Education and Caste in India

The Dalit Question

Ghanshyam Shah, Kanak Kanti Bagchi, Vishwanatha Kalaiah

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000088571
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Soziale Klassen & wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit

Seven decades since Indian Independence, education takes the centre stage in every major discussion on development, especially when we talk about social exclusion, Dalits and reservations today. This book examines social inclusion in the education sector in India for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

The volume:

· Foregrounds the historical struggles of the SCs to understand why the quest for education is so central to shaping SC consciousness and aspirations;

· Works with exhaustive state-level studies with a view to assessing commonalities and differences in the educational status of SCs today;

· Takes stock of the policymaking and extent of implementations across Indian states to understand the challenges faced in different scenarios;

· Seeks to analyse the differential in existing economic conditions, and other structural constraints, in relation to access to quality educational facilities;

· Examines the social perceptions and experiences of SC students as they live now.

A major study, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of education, sociology and social anthropology, development studies and South Asian studies.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Education and the Scheduled Castes

Ghanshyam Shah

Introduction

The Republic Indian State has not only guaranteed equality before law to everyone but has also undertaken a responsibility to provide equal opportunities for social, economic and cultural development to all citizens in all spheres of life. Liberty, equality – social and economic–and fraternity are the core values of the Indian Constitution. The state is committed to the eradication of all forms of discrimination based on gender, religion, race, caste and region (Article 15 and 29). Article 17 of the Constitution treats the practice of ‘untouchability’ in any form as illegal and a cognisable crime. The Constitution directs the state to abolish child labour, forced labour, human trafficking and other forms of exploitations. Simultaneously, it directs the state to provide free education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Moreover, it is a constitutional obligation of the state to protect and promote ‘educational and economic interest of the weaker section of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs)’ and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46).

These constitutional commitments are the result of multiple factors. Increasing Dalit¹ (SC) and Adivasi (ST) assertion for dignity and rights since the mid-19th century, liberal outlook and approach of some of the leading members of the Constituent Assembly, influence of the idea of modernity and welfare state at a global level, and concern of the western liberal educated middle class of the time for social transformation coupled with a changing political economy were instrumental in shaping the vision for building an egalitarian social order (Austin, 1966). The introduction of formal education in the early 19th century led to increasing demands from different sections of society for its benefits. The upper castes, being closer to the ruling classes and in the forefront in administration, business and traditional learning, were the first beneficiaries of the system. They used their social and political capital in expanding the reach of education among the poor of their castes. Following them, middle and poor peasant castes in some parts of the country also started demanding government-aided schools in their localities. For instance, as early as 1855, some inhabitants of ‘low caste’ localities from Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, mobilised funds from the community to build a small building and for the salary of a teacher. Then, they demanded from the government ‘the establishment of a school for the education of low castes’ (Moon, 1982: 408).

Till then, the social groups, known ati-shudras to whom the British government classified as ‘depressed classes’, now called the Scheduled Castes (SCs) were customarily not permitted to take formal education. Caste Hindus treated them as ‘untouchables’. Their touch, and in some places even their shadow, was treated as polluting. Their settlements were at the outskirts of a village/town. However, acceding to the demand from the lower strata of society, the British government made it mandatory for government-aided schools to admit students of all castes including the ‘untouchable’ castes. During the colonial period, some provincial governments and a few native states like Travancore-Cochin, Baroda and Kolhapur made some efforts to ensure that SC children got admissions in government schools.

Jyotiba Phule, from traditionally lower strata of society in Maharashtra, saw modern education with liberal and ‘scientific’ values as opening of avenues to the traditionally deprived sections of society. He demanded special facilities for the depressed classes in educational institutions. In Andhra Pradesh during the colonial period, ‘the first generation of educated Untouchables became either ideologues or activists of the Dalit cause. They made efforts to educate the Dalit masses seeing education as the most effective way to break the strongly embedded caste hegemony’. (Yagati, 2002: 109). Dr. Ambedkar repeatedly emphasised the importance of education for the emancipation of the oppressed. In the 1920s, he campaigned for universalisation of education in the Bombay province (Moon, 1982: 39–54). He pleaded for ‘favoured treatment to backward communities’ in education and demanded more allocation of funds for primary education. He opposed the transfer of education to local bodies on two grounds. According to him, the local bodies were not enlightened enough to understand the value of education and were unwilling to provide education to backward classes. They also lacked the resources needed to fulfil the task (ibid.: 40–43). He called upon the Dalits to ‘educate, organize and agitate’. He asserted that ‘we may forego material benefits of civilization but we cannot forego our right and opportunity to reap the benefit of the highest education to the fullest extent as education is the greatest material benefit’ (cited in Chalam, 2008:23). He also set up educational institutions in Maharashtra (Chapter 9 in this volume). A few of the SCs, in their efforts at Sanskritisation, also called upon their members to educate their children (Chapters 10 and 11). Like upper and middle castes, a few SC associations tried to mobilise human and financial resources to support education of their caste children. Thanks to such efforts, education has now become a norm among all SCs all over the country. Almost all parents desire to see that their children – girls and boys – study and graduate (Shah, Sujatha and Thorat, 2020). Most of them aspire for a government job for their children that provides regular income, security as well as status.

During the last 7 decades, various governments at the Centre and the federal states have formulated education policies and programmes from time to time with special emphasis on the poor and the marginalised. The collection of articles in the present volume is an attempt at examining the outcome of the education policies in providing equal opportunities to the SCs in education. It is an endeavour to assess educational status of the SCs in the first decade of the 21st century. Is educational attainment even in all socio-economic strata of SCs? What hurdles do SCs face while accessing and pursuing education in schools and colleges? Has education empowered them to attain equal status and opportunities in everyday life? Has education empowered them to seek opportunities to improve their life chances? The studies presented here are an outcome of a larger study, sponsored by ICSSR in 2012–14, on ‘Educational Status of Scheduled Castes: Attainments and Challenges’ (ESCAC 2012–14) in different states of India. The project followed common research objectives, methodology and sample (Appendix I). This is accompanied by the All India report, which presents an overview of the situation at the national level (Shah, Sujatha and Thorat, 2020). The present volume is confined to state-level studies using primary data of the project, with a view to assess commonalities and differences in educational status of SCs and the problems that they encounter.

Education policies, programmes and governance

The education system of a country encompasses formal education, which is imparted in and through institutions and follows prescribed curricula dictated by the policy and rules formulated by the state. The larger purpose of education, irrespective of political ideology (unless it stands for status quo), is to develop a student’s ‘creativity’ and ‘criticality’ to enable him/her to comprehend the complex social and physical environment. In other words, it should foster the ability of a student to question the information received through socialisation and also imparted in classrooms by teachers and/or through textbooks. It is also expected to help the learner in developing the skills needed in the production process to earn a livelihood. Skill development also includes ability to understand critically one’s own life as well as social complexity to attain common good. The education system is expected to translate such laudable objectives into reality.

While introducing the formal educational system, the colonial rulers had three broad interrelated objectives. The first was to train Indians as administrators to help them run governance smoothly. The second was to replicate the English education which was assumed to have been based on ‘liberal’ and ‘scientific’ values and approaches of the European Enlightenment. The third was to ‘civilize’ Indians through an assumed superiority of the European civilisation.

The institutions of formal education during the British rule were very limited and largely catered to a handful of individuals of the upper castes, particularly those belonging to landed and/or merchant and/or government functionary class (Nurullah and Naik, 1946). However, the liberalism of law prevented the administration from legally prohibiting the ‘lower’ castes from entry in state-funded schools. In 1893, the Madras provincial government provided concessions and incentives to promote education among the untouchable communities (Satyanarayana, 2002; Yagati, 2002). But on the whole, the government was ‘very cold in promoting education among the lower castes including the “untouchables”’ (Moon Vol. 12, 1993: 93–109). Nambissan has rightly observed that the British policy for education of ‘untouchables’ is marked by dualism, liberalism on the one hand and compromise with dominant caste pressures on the other (1996:81). In the 1920s and 1930s, Bombay and other provincial governments also mooted the idea of universalisation of education through local governments. As mentioned earlier, Dr. Ambedkar within and outside the provincial legislative assembly campaigned for it.

Some of the architects of Indian Constitution were not only committed to the universalisation of education but they also advocated revolutionizing the education system. But, the exercise for the formulation of education policy for the country was not undertaken in the 1950s. After more than a decade of Independence, the first Education Commission was constituted in 1964, headed by D.S. Kothari. The commission considered education as a major instrument for peaceful economic, social and political transformation. With significant change in the existing educational system, it was hoped ‘the socio-economic and political revolution that society needed would also be automatically triggered off’. It called for universal elementary education on a priority basis. For that, it strongly proposed a ‘common school system’. The commission argued:

The existing educational system reflects the socioeconomic differences between the well-to-do classes and the poor masses. It has a system of high quality good institutions at all levels which are used by the children of the rich and socially or politically important groups while the bulk of the educational institutions provided by the State are of poor quality and are the only ones available to the vast bulk of have-nots or marginal people. This segregation is highly undesirable from the point of view of social and national integration. The national system of education should therefore adopt the common school system, which abolishes this segregation and enables all children to avail themselves of a common system of schools, which maintains comparable standards. In particular, it should adopt the neighbourhood school model at the primary stage where all children, irrespective of caste, race, religion, sex or colour, attend the common elementary school established for the locality.

(Naik, 1982: 18)

The commission further asserts that

One of the important social objectives of education is to equalize opportunity, enabling the backward or underprivileged classes and individuals to use education as a lever for the improvement of their condition.… This is the only guarantee for the building up of an egalitarian and humane society in which the exploitation of the weak will be minimized.

(Kothari, 1966:203)

It emphasised that the school system should pay special attention to children from the under-privileged groups through the provision of day-study centres or boarding houses. Further, in order to mitigate gender and social inequality between the advanced classes and the backward ones, particularly the SCs and the STs, the commission emphasised a need for special efforts. The government accepted the report, acknowledging the recommendations of the commission as ‘essential for economic and cultural development of the country, for national integration and for realizing the ideal of a socialistic pattern of society’ (Kothari, 1966: XII). While endorsing the recommendation of the commission, the parliamentary committee asked for its immediate implementation (Naik, 1982). In 1968, the National Educational Policy (NEP) was formulated. The main principle of this policy was to provide ‘free and compulsory education’. It called for strenuous efforts ‘to equalise educational opportunity’. It called upon the government to develop programmes so as to ‘to reduce the prevailing wastage and stagnation in schools and to ensure that every child who is enrolled in school successfully completes the prescribed course.’ Later, with the constitutional amendment in 1976, education was placed on the concurrent list to develop an overall national policy and also for its effective implementation through the states. With this amendment, the Union government accepted a larger financial responsibility and also evolved policy for ‘the national and integrative character of education, to maintain quality and standards’. But, policy for universalisation of education and common schooling system was put on the back burner.

However, in 1986, thanks to the pressure from civil society’s campaign, the government revisited the NEP and reiterat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Contributors
• Preface and acknowledgement
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: education and the Scheduled Castes
• 2 Education among Scheduled Castes in India: a review of literature
• 3 Aspirations and achievements of Scheduled Caste students in Kerala
• 4 Land ownership and the levels of educational attainment in Haryana
• PART I High schools
• PART II Higher education
• Appendix I: ICSSR sponsored study on ‘educational status of Scheduled Castes: attainments and challenges’ 2012–14
• Index