The condition of “untouchables”

The session of January 28, 2008 was devoted to the presentation by the lawyer Smita Narula (New York University) of a text entitled “ Equal by Law, a which is caste: the “ Untouchable »Condition in Critical Race Perspective », Fall in a future delivery of the Wisconsin Journal of International Law. After a reminder of the differences between the American, predominantly binary conception of the “ breed “And caste as the basis of a system of” graduated inequality »Offering almost all of the groups thus hierarchicalized the possibility of taking advantage of it, the author describes in great detail what it identifies as one of the most singular features of the Indian configuration: the extent of the disjunction between the content-egalitarian, and even particularly” progressive ” – of the Legal standards And more specifically constitutional in force, on the one hand, the persistence of massive violations of the most basic fundamental rights of people – women in particular – identified as “ untouchables “, on the other hand. Indeed, not only the very numerous acts of violence committed against them and supposed to sanction the transgression of social norms Segregation and endogamy-murders, rapes and other abuse-remain largely unpunished, but it is not uncommon for public officials themselves to take a more or less active part. Thus juxtapose in a particularly raw manner a legal order characterized by the official abolition of untouchable-under article 17 of the Constitution-as well as clear taken into account the need to remedy the inequalities observed-including by means of positive discrimination measures-and a social reality where practices partially similar to the lynchings of the Jim Crow era in the South of the United States are still legion …

The author’s position with regard to “ reservations “In force for the benefit of the dalits as well as the low caste (“ Other backward classes ) In access to universities and public jobs therefore presents an ambivalent character. It highlights their limits – less than 1% of the dalits are concretely able to benefit from it -, limits still increased by the privatizations that have occurred in the last two decades, since the private sector remains away from the system. It even suggests that the focus of public debate on positive discrimination has been able to help to become aware of the awareness of the degree of exploitation and violence whose dalits continue to be subject. It nevertheless defends the system, insofar as the principle “ meritocratic “That we invoke against him disregard the context of extreme subordination in which the programs in question are written and contributes to legitimizing the system of caste by perpetuating its effects.

Introduced by Christophe Jaffrelot (Ceri-Sciences Po), the discussion focused in particular on the criticism offered by the author of positive discrimination as an instrument of social transformation. If we understand this transformation as being necessarily of indirect nature, the judgment formulated with regard to “ reservations “Will undoubtedly be less negative. The hypothesis is also mentioned that the level of violence exerted against the dalits is positively correlated with the progress of their objective emancipation. We finally agree that, in any event, positive discrimination did not have an impact on the frequency and diversity of contacts between different groups as clear as in most other countries that have implemented similar policies.