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Briefing On Local Situation: India

The theme chosen for HRD'84, "Peoples' Struggle for Freedom & Self-determination", focussed sharply on the multiplicity of layers of hierarchy and oppression which is a prominent feature of an Indian society teaming with diversity and vibrant with popu­lar struggle. The complexity of social oppression in India can be seen in the ponderous hierarchies of caste, obscurantist relig­ion, economic classes, patriarchic family structure, communal chau­vinism and authoritarian politics. The richness of India's cultural plurality is seemingly the foundation for gradually emerging trends of regional nationalism, as people of various religious and lingui­stic groups increasingly assert their own ethnic identity and de­mand their right to self-determination.

Several leading specialists on Indian affairs, some of them active in local ecumenical movement as well, made presentations and discussed key issues of Indian social life with the participants during the first few days of the Programme.

Dr.George Mathew, Sociologist and Assistant Director of the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion & Society (CISRS) spoke on "People's Movements in India'. Describing the general societal background, he highlighted the very massiveness of the Indian sub-continent with its huge population, fantastic variety of cultures and complex contradictions. Whilst Hinduism dominates Indian society with 84% of the population, all the other major religions of the world, including Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism have their adherents in significant proport­ions, and spread across the 22 states of the Indian Federation are a wide range of well-developed languages. Hinduism itself is rift by caste and tribal differentiations.

In economic terms, the Indian contradictions are startling. India's production has leapt tremendously, and it is now amongst the top 10 industrialized countries of the world, with such im­pressive achievements as a scientific cadre of over 2 million, self-sufficiency in most sectors of production even in nuclear power, armaments, electronics and space exploration. Nevertheless, "the quality of life of the majority of the population is deplor­able", declared Dr.Mathew, holding out numerous social indicators such as: (a) upto 65% of the Indian population barely survives with incomes below the officially stipulated "poverty line", (b) government admits that about 30,000 children go blind annually due to vitamin deficiency, (c) 75% of women and 414 million people

 

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in all are illiterate. He forcefully argued that the Indian socio-economic system, which state planners have claimed since indepen­dence would ensure a "trickle down" of wealth, has actually failed in this respect. He charged that "all current economic development is helping a mere 25% of the population who are the top social layer". The so-called "Green Revolution" in agriculture had only ensured the growth of a small rich farmer class and millions of landless, pauperised peasantry.

But, there is hope, because today, in the 1980s, one can see a gradual awakening of the people - a politicization of the masses as they become more sensitive to their tremendous deprivation and inequality. He identified several categories of people' s movements:-

(1)        Political Parties - these parties operating within the estab­lished political system favouring the rich have degenerated to the level of in-fighting to achieve mere political power within the system;

(2)        Social Movements - championing the cause of particular oppressed social groups, such as the "Dalit Movement";

(3)        Movements around charismatic leaders acting on specific issues such as the democratic rights campaign led by J.P.Narayan. But these must not be regarded as sustainable tendencies;

(4)        Extreme Leftist movements outside the established party system, such as the Naxalites who are splintered by theoretical diffe­rences and organisational rivalries - they are scattered in small pockets throughout the country;

(5)        Regional movements of peasantry mobilising on issues who tend to perceive an urban-rural conflict;

(6)        Movements of special interest groups - women against sexism, students, tribals (who are gathering force today), religious and linguistic groups;

(7)        Social Action Groups - whom Dr. Mathew regarded as the most positive tendency in terms of radical social change. Today there are several thousand such small organisations of people originally initiated largely by radicalised middle class youth (from both cities and villages) who have linked up with oppre­ssed sectors generally in localized, "micro" situations, orga­nizing these sectors on their specific issues but with long-term goals of class mobilisation.

The Church, Dr. Mathew said, was largely identified with the ruling class and the State, although there were a few small groups of radicalized Christians struggling with the people.

The gradual rise of political activism agmongst the people has seen an increasing political and militaristic repression by the State, and a tendency by the ruling elite towards a centralize-

 

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tion of power. "In the past few months, after 37 years of indepen­dence, the country has seen the passing of laws which are more repressive than the laws applied by the British colonial rulers", he pointed out. "Who is responsible? It is that 25% of the populat­ion who are the ruling elite which is desperately trying to stem the rising tide of people's protest".

Professor C.P. Bhambri, Lecturer in Political Science at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, speaking on "The Punjab & Assam Situations", argued that the regional nationalisms now emerging in India could be traced back to the deliberate exploitat­ion by the British colonial rulers of the country's many cleavages and diversities - religious, linguistic caste, and geographical. Neo-colonial India has inherited these divisions which have been enhanced by the British who incorporated these differences in the political and social system imposed by them during the colonial 4 rule. The British imposed a political process of separate electo­rates based on communal lines, and the colonial administration dealt separately with the different geographical regions. Even in the process of gaining independence the British endeavoured to negotiate separately with the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The time of independence itself saw the first results of such a "divide & rule" policy when the sub-continent was partitioned into Muslim 'Pakistan' and Hindu 'India'. Although the Indian ruling class endeavoured to contain religious and linguistic antagonisms by adopting a secular, federal political system with universal franch­ise, the continuation of a neo-colonial economic system meant that those who have had the social power to control the economy have concentrated the national wealth in their hands thereby depriving

 

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other groups of people. Thus the ethnic groups further away from the centre of power which dominated by the Hindu majority have felt the most deprived. Today with economic disparities and depri­vation increasing, there has been a rise in political dissent and agitation. In the rising conflict between social groups over control resources and the economy, a major tool of popular mobilisation has been religion and language. In the north western Indian state of Punjab, the majority of the population settled in agricultural production were Punjabis, of the Sikh religion with a small minority of Muslims. The Punjabi Hindus, who were subsequent migrants, domi­nated trade and later the manufacturing sector in urban areas. In the whole of India, it was in Punjab that the Green Revolution saw the successful rise of a wealthy class of capitalist farmers who were Sikhs. In the years after independence, a long political tussle enabled the Punjabi Sikhs to have Punjabi as their own state language, in this sense minority discrimination was exacerbated. The ensuing political struggle of Sikhs led by the "Akali Dal" party saw violent communalist reactions by the Hindus. Because the central government, beseiged by growing tensions 811-round refused to accommodate Sikh demands for greater autonomy, the small Sikh secessionist groups led by the priest Bhindranwale grew strong­er, and were soon locked in armed confrontation with the central government. In a situation where the state is no longer being acco­mmodating, it was inevitable that military force would be used to crush the militant Sikh struggle, argued Professor Bhambri. And this savage repression has only antagonised and alienated the Sikh community even further.

Dr .T.K.Oomen, Lecturer in Sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University explained the intricacies of "caste" oppression in India in a brilliant exposition under the title "The Dalit Movement in India". The term "Dalit" he explained, meant the "most oppressed". Although in the early post-independence period the most oppressed "Untouchable" castes and the extremely marginalised tribals had accepted the euphemism "Harijan" (Children of God) bestowed on them by the Establishment. Today, these most inhumanly oppressed people have become politically sensitive of their deprivation, to reject such an euphemism which hid their true social status and now they describe themselves as "Dalits". Dr. Oomen pointed out that the oppression and exploitation of the Dalits in Indian society had been institutionalized under the Caste System of social hierarchy for thousands of years with this system being ideologica­lly justified by obscurantist Hindu tradition. Over the centuries various oppressed castes have endeavoured to break free from their subordination by:

(1)        trying to rise socially within the Hindu caste system by emulating the upper castes,

 

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(2)        establishing parallel Hindu ritual systems free of the old stigma and

(3)        by converting from Hinduism to entirely new religions.

However all such tendencies have merely ended up as yet addi­tional marginalised social groups adjacent to the dominant caste system. It is only in the past 50 years that the major discriminat­ions suffered by the "Untouchables" have been legally abolished, but nevertheless, in actual social practice such marginalisation is rampant. Whilst the modern Indian legal system provides for "Protective Discrimination" to help Dalits have greater political expression, better education, and employment opportunities, the socio-economic class configuration reveals that whilst the upper castes are dominant in the upper socio-economic classes, it is the lower castes who are delegated to the lower classes. Dr. Oomen argued that even if Indian capitalism had enabled Dalits to rise in social class terms, in caste terms they continued to be treated as untouchable. Therefore the Dalit struggle was more a "caste struggle" going beyond the class struggle perceived by conventional social analysis. Thus the liberation of Dalits would not be achiev­ed through the liberation of oppressed social classes but through a broader "cultural revolution", he prophesied.

Two feminist activists working with womens groups in Delhi, Ms.Sujata Madhok and Ms.Prabha Krishnan gave a slide film presenta­tion on the "Situation of Women in Indian Society". Their slide show revealed most clearly the extremely subordinate role Indian women are cast into by the socializing apparatuses of the mass media, education system and the family. The mass media projected women only as mothers, housewives, social encumbrances and sex objects. However the reality was that over 43% of workers in the huge sector of agricultural labour alone were female. And since 96% of women workers outside the home are in the non-formal sector, these exploited and abused people have no organisational capacity to resist. In most, instances when the media do take up women's problems they merely tend to sensationalise cases of rape and pro­stitution. In the family and education system children are socia­lized into rigid male and female roles through stereotyping.

Ebby Prabhakar, Social Scientist, Associate Director at the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (CISRS) briefed the participants on the problem of caste discrimination within the Indian Churches. During the early missionary period entire caste groups of Dalits converted en masse to Christianity in order to break free of the Hindu social structure. However, since the entrance of Dalits into the church was on caste basis, with entire congregations being formed of single castes, the caste

 

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divisions continued to function within the Church. Furthermore, since in Indian society the economic class hierarchy generally coincides with the caste hierarchy and since it is usually the wealthier classes who are in control of church structures, this has meant that it is the upper castes who are in positions of power in the churches. Mr .Prabhakar, a past G.eneral Secretary of the SCM of India and former Treasurer of the Federation, charged that although "caste" is never officially enforced within church insti­tutions, its presence is felt keenly as the upper castes' struggle to maintain their domination of church structures and exclusivism in church privileges.

Dr.Walter Fernandes, SJ, Sociologist and Director of Research of the Indian Social Institute took time off from his work to visit the HRD sessions and brief participants on the work of the Institute which was hosting them. Originally founded by a group of Jesuits solely for the purpose of academic social analysis, today the ISI is also involved in community action and use social analysis to inform people about their situation and help them seek solutions. At the same time the ISI is trying to contribute to the evolution of new theology relevant to India.