Pride, prejudice, caste

It is important to make a careful distinction between pride, or preference, and prejudice — pride in one’s own caste may be a form of ethnocentrism or an in-group preference; prejudice stems from hate or disgust. Taking pride in or preferring a particular caste, either in the case of marriage or while voting for a candidate during elections, is not necessarily considered prejudice in India.

Sociologist Dipankar Gupta’s thesis of identity over system, wherein he says the caste system has collapsed but has given rise to caste identities. What remains, Professor Gupta says, is the prominence of jatis as an indicator of identity. The preference for one’s own caste, exemplified in Ms. Iyer’s case, may have less to do with hierarchy and more to do with subjective socio-political choices in private and public life.

According to the findings of the India Human Development Survey, close to 5 per cent of Indian marriages are now inter-caste. Such exceptions, including caste-no-bar advertisements, may not end caste hierarchy but they are worth noting, as they could be baby steps in challenging the notion of purity in caste and sexual control.

The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007) may hold some lessons. Article 14 on untouchability in Nepal bans any demonstration of superiority or inferiority of any person or a group of persons belonging to any caste, tribe or origin; such demonstrations are seen as linked to the practice of untouchability. Article 17 of our Constitution, on the other hand, by merely abolishing untouchability and its practice in any form seems to have failed to foresee the prejudice hidden both in preference and in politeness.

- The Hindu