Liberals' Dilemma

Author(s): G. P. D.
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Oct. 5-11, 2002, Vol. 37, No. 40 (Oct. 5-11, 2002),
pp. 4090-4091
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4412683

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

103.242.158.183 on Sun, 05 Nov 2023 04:42:54 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Of Letters and Politics

Liberals' Dilemma
Take, for example, expressions like 'in-
struction in religion' and 'religious in-
struction'. This government has perhaps
in mind the latter. But it was most unlikely
The judiciary does not make a revolution. It is not its job that
to it
dowould phrase the document in a way
that it would be open to the most obvious
so. It maintains order of sorts. If that order has to be changed,
charge. Rajput of the NCERT made it quite
the field of action is somewhere else. The liberal dilemmaclear in'a discussion on a TV channel that
consists in not being able to decide where that field happensthey have indeed phrased the document
to be or should be located. quite carefully. How could anyone have
a problem with letting students know about
GPD gods. This is what the Advanis and the
religions, he seemed to ask?
Murali Manohars of the world think the It was an argument which would be, for
It is rumoured that the human resourcespseudo-secularists are doing all the time.many, a case of being clever by half which
minister Murali Manohar Joshi was Their primary regret is that this doubtfulindeed it was. But there is nothing illegal
once a professor of vedic physics, tribe
of has spread its tentacles much too wideabout it. Surely one would attribute that
course, a long time ago. No, we do not in the area of education. Something neededmuch of careful drafting to bureaucrats
mean a rumour of a long time ago. We to be done and fast. The counter-offensive and politicians. No, there was no way
mean the professorship of a long time ago. has begun in all earnest. Free the field of documents of this kind would ever be so
education of all pseudo-secularblasphemy careless as to be caught in a court of law.
It is not clear from the rumour if he actually
taught vedic physics or whether since and he all would be well, for god would like So was the case this time.
taught a very long time ago, the physics nothing better. But the strange part of the story really
that he taught had become dated, almostThis merry assumption was bound to be was the position that the PIP had taken on
questioned sooner than later. And so it was the question of Sanskrit. That classical
ancient, so that it earned the label of 'vedic'
metaphorically. Joshi lives in ancient Indiain the court of law by four well-meaning language is even more unfortunate than
liberals. Much store was set by what the Urdu. Urdu language is dismissed by the
or at any rate in his version of ancient'India.
He has forgotten the ancient Sanskrit adage court might have to say on the question. 'parivar' as a language of the Muslims.
- if he knew it that is -puranamityeva All na eyes were set on the nyayadevata (the Sanskrit is even more unfortunate. It is
sadhu sarvam (all that is ancient is not godess ofjustice). And in a disappointing- dismissed by some as a 'Hindu' language.
necessarily good). He seems, therefore,for-liberals
to judgment the court did not find Some others dismiss it as the so-called
have made it his mission to assert that anything wrong, legally wrong that is, in 'aryan' language. Some others dismiss it
puranamityeva hi sadhu sarvam (only the these policies. Murali Manohar Joshi said as a 'brahman' language. We do not know
ancient is good). It goes without saying quite triumphantly that his stand had been if the authors of this PIP, even one of them,
that he and his cohorts in the ministry and vindicated. There is no way of knowing know any Sanskrit. But they seem to be
various educational bodies have made up if he had a satyanarayan puja (a small victims of the 'parivar' mentality of brand-
their mind that they will demonstrate to thanksgiving ritual of sorts in the ing a language by its allegedly belonging
the world that all wisdom flows from India, brahmanical tradition) done in his house. to a section of people. Why should the
and that too from ancient India This can The point is that he has much to be grateful authors of the PIP have any problem with
begin only if Indians themselves werefor in the way the public interest petition the teaching of a classical language? No
(PIP) on the new educational policy has European liberal would take the position
taught that all wisdom flows from India.
It was, therefore, important that this sin-been settled or rather dismissed. that these well-meaning liberals have taken.
gular truth is made the guiding principle One would not have worried too much It was good that the court has taken the
of educational programmes in the country.if it were only a question of Joshi's littleposition of not entertaining the objections
A vigorous drive to refashion the syllabitriumph. Nor is it our contention, evento Sanskrit. These liberals have inadvert-
in the schools and collages has followed. remotely, that the court should not haveently contributed to a discourse of con-
That story is too well known to deserve taken the position that it did, or that itsdemning a language by its alleged asso-
repetition here. The point simply is that interpretation
a of law is not correst. Evenciation with a group of (undesirable) people
missionary zeal is in operation here. those who would strongly differ with theor its alleged role in history.
Proseletysing people is what Muralidecision of the court would not suggest The dilemma of the liberals springs from
Manohar and his faithful seem to be after. that. They would record their unhappinessthe fact that their discourse is unwittingly
Strange, is'nt it, from people who are deadwith 'due respect'. Clearly that is not theimitative of that of the adversary. It is a
set against conversion? issue. bit like the case of Iraq. The Americans
There is a certain moral air to people who It might sound a little anti-liberal to say have so fixed the terms of debate that no
convert others. They start from the as- that this PIP was destined to lose. A numberone can actually argue that the question
sumption that conversion would ultimatelyof legal matters are in the last analysisif Iraq is a rogue state is irrelevant to
related to words, how they are used andwhether Bush and Rumsfeld should step
liberate the pagans from the sinful pursuit
of, to use Arun Shourie's term, wrong what their lexicographical meanings are.in where angels fear to tread. By taking

4090 Economic and Political Weekly October 5, 2002

This content downloaded from
103.242.158.183 on Sun, 05 Nov 2023 04:42:54 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
a position against a language, as it were, should not be fought in the courts of law. its job to do so. It maintains order of sons.
these liberals have, in manner of speaking, We, as a people, have been increasingly If that order has to be changed, the field of
legitimised a discourse which is retrogres- looking upon 'judicial activism' as an in- action is and would naturally be somewhere
sive and dangerous. herently liberating force. That it need not else. Perhaps the liberal dilemma consists
That is not all. The defeat of the PIP has be so should have been obvious. The judi- in not being able to decide where that field
underlined that political quarrels cannot and ciary does not make a revolution. It is not happens to be or should be located.[lHl

I Commentary

Changing Patterns
points in 108 parliamentary constituencies
across India, excluding Jammu and Kash-
mir, with a total sample size of 9,614 and

of Social Mobility
a response rate of 64 per cent.
For reasons of continuity only male
respondents have been included in the
analysis. (Full occupational details were
Some Trends over Time not collected for all women in the 1971
survey.) The time span covered by our
surveys stretches from the father's
How successful have state sponsored efforts been at redressinggeneration of our 1971 sample (circa
the issue of caste-based inequality in India? This paper independence) to the respondents in 1996.
The timing of these two surveys thus
analyses the impact of such efforts by probing trends in social
gives our study a more or less represen-
mobility and exploring the relationship between caste and tative picture of post-independence
occupation. The primary focus is to explore what, if anything,Indian society.
has changed and have such changes made India a more
The Measure of Class in India
fluid and mobile society than before.
For the general purposes of this paper
SANJAY KUMAR, ANTHONY HEATH, we have constructed a fourfold class
has the relationship between caste and
OLIVER HEATH occupation changed? In answering these
schema. This is a collapsed version of the
questions, our primary focus is to explore
eightfold classification that we used in our
Introduction paper on class mobility in 1996 [Kumar
what, if anything, has changed. We do not
therefore address the determinants of oc- et al 2002]. We have decided to use the
ver since India gained independence, cupational destiny, but instead just con-fourfold schema rather than the more
centrate on the trends in social mobility.
one of the leading priorities of the detailed eightfold classification for two
ountry has been to redress caste- reasons. First, the sample size of the 1971
Data and Methods
based social inequalities. The most obvious survey is considerably smaller than that of
manifestation of this goal has been the the 1996 survey, and hence use of the more
implementation of occupational and edu- The Surveys detailed classification would lead to some
cational reservation policies, initially, as set very sparse cells in the 1971 mobility table.
out in the Constitution, for dalits and adi- To explore the Indian experience of Second, the 1971 survey did not obtain
vasis, and more recently, thanks to the social mobility we use the cumulated files sufficient information on divisions within
Mandal Commission, for other backward
for the National Election Studies (NES) the business class or the agricultural class
classes (OBCs). However, these policies
of 1971 and 1996. These surveys were to replicate the 1996 distinctions. We feel
conducted by the Centre for the Study of
representjust the tip of the political iceberg that the loss of information that this entails
in terms of the social movements, political Developing Societies (CSDS). The sur- is compensated by the ability it gives us
parties and prominent figures that have veys adhere to strict sampling methods of to make comparisons between our surveys,
dedicated time, effort and energy to the probability proportionate to size, and are and so examine the changes that have
upliftment of the backward and downtrod- nationally representative of the electorate occurred over time.
as a whole. The 1971 survey was con-
den. This paper seeks to assess the success, The classification that we use to analyse
or otherwise, that these efforts have had ducted in 320 sampling points in 80 par- changes over time therefore takes the
in making India a more fluid and mobile liamentary constituencies across India. The following form:
total sample size was 3,800 and the re-
society. In doing so we ask three questions: - Salariat: executives, professionals,
sponse rate was 73 per cent. The 1996
how mobile is Indian society? Has it become white collar employees and class IV
more mobile over the last 25 years? And survey was conducted in 432 sampling employees;

Economic and Political Weekly October 5, 2002 4091

This content downloaded from

103.242.158.183 on Sun, 05 Nov 2023 04:42:54 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms