WSP/ 17 December 2012
Inauguration of the rule of the weakling Indian bourgeoisie in August 1947 on the reactionary foundations of a compromise between the British and Indian capitalists, appeared at the height of betrayals and suppression of the anti-colonial movement, the communal partition of the Indian sub-continent and the tragic mayhem that claimed two million toll, alongside mass rapes, arsons, loots and innumerable sufferings. The failed states that emerged out of this rule on both sides of the border could not resolve any of the impeding democratic tasks. Elimination of caste based social injustice, apartheid, backwardness and inequality is one among such pressing tasks.
The post 47' development of capitalism, has further complicated the left-over issues from caste apartheid to national liberation. Division of castes into classes, the carving out of creamy layers of elites among the most backward castes, has added new complexity to the old tangles.
Indian ruling bourgeoisie failed to smash or even dislocate the old medieval foundations inherited from its colonial masters. It instead adapted them to itself, firstly through crude military subjugation and secondly through petty reforms to make capitalist inroads inside the old structures and to pacify the social conflicts.
Caste based Quota reservation is one such tool that the ruling bourgeoisie has resorted to, as formal affirmative action to bind the millions of poor and deprived to its state through the elite layers carved out from inside the backward communities.
With more and more fragmentation of castes into classes, it is these elite, creamy layers that have gobbled all benefits of reservation for themselves, depriving the poor mass even of crumbs.
Inauguration of the rule of the weakling Indian bourgeoisie in August 1947 on the reactionary foundations of a compromise between the British and Indian capitalists, appeared at the height of betrayals and suppression of the anti-colonial movement, the communal partition of the Indian sub-continent and the tragic mayhem that claimed two million toll, alongside mass rapes, arsons, loots and innumerable sufferings. The failed states that emerged out of this rule on both sides of the border could not resolve any of the impeding democratic tasks. Elimination of caste based social injustice, apartheid, backwardness and inequality is one among such pressing tasks.
The post 47' development of capitalism, has further complicated the left-over issues from caste apartheid to national liberation. Division of castes into classes, the carving out of creamy layers of elites among the most backward castes, has added new complexity to the old tangles.
Indian ruling bourgeoisie failed to smash or even dislocate the old medieval foundations inherited from its colonial masters. It instead adapted them to itself, firstly through crude military subjugation and secondly through petty reforms to make capitalist inroads inside the old structures and to pacify the social conflicts.
Caste based Quota reservation is one such tool that the ruling bourgeoisie has resorted to, as formal affirmative action to bind the millions of poor and deprived to its state through the elite layers carved out from inside the backward communities.
With more and more fragmentation of castes into classes, it is these elite, creamy layers that have gobbled all benefits of reservation for themselves, depriving the poor mass even of crumbs.
This caste-based reservation policy has only assisted to cover-up the filling of the coffers of elite creamy layers, that have successfully cornered all benefits of ‘reservation’ since 1950s, leaving the poor mass of working and toiling people in the lurch. With this gobbling of all fruits of the reservation by rich and elites, its whole edifice is reduced to sheer absurdity.
