Mayur S. Hadke
It was the great 78th eve of Independence where the prime minister of India hoisted the flag on Red Fort. He addressed the nation proudly on the red fort of India. Prime minister in his speech, he said, he wanted to bring forward the 1 lakh youths in political sphere, who has no political background in family, to end the casteism. This is how the prime minister of India is evaluating casteism merely at the ground of the political sphere. It reflects from his speech that there is inequality merely in the political sphere which we need to eradicate.
But one needs to understand that inequality in the political sphere is a consequence of social inequality or graded inequality. The graded inequality in social sphere that needs to be eradicated . Despite the involvement of some individuals in the political sphere, they continue to face persistent caste based discrimination . Hence it becomes essential to precede social reform before political. In the last speech of Ambedkar in constituent assembly where he said, “we are entering into the life of contradictions”, he continued, “where there will be political equality but no social and economic equality”, “where there will be one man, one vote but there will be no one man, one value” . It has become true where the inclination is more towards gaining political equality than social equality. But saying merely working for social equal is futile. On the other hand the political that shall be supervised through the social.
In addition, the Prime Minister claimed to make India a third largest economy in the world and ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047. “Unless you change your social order you can achieve little by the way of progress. You cannot mobilise the community either for defense of offense. You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up morality. Anything you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole (Babasaheb, Annihilation of Caste, 1936).” The building of the world’s third largest economy will collapse unless and until we don’t take the question of caste and graded inequality solemnly. It is a futile method of constructing the third largest economy by ignoring the caste system.
Moreover, where the morality of an individual is limited to his caste which limits the ‘mode of associated living’ and the communitarian progress of the nation . Constructing the third largest economy should not be based merely on numbers but it should bring the social and economic revolution in an individual’s everydayness. “By not permitting readjustment of occupations, caste becomes a direct cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country (Babasaheb, Annihilation of Caste, 1936).” The root of unemployment is embedded in the caste system , which slows down economic growth of a nation.
In essence, in an attempt to become a developed nation India should not ignore the caste system . It is crucial to recognize that such aspirations cannot be fully realized without addressing the deep rooted caste based discrimination . It should be much more precise on social reform through the reconstruction of society and killing the evil and monster of society.
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Mayur S. Hadke is a student of Azim Premji University Bengaluru. He is pursuing undergraduate Honours (Social Science) degree in APU.
