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Caste dynamics and reclassification

Like their counterparts elsewhere, policemen in India are taught to show restraint even in the face of severe provocation. Unfortunately and with tragic consequences, the lesson has been either insufficiently imbibed or simply ignored in this country. The police firing in two places in Rajasthan, which resulted in deaths and mass injuries, once again underlines the importance of ensuring that the police are better trained and equipped in crowd management and crowd dispersal. It is true that the agitating crowd at both places — comprising angry Gujjars demanding the inclusion of the community in the Scheduled Tribe list — turned violent. But the bloody police response to the snowballing agitation is indefensible. The Rajasthan government must institute an impartial probe into the firing and take firm action against those responsible for the use of excessive force. At another level, the mass demonstration by the Gujjars, an Other Backward Class community, focusses attention on their demand to be reclassified as a Scheduled Tribe. Although the demand has been in the air for a while, it snowballed into an agitation only after the Jat community was given OBC status a few years ago. With the Jats (who comprise about 12 per cent of the State's population) taking a large chunk of the OBC quota, the Gujjars (estimated at between 7 and 8 per cent) have felt insecure and deprived of their share of the benefits. During the campaign for the 2003 Assembly elections, the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party promised the Gujjars ST status — an assurance that has returned to haunt the Vasundhara Raje government.

The Chief Minister faces at least two obstacles in redeeming her promise. Reclassification by inclusion in The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950, is the prerogative of the Centre and granted after a due process that includes a determination of such characteristics as cultural distinctiveness and geographical location. Such a grant is also likely to create a further social divide with the Meenas, a politically influential ST group in Rajasthan, threatening to launch an agitation in the event this comes about. A community of mainly farmers and cattle-herders, the Gujjars are settled in a large swathe of north India that includes Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir (where they are mainly Muslim). In recent years, organisations such as the Gujjar Mahasabha and the Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti have tried to forge a sense of pan-Gujjar identity in order to increase the community's political clout. With passions running high and the protests spreading to other States, the last has not been heard about this matter, which is marked by complex and competitive caste dynamics.

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