Manu Joseph India’s Supreme Court is right: Exclude the creamy layer

A few days ago, India tried to reform an injustice within its social justice programme when a Supreme Court bench said that caste is not a homogenous entity, and that the “creamy layers" of oppressed castes should not be entitled to the same benefits as the poor among them. 

One of the judges said, “Putting the children of the parents from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who on account of benefit of reservation have reached a high position… and the children of parents doing manual work… in the same category would defeat the Constitutional mandate."

Across the world, when a disadvantaged community is given special treatment, the elite among them, who might even be better off than the traditional elite, are the first to benefit. It is a way of the world; there are no villains in this. This was, in fact, an argument against political quotas for women.

Also read: Exclude ’creamy layer’ from SC, ST reservations, rules Supreme Court

It is hard to dispute that the way reservations have worked so far is by taking seats from upper castes and giving them to the privileged among oppressed castes. 

The government thought about the Supreme Court’s opinion and decided that it does not want to antagonize ‘creamy layers’ of Dalits, which is a term that refers to those who were traditionally oppressed by the Hindu caste system, including “outcastes" who were not assigned any caste. The government may have practical reasons, but its decision is not morally sound.

The Dalit community has its own caste structure, where top Dalit castes treat lower castes poorly. For instance, they don’t inter-marry and some high-castes do not even dine with lower castes. I once met a Dalit activist who had eaten in a Valmiki household in a Gujarat village and was therefore denied entry to a Vankar village. 

It appears that victims of evil imitate the same evil to feel that they at least have something going. It is even possible that modern Brahmins have a stronger sense of caste-equality today than some upper sub-castes among Dalits. 

The reason why rural Dalits flee to the city is not only to escape the oppression of traditional high castes, but also from other Dalits who consider themselves superior to them. In Mumbai, my maid, who was an Ambedkarite, told me that her community would not mingle with Valmikis. 

The poorest Dalits are so choiceless that they often have to perform activities that human beings should not be doing anymore, like cleaning filthy toilets and sewage clog-ups.

Quotas in government institutes and jobs have helped some Dalits who had a good head-start get better off. In some states, a few sub-castes have fared better than others. As a result, there is a lot of resentment at the bottom, from where demands have arisen for sub-categorized quotas. 

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There have been demands that whole sub-castes of Dalits be given preferential treatment. Reservation within reservation. But then, a sub-caste that is not doing well in Maharashtra might be doing very well in Karnataka. This is a reason why the Supreme Court thought it prudent to consider the economic creamy layer a category in itself exclude it from reservations.

People who oppose this idea are usually privileged Dalits. What they say is that economic progress is not a sign that they are like anyone else. They say they still face social discrimination. Even highly placed civil servants and police officers do. 

They may have cracked a difficult exam, but they find it hard to rise. The social contacts that come easy to others don’t come to them. Even so, why should their children benefit at the expense of the children of a man who crawls into manholes for a living?

There could be an argument that being middle class is a fragile condition; one misfortune can push a family into poverty. But then, how would quotas change middle-class fragility? Also, India’s depth of poverty is such that everyone who is lucky has to make way for those who are not.

But there is one sound moral defence for the creamy layer’s contention that they should not be denied quota seats. Social justice occurs not out of the goodness of people, but as a by-product of friction between creamy layers. The second rung hits back at the top rung by demanding moral concessions for all, and then everyone benefits.

Quotas for Dalits too was a battle won for them by their elites. It is time for their elites to let go of the benefits. But then, this departure may result in the elite losing the heart to fight other battles for the community. 

They may assimilate into the urban mainstream and increasingly identify less with their caste. The Dalits would then have to groom a new elite that cares for them.

Also read: Karnataka job reservation bill ‘temporarily’ put on hold after backlash

Reservations have helped many Dalits escape poverty, but its effect has been limited in transforming social prestige. To feel lower than others is a form of poverty, and in that, the policy has not helped because of the powerful nature of a banal kind of evil.

The promise of reservations has been that Dalits will be able to break into the clubs of old elites. But then, there are very few clubs that can change destinies. For example, civil services can do that. Maybe to an extent, IITs too, but even their powers are waning. 

Clubs are prestigious because they were clubs of the upper class. What ends prestige is equality. The moment a poor Tribal has the means to join a club, it begins to lose its power to transform his destiny. The doors of social life are ajar, but are still held by gatekeepers.