September 2007
“Enraged mobs from one of India’s myriad lower
castes blocked roads with fiery barricades, stoned police and battled rival
castes across a wide swath of northern India for a week,” the Associated
Press reports from Gurgaon. They’re upset that their caste isn’t lower still:
With 25 people dead, the unrest spread to the
fringes of the capital before the Gujjars–a class of farmers and
shepherds–called off their protests. They did so only after officials agreed to
consider their demand to be officially shunted to the lowest rung of India’s
complex hereditary caste system, so they can get government jobs and university
spots reserved for such groups….Caste politics were clear late Monday, when
Gujjar leaders called off their protests after officials agreed to look into
their demands.
The move immediately drew threats from leaders of a
powerful rival group, the Meena, who are already classified among the lowest
castes and clearly do not want more competition for jobs and school spots set
aside under quotas. During the unrest, fighting between Meenas and Gujjars left
at least four dead.
In America, of course, we don’t have “caste.” We
allocate jobs and university positions by skin color, which is much harder to
change, and thus we don’t have these sorts of conflicts. Still, we’d be hard
pressed to argue that in this regard the American way is especially enlightened.
Help us maintain freedom in teaching, research and scholarship by joining SAFS or making a donation.
