Casteist justification of inequality in India
Webinar with Dr. Krishna Swamy Dara, Jamia Milia Islamia, India
Inequality is a curse that haunts humanity since its known history. The defense of it is also a persisting phenomenon with its own history. In India inequality has its own quality, history and features that can be differentiated from the rest of the globe. Most importantly the Hindu belief in karma is the most prominent, that one is born in a particular place in society based on the doings of one past actions. This is justified in modern terms as taking the cause and effect relationship and taken to an extreme. With the coming of Islamic rule in India, although some changes took place, the basic argument of social inequality was justified by citing the Hadith and this work along with the Hindu belief in karma and caste. The work of Ziauddin Barni, who justified caste among Muslims, is an example of this period. The advent of colonizers from Europe brought radical changes in the Indian society but the issue of inequality of humans took another dimension. With the advent of modernity inequality got justified with the argument of merit and natural talent rejecting hereditary inequality. In practice in countries like India the hereditary inequality exists but with the façade of meritocracy. Although serious criticism has be levelled against the ideology of merit it still has powerful defenders and the system uses this ideology to maintain caste and class privilege in India. My presentation or talk is a humble attempt to chart out how the idea of merit works as an ideology of sustaining inequality in modern Indian society. I will also try to present this from an Ambedkarite perspective, which says that caste privilege parades itself in the supposedly neutral category of merit.
Krishna Swamy Dara is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He received his Doctorate from the Department of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His thesis titled “The Idea of Minority in Ambedkar’s Thought: Equality and Differential Rights” was awarded the best PhD for 2007 by Nirman foundation, India. He completed his Post-Doctoral research at Humboldt University and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin where he assessed how caste (race), culture and law intersect, especially how the Dalit and African American experience has been in combating legal conservatism in India and the US. He has recently been a visiting professor at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. His research interests include: Minority Issues, Indian Political Ideas with special emphasis on Minority Leaders and Thinkers; Minorities and Political Psychology with an emphasis on Dalits, Untouchability and the issue of Social Stigma, and Legal Reasoning and Practice in India with special reference to Religious and Social Minorities. He has extensive publications and presentations on the condition of minorities in India.
Recent Publications:
- (2018 ) Why India Failed the Left? A Relook at the Politics within Mainstream Left Movement in India in Intractable Conflicts in Contemporary India, Narratives and Social Movements, Edited by Savyasachi, Routledge Publications, Taylor and Francis Group
- (2018) Feminism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2018) Marxism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2018) Postmodernism and Constructivism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2013) Demystifying Democracy in the Dalit–Bahujan, Adivasi, and Feminist Discourses in Political Science: Vol 3, Indian Political Thought, Edited by Achin Vanaik, Pradip Kumar Datta, Sanjay Palshikar, Oxford University Press
⬤ October 8th 2020, 14.30-16.00 CET / Online / Zoom / To join the webinar please send an email to global-inequality@cas.au.dk and we will share the Zoom link with you
Casteist justification of inequality in India
Webinar with Dr. Krishna Swamy Dara, Jamia Milia Islamia, India
Inequality is a curse that haunts humanity since its known history. The defense of it is also a persisting phenomenon with its own history. In India inequality has its own quality, history and features that can be differentiated from the rest of the globe. Most importantly the Hindu belief in karma is the most prominent, that one is born in a particular place in society based on the doings of one past actions. This is justified in modern terms as taking the cause and effect relationship and taken to an extreme. With the coming of Islamic rule in India, although some changes took place, the basic argument of social inequality was justified by citing the Hadith and this work along with the Hindu belief in karma and caste. The work of Ziauddin Barni, who justified caste among Muslims, is an example of this period. The advent of colonizers from Europe brought radical changes in the Indian society but the issue of inequality of humans took another dimension. With the advent of modernity inequality got justified with the argument of merit and natural talent rejecting hereditary inequality. In practice in countries like India the hereditary inequality exists but with the façade of meritocracy. Although serious criticism has be levelled against the ideology of merit it still has powerful defenders and the system uses this ideology to maintain caste and class privilege in India. My presentation or talk is a humble attempt to chart out how the idea of merit works as an ideology of sustaining inequality in modern Indian society. I will also try to present this from an Ambedkarite perspective, which says that caste privilege parades itself in the supposedly neutral category of merit.
Krishna Swamy Dara is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He received his Doctorate from the Department of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His thesis titled “The Idea of Minority in Ambedkar’s Thought: Equality and Differential Rights” was awarded the best PhD for 2007 by Nirman foundation, India. He completed his Post-Doctoral research at Humboldt University and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin where he assessed how caste (race), culture and law intersect, especially how the Dalit and African American experience has been in combating legal conservatism in India and the US. He has recently been a visiting professor at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. His research interests include: Minority Issues, Indian Political Ideas with special emphasis on Minority Leaders and Thinkers; Minorities and Political Psychology with an emphasis on Dalits, Untouchability and the issue of Social Stigma, and Legal Reasoning and Practice in India with special reference to Religious and Social Minorities. He has extensive publications and presentations on the condition of minorities in India.
Recent Publications:
- (2018 ) Why India Failed the Left? A Relook at the Politics within Mainstream Left Movement in India in Intractable Conflicts in Contemporary India, Narratives and Social Movements, Edited by Savyasachi, Routledge Publications, Taylor and Francis Group
- (2018) Feminism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2018) Marxism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2018) Postmodernism and Constructivism in International Politics, Ed. Rumki Basu; First Edition 2012; Second Edition in 2018 Contributed to Feminism in International Relations in the Edited book International Politics, Concepts, Theories and Issues in Rumki Basu Ed., Sage Publications
- (2013) Demystifying Democracy in the Dalit–Bahujan, Adivasi, and Feminist Discourses in Political Science: Vol 3, Indian Political Thought, Edited by Achin Vanaik, Pradip Kumar Datta, Sanjay Palshikar, Oxford University Press
