The Supreme Court has, for unknown reasons, opened a dark chapter in our modern history by upholding the validity of the Andhra Pradesh Government's decision to give four per cent reservation to backward caste members of the Muslim community. The haste to give such an interim order warrants explanation, as the bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices JM Panchal and BS Chauhan has referred the matter to a Constitution bench since it involves important constitutional issues.
As it is unclear how this will ultimately impact the 50 per cent reservation ceiling fixed by the apex court in the Indira Sawhney and Others vs Union of India case, a curative petition seems in order.
With UPA 2.0 hell bent on pursuing its disastrous divisive agenda for the nation, there is now real danger that the recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Ranganath Mishra Commission) that seek to club Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity and Islam with Hindu Scheduled Castes for reservation benefits will be implemented.
Despite serious reservations among the affected converts themselves, the religio-political Christian and Islamic leaders are pressing for this, though neither faith recognises the caste system or untouchability. They proffer the specious argument that Scheduled Caste converts to their faiths continue to suffer discrimination at the behest of the new faith community and its leaders! Thus, converts suffer separate churches and/or mosques, separate prayer halls or prayer timings in the same church/mosque, and separate burial spaces. Upper caste/class sections of these communities do not socialise with (lower caste) converts.
It is truly shameful if, as these leaders admit, converts experience no visible uplift in social or economic status in their new faiths, which wrenched them from their civilisational moorings in Hindu society on the promise of a better life; and even now lure fresh converts by promising myriad bounties. Since conversions comprise a multi-million dollar industry for both the Church and the Mosque, the Government of India should undertake a detailed socio-economic audit of foreign and domestic funds received by these religions since independence, and the reasons why their respective laity feels neglected and degraded despite this wealth of funds.
Boldly dissenting from the NCRLM majority view, Ms Asha Das, member secretary, has legitimately pointed out that to begin with, there is no documented research available to establish that the disabilities and handicaps suffered by Scheduled Caste members in the original Hindu social order persist with the same oppressive intensity in Christianity and Islam. As Islam and Christianity came to India along with traders, invaders and preachers and established themselves over centuries, it is difficult to hazard a guess about the number of their native progeny, especially Scheduled Caste converts, in the present population as there are no authentic records. Identifying SC converts will produce innumerable problems and chances of abuse when even listed castes have trouble with false certificates.
Studies by British missionary Rev Samuel Mateer in Kerala and erstwhile princely state of Travancore, Cochin and Madras Presidency, published as Land of Charity in 1870 and Native Life in Travancore in 1883, show that the "slave caste" (present SCs) who converted to Christianity in these States enhanced their social, educational and economic status vis-à-vis their Hindu brethren.
Even today, available social indicators regarding Christians (separate figures for SC converts are not available) reveal that in terms of literacy and education, work participation rate, etc, Christians are way ahead of other major religious groups (barring Jains). The 2001 census shows the literacy rate for Christians at 80.3 per cent against 65.1 per cent for Hindus; 59.1 per cent for Muslims; 69.4 per cent for Sikhs; 72.7 per cent for Buddhists; and 64.8 per cent for all religions. For Scheduled Castes in general, the literacy rate is 54.60 percent.
The grant of Scheduled Caste status to converts amounts to the formal introduction of the caste system in Islam and Christianity. This changes the basic tenets of these faiths, and exceeds the jurisdiction of both Parliament and the judiciary. It is pertinent that Christians and Muslims were never treated as Scheduled Castes in British India or independent India.
The British adopted the rationale (continued in Order 1950) of identifying depressed classes/scheduled castes on the basis of untouchability-related disabilities peculiar to Hindu society's caste system. The SC Order of 1936 was based on 'caste'; it clearly states: "No Indian Christian shall be deemed to be member of a Scheduled Caste" (conversions being aimed at destroying Hindu society). The 1956 and 1990 Amendments included Sikh and Buddhist SCs as both faiths were homegrown sects within Hindu religion, and Explanation II below Article 25 provided that Hindu in sub-clause(b) of clause(2) would include persons professing the Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religion.
The Constitution also abolished untouchability by Article 17 and forbade its practice in any form. To expand the list of untouchables after 60 years of affirmative action would undo all national effort to end this scourge, a retrograde step contrary to the constitutional commitment of non-discrimination. The allegation that converts suffer because they continue to be part and parcel of Indian society is specious as the discrimination against them is intra the new faith community. Equally fallacious is the claim that denial of SC status deprives converts protection under the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Protection of Civil Rights Act of 1955 is religion-neutral and applicable to all "religions and religious denominations throughout India."
During a workshop organised by the Commission, Muslim scholars argued that as per the three globally accepted determinants of socio-economic backwardness — child mortality, degree of urbanisation and average life expectancy at birth — the Muslim community was far ahead of the majority community; hence religion-based reservations to Muslims were constitutionally and ethically unjustified.
India is in grave danger; the BJP should rise to the occasion and demand that if SC converts are not given equal status and rights by their new faiths, the Supreme Court should declare the conversion process incomplete or illegitimate and pave the way for the return of these misguided folk to the mother Hindu faith. They will receive all the social advancements that Hindu society has given to SC groups that stuck it out through thick and thin. It may be worthwhile to consider bringing down the Government before this partition-centric proposal is imposed upon the nation.
