Context: While transition to city life might have weakened some structures of caste oppression, they have morphed through language, state sanction and policy, and have evolved to allow caste to thrive in Indian cities.
About Caste and Urbanization
Views on village life:
- Mahatma Gandhi saw the Indian village as a self-reliant, equitable and just non-violent order, and argued for the decentralisation of power to the villages through Gram Swaraj.
- B.R. Ambedkar rejected village life and encouraged Dalits to move to the city.
- Ambedkar said that an Indian village is “the working plant of the Hindu social order” and argued that it is the ideal place to understand caste.
- Ambedkar believed that the idealisation of Indian village life emerged either from the colonial romanticisation of the rural population or from the desire of Hindus to retain caste domination.
- In the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar opposed the idea that villages should be recognised as autonomous administrative units and felt relieved that the Assembly rejected the idea.
Views on Urbanisation
- Ambedkar: In the process of urbanisation, Ambedkar saw an opportunity for Dalit liberation. He believed that the systems of caste oppression that thrive in Indian villages become weaker in cities. These included segregation of Dalits into ghettos, restrictions on economic activities, and denial of land ownership.
- Jyotirao Phule: He had also admired city life for being liberal and enabling him to earn a living. Cities offer an opportunity to become a stranger among a sea of strangers and transition from a caste-based order to a class-based order. One defined not by genealogy but by accumulation of resources or capital.
Caste discrimination in urban India:
- Language of purity-pollution: Caste translates into a city’s spatiality through the language of ‘purity-pollution’. A consumer survey in 2021 revealed that eating non-vegetarian food is the biggest deal-breaker in finding rental housing in India.
- Gopal Guru (Indian political scientist) says that the ghetto is not merely a space but also forms the constitution of the body of the ghetto dweller. The language of purity-pollution that identifies the savarna space as ‘pure’ and one that can be polluted by the Dalit body, extends to the logic of the city.
- Example: The language of caste has been imposed on public spaces of the city by various governments. In March 2017, the Uttar Pradesh government, issued regulations for meat shops that included, for example, a ban on selling meat near religious places and black paint or curtains in the facade of the shop to hide the sight of meat from pedestrians. In 2021, several municipal corporations in Gujarat banned the sale of meat-based street food on the city’s main roads citing “religious sentiments”.
- Ghettoisation of caste: Urban governance policies and housing crises have also sustained caste-based segregation.
- A large-scale study found that public services and access to municipal infrastructure such as clean drinking water are the worst in Dalit and Muslim ghettos.
- Research in sacrifice zones regions marked for severe environmental pollution such as landfills shows that such areas are overwhelmingly inhabited by Dalits and Muslims.
- A recent report by the Housing and Land Rights Network on forced evictions in India also shows that Dalits and Muslims are the most impacted by slum demolition drives.
- Apartmentisation: In some cities, caste discrimination still affects how people live. For example, in residential areas, Dalits often have separate access to facilities like elevators and toilets. Domestic workers who live with their employers usually have small rooms and bathrooms, or just a bed in a corner. Sometimes, they even have their own separate entrances.
- Employment opportunities: OBCs and SCs end up working in the informal sector due to a combination of limited job options and societal pressures linked to caste. E.g. Some occupations are linked to caste such as manual scavenging.
- Economic discrimination and school choice: Lower castes often face economic hardship, making private schools with higher fees out of reach. This limits their access to potentially better educational resources.
- Students from backward castes might be ostracized by classmates or teachers due to their caste background. e.g. Dalit students shunned during midday meals in Gujarat’s Morbi district.
- Caste based matrimonial: In urban areas, caste-based matrimonial practices such as Rajput matrimony, Baniya Matrimony contribute significantly to sustaining caste discrimination, despite the modern and cosmopolitan facade of cities. Such matrimonial preferences reinforce caste identities and boundaries, limiting social interaction and integration across different caste groups. This perpetuation of caste lines through marriage not only entrenches social and economic inequalities but also normalizes the preference for intra-caste relationships, thereby obstructing efforts towards social cohesion.
Way forward to deal with caste discrimination:
- Economic empowerment: Provide more economic opportunities, fair employment practices and skill development programs to uplift marginalized caste communities in urban areas.
- Housing policies: Develop housing policies that promote mixed-caste neighbourhoods and discourage segregation based on caste.
- Social inclusion initiatives: Support community-led initiatives that foster social cohesion and inclusion, including inter-caste dialogue, cultural exchange programs, and community-building activities.
- Promote inter-caste interactions: Platforms can encourage users to connect with potential partners from different castes.
- Tenant support services: Establish tenant support services to assist those facing caste discrimination in finding housing and enforcing their rights.