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As the Disadvantaged Rise, Those Above Push Back
In a piece last year, I reported on new research which suggested that Indias scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have made substantial economic gains in the last three decades.
In particular, the study shows that theres been significant convergence between SCs/STs (as they are widely known) and everyone else, both in educational attainment and occupational choice. This manifests itself in wages paid to SCs/STs catching up. Further, the study showed that the convergence in wage levels has been driven in large part by the education gap slowly being closed.
Scheduled castes refer to those at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy and scheduled tribes to Indias indigenous native population both benefit from affirmative action.
This is good news for SCs/STs and also supports the argument that caste-based reservation has produced beneficial economic results. Both scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have quotas set aside in government jobs and educational institutions.
But this good news story has an ugly sequel. Recent news reports document instances of violence against SCs/STs by those above them in the social hierarchy.
In one episode this past November, three colonies in the Dharamapuri district of Tamil Nadu were burned to the ground. The residents belonged to the Dalit community (and therefore were members of the scheduled castes). The perpetrators allegedly came from the Vanniyar caste, who do not qualify as scheduled castes but are just above Dalits in the arcane hierarchy of the caste system. They were apparently enraged at an inter-caste marriage between a young woman from the Vanniyar community and a young Dalit man from a neighboring colony.
Some observers including Thol Thirumavalavan, a Dalit activist and politician, have argued that the violence against Dalits represents retribution by intermediate castes such as the Vanniyars who resent the improving economic fortune of Dalits compared with their own economic stagnation. According to another report the roots of the current tension lie in the fact that Dalits who traditionally were employed as landless laborers by the land-owning Vanniyars have in many instances moved to cities such as Bangalore to become daily wage laborers, thereby improving their economic lot and freeing them from their traditional dependence on the Vanniyars.
Is this recent incident in Tamil Nadu an isolated episode or is there a larger pattern here? A new study by economist Smriti Sharma of the Delhi School of Economics suggests that the answer to the second question may be yes.
Ms. Sharma analyzes a large amount of data on violence committed against SCs/STs by non-SCs/STs over the period 2001/2010 and spanning 415 districts over 18 large states in India. These include Tamil Nadu but also Haryana, which has witnessed horrific recent episodes of violence against women that appear to have a caste dimension.
The study attempts to correlate the data on violence with measurements of consumption expenditures by SCs/STs, which are routinely used by economists as a proxy for income and well-being. Ms. Sharmas methodology takes a leaf from an important recent study by economics professors Anirban Mitra of the University of Oslo and Debraj Ray of New York University.
Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray used a similar methodology to study Hindu-Muslim violence in India. They concluded that an increase in the expenditure levels of Muslims generated a large and significant increase in future communal conflict, but by contrast an increase in expenditures in Hindus had no such effect.
While these findings are open to different interpretations, their provocative but well-argued thesis is that Hindus have been principally responsible for Hindu-Muslim violence in the post independence period. Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray are careful to note that their interpretation rests on the interlinking of theory and evidence that they present and that a reader might see their result as a curiosum of interest.
The findings of Ms. Sharmas study mirror those of Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray in the context of inter-caste violence. In particular, she finds that a closing of the gap in consumption expenditures between SCs/STs and everyone else is positively correlated with an increase in violent crimes against SCs/STs by others.
Her interpretation is that this represents increased violence by upper castes who feel threatened by the rising living standards of a group that has historically been much poorer and socially deprived. Again though, note that this is one interpretation of her research findings and others are possible.
While data limitations prevent the studies from determining who among the upper castes is committing violence against SCs/STs, the experience of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere suggests that the principal sources of violence are most likely to be other disadvantaged groups that are proximate both in location and caste standing to Dalit communities and historically ever-so-slightly ahead of them.
And to the extent that the economic empowerment of SCs/STs is driven at least in part by policies such as caste-based reservation, this could only be expected to exacerbate the resentment of other disadvantaged groups who dont benefit from affirmative action policies.
Some might see these findings as an argument against caste-based reservation and promotion. Others who support affirmative action should see instead a cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of well-intentioned government policies.
Either way, this new research documenting the link between economic empowerment and caste violence is sure to fuel the ongoing debate about affirmative action in India.
In a piece last year, I reported on new research which suggested that Indias scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have made substantial economic gains in the last three decades.
In particular, the study shows that theres been significant convergence between SCs/STs (as they are widely known) and everyone else, both in educational attainment and occupational choice. This manifests itself in wages paid to SCs/STs catching up. Further, the study showed that the convergence in wage levels has been driven in large part by the education gap slowly being closed.
Scheduled castes refer to those at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy and scheduled tribes to Indias indigenous native population both benefit from affirmative action.
This is good news for SCs/STs and also supports the argument that caste-based reservation has produced beneficial economic results. Both scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have quotas set aside in government jobs and educational institutions.
But this good news story has an ugly sequel. Recent news reports document instances of violence against SCs/STs by those above them in the social hierarchy.
In one episode this past November, three colonies in the Dharamapuri district of Tamil Nadu were burned to the ground. The residents belonged to the Dalit community (and therefore were members of the scheduled castes). The perpetrators allegedly came from the Vanniyar caste, who do not qualify as scheduled castes but are just above Dalits in the arcane hierarchy of the caste system. They were apparently enraged at an inter-caste marriage between a young woman from the Vanniyar community and a young Dalit man from a neighboring colony.
Some observers including Thol Thirumavalavan, a Dalit activist and politician, have argued that the violence against Dalits represents retribution by intermediate castes such as the Vanniyars who resent the improving economic fortune of Dalits compared with their own economic stagnation. According to another report the roots of the current tension lie in the fact that Dalits who traditionally were employed as landless laborers by the land-owning Vanniyars have in many instances moved to cities such as Bangalore to become daily wage laborers, thereby improving their economic lot and freeing them from their traditional dependence on the Vanniyars.
Is this recent incident in Tamil Nadu an isolated episode or is there a larger pattern here? A new study by economist Smriti Sharma of the Delhi School of Economics suggests that the answer to the second question may be yes.
Ms. Sharma analyzes a large amount of data on violence committed against SCs/STs by non-SCs/STs over the period 2001/2010 and spanning 415 districts over 18 large states in India. These include Tamil Nadu but also Haryana, which has witnessed horrific recent episodes of violence against women that appear to have a caste dimension.
The study attempts to correlate the data on violence with measurements of consumption expenditures by SCs/STs, which are routinely used by economists as a proxy for income and well-being. Ms. Sharmas methodology takes a leaf from an important recent study by economics professors Anirban Mitra of the University of Oslo and Debraj Ray of New York University.
Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray used a similar methodology to study Hindu-Muslim violence in India. They concluded that an increase in the expenditure levels of Muslims generated a large and significant increase in future communal conflict, but by contrast an increase in expenditures in Hindus had no such effect.
While these findings are open to different interpretations, their provocative but well-argued thesis is that Hindus have been principally responsible for Hindu-Muslim violence in the post independence period. Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray are careful to note that their interpretation rests on the interlinking of theory and evidence that they present and that a reader might see their result as a curiosum of interest.
The findings of Ms. Sharmas study mirror those of Mr. Mitra and Mr. Ray in the context of inter-caste violence. In particular, she finds that a closing of the gap in consumption expenditures between SCs/STs and everyone else is positively correlated with an increase in violent crimes against SCs/STs by others.
Her interpretation is that this represents increased violence by upper castes who feel threatened by the rising living standards of a group that has historically been much poorer and socially deprived. Again though, note that this is one interpretation of her research findings and others are possible.
While data limitations prevent the studies from determining who among the upper castes is committing violence against SCs/STs, the experience of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere suggests that the principal sources of violence are most likely to be other disadvantaged groups that are proximate both in location and caste standing to Dalit communities and historically ever-so-slightly ahead of them.
And to the extent that the economic empowerment of SCs/STs is driven at least in part by policies such as caste-based reservation, this could only be expected to exacerbate the resentment of other disadvantaged groups who dont benefit from affirmative action policies.
Some might see these findings as an argument against caste-based reservation and promotion. Others who support affirmative action should see instead a cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of well-intentioned government policies.
Either way, this new research documenting the link between economic empowerment and caste violence is sure to fuel the ongoing debate about affirmative action in India.
