West Bengal’s ‘casteless’ myth

Three privileged castes control politics, culture, and education in the State, where 45 per cent of the population belongs to SC/ST and OBCs.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool have never been enthusiastic about a caste census. | Photo Credit: SHYAMAL MAITRA/ANI

In most parts of India, demands for caste quotas and inclusion in lists of OBC or Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) is a constant in the public domain and consequent electoral calculations. It is certainly a factor in election-bound Maharashtra, the State that sends the second-largest number of Members (MPs) to Parliament. There, the issue of the Maratha reservation is a hot potato that could singe any side of the political spectrum and there is constant push and pull over new communities being added to OBC lists.

Maharashtra like most States has touched the ceiling of 50 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. Sharad Pawar, NCP chief has said that if the Central government were to increase reservation beyond the 50 per cent ceiling, all Maharashtra parties would support the Centre. Caste therefore is part of every political calculus. But Bengal, another large State that sends the third largest contingent of MPs to Parliament stands apart in current times as the reservation quotas for SC/ST and OBC only add up to 45 per cent in this State.

Only 17 per cent given to OBCs

Unlike the 27 per cent reservation given to OBCs at the Centre, Bengal gives 17 per cent, while 22 per cent goes to SC and 6 per cent to ST. Yes, that’s quite amazing in India today, that a big State should not touch the reservation ceiling more so when we note that there is no real demand articulated by any party to increase reservation. This year Bengal has had a fierce protest triggered by the murder-rape of a junior doctor. But nothing about that primary unit of political mobilisation in much of India, caste, seems to generate agitation unlike what we have witnessed in recent times in Maharashtra.

Demands for reservation escalate when people from specific categories seek admission to government colleges and, later, employment as quotas are promised to give social groups a security net. Competition and scarcity of jobs are as intense in West Bengal as they are in other parts of India. In May this year, while the Lok Sabha election was taking place in the backdrop, a bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelled OBC certificates for 77 communities, many of whom were Muslims. Minority groups being categorised as OBC is common in reserved lists across India, including in neighbouring Bihar where, with brief interruptions, the BJP has been part of the governments led by Nitish Kumar since he became Chief Minister in 2005.

The West Bengal government has challenged the decision in the Supreme Court as have other affected individuals, but the hearing keeps getting postponed. There is also no agitational urgency given to the matter from the ground in Bengal, while the court is also taking its time. With the striking down of these OBC quotas in West Bengal following para 349-350 of the High Court order, reservation in this category has effectively dropped from 17 per cent to 7 per cent.

Although the BJP, the formal Opposition in the State, keeps accusing the Mamata Banerjee regime of propagating “Muslim rule”, in reality, Sachar Commission Report, 2006 states that the community’s representation in government jobs varies between 2-5 per cent even though the Muslim population was 25.2 per cent. While the population has increased to around 30 per cent, the quota has resulted in only a marginal increase in Muslim representation in government jobs: 5.4 per cent as per Govt of West Bengal’s Staff Census, 2013-14. Historians and social scientists have long held that many of the middle and intermediary castes who would today be categorized as OBC converted to Islam in Bengal. The name Mondal, for instance, is common in Bengal to Hindus and Muslims and both can belong to categories listed OBC.

The community’s representation in government jobs varies between 2-5 per cent even though the Muslim population was 25.2 per cent. While the population has increased to around 30 per cent, the quota has resulted in only a marginal increase in Muslim representation in government jobs: 5.4 per cent as per the government of West Bengal’s staff census, 2013-14. Historians and social scientists have long held that many of the middle and intermediary castes who would today be categorised as OBC converted to Islam in Bengal. The name Mondal, for instance, is common in Bengal to Hindus and Muslims and both can belong to categories listed OBC.

The recent case, however, involves larger issues as the High Court annulled all backward caste certificates issued after 2010. Subsequently, Mamata said that she would not accept the verdict and that it was part of a BJP conspiracy. Still, the growth of the BJP in the State means she has to constantly guard against counter-polarisation. Yet her MPs do not shy away from taking strong positions—note, for instance, the fracas involving Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee who got so agitated during a Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill that he smashed a bottle. He later said he was fighting against those who want to destroy secularism.

Bengal has undergone partitions twice, in 1905 and in 1947, and many of the Muslim elites migrated to what is now Bangladesh while the reverse happened with Hindu elites, who were welcomed in Calcutta. Conversely, many districts with large populations that we describe as SC today ended up across the border. There is also the tragic tale of what happened to some of them who occupied the island of Marichjhapi in the Sundarbans (1979) and were forcibly evicted. The point that some chroniclers of the past make is that subaltern communities were not as welcome as the gentile folk referred to as bhadralok.

West Bengal has known nationalism, communalism, a long spell of communism and regionalism as personified in the politics of the ruling Trinamool Congress under a charismatic leader. But what is indeed unique is the claim by all political parties that Bengal has somehow transcended caste. Certainly, caste realities are not comparable to the manner in which these play in the Hindi belt, but social gradations exist. In pre-Mandal Bihar leading up to current times, caste operates in day-to-day matters, human encounters and oppressions and it translates to being the most crucial marker for political choice. But while the Mandal era was transforming politics in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and became the catalyst for the birth of parties led by OBCs and Dalits, the West Bengal Assembly actually saw a net increase in MLAs from the upper castes in the last 50 years.

Reluctance to accept Mandal

The long period of Left rule and the reluctance of the longest-serving Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu who held office from 1977 to 2000, to accept the Mandal commission report and implement OBC quotas have obviously contributed to the realities in Bengal today. Indeed, all the Chief Ministers of the State including the current incumbent Mamata Banerjee have come from the section of society described as Bhadralok in Bengali that literally translates into gentleman or well-mannered people! (from the three upper castes of Bengal, Brahmin, Baidya and Kayastha). Indeed, one could indulge in some generalization in saying that while the Left in Kerala adapted to caste realities, it failed to do so in Bengal—and this could have been a factor in their decline in the east.

Bengal presents an interesting conundrum that can be understood by going through layers of history, ideology and social psychology. First, it would be problematic to only see this as a giant upper-caste conspiracy pulled off in Bengal. Instead, it would be fair to say that Bengali nationalists and later the Communists downplayed the reality of caste in Bengal as they saw themselves as leading movements for a class-free and just society. What Bengal did manage is a narrative that they are “casteless”, the catch being that the creators of this narrative are all from the upper castes themselves. The 2011 census shows Bengal as having one of the largest populations of SCs at 23.51 per cent while the ST population stands at 5.8 per cent. They live in rural areas and are under-represented in demographics of the urban sprawl of Kolkata.

Mamata Banerjee and (Trinamool Congress) TMC has never been enthusiastic about having a caste census that would clearly enumerate the backward castes and the upper castes. Although the BJP is not keen on a national caste census it does play caste politics efficiently through a practice its strategists defined as “social engineering”. The BJP very vividly played caste politics in the last West Bengal Assembly election when it got over 38 per cent of the vote, while TMC had 48 per cent. The next State contest is 18 months away.

With just 45 per cent reservation provided by the State—and further reduced to 35 per cent by the High Court Order—there is still room left for any political force to raise a demand for increasing quotas. Even as the legal challenge remains stuck in the Supreme Court, the State government would be well advised to show foresight to conduct a comprehensive demographic exercise and play an all-inclusive Bahujan politics, Bengal style. Not only would it allow Bengal to catch up to the politics of the Mandal-era, it may also provide much-needed succour to the beleaguered marginalised castes from the Muslim community whose names have been struck off OBC lists.

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.