Caste, Identity Politics and Public Sphere
The contradictoryengagement with mdoernityby the lower castes has an importantmessage:
being one step outside modernity alone can guarantee them a public where the politics of
difference can articulate itself, and caste can emerge as a legitimate category of democratic
politics. Being one step outside modernity is indeed being one step ahead of modernity.
M S S PANDIAN

I incitement,caste perhapswouldnot have - is a regularfeatureone finds in most

Introduction
'...althoughI tryto forgetmy caste,it is
impossibleto forget.'
- Kumud Pawde,
The Story of my Sanskrit..
he autobiography of R K Narayan,
the well known Indian writer in
English,is perhapsa useful place
to beginone's explorationsinto the com-
plexinterrelationship betweencaste,iden-
tity politics and the public sphere.When
I read it recently,one of the things that
struckme the most was how Narayan,
whose fictionalworld dealt substantially
withthe life of ruralandsmalltown south
India,was almostcompletelysilentabout
his caste identity.In an autobiographical
text runninginto 186 pages, he mentions
his caste only in two places. First, when
he recollects his schooling in colonial
Madrasduringthe 1910s.He was theonly
brahminboyin his classin themissionary-
runschool.The contextwas the scripture
classesin the schoolwhereHinduismand
brahminswere deliberatelychosen for
systematiclampooning.The second in-
stancewasfromhis adultlife as ajournalist
workingfromMysore.Here,he wonders
how he, a brahmin,was employed as a
stringerfor the official newspaperof the
South IndianLiberalFederation(or the
JusticeParty),TheJustice, which vigor-
ously enunciatedanti-brahminism in co-
lonial southIndia.Interestingly,both are
occasionswhenothersbringhis casteinto
being - the rabidfundamentalistChris-
tians in one instance,and the exclusivist
non-brahminsin the other. But for their
made even those two appearancesin the
richandtexturedstoryof Narayan'slife.l
For a man born in 1906 and who wit-
nessedthe mostacutebattlesaroundcaste
- whetherit be M K Gandhi'sthreatto
commitsuicidewhichrobbedby meansof
the PoonaPactthe 'untouchable'commu-
nitiesof separateelectorate,or the nation-
wide movementfor temple entry by the
untouchables,or the rise of non-brahmin
politics in the Madraspresidencyduring
the early decades of the 20th century-
Narayan's forgetfulnessaboutcastecomes
throughas a bitsurprising.Butthisfeeling
of surprisefades away when one does a
closer readingof his autobiography.All
throughtheautobiography, castemasquer-
adesassomethingelse andmakesitsmuted
modemappearance.Forinstance,writing
abouthis difficultiesin getting a proper
house to rent in Mysore, he writes, "...our
requirementswere rathercomplicated-
separateroom for three brothers,their
families,anda mother;alsofor Sheba,our
hugeGreatDane,who hadto havea place
outsidethehouseto havehermeatcooked,
without the fumes from the meat pot
pollutingour strictlyvegetarianatmos-
phere;a placefor ourold servanttoo, who
was the only one who could go out and
get the muttonand cook it."2 It does not
needmuchof aneffortto understand what
'strictlyvegetarianatmosphere'or meat,
which is specifiedas mutton(thatis, it is
not beef) encodes. It is caste by other
means.3
The subtleact of transcodingcaste and First,let us have a look at the historical
caste relationsinto somethingelse - as conditionsthatfacilitatedand made pos-
thoughto talk aboutcaste as caste would sible these two competingmodes of talk-
incarcerateone into a pre-modemrealm ing aboutcastes. This straightawaytakes
uppercasteautobiographies. Castealways
belongsto someoneelse; it is somewhere
else; it is of anothertime. The act of
transcodingis an act of acknowledging
and disavowingcaste at once.
In markedcontrastto the uppercaste
autobiographies, theself-definitionof one's
identity,as found in the autobiographies
of the lowercastes,is locatedexplicitlyin
caste as a relationalidentity.The autobio-
graphicalrenditionsof BhamaorViramma,
two dalitwomenfromtheTamil-speaking
region,thepoignantautobiographical frag-
ments of dalits from Maharashtra,put
togetherby Arjun Dangle in his edited
volume Corpse in the Well, and Vasant
Moon's Growing up Untouchable in
India, are all suffusedwith the language
of caste - at times mutinous, at times
moving.4Mostoftentheveryactof writing
an autobiographyfor a personbelonging
to a lowercasteis to talkaboutandengage
with the issue of caste.5
In otherwords,we have heretwo com-
peting sets of languagesdealingwith the
issue of caste. One talksof caste by other
means;and the othertalks of caste on its
'own terms'.My attemptin the restof the
paperis to understandthe implicationof
these two sets of languagesfor the play
of identitiesin the publicsphereunderthe
long shadow of modernity.
II
A ColonialStory

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us to the domainof cultureas articulated
bydominantIndiannationalism,initsbattle
againstcolonialism.In an influentialfor-
mulation,ParthaChatterjee hasarguedthat
anti-colonialnationalismmarks out the
domainof cultureor spiritualityas "its
own domainof sovereigntywithin colo-
nial society well before it begins its po-
liticalbattlewiththeimperialpower."6As
Chatterjeeshows, in the discourse of
nationalism,"Thegreaterone's successin
imitatingwestern skills in the material
domain,...thegreaterthe needto preserve
thedistinctnessof one'sspiritualculture."7
In arguing so, Chatterjeedeparts from
BenedictAnderson,who treatsanti-colo-
nialnationalismas alreadyimaginedin the
west, andrecoversa spaceof autonomous
national imaginationfor the colonised.
Clearly,Chatterjee'sargument,in displac-
ing the centralityof the west, relocates
politicalagency in the colonised.
WhileI agreewiththe new possibilities
openedupby Chatterjee'sargumentabout
nationalism in the colonial context, if
we pluralise 'nationalcommunity' and
'nationalculture',the obvioustriumphof
dominantnationalismover colonialism
wouldat once emergeas a storyof domi-
nationovervariedsectionsof thesubaltern
social groupswithin the nation.In other
words,if we foregrounddominantnation-
alismin an oppositionaldialoguewith the
subalternsocial groupswithinthe nation
- instead of colonialism - the divide
betweenthe spiritualand material,inner
and outer, would tell us other stories -
storiesof dominationandexclusionunder
the sign of cultureand spiritualitywithin
the so-called nationalcommunityitself.
That is, the very domainof sovereignty
thatnationalismcarvesout in the face of
colonial dominationis simultaneouslya
domainof enforcingdominationover the
subaltern socialgroupssuchaslowercastes,
womenandmarginallinguisticregions,by
the nationalelite. For example, Partha
Chatterjee,in discussing Tarinicharan
Chattopadhayay's The History of India,
notes, "If the 19th century Englishman
couldclaimancientGreeceas his classical
heritage, why should not the English-
educatedBengalifeelproudof theachieve-
mentof theso-calledVediccivilisation?"8
If we keepasidetheobvioussenseof irony
inthisstatement,whatwe findis a valorised
oppositionbetweencolonialism and na-
tionalism.The nationalistinvocation of
Vedic civilisationindeed challenges the
claims to supremacyby the colonisers.
However, it also carries an unstated
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hierarchisation of differentsocial groups Brahminswere fed in his house in the
thatgo to makethenation.Thenormativity ancientmannerwithall theparaphernalia
of a Vedic civilisation, reinvented by of a Hinduritual.13
dominantnationalism,would accommo- Herewe have a descriptionof whatthe
date vast sections of Indiansonly as in- authorclaims to be 'Indiantradition'.It
feriorswithinthenation.9Itis notso much includes,among otherthings, notionsof
the triumphof non-modularnationalism pollution, Sandhyavandanam, Sraddhas,
over colonialism,but its inabilityto ex- Srimad Bhagavata, Devi Bhagavata and
ercisehegemonyoverthelife of thenation, feeding of brahmins.In short,what gets
is wherewe can locate the sourceof two encodedhere as Indiancultureis whatis
competingmodes of speakingcaste. cultureto the brahmins/upper castes.The
I shall illustrate this by journeying logic of exclusionfromand the inferiori-
throughthebiography of aprominent public sationof lowercaste'traditions'withinthe
figurein colonialMadras,P S Sivaswami so-callednationaltraditionaretooobvious
Aiyer (1864-1946). Among otherthings, for elaboration.Let me also mentionhere
SivaswamiAiyer was assistantprofessor thatthe book thatcarriesthis description
at MadrasLaw College (1893-99), joint of 'Indiantradition'hasbeenpublishedin
editorof MadrasLawJournal (1893-1907), the 'Buildersof Moder India' series by
memberof theMadraslegislativecouncil, the governmentof India.
andvice-chancellorof MadrasUniversity T K VenkatramaSastri,one of his early
(1916-18).10 In keeping with his pre- juniors, captured the hybridity that
eminentlocationin this modernisedcolo- Sivaswami Aiyer was, in the following
nial public,his life in the materialdomain words:"In the very first week came my
was governedby what one may term as test. One night he put into my hands
canonsorprotocolsof westernmodernity. Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies and asked me
The telling instanceof this was the way to readthe title of the book. WhenI read
Sivaswami Aiyer organised his time: 'sesame' as a word of three syllables, I
"...dailywalks,hoursset apartfor reading passedthe firsttest. He was verypunctili-
newspapersor magazines,fixed time for ous about pronunciation...Another night
bathandfood, appointmentfor interview he bade me to read the Bhagavata Purana,
of visitors,intervalsdevotedto correspon- a favouritestudy of his. After I had read
dence and private accounts and family it for some time, he took it backandread
affairs- thesemadeupSivaswamiAiyer's it with feeling..."'14
well arrangedroutine."ll As one of his The seeminglyeffortlesscoexistenceof
life-long friends, C R Narayana Rao, re- Ruskin and Bhagavata Purana in the
counted,"his habits [were] regulatedby everyday world of Sivaswami Aiyer in
clocks and watches."12 colonial Tamil Nadu can, of course, be
However, this modern selfhood of writtenas a straightforward storyof resis-
SivaswamiAiyer in the materialdomain tance to colonialism.This is indeed the
accountsfor only partof his life. The rest way the elite Indiannationalismscripted
was one of 'tradition': the storyby workingthroughthe binaries
In his personalhabitshe neverchanged of spiritual/material, inner/outer and
muchfromtheIndiantradition evenafter valorising the inner or spiritualas the
hislongtoursinforeignlands.As a matter uncolonisedsite of nationalselfhood.But
of fact, the reasonwhy he spent extra it hada less triumphalimplicationfor the
moneyon a personalattendant throughout subalternclasses.
hislongtourswashisanxietynottodepend First of all, courting the west in the
on food and victualssuppliedat foreign materialdomain by means of accessing
hotels...Inhis life he hadhardlyany oc- English education, falling in line with
casion to have food outside except at certaintimediscipline,participating in the
intimatefriends'placeson invitation.His languageof law, and so on, providedthe
bath at stated time, performanceof Indianelite with the meansto take
in the morning,after- thecolonialstructures partin
Sandhyavandanam of authority(though
noonandevening,annualobservances of as subordinates to the
Sraddhas forhisparents- allconnotedthe indisputably
of colonisers).Often suchauthority,working
immutability time-honoured regulations itself the
thathe respected.All religiousfestivals through languageof Englishand
andspecialfastswereobservedby him... disciplinaryinstitutionslike the court of
Religious expositions from Srimad law meanta compellingmomentof exclu-
Bhagavata or Devi Bhagavata used to be sion and disempowermentfor the subor-
conductedby some learnedpunditsand dinatesocial groupswithin the 'national
listenedtowithfaithbyhiswifeandhimself. community'. For instance, Pradabha
Economicand Political Weekly May 4, 2002
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MudaliarCharitram,the first novel in
Tamil, publishedin 1879, talks of the
effect of conductingcourtproceedingsin
English for the ordinarypeople, as fol-
lows: "Theyreturnedhome withoutany
gain like a blindman who went to watch
theatreand like a deaf man who went to
listen to music."15
Simultaneously, theso-calledsovereign
domainof cultureuncolonisedby thewest
remaineda domainto affirmelite upper
as the cultureof
caste culture/spirituality
the nation. We have already seen this
throughtheinstanceof SivaswamiAiyer's
spirituality.This act of mobilisinga part
of the nationalto standfor the whole, not
only inferiorisedvast sections of lower
castes as inadequate citizens-in-the-
making,16butalso significantlydelegiti-
misedthelanguageof caste in thedomain
of politics by annexingit as part of the
cultural.Itis onlyby unsettlingthebound-
aries betweenthe spiritualand material,
inner and outer, could the lower castes
(andwomen)contestthelogicof exclusion
inherentin the so-callednationalculture
andtalkcastein thecolonialpublicsphere.
The intersectionbetween the act of
unsettlingthe boundarybetweenspiritual
andmaterial,andthe effortsof dominant
nationalismto enforcethis veryboundary
is the point at which we can trace the
arrivalof the two modesof talkingabout
caste which I have mentionedearlier.In
fact, muchof the politics of PeriyarE V
Ramasamyor BabasahebAmbedkarcan
be readas an effortto unsettlethe bound-
arybetweenthe spiritualandthe material,
and recovera space for the languageof
caste in the colonialpublicsphere.How-
ever,it is a farmoreinterestingstoryhow
the mainstreamnationalists,in confront-
ing this languageof caste in the domain
of politics, respondedto it.
In 1933, the municipalityof Pollachi,a
smalltownin westernTamilNadu,intro-
duced a regulationto do away with the
separatediningspacesmarkedout for the
brahminsandthe non-brahmins in hotels.
SivaswamiAiyer opposed the move by
claimingthat it was interferencein per-
sonalmatters.17Hereis an obvious story
of pushingback caste into the innerdo-
main of culture.But.most often, caste,
once brought into the public domain,
refusedto heed suchnationalistadvice.It
stayed on, speaking its own language,
though from marginal and stigmatised
spaces.
In the face of such stubbornness,caste
often gets written out as a part of the
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colonial strategy of 'divide and rule' and, divisions of men are so muchpartof the
thus, its invocation in the domain of politics naturalorderof things that they will re-
stigmatised. The story of how the nation- main as long as servantsand tradersand
alisms of E V Ramasamy and Ambedkar soldiersandteachersperformtheirduties
are suspect even today; and how they, in amongstus."It furtheradded,"...caste in
the dominant nationalist thinking, remain itself is not peculiarto India,but is found
as 'collaborators' with the British, would everywhere.Servers, merchantsfighters
illustrate this.18 At another level, caste andrulers,priests,everypeoplehasthem,
gets transcoded as a modern institution in thoughthe nameis differentaccordingto
an effort to shut out the language of caste the nation."21Here,Annie Besant,a vo-
from the public sphere. Let me take the ciferousdefenderof brahminism, whotried
case of untouchability. There was an herbestto wreckthenon-brahmin political
avalanche of publications in the first half mobilisation incolonialMadraspresidency,
of the 20th century, which explained away naturalisescaste. In doing so, she assimi-
untouchability by resorting to a discourse lates caste as partof a universalstructure
of hygiene. P V Jagadisa Aiyyer, whose of division of labour and denies it any
monograph South Indian Customs, pub- socio-historicalspecificity.Both the acts
lished originally in 1925 but in print even of naturalisingcaste and denying it any
today, has the following to say: specificity,work in tandemto invalidate
The Indiancustom of observing distance casteasarelevantcategoryinpublicsphere
and politics.
pollution, etc, has hygienic and sanitary
considerationsin view. In general the so- In tracingthe historicalmomentof the
called pious and religious people are arrivaltwo modes of talkingaboutcaste
generally most scrupulously clean and in the Indianpublicsphere,as it unfolded
hence contact with people of uncleanly in the womb of colonialism, let me
habits is nauseatingto them...people liv- emphasisetwo key points:first, the very
ing on unwholesome food such as rotten nationalist resolution founded on the
fish, flesh, garlic,etc, as well as the people divide betweenspiritualandmaterialren-
of filthy and unclean habits throw out of deredthe modeof talkingcasteon its own
their bodies coarse and unhealthymagne- terms in the material/publicsphere, an
tism. This affects the religious people of illegitimateproject.Two, its responseto
pure habits and diet injuriously.So they thosewho still chosethe languageof caste
keep themselves at a safe distance which in the domainof politics by crossingthe
has been fixed by the sages of old after dividebetweenthe spiritualandmaterial,
sufficient experience and experiment.19 is one of mobilisingmodernity(hygiene
This quote is interesting on several anddivisionof labouras instanceswe have
counts. There is not a moment when it seen) and nationto inscribethe language
acknowledges caste. The upper castes, on of caste as once again illegitimate.
the one hand, get encoded here as 'so- The intimacy between modernityand
called pious and religious people' or as the desireto keep caste out of the public
'religious people of purehabits'. The lower sphere had its own particularcareer in
castes, on the other, are encoded as 'people post-colonialIndia,to which now I turn.
living on rotten fish, flesh, garlic, etc.'
Fish, flesh and garlic - all are tabooed in Ill
the world of the brahminand certain other Post-colonialAngst
uppercastes. Interestingly,JagadisaAiyyer
does not invoke merely experience, but With the end of colonial rule, the am-
bivalence towardsthe modernexhibited
experimentation as well. The authority of
experimentation summons science to vali-by the Indiannationalistelite duringthe
date caste pollution.20 colonial period withered.Now it is mo-
dernityon the termsof the 'nation'itself.
In other contexts, caste, in the hands of
the upper castes and dominant national- The characterof this new journeyalong
thepathof themodernby theIndiannation
ists, reincarnates as division of labour.
Though one can easily provide several statehasbeencapturedbyParthaChatterjee
in thefollowingwords:"Themodernstate,
instances to illustrate this, let me just
embeddedas it is within the universal
confine to one. In an editorial, appropri-
narrative
ately titled 'How Caste Helps', New India, of capital,cannotrecognisewithin
the journal of the Theosophical Society its jurisdictionany form of community
edited by Annie Beasant, noted, "Howeverexceptthesingle,determinate, demographi-
much we may declaim againstthe thraldom cally enumerableform of the nation."22
of caste in details, the fundamentalfour However,it is importanthereto recognise
1737
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that this very opposition between the state
(and/or capital) and the community would
make community indispensable for the
articulation of the nation. After all, only
by recognising the presence of communi-
ties can the nation state deny their legiti-
macy and affirm the nation. This simul-
taneous inseparability and antagonism
between the modem state and community
is of critical importance to understand the
politics of two modes of talking caste in
post-colonial India.23
In exploring this connection between
modernity and caste in the post-colonial
India, the writings of M N Srinivas, who
was committed at once to the developmen-
tal state and sociology,24 is most helpful.
Let us have a look at his much-hyped
theory of Sanskritisation and westerni-
sation. Stripped down to its basics, the
theory, within a comparative framework,
claims thatthe lower castes sanskritise and
the upper castes westerise.25 Taking a
cue from Johannes Fabian's argument
about how the west constructs its 'other'
by "the denial of coevalness",26 we can
immediately locate a teleological scheme
withinSrinivas's comparativeanalysis. The
teleology moves from lower caste prac-
tices to sanskritisation to westernisation.
This very teleology sets caste as the 'other'
of the modem.
But we need to remember here that what
looks here like the unmarked modem is
stealthily upper caste in its orientation.
What M N Srinivas offers us as the history
of westernisation in India is eminently
instructive here. He writes:
Only a tiny fraction of the Indian popu-
lationcameintodirect,fact-to-facecontact
with the British or other Europeans,and
those who came into such contact did not
always become a force for change. Indian
servantsof the British, for instance, prob-
ably wielded some influence among their
kin groups and local caste groups but not
among others.They generally came from
the low castes, theirwesternisationwas of
a superficial kind, and the upper castes
made fun of their Pidgin English, their
absurdadmirationfor theiremployers,and
the airs they gave themselves. Similarly,
converts to Christianity from Hinduism
did not exercise muchinfluence as a whole
becausefirst,these also came fromthe low
castes, and second, the act of conversion
often only changed the faith but not the
customs, the generalculture,or the stand-
ing of the converts in society.27
Very clearly, for M N Srinivas, the source
of the Indian modern cannot be the lower
castes. Their attempts could only remain
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superficialtrappedin pidginEnglishand Mysore brahmins.Some of these were my
absurd admirationfor their employers. friends and relatives, and I could not help
Interestingly, this is one of those several being sensitive to their distress.31
paragraphs in Srinivas's book, which re- This is familiar enough. Distress of the
fusesthedistinctionbetweenhis ownview brahmin is the theme song of the post-
and that of others whom he is talking Mandal modern public sphere of India.
about. M N Srinivas, to his credit, talks of it even
Let me stay with this themea bit more. earlier. But what is quite illuminating here
M N Srinivas,in the courseof his book, is that as soon as he confesses his caste
gives us a list of 'westernisedintelligent- identity (with the caveat of 'very pro-
sia' who were, in his words, "the torch- bably'), he hastens to enfeeble it. In the
bearersof a new andmodernIndia".The place of his sensitivity to the distress of
list runsas follows:Tagore,Vivekananda, the Mysore brahmins, now he presents a
Ranade, Gokhale, Tilak, Gandhi, range of things that has nothing to do
JawaharlalNehruand Radhakrishnan.28 with caste as such, as the reason for his
Let us for the momentnot get caughtin opposition to caste quotas. He could not
the questionof how complexfigureslike help being sensitive "to the steady dete-
Gandhi find a place in this list of rioration in efficiency and the fouling of
westernisedintelligentsia.Whatis of in- interpersonalrelations in academic circles
terest here is the glaringabsence of the and the administration - both results of a
names of those who courtedthe modern policy of caste quotas. As one with a strong
for the mobilisation of lower caste. attachment to Mysore, I could not but be
BabasahebAmbedkarand PeriyarE V affected by the manner in which conflicts
Ramasamyare obvious instanceshere.It between castes prevented concentration
is evidentthatIndianmodem,despiteits on the all-importanttask of developing the
claim to be universal- and of course, economic resources of the state for the
becauseof it - not only constituteslower benefit of all sections of its population."32
casteas its 'other',butalso inscribesitself Srinivas, at one level, emerges here as
silentlyas uppercaste.Thus,caste,as the one of "...those 'experts' on caste who
otherof themodern,alwaysbelongsto the consider it their duty to protect caste from
lower castes.29 thepollution ofpolitics."33 Here is a torrent
Given this particularcharacterof the of words- 'decline of efficiency', 'fouling
Indianmodem,itproscribes andstigmatises of interpersonal relations', 'the benefit of
the languageof castein the publicsphere. all sections of the population' - all con-
Itdoes so evenwhile it talkscasteby other spire to keep caste out of public articula-
means.Inunderstanding thepoliticsof this tion. In the heart of all of it what we find
authorisedlanguageof the publicsphere, is the well known principle of 'common
M N Srinivasis once againhelpful.It was good' as a civic ideal. As the feminist and
thanks to EdmundLeach that Srinivas, other minoritariancritiques of civic repub-
who spoke all the time about caste in lican ideal of 'cQmmon good' has shown
generalbutneverabouthis own, spokeof us, the deployment of 'common good' as
his casteidentity.Ina reviewof Srinivas's the so-called democratic ideal elbows out
Caste in Modem India, Leach called his the politics of difference based on
Sanskritisationmodel 'Brahminocentric' inferiorised identities and sports the inter-
andtauntedhimwhetherhis interpretation ests of the powerful as that of the society
would have been differentif he were a as a whole. As Chantal Mouffe has argued,
sudra.30 If the incitementof the rabid "all form of consensus are by necessity
Christiansand the non-brahminsocca- based on acts of exclusion."34
sioned R K Narayan'sacknowledgement However, this is not merely a story of
of his uppercaste identity,the incitement interests, but of democracy and its articu-
of EdmundLeach promptedSrinivasto lation in the public sphere. The deracinated
concedehisowncasteidentity.Heclaimed: language of 'common good' comes in the
of the formation of an inclusive public
...my stressingof the importance of the way
BackwardClassesMovement,andof the sphere. The pressure exerted by the mod-
roleof casteinpoliticsandadministration, em most often forces the subordinated
are veryprobablythe resultof my being castes into silence and self-hate. D R
a southIndian,anda brahminat that.The Nagaraj, a fellow traveller and a scholar
principleof castequotasforappointments of the dalit movement in Karnataka,notes,
to posts in the administration,and for "The birth of the modern individual in the
admissionsto scientificandtechnological humiliated communities is not only ac-
courses,producedmuchbitterness among companied by a painful severing of ties
Economicand Political Weekly May 4, 2002
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withthe community,butalso a conscious
effortto alterone's pastis an integralpart
of it."35The movingstoryof Nanasaheb
Wankhede,as recountedby VasantMoon,
then a deputy county commissionerin
Nagpur,is instructivehere:"We went to
the house of NanasahebWankhede,the
retired deputy county commissioner...
Nanasahebwas an extremelywarmper-
son,buthe livedcompletelyapartfromthe
community.He didn'tcareto mix withme
even as a deputycommissioner."He told
Moon, a fellow mahar,that displaying
bookson AmbedkarandBuddhismwould
land him in trouble.But when the news
of Ambedkar's death was brought to
Wankhede,"he brokeinto tears".36It is
not wordsof dialoguein the public, but
momentsof despairin the private,thatthe
Indianmodemoffers the lower castes. It
demandsandenforcesthatcaste can live
onlysecretlives outsidethepublicsphere.
Theresponseof theIndianmodem,when
theinsurrection of theprohibitedlanguage
of casteoccursin thepublicsphere,would
illuminatethe contradictoryrelationship
between modernityand mass politics in
India.The year 1990, whenV P Singh as
the prime ministerof India decided to
implementa partof the MandalCommis-
sion Report,was such a moment.As an
illustration,let me take the response of
Ashok Mitra,well known Marxistand a
believer in 'People's Democracy'. His
modernselfhoodis not in doubtat all. In
a ratherrevealingstatement,he claimed,
"Thegovernment'sdecision...represents
the ultimatetriumphof the message of
BabasahebAmbedkaroverthepreachings
of secularists".37 Sulliedby the language
of caste, Ambedkarcannotbe partof the
secular-modern. He goes on, as a Marxist,
to enumeratenationalills - whichare,for
him, morereal - such as misdistribution
of arableland,near-universal illiteracyand
generallack of health.Casteis, however,
refused a place in his secular-modern
reckoning.38
Thencome his ruminationsaboutmass
politics: "For the nation's majority,the
oppressivearrangementsthe system has
spawned are little different from what
obtainedundermedievalfeudalism.With
just one exception,medieval tyrantsdid
not have to worry about votes. Modern
leaders have to. They cannot therefore
ignorepressuregroups,whoclaimto speak
on behalfof neglectedclasses or sections.
Thesegroupshaveto be takenattheirface
valuefor they supposedlyrepresentsolid
votebanks.Revolutionsarenotnextdoor,
Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 4, 2002
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but the threatof votes withheld,or being
hawkedaroundtootherbidders,works."39
The simultaneousdisenchantmentof the
Indianmodern(even in its Marxistincar-
nation)with the languageof caste as well
asthatof masspoliticsis alltootransparent
here. The perceptivecommentaboutthe
doctrinairemodernistmadethreedecades
back by Rajni Kothari,still holds true:
"Those who in India who complain of
'casteismin politics'arereallylookingfor
a sort of politics which has no basis in
society.Theyalso probablylackanyclear
conceptionof eitherthe natureof politics
or the natureof the caste system (Many
of them would want to throw out both
politics and caste system)."40
IV
InConclusion
In concludingthis paper,let me dwell
a bit on how the Indianmodern'srevolt
againstdemocracyhas shapedthe lower
caste responses. In their response, the
modem is both mobilisedand critiqued,
for the promisesof modernityand what
it deliversin practiceare often in contra-
diction.A fragmentfromthereal-lifestory
of how KumudPawde,a maharwoman,
became proficientin Sanskrit,is a good
instance to explore the distinguishing
featuresof these responses.
It is a storyof intensestruggle,discour-
agement and ridicule. However, with
determination,Kumud Pawde pursues
Sanskrit,gets a postgraduatedegree,and
teachesit in a college. GokhaleGuruji,an
orthodoxbrahmin,was exemplaryas a
teacher.Her caste did not matterto him.
But when she began her MA course in
Sanskrit,her own professor- someone
otherthanGuruji- dislikedher learning
Sanskrit.As KumudPawde narratesthe
events:
TheHeadof thedepartment wasa scholar
of all-Indiarepute.He didn't like my
learningSanskrit,andwouldmakeit clear
thathe didn't.And he took a malicious
delightindoingso...I wouldunconsciously
comparehim with Gokhale Guruji.I
couldn'tunderstand
why this greatman
with a doctorate,so renownedall over
India,thismanin his modemdress,who
didnotwearthetraditional
cap,whocould
so eloquentlydelineatethephilosophyof
the UniversalBeing,andwith suchease
explaindifficultconceptsin simpleterms,
couldnotpractisein reallife thephiloso-
phyin thebookshe taught.Thismanhad
beenexposedtomodernity; GokaleGuruji
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
wasorthodox.Yetonehadbeenshrivelled
by tradition,theotherenrichedby it...41
Hereis ananguishedstatementof wonder
from a dalit womanof greataccomplish-
mentabouthow to delineatethe meaning
of the modernandthe non-moder in the
contextof caste. Modernexperienceand
modernexpectationare obviouslyat log-
gerheads.42However,it would be a mis-
taketo readthisas thelowercasterejection
of modernity.It is at once a critiqueof the
modernfor its failureas well as an invi-
tationto it to deliverits promises.In other
words, the lower castes' relationto mo-
dernitycan best be describedas 'antago-
nistic indebtedness'- a felicitous term
usedby PaulGilroyin thecontextof Black
politics.43
It is by critiquing/rejecting the civili-
sationalclaimsof modernitythatthelower
castes, at one level, could claim a space
for their politics. The vast corpusof lit-
eratureproducedby the dalitintellectuals
duringthe past decade in Tamil Nadu is
illustrative here. For instance, Raj
Gowthaman,one of the leading Tamil
intellectualsand a dalit literarycritique,
rejects the civilisationalclaims and the
teleology of modernity,and insteadrecu-
peratesthe past of lowly hill cultivators,
hunters,fisherpeople,pastoralists,andthe
like as the high point of humanachieve-
ment.He characterisestheirsocial life as
communal,with people pooling together
andsharingfood with a sense of equality,
without much internal differentiation.
Flow of historyceasesto be civilisingand
Raj Gowthamanincites the dalits to step
outside it.
In carryingforwardhis agendaof carv-
ing out a space for those who are outside
the pale of civilisationin Indianmodern's
reckoning,he argues that one needs to
resignify as positive those culturalprac-
tices whicharedeemedby theuppercastes
as lowly. Beef-eating,drinking,speaking
in dalitdialectare necessarilypartof this
culturalpolitics.44 The need to reclaim
what has been stigmatised is essential
becausethatalonewouldendthe self-hate
that Indianmodernhas producedin the
lower castes. Like D R Nagaraj, Raj
Gowthamanis awarethatthelureof Indian
modernis capableof silencingthem:"We
could see the elements of these protest
culturesdisappearingamongthose dalits
who havemigratedto urbanareasseeking
education and jobs...We could see the
dalits avoiding and covering up these
counter-cultural elements becauseof the
consciousnessthattheyareuncivilised."45
1739
 Itis evidentthatthisnewpoliticalproject outsidemodernityis indeedbeingone step colonialism. It is my plea that if we shift the
is addressedto the lower castes. And it aheadof modernity.m emphasis from the contradiction between
nationalism and colonialism to the
gives rise to a sphereof politics outside contradictions within nationalism, the
themodemcivil society/publicsphere.The Notes outcomes would be ratherdifferent.
very appellation'dalit'attachedto every- 10 K Chandrasekharan,P S Sivaswami Aiyer,
thingthattakesplacein thisspheresignals [This is an expanded version of a talk prepared Publications Division, Governmentof India,
it.46 The refusalto concedethe demands for, but could not be delivered at, the plenary New Delhi, 1969, pp 152-53.
11 Ibid, p 119.
of Indianuppercaste modernityto hide session of theUniversityof Wisconsin30thAnnual 12 Ibid, p 113.
Conferenceon South Asia held in October2001.
and at once practisecaste has alone en- I am thankful to the Centre for South Asia, 13 Ibid, p 114. This story of Sivaswami Aiyer is
suredthissubalterncounter-public.47 And University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose not an exceptional story. One can produce
thisis a publicwherethelanguageof caste invitationto theconferencemadethispaperhappen. innumerablesimilaraccountsaboutthe Tamil
insteadof the languageof speakingcaste The ideas expressed here owe a great deal to my brahminelite. Take, for instance, the case of
and on-going dialogue with Aditya S Satyamurti,lawyer and a nationalistwho is
by othermeans,is validated,encouraged longstanding
Nigam and Nivedita Menon. Comments on an well known for his debatingskills in English.
and practised.However,it shouldnot be earlier draft from
Itty Abraham, S Anandhi, Of him, it was written:'... He believed in all
forgottenthat this is a public which is Theodore Baskaran, Venkatesh Chakravarthy, the ritualsordainedby the Shastrasas well as
simultaneouslyin constantdialoguewith ChrisChekuri,JohnHarriss,JJeyaranjan,Sankaran tradition.His day would usually began very
the modern civil society which, in its Krishna,RamsamyMahalingam,NiveditaMenon, early with a bath and the performanceof daily
invocationof modernity,has and contin- Aditya Nigam, and R Srivatsan are gratefully religious rites. He would recite or read (do
The title of the paper 'One Step 'parayana') at least a few verses of the
ues to resistthe articulationof lowercaste acknowledged.
Outside Modernity'is a generousgift from Chris Ramayana and perform the simple ordinary
politics.We do knowthatmost often this Chekuri.] poojahs which every Hindu householder is
dialogueaboutthe new sphereof politics enjoinedto do and then only proceedto attend
takesplace in the sheerdespairand con- 1 R K Narayan, My Days: A Memoir, Indian to his normal duties as a public man. Even
demnationsexpressedin the moderncivil Thought Publications,Mysore, 2000 (1974). when he was courting imprisonment,he first
2 R K Narayan, My Days: A Memoir, p 161. finished his daily religious routine and then
society.The responsewhichthe arrivalof 3 There are uncriticaladmirersof R K Narayan went and courted arrest. Even in the prison
dalit literatureand dalit literarycriticism who would object to this mode of readinghis he would not give up his daily routine of
in TamilNadubroughthas forthfromthe writings.Forinstance,N Ram,a co-biographer poojahs'. (R Parthasarathy, S Satyamurti,
avant-gardelittle magazinesis a case in of Narayan, writes, 'The criticism is Publications Division, Governmentof India,
For
point. instance,responding to theclaim occasionally heard,from literaryscholarsand New Delhi, 1979, p 201).
others, that Narayan's Malgudi is a literary 14 K Chandrasekharan,P S Sivaswami Aiyer,
that dalit writings constitute a separate cocoon, where real-life conflicts, turbulence p23.
literarygenre,TamilSelvan,an activistof and socio-economic misery are not 15 Mayuram Vedanayagam Pillai, Prathaba
the culturalfront of the CPI(M) and a encountered.Naipaul, for one, seems to have Mudaliar Charitram,Chennai, 1984 (1879),
thevar by caste, noted in anger, "...stop given some credence to this complaint. But p 302.
when Narayanis in flow, such criticismseems 16 It is ratherinstructivehere to takenote of what
yourpointlesshowling.Some professors misdirected,almost banal.Who is to say with StuartHall and David Held have to say about
areorganisinghereandthereconferences what theme or problem or slice of life or citizenship: 'The issue aroundmembership-
[on dalit literature].They rebukeothers. imaginativeexperiencea novelist must deal?' who does and who does not belong - is where
Theytryto imposeon others'headswhat (Frontline,June8,2001, p 12). Suchgenerosity the politics of citizenship begins. It is
is in theirheads. These are unnecessary towardsthe flow of creativitylocatescreativity impossible to chart the history of the concept
conflicts."In a move - perhapsinspired outside the social and declines to interrogate very far without coming sharply up against
criticallywhatan authorchooses not to engage successive attempts to restrict citizenship to
by Marxism- towardsconflict-resolution, with is as importantas what s/he chooses to. certaingroupsandtoexcludeothers.Indifferent
he suggestedto the dalitwriters,"Giveup 4 Bhama, Karukku,SamudayaSinthanaiSeyal historical periods, different groups have led,
yourpointlesshowling...[Instead]produce Aaivu Mayyam, Madurai,1994; Virammaet and profited from, this 'politics of closure':
serious writing."48In other words, the al, Viramma:Life of an Untouchable,Verso, property-owners, men, white people, the
subalterncounter-public, in extractingthe London, 1997; Arjun Dangle (ed), A Corpse educated, those in particularoccupations or
in the Well:TranslationsfromModernMatathi with particularskills, adults.' StuartHall and
responseof the modernauthorisedpublic Dalit Autobiographies, Disha Books, DavidHeld, 'CitizensandCitizenship'in Stuart
spherewith its uppercaste protocols,is Hyderabad,1994 (1992); and Vasant Moon, Hall and Martin Jacques (eds), New Times:
engagedin an antagonisticdialoguewith Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit The Changing Face of Politics in the 1990s,
the Indianmodern.Equallyimportantis Autobiography. Tr Gail Omvedt, Rowman Lawrenceand Wishart,London, 1989, p 175.
the factthatthis sphereof politicsoutside and LittlefieldPublishers,Inc, Lanham,2001. 17 Gandhi, November 6, 1933.
the moderncivil society is in constant
5 Though the papertalks aboutcaste in general, 18 For a recentattemptto characteriseAmbedkar
it draws its instances from the brahminsand as a British collaborator,see Arun Shourie,
dialogue,collaborationand discardwith dalits. It is so because, given their location in WorshippingFalse Gods: Ambedkarand the
the other strandof lower caste politics the caste hierarchy,their instances can be of Facts which Have Been Erased, ASA
which mobilisesmodernityand speaks a help in delineatingsharplythe argumentof the Publications, New Delhi, 1997. Charac-
languageof universalfreedom. paper. teristically, one of the chaptersin the book is
6 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its titled 'The British Strategem and Its Indian
This contradictoryengagement with
Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Advocate'.
modernityby the lower castes has an Histories:OxfordUniversityPress,Delhi, 1995 19 P V Jagadisa Aiyyar, South Indian Customs,
importantmessagefor all of us: That is, (1993), p 7. Asian EducationalServices, New Delhi, 1985
being one step outside modernityalone 7 Ibid. (1925), p ix.
can guaranteeus a publicwherethe poli- 8 Ibid, p 98. 20 Here is yet anotherinstance of bringing forth
9 Partha Chatterjee is not unaware of this western authority to defend caste pollution:
tics of differencecan articulateitself, and
problem.However,even while acknowledging Arya Bala Bodini, a children's magazine
castecan emergeas a legitimatecategory this problem, the primaryfocus of the book broughtoutby theTheosophicalSociety, wrote
of democraticpolitics. Being one step is on the opposition between nationalismand in 1897, 'The Brahmins, particularly the

1740 Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 4, 2002

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Vaisnavites, insist that they be not seen by
otherswhileatdinner.Thecustomis denounced
and declaredsilly. Efforts are made now and
then to bring a miscellaneous crowd to eat
together and any success that might attend
such gatheringsis advertisedas grand.People,
who oughtto know better,exult in such small
triumphs, as they would put it, over blind
orthodoxy. Let us, however, see what a
distinguished westerner has to say on this
subject. Says Professor Max Muller in the
Cosmopolisthus:'The Hindus seem to me to
show their good taste by retiring while they
feed,andre-appearonly aftertheyhavewashed
their hands and face. Why should we be so
anxious to perform this no doubt necessary
functionbeforethe eyes of our friends?Could
not at least the grosser part of feeding be
performedin private,and the social gathering
begin at the dessert, or, with men, at the
wine..." (Arya Bala Bodinin, III (5), May
1897, p 114).
21 New India, 58 (77), April 1, 1916.
22 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its
Fragments, p 238.
23 For a recent and highly sophisticatedaccount
of the simultaneous inseparability and
antagonismbetween stateandcommunity,see
SankaranKrishna,Postcolonial Insecurities:
India, Sri Lanka and the Question of
Nationhood, University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolisand London, 1999. Let me also
note here that the relationship between the
narrativeof capital and that of community
need not always be one of opposition. They
can come together in denying a universal
westernnarrativeof capital. For example, see
AihwaOng,FlexibleCitizenship:TheCultural
Logic of Transnationality,Duke University
Press, Durham and London, 1999.
24 Emphasisingthese two roles of a sociologist,
M N Srinivaswrote, 'The governmentof India
has an understandabletendency to stress the
need for sociological researchthat is directly
related to planning and development. And it
is the duty of the sociologists as citizens that
they should take part in such research. But
there is a grave risk that "pure" or
"fundamental" mightbe sacrificedaltogether',
M N Srinivas (ed), India's Villages, Asia
PublishingHouse, Bombay, et al 1963 (1955),
p 5.
25 M N Srinivas,Social Changein Modem India,
Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1972.
26 Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How
Anthropology Makes Its Object, Columbia
university Press, New York, 1983. Walter
Mignolacharacterises the 'denialofcoevalness'
as 'the replacementof the 'other' in space by
the 'other' in time...and the articulation of
cultural differences in chronological
hierarchies'in WalterD Mignolo, TheDarker
Side of Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality
and Colonisation,The Universityof Michigan
Press, Ann Arbor, 1995, p xi.
27 M N Srinivas,Social Changein ModernIndia,
p 60.
28 Ibid, p 77.
29 This is very similar to the manner in which
race figures in the westerndiscourse. As Paul
Gilroy notes, '...the history of slavery is
somehow assigned to blacks. It becomes our
specialpropertyratherthana partof the ethical
Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 4, 2002
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
andintellectualheritageof thewest as a whole.' the question of caste despite their differing
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity ideological locations.
and Double Consciousness, Harvard 39 Ibid, pp 190-91.
University Press, Cambridge, 1996 (1993), 40 Rajni Kothari (ed), Caste in Indian Politics,
p49. p 4. For a similar argument,see D L Sheth,
30 M N Srinivas,Social Changein ModernIndia, 'ChangingTermsof Elite Discourse:The Case
p 148. of Reservation for Other Backward Classes'
31 Ibid, p 152. in T V Sathyamurthy(ed), Region, Religion,
32 Ibid, pp 152-53. Caste, Gender and Culture in Contemporary
33 Rajni Kothari(ed), Caste in Indian Politics, India, OUP, Delhi, 1996.
Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1986 (1970), 41 ArjunDangle (ed), A Corpse in the Well,p 32.
p6. 42 See Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, p 49.
34 Chantal Mouffe, 'Feminism, Citizenship 43 Ibid, p 191.
and Radical Democratic Politics' in Judith 44 A more systematic statementof the same can
Butler and Joan W Scott (eds), Feminists be found in Kancha Illiah's notion of
Theorise the Political, Routledge, London, 'Dalitisation'. See Kancha Illiah, Why I am
1992, p 379. Not A Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva
35 D R Nagaraj, The Flaming Feet: A Study of Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy,
the Dalit Movement, South Forum Press, Samya, Calcutta, 1996, chap VII.
Bangalore, 1993, p 7-8. 45 I have analysedRaj Gowthaman'sWritingsin
36 Vasant Moon, Growing Up Untouchable in detail elsewhere. The material used here is
India, p 159. drawn from 'Stepping Outside History; New
37 AsgharAli Engineer(ed),MandalCommission Dalit Writings from Tamil Nadu' in Partha
Controversy,AjantaPublications,Delhi 1991, Chatterjee(ed), Wages of Freedom:50 Years
p 190. of the IndianNation-State,Oxford University
38 In fact, Ashok Mitra's view on the Press, New Delhi, 1998.
implementationof MandalCommissionis not 46 Upper caste politics which refuses to speak
differentfrom that of M N Srinivas. Srinivas caste as caste is what gets written as politics
too lists, in the context of his opposition to withoutany qualification.Politics thatinvokes
the MandalCommission recommendations,a caste is always dalit politics or the politics of
similarset of problemsas the realones: 'Social the 'backwards'.
andeducationalbackwardnessarebest tackled 47 On the notion of subalterncounter-public,see
by anti-povertyprogrammes.Backwardnessis Nancy Fraser,'Rethinkingthe Public Sphere:
due in large measureto poverty and the many A Contributionto the Critique of Actually
ills that go with it. Malnutrition affects Existing Democracy' in Craig Calhoun (ed),
productivity; illiteracy is inseparable from Habermas and the Public Sphere, The, MIT
ignoranceand superstition.The lack of access Press,Cambridge,MassachusettsandLondon,
to shelter,clothing andhygiene and sanitation 1996 (1992).
makes people backward.Thereis such a thing 48 Quoted in V Arasu, 'Tamil Sirupathirigai
as a 'culture of poverty" (Ibid, p 133). The ChoolalumDalit Karuthdalum'in Ravi Kumar
obvious similarity between Ashok Mitra and (ed), DalitKali-lllakiyam-Arasiyal,DalitKalai
M N Srinivaspoints to the elite consensus on Vizha Kulu, Neyveli, 1996, p 217.
Social Science Research Council
New Fellowship Opportunity
FirstAnnouncement,1st May2002
Social Science Research Council(SSRC New York)announces
a new fellowshipcompetition.The theme for 2002 is Resources
and Social Sciences. Twentyfellowshipswillbe availableforjunior
andseniorscholarsfromSouthAsiato beingnewresearch,continue
ongoingresearchor writeup completedresearchwiththe purpose
of strengtheningthe link between teaching and research. The
fellows will attend a weeklong trainingworkshopand a two-day
internationalconferencebetween3rdto 12thJanuary2003. Eligibility
is restrictedto college teachers and universityfacultywithearned
PhDs. Interestedapplicantsare requested to look for a second
detailedannouncementon 1stJune 2002. Applicationmaterialwill
be availableon the SSRCwebsitewww.ssrc.orgas wellas through
various organizationsin South Asia after that date.
1741