Why quota within quota matters

The word reservation is like an arrow that pierces through the intellect of many without ever moving. In fact, the irony is that casteism was unleashed not as an arrangement, rather it spread like disease or bondage.

If an Abraham Lincoln polishes his own shoes, he doesn’t become untouchable. What happens is that American society chooses him as its leader, voluntarily. If there was any conflict there, it was racial, not ethnic.

After the Supreme Court’s decision on 1 August 2024 regarding the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Mahadalits — be they the Valmiki/Mazhabi Samaj, the Musahar, the Madiga, the Chakkiliya or the Arunthathiyar — so many hitherto unimaginable forms appeared, the mind boggled.

There used to be a societal belief that if there was any dispute, go to a Darvesh scholar. Perhaps this is how the judiciary was formed, beginning with five panchas making a panchayat (a council of five). But today, the forward Dalit leaders and scholars ignore all decorum and stand in opposition to equality.

When they argue that Mahadalits should have studied and become equal to them, it seems as if the opponents of reservation in 1930–32 handed their daggers over to today’s forward Dalits and said, here, stab Ambedkar through the heart.

The question that naturally arises is this: given that all Dalits have been exploited and oppressed for years, how did some get ahead and some lag behind? The hon’ble Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud illustrated this with an example: the man pushing and shoving to get into an overcrowded train is bound to stop others from doing so.

Secondly, among the Dalits, the Ati or Mahadalits have also been formed by the mechanisms of the social system. Society has always kept sanitation workers at arm’s length. In the market, albeit by the wayside, the Dalit making or stitching shoes learned how to negotiate with both society and the market. That is how one got ahead and the other got left behind.

The condition of forward Dalits may well have improved a lot, yet society still doesn’t accept them as equals. Everyone is only too aware of this. Therefore, there should be no provision for the creamy layer. But for the upliftment of the Mahadalits, sub-classification in reservation is crucial.

This is not a warning, merely a description of the horrifying picture of the future that is in store. If the forward Dalit leaders and scholars continue to make such thoughtless statements, the chasm between them and the Mahadalits will widen so much, no one will be able to bridge it for ages.

The advance guard of the forward Dalits will be the first to face the consequences of this distance. While the forward Dalits may retain their toehold and stay where they are, chances of the Mahadalits slipping and falling further down are very real.

If you recall, whenever there has been an attack on reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the sanitation workers (Valmiki/Mazhabi) gave a befitting reply by coming out onto the streets. I remember 1981, when the movement against reservation started in Gujarat.

Dr. Chandola made Ludhiana railway station the centre of that movement. Many Dalit organisations battled on for many days but nothing happened. As soon as the Safai Karamchari Union of Ludhiana reached the protest site en masse, all the anti-reservation people were seen running away with their tails between their legs.

There are two ways to look at all this. One, Dalit unity is being broken. Second, a time will come when we will be incapable of facing any attack. In that case, all earlier efforts will seem meaningless. Think about it, all you intellectuals, writers and publishers.

Whenever you get a chance to go to Dalit conferences or releases of Dalit publications, you must have noticed that exploitation, suffering and atrocity are the main issues. There is anguish in the heart and fire in the words.

Then how is it that the living human who goes down into the sewer only to emerge as a corpse is not visible to the forward Dalits, especially the leaders and scholars on those forums? Because you have gone beyond governance and administration to become owners of business empires.

Sanitation workers, the Hela, Bansphor, Musahar, Valmiki, Dhanuk, Dom, Dumar Madiga, Chakkiliyar, Arunthathiyar have lost their steady jobs. What should have happened was that you should have come forward and extended a helping hand, not like the master of the universe but like the master of the ship.

By opposing the share of the most downtrodden Hela, Bansphor, Musahar, Valmiki/Mazhabi, Dhanuk, Dom, Dumar Madiga, Chakkiliyar, Arunthathiyar, you have proven that the germs of Manuvadi thought have deeply infected you.

Umpteen stories and Indian films used to show an elder brother sacrificing his entire youth in an effort to make the family stand on its own feet. Today, the Mahadalit castes, who took the blows on the streets for years, sense that the rest can’t tolerate their right to have a share in the reservation they fought for.

There are thousands, rather lakhs of private companies and factories being set up where there is no provision for reservation. What should have happened is that all of us should have come together, to compel all political parties and governments to give us a share in every apparatus that runs this land. Instead, we ourselves are pitted against our own.

Darshan Ratna Raavan is the chief of the Aadi Dharm Samaj (AADHAS), which fights for the dignity of Dalit identity