New Delhi: Routledge, 2015. xvii, 252 pp. (Tables.) US$120.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-13-882243-6.
Caste in Contemporary India gives a nuanced account of how caste practices involving Dalits have changed. The book opens with a discussion of different approaches to theorizing caste before showing how caste hierarchies have changed, but not disappeared, in recent decades. Jodhka reports on his survey work carried out in fifty-one villages in Punjab during 2000–2001, which shows Dalits have gained more autonomy for themselves by seeking new paid employment and escaping demeaning work. Discrimination has not disappeared but Dalits can avoid it by setting up their own places of worship, for example. Evidence of imbalances in social power are revealed by analysis of five cases in which Dalits were subject to social boycott or violent attacks. These events occurred between 2002 and 2005 in either Punjab or Haryana. Jodhka notes that many of the Dalits involved had removed themselves from old relations of dependence but still found themselves vulnerable in the face of upper-caste resistance or violence.
Jodhka points out that most scholarship on caste concentrates on rural experiences and he corrects this with two very interesting chapters on the urban economy. The first of these chapters reports on interviews carried out with over 300 self-employed Dalit entrepreneurs in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh during 2008. Almost all had established their own businesses, rather than inheriting them, and had done so in spite of unresponsive banks and local business networks favouring the dominant castes. Nevertheless, they had persisted and enjoyed the autonomy of running their own enterprise. The presence of caste in the corporate sector is approached through qualitative interviews with hiring managers in twenty-five companies, conducted in 2005–2006. The findings are fascinating. On an ideological level the managers ruled out caste as a basis for hiring, stated a clear preference for merit-based recruitment and thus, without exception, dismissed affirmative action in the private sector. Yet the notion of merit was understood capaciously and exhibited a social bias. Candidates were expected to possess soft skills (including English medium education), have a “good” family background, and demonstrate a fit with company culture. This adds up to a preference for hiring staff from upper caste/middle class backgrounds. Whether campus recruitment is “caste blind” is a moot point, as educational institutions often supply separate lists of reserved and non-reserved students to employers (130).
Religion intersects with caste in multiple ways. Caste distinctions in Punjab survived the reforming ideas of Sikhism, Christian missionaries, and the Arya Samaj. Jodhka gives a concise account of the Ad-Dharm movement among the Dalits and its reconfiguration in the 1940s around the veneration of Ravi Das, a Chamar saint who is recognized in Sikh holy literature. Several hundred Ravidasi deras and gurudwaras have been established since then. The deras are an important community focus for worship and charitable activity. Ravidasis value the independence and dignity that comes from following their own religious tradition.
The discussion of the politics of caste is framed in terms of the decline of old patterns of dominance and the rise of the backward castes and the increasing assertion of the Dalits. Jodhka notes that previously powerful groups have not disappeared completely and caste hierarchy continues to disadvantage lower-status groups. The caste politics of the Punjab illustrate this point. Party politics are dominated by the upper castes and all but one chief minister have come from Jat backgrounds. Congress has exploited the system of Scheduled Caste reservation in pursuit of Dalit votes, carving out separate sub-quotas for Mazhabi Sikhs and Balmikis in 1975.
This empirical material will be of interest to scholars of caste politics but it does not shed light on the trend towards caste-based parties, such as the PMK in Tamil Nadu, where political entrepreneurs have played up the supposed neglect of their own caste group (Andrew Wyatt, Party System Change in South India: Political Entrepreneurs, Patterns and Processes, Routledge, 2009, 97–115). The penultimate chapter of the book is devoted to a survey of eighty-one Dalit activists based in Delhi. Verbatim extracts from the interviews show what motivates the activists and how they are trying to advance the cause of equality. The role of parents in developing political awareness is mentioned and the influence of Ambedkar as a thinker and icon is frequently referenced. The issue of terminology is raised and it is interesting that only forty-two of the respondents identified themselves primarily as Dalits. A large minority preferred the term Buddhist, claiming it was a richer and more distinctive identity, and another large group opted for the more “secular” term Scheduled Castes.
Jodhka concludes the book by arguing for a view of caste analogous to treatments of race and ethnicity. He argues that the jajmani system has disappeared and the ideological basis of caste has been weakened yet caste identities are still associated with economic and social inequalities (as is amply illustrated in the case studies). Overall, he argues that the central feature of caste in contemporary India is that it creates and reproduces discrimination.
This is a very useful book that reflects on the general question of how caste might be theorized and makes available new empirical material on the experience of Dalits in north and northwest India. Those unfamiliar with the Punjab will be introduced to this important region. Chapter 6 stands out in this regard. A few omissions should be noted. Relatively little is said about marriage. Some upper-caste perspectives are reported, especially in the chapter on corporate recruitment, but more might have been said about change as it applies to the experience of the upper and backward castes. Caste in Contemporary India provides a thoughtful discussion of issues central to the lives of Dalits in India and the larger significance of this aspect of the caste system. It is a book well worth reading.
Andrew Wyatt
University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
pp. 846-848