Re: Economic analysis of caste in India


email and post (quoting all of your post below mine)

I only heard about the Dalits recently and I quote below an interesting long Wall Street Journal (USA edition) article that, in the end, explains some things about the Dalits. I have sympathy for these people. See the
quote below.

- - - - - - -

Wall Street Journal: Weds, Jan 25, 2006 FRONT PAGE

"New Battleground In Textbook Wars: Religion in History"
by Daniel Golden

This is all about how special interest groups like to influence the
guys who write the textbooks. One case was that some Jews did
not like some things being said, so the authors changed that. Next,
some Moslems thought they were definitely being portrayed as
being too violent, militaristic, murderous, too much emphasis on
wars in their past. OK, tone that down. Now, wait till you read
about what was in the last two thirds of the article (see below).

(I typed it all, the quote below, from my copy of the WSJ)

Quote (no parts are deleted, this is continuous)

Disputes over textbook portrayal of Hinduism are a staple of
politics in India, and the concerns have arrived in American along
with many Indian immigrants. The conventional view of ancient
India in U.S. history texts is that men enjoyed more rights than
women and that, then as now, Hindus worshipped many gods and
were divided into castes.

But the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation,
the educational arm of a Hindu temple in Austin, Texas, say
Hinduism is monotheistic because all of its deities are aspects of
one god, Brahmin. So when one textbook referred to Hindus
visiting temples to 'express their love of the gods,' this should be
changed to 'express their love for God,' said the Vedic Group.

The groups repeatedly proposed deleting references to the caste
system and making other changes that burnished the image of
Indian history and culture. For instance, McGraw-Hill's book said
of an early monarch called Asoka that his "tollerance was unusual
for the time." The Hindu Education Foundation suggested
changing "unusual" to "usual."

next section had the subtitle: 'Source of Misunderstanding'

At the Vedic Foundation, 'Our motto is to re-establish the
greatness of Hinduism, and part of that is to correct the
textbooks,' says Janeshwari Devi, director of programs. 'Those are
a source of misunderstanding, prejudice and derogatory
information.'

Some Hindu students say they're humiliated in school because
texts dwell on customs such as ostracism of untouchables and an
old tradition, rarely observed today [my note: meaning that
although it is rare, it still goes on], of 'sati'--widows immolating
[my note: burning in fire] themselves on their husbands' funeral
pyres. Trisha Pasricha, a high school junior in a Houston suburb,
says she used to deny being Hindu to classmates because she was
tired of refuting stereotypes perpetuated by textbooks and
teachers. 'The textbooks bring up all these obscure practices, like
bride burning, and act like they happen every day,' she says. 'The
biggest mistake is that Hinduism is portrayed as polytheistic. And
the caste system has nothing to do with Hinduism. But no one
believes you, because its in the textbook.'

But some prominent scholars, both non-Hindu and Hindu, say the
books were right. According to Madhav Deshpande, a Sanscrit
professor at teh Univesity of Michigan who is Hindu, Hinduism is
polytheistic and linked to the caste system, and women did have
inferior status in ancient India.

He says the Hindu groups hold a mistaken position that dates to
when India was ruled by Britain in the 19th century and under
pressure from Christian missionaries. The missionaries told
prospective converts to Christianity was superior because it had
one god, treated women fairly, and didn't have castes, Mr.
Deshpande says, adding that to counter, Hindu intellectuals made
up an argument that their religion had once been the same way.
The foundations' contention that the caste system developed
separately from Hinduism is incorrect, he maintains, because 'in
ancient texts, there is no distinction between the religious and
nonreligious domains of life.'

Jackson Spielvogel, a retired Penn State professor and author of
McGraw-Hill's _Ancient Civilizations_ textbook, says, 'You can't
allow Hindu nationalists to rewrite the history of India.... It
becomes an issue of censorship.'

To review changes proposed by the Hindu groups, California
hired and expert recommended by one of the groups: Shiva
Bajpai, a retired California State University history professor. He
endorsed most of the changes. 'I want to recognize the negatives
but project the positives,' says Mr. Bajpai, who is Hindu.

With his blessing, the changes were rolling toward ratification by
the state board when Harvard's Prof. Witzel unexpectedly
intervened. Alerted by an Indian-American graduate student
whom the Vedic Foundation approached to support its changes,
Mr. Witzel wrote to the board the day before a Nov. 8 meeting at
which approval of the Hindu-backed changes was expected. 'They
are unscholarly [and] politically and religiously motivated,' wrote
Mr. Witzel, a Sanskrit professor. His letter was co-signed by
nearly 50 scholars, including Mr. Deshpande of Michigan.

Mr. Witzel calls the Hindu Education Foundation a front for a
prominent nationalist group in India, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, whose leader caused a stir in November by urging Hindu
women to have more children to keep up with the Muslim growth
rate. A spokesman for the Hindu Education Foundation
acknowledges a connection--it was established by the U.S.
counterpart of the Indian group--but says it acts independently.

State officials did an about-face after they got Mr. Witzel's letter,
inviting him and two like-minded scholars to scrutinize Mr.
bajpai's recommendations. When the three advised restoring much
of the textbooks' original wording, angry letters began pouring in
from Hindu groups. One, the Hindu American Foundation,
threatened to sue the state. A petition from Hindu advocates
called on Harvard to end its association with 'Aryan Supremacist
Creationist hate mongering.' Harvard responded by defending Mr.
Witzel's academic freedom.

The groups persuaded two members of California's congressional
delegation to weigh in. Rep. Pete Stark, a Unitarian, and Rep.
Linda Sanchez, a Catholic, asked the state superintendent of
public instruction to investigate Mr. Witzel. The superintendent
replied that the state had already held three public hearings on the
history texts, received more than 1,000 pages of testimony, and
considered more than 800 textual changes.

The pendulum swung back on Dec 2, when the Curriculum
Commission voted to support most of the changes sought by the
Hindu foundations. 'We have to err on the side of sensitivity
toward religion,' a commission member, Stan Metzenberg, said at
the time.

The game wasn't over. Other Hindu groups--including members of
the 'untouchables' caste--entered the fray on Mr. Witzel's behalf.
The Dalit Freedom Network, an advocacy group for
untouchables, wrote to the education board that the proposed
Vedic and Hindu Education Foundation changes reflect "a view of
Indian history that softens...the violent truth of caste-based
discrimination in India....Do not allow politically-minded
revisionists to change Indian history.'[my note: and Kamal Prasad
has the nerve to talk about slavery as if it was only done in the USA].

Caught in the cross=fire the board of education summoned Mr.
Witzel and Mr. Bajpai to an unusual private session Jan 6. Before
the board and commission members, staffers and the board's
lawyer, the scholars debated each edit.

'It was a gladiator combat,' Mr. Bajpai recalls, 'the most
acrimonious thing I have ever done in my entire life. It
deteriorated into me telling him he didn't understand anything.'
Mr. Witzel says Mr. BAjpai 'mixed his religion with scholarship.'

The due did reach consensus on some changes. The agreed to
narrow the McGraw-Hill text's statement that men in ancient India
had "more rights" than women to "more property rights"--but not
to the Hindu groups' preferred wording of "different" rights.

Still, it isn't certain that compromises reached by the two scholars
will stand. At a meeting Jan. 12, the state board of education
created a subcommittee to reconsider the matter--and to prepare
for still more religious pressure when books are expected to be
added to thelist in two years.

end of quote, end of article


///////////////////
On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, pratap.tambay@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Dear All

Caste systems effectively reserve high-value jobs/businesses for a
privileged elite by preventing equal access to education, training,
finance, ownership/operation of land/assets, fair-markets and/or not
building mechanisms to redress the effects of past unequal access.

Typically the high value jobs/businesses will include those
providing high return, low risk, prestige etc in direct or indirect
ways and the lower value jobs/businesses will be those with lower
return, higher risk and lower prestige.

Presently and in the future, the high value jobs/businesses are less
organised around economic capital and more around human
(intellectual, social and spiritual) capital. This is the reason for
the prevalence of "caste" in modern societies everywhere in newer
forms.

Typically the effect of the past lack of equal access is the
relative imbalance of capital (social, economic, political,
intellectual and even spiritual) between the privileged elite and
the underprivileged "dalits".

Untouchability is an extreme form of caste whose economic sub-
optimality is immediately obvious from the two-tumbler example.
Extending that example, I really wonder why there is so little
analysis of the annual cost-drag due to caste on the Indian economy.
The subtleness of similarity with aparthied cannot be the only
reason. I see the caste of those who allocated funds in India to
competing priorities at macroeconomic levels as the reason for
continuance of caste. The caste of Indian economists too prevented
them from asking appropriate relevant questions with adequate force
and evidence.

Allocating lower funds towards education of the underprivileged
dalits and or ensuring that prevention from getting the best
educations by non-economic means (manus-smriti equivalents) is the
primary tool for sustaining caste.

This is why Dr. Ambedkars first message was "EDUCATE". Of course the
education was not merely limited to vocational and "classics-
centric" education, but also a "social education" - overall creation
of the "right view" in buddhist tradition - indoctrination if you
like. But education by itself is inadequate to remove the
stranglehold on the caste system which "allocates" individuals to
their "allocative" roles and to those roles which study and propose
the best basis for "allocation". So he has suggested "organisation"
and "agitation" as the tools within the democratic framework to
radically transform the system. There is an important secret to
the "organise" word, which is reflected in a whole group of lower
castes now forgetting their internal differences en-route to higher
levels of aggregations of castes, finally eliminating the very
system of caste itself. At each such level of organisation, there is
a agitation (within democratic framework) against the proponents of
caste who seek to retain caste.

I want to read stuff which extends my understanding the economics of
caste and how to remove it beyond the above. Please point me
appropriately in case anyone has come accross similar stuff in the
literature..

Regards

Pratap


.

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