Author: cprindia

IN CONVERSATION WITH D SHYAM BABU ON HIS LATEST BOOK CHAPTER
IDENTITY DISCRIMINATION

CPR faculty D Shyam Babu wrote a book chapter ‘Caste and Class among the Dalits’ in the recently published (Duke University Press, 2016) Dalit Studies edited by Ramnarayan S Rawat and K Satyanarayana.

In the interview below, he unpacks what ‘caste’ and ‘class’ among Dalits means, and why one must use both caste and class to understand India’s social complexity.

You wrote a book chapter on ‘Caste and Class among the Dalits.’ What is it about?

Caste is at the core of people’s identities in India. It not only categorises people into various castes but stratifies them into higher and lower, pure and impure. One is ‘born’ into a caste which is a cradle-to-grave matter, unlike religion that one can acquire or renounce.

Class is, on the other hand, an economic category associated with urban industrial society. While one’s membership in a caste is preordained, one can choose one’s class. Thus, class mobility is not impossible.

Since Dalits’ low social and economic condition is attributed to their caste identity, scholars and policy makers focus on the need as well as the means to reducing the salience of Dalits’ caste identity. Therefore, one way to understand how far the Dalits have moved away from discrimination and stigma is through an exploration of how far they have moved away from caste identity into classes.

This chapter is an attempt to find answers to a few questions on the topic, such as: Is class relevant in a caste-ridden society? Is caste reasserting itself or waning? Who determines one’s class? It also delves into how public perceptions and media imagery feed on each other to perpetuate a negative image of Dalits.

Is ‘class’ an appropriate lens to understand the subject?

The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ For decades, scholars have taken diametrically opposite positions, where some dismissed caste, and others class as irrelevant. In fact, India’s size and diversity make it impossible to give definitive answers to any questions on social issues. One can, for example, argue that class is not relevant by citing any number of caste conflicts, caste mobilisation, etc.

On the other hand, one can as well assert that caste is no longer important in India. The chapter cites the example of how, in 2007, Mayawati came to power in Uttar Pradesh. Her caste identity, of being a Dalit, did not come in her way. What’s more, her party’s electoral victory became possible thanks to the overwhelming support it received from Brahmins in the state.

Therefore, one must use both caste and class to understand India’s social complexity.

Is caste reasserting itself?

Caste is changing fundamentally. But Dalits and other lower castes still suffer several disabilities due to their identity. Though caste retains its salience in people’s preferences when it comes to elections or choosing a spouse, urbanisation is making caste practices increasingly difficult. One’s caste status no longer guarantees one’s standing in society. For example, unlike in the past, a poor Brahmin may not command much respect. Similarly, a well-off Dalit can at least escape active forms of discrimination that he was subjected to in the past.

Paradoxically, political mobilisation on caste lines has resulted in the re-emergence of caste, mostly by the middle and lower castes. For example, it has become a practice in many states for Dalits to suffix their caste to their names, implying a certain pride in their identity. The one thing that is clear is that the caste hierarchy one finds in textbooks is giving way to dominance based on access to resources and numerical strength.

What role does the government play in helping Dalits’ journey from caste to class?

The constitution is based on the ideal to usher in a casteless society and the government implements, to realise the ideal, many programmes to help not just Dalits but many victims of caste. However, the intended beneficiaries need to brandish their caste or tribal identity to access benefits like reservations. In a sense, to avail economic benefits, people must admit to their social inferiority.

Where do we stand on the issue now?

Dalits are in a position to question their subordination and that is progress. It is also an ongoing process. However, we tested a hypothesis, which showed that atrocities are triggered in areas where Dalits are better-off, and not in areas where they are poor. Therefore, even though Dalits’ challenge to their subordination can result in violence, one must not ignore its significance in social change.

The link to the book can be accessed here.

The contemporary urbanisation paradigm in India is rooted in a visible growth of urban areas beyond large cities, a trend that is distinctly evident since the 2011 census. A lot of these urban areas are only defined but not governed as urban, and are known as census towns (CTs). Beyond summing up salient features of these towns, this paper tries to highlight the future trajectory of these areas, in order to outline what factors will drive these areas in future, and how policymakers and the state will respond to various demands of these places. Some important findings of this paper are highlighted below, through a short discussion with the authors.

In this paper, you have tried to predict the number of census towns for the upcoming census. How can you do such an exercise for the 2021 census now, in 2018?

In order to answer the question, let us look at the different steps that are involved in the classification of rural and urban areas in a census. The Registrar General of India (RGI) actually uses data from the last census for making such classifications. For example, the 2001 settlement data was used as the reference data for the 2011 census. The first step is to take note of the jurisdictional changes to villages and statutory towns (STs) that occurred in between two censuses. Statutory towns are urban areas established under a state or central law and are governed by urban local bodies. Since between 2001 and 2011, state governments formed new STs, and geographical area of the existing STs also underwent changes (mostly increased), it is important to adjust these changes for the 2011 census data. Similarly, new villages also came up during this period.

Once the list of STs is finalised, the second step involves identification of census towns (CTs). For that, the RGI takes the data from the last census (i.e., 2001 data for 2011 Census), and sees how many villages satisfy three pre-defined conditions to become CTs. The three conditions are: (i). population of 4,000 and more, (ii). population density of at least 400 persons per square kilometer and (iii). male non-farm workforce of more than 75 percent. Note that the population used is 4000 and not 5000, as in the definition of an urban area. This is because the RGI presumes the reduced population cut-off of 4000 should increase to 5000 during the intercensal period.

Since the previous census data is used for identification of CTs, one can use the existing 2011 census data to predict the number of CTs for the upcoming 2021 census.

Why does the Census make such classification before the census?

The tradition of identifying CTs before the census has been followed since the 1961 census. It is important to ask whether there are enough reasons to support the current approach of identifying CTs using previous census data instead of identifying CTs after the Census, using the actual census data. In our paper, we have shown how this method can lead to misclassification of CTs; i.e. 736 villages which were identified as CTs do not fulfill the criteria in the actual data and similarly 1400 villages actually fulfill the criteria but were not identified as CTs.

On the other hand, the current approach could be supported on two angles. Firstly, the set of information collected from the rural and urban areas is not exactly same. There is some information which is collected specifically from rural areas (such as information related to land use, irrigation, roads, Public Distribution System, nutritional and child care facilities etc.) and other information which is only collected from urban areas. As a result, classification of a settlement into either rural or urban has to be done before the census so appropriate information can be collected. Secondly, finalising rural and urban frame before the census also helps in releasing the rural and urban population data much faster.

What are the challenges in such estimation?

The main challenge in estimating the number of CTs from the census data is due to the paucity of information in the census data. The census manual indicates that the workers who belong to the “Plantation, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries, Hunting and allied activities” (PLFFH) sector must be treated as farm employment in the identification of CTs. But, since the 2001 census, village level workforce data is available in four broad groups where PLFFH workers are clubbed in a group that is primarily a non-farm sector. As a result, some type of adjustment is required and there are limitations to it.

Besides identifying villages that you are expecting to become census towns in the coming 2021 census, are there any new findings in this paper?

This work is based on our previous work on census towns. A number of researchers from Centre for Policy Research (CPR) as well as our collaborators have worked on various aspects of CTs in the past. One important aspect that we have focused on in our previous work is the extent to which proximity to urban areas plays a role in the formation of CTs and its relation to their characteristics. In this paper, we have tried to delve deeper into the spatial characteristics of CTs. For example, even if a CT is not proximate to a large town it is important to know whether it is a standalone CT with a more local economic interaction or part of a cluster of CTs where agglomeration economies may come into play. Similar classifications can also be made for proximate CTs.

Are these census towns more like villages or like towns?

There can be different answers to the same question depending on what we are comparing. We can compare intensity of non-farm activities, economic prosperity of citizens, structure of the society or provision of public services etc. In this paper, we have used some indicators related to access to public services and private assets, as well as intensity of night-time light data (i.e. satellite image of the earth at night) to capture the levels of economic activity. For all these indicators, we found that CTs are better than villages of similar population size and for some indicators they are comparable with smaller STs.

What are the policy implications of such large number of upcoming CTs on the governance of these settlements?

It has been mentioned earlier that while CTs are governed like other villages in the country, they are counted as urban, and their economic characteristics are different from their rural counterparts. As mentioned, CTs in a large number are expected to be added to the already existing stock in the upcoming census. So, planned governance of these settlements is crucial for their sustained economic growth. While the current policy discourse does not offer anything specific regarding CTs, the Central Government in a recent advisory asked the states to consider converting them into STs. Other than the fact that such conversion is a variedly contested process, the diverse nature of CTs highlighted in this paper questions the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and prescribes a more integrated approach from the State.

The working paper can be accessed here.

Additional research on census towns at Centre for Policy Research can be accessed here.

FULL VIDEO OF THE BOOK DISCUSSION
POLITICS ELECTION STUDIES

Watch the full video (above) of the book discussion on ‘2019: How Modi Won India’ by Rajdeep Sardesai featuring the author; Pradeep Chhibber (Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley); Rahul Verma (Fellow, CPR) and Yamini Aiyar (President and Chief Executive, CPR).

About the Book:

On 23 May 2019, when the results of the general elections were announced, Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA coalition were voted back to power with an overwhelming majority. To some, the numbers of Modi’s victory came as something of a surprise; for others, the BJP’s triumph was a vindication of their belief in the government and its policies. Irrespective of one’s political standpoint, one thing was beyond dispute: this was a landmark verdict, one that deserved to be reported and analysed with intelligence – and without bias. This book does that and seeks to answer the questions – what was it that gave Modi an edge over the opposition for the second time in five years? How was the BJP able to trounce its rivals in states that were once Congress bastions? What was the core issue in the election: a development agenda or national pride? As he relives the excitement of the many twists and turns that took place over the last five years, culminating in the 2019 election results, the author helps the reader make sense of the contours and characteristics of a rapidly changing India, its politics and its newsmakers.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

FULL VIDEO OF BOOK DISCUSSION
IDENTITY DISCRIMINATION POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of the book discussion on ‘Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements’ by Amit Ahuja featuring the author; D Shyam Babu (Senior Fellow, CPR); Surinder Jhodka (Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University) and moderated by Rahul Verma (Fellow, CPR).

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

About the Book

India’s over 200 million Dalits, once called ‘untouchables’, have been mobilised by social movements and political parties, but the outcomes of this mobilisation are puzzling. Dalits’ ethnic parties have performed poorly in elections in states where movements demanding social equality have been strong while they have succeeded in states where such movements have been entirely absent or weak. In Mobilizing the Marginalized, Amit Ahuja demonstrates that the collective action of marginalised groups — those that are historically stigmatised and disproportionately poor — is distinct. Drawing on extensive original research conducted across four of India’s largest states, he shows, for the marginalised, social mobilisation undermines the bloc voting their ethnic parties’ rely on for electoral triumph and increases multi-ethnic political parties’ competition for marginalised votes. He presents evidence showing that a marginalised group gains more from participating in a social movement and dividing support among parties than from voting as a bloc for an ethnic party.

About the Author

Amit Ahuja is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the processes of inclusion and exclusion in multiethnic societies. He has studied this within the context of ethnic parties and movements, military organisation, intercaste marriage, and skin colour preferences in South Asia. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Institute of Indian Studies, the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Hellman Family Foundation, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan.

FULL AUDIO RECORDING
RIGHTS

Listen to full recording (above) of book discussion on ‘The Cunning of Rights: Law, Life, Biocultures’, by Rajshree Chandra.

This book probes how rights get ‘framed’ within and by law, in the diverse yet closely interrelated aspects of social, cultural, and biological life. In particular, the book focuses on biocultural entitlements of farming and indigenous communities, and explores the terms on which their interests are included and institutionalized, as well as the degrees of exclusion and stratification that accompany them.

The discussion is introduced by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of CPR, followed in succession by Rajshree Chandra, the author; Nivedita Menon from Jawaharlal Nehru University; Lawrence Liang from Alternative Law Forum; and Naveen Thayyil from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

WATCH FULL VIDEO
INDIA-PAKISTAN POLITICS SOUTH ASIA

Husain Haqqani’s latest book ‘India Vs Pakistan: Why can’t we just be friends?’ provides a provocative and deeply analysed look at the key pressure points in the relationship between India and Pakistan.

Centre for Policy Research, in partnership with Juggernaut books, organised a panel discussion comprising Ashok Malik, Husain Haqqani, Shekhar Gupta, which was chaired by Pratap Bhanu Mehta. Drawing from their extensive experience, the panellists shared key insights into how the Indo-Pak relationship has evolved over time.

Watch (above) the full video of the panel discussion, followed by the Q&A session.

FULL VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH WITH SHIBANI GHOSH, SHYAM DIVAN, PHILIPPE CULLET, AND BAHAR DUTT
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Watch the full video (above) of the launch and discussion on ‘Indian Environmental Law: Key Concepts and Principles’. Shibani Ghosh, the editor and a Fellow at CPR, introduced the book, followed by a discussion between Shyam Divan (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India) and Philippe Cullet (Professor, SOAS, University of London), which was moderated by Bahar Dutt (Senior environmental journalist).

The question and answer session with the panel can be accessed here.

About the Book

For more than three decades now, the Indian courts have delivered far-reaching judgments on a range of significant environmental matters. In their effort to adjudicate complex disputes with serious environmental repercussions, the courts have developed a framework of environmental rights and legal principles. Indian Environmental Law: Key Concepts and Principles provides a critical analysis of this environmental legal framework. It studies the origins of environmental rights, substantive and procedural, and the four most significant legal principles – principle of sustainable development, polluter pays principle, precautionary principle and the public trust doctrine – and elaborates how Indian courts have defined, interpreted and applied them across a range of contexts.

As litigation and legal adjudication struggle to respond to worsening environmental quality, conceptual clarity about the content, application and limitations of environmental rights and legal principles is crucial for the improvement of environmental governance. With chapters written by Saptarishi Bandopadhyay, Lovleen Bhullar, Shibani Ghosh, Dhvani Mehta, and Lavanya Rajamani, this book explores the judicial reasoning and underlying assumptions in landmark judgments of the Supreme Court, the High Courts and the National Green Tribunal, and aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the framework of rights and principles.

To read more about each chapter in this edited volume, click here.

About the Editor

Shibani Ghosh is a Fellow at the Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment at the Centre for Policy Research, where her research and writing focuses on environmental law and governance. She is an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of India, and practices before the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.

About the Panellists

Shyam Divan is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India. His areas of practice cover most branches of civil litigation including banking, securities law, arbitration, administrative law and environmental law. He has appeared for citizens’ groups in a host of civil liberties and constitutional cases. Mr Divan has co-authored Environmental Law and Policy in India (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2001), one of the leading texts on Indian environmental law.

Philippe Cullet is Professor of international and environmental law at SOAS University of London and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He works on international and domestic environmental law, natural resources, water and sanitation and socio-economic rights and engages regularly with policymakers at the national and international levels. His latest edited books are Right to Sanitation in India – Critical Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2019 – co-editors S Koonan & L Bhullar) and Groundwater and Climate Change: Multi-Level Law and Policy Perspectives (Routledge, 2019 – co-editor R M Stephan).

Bahar Dutt is a conservation biologist and environmental journalist, and the winner of over twelve national and international awards including the Ramnath Goenka Award for excellence in environmental reporting. She was previously the Environment Editor at CNN-IBN and a columnist for the Mint. She is the author of Green Wars: Dispatches from a Vanishing World (Harper-Collins, 2014) and the founder of the MITTI Project.

FULL VIDEO OF DISCUSSION WITH PROFESSOR KELLY SIMS GALLAGHER, AMBASSADOR SHIVSHANKAR MENON, PROFESSOR AMBUJ SAGAR AND PROFESSOR NAVROZ K DUBASH
CLIMATE CHANGE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

On 6 March 2019, the Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment (ICEE) at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) organized a discussion on the recently-released book, ‘Titans of the Climate: Explaining Policy Process in the United States and China’ by Kelly Sims Gallagher and Xioawei Xuan.

The panellists were Professor Kelly Sims Gallagher (Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University), Ambassador Shivshankar Menon (Former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and former Foreign Secretary of India), and Professor Ambuj Sagar (Founding Head, School of Public Policy at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi). The panel was moderated by Professor Navroz K Dubash (Professor, Centre for Policy Research).

Among other things, the panel discussed international climate politics, and US-China relations in the broader context of climate policy.

About the Book

The United States and China together account for a disproportionate 45 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. In 2014, then-President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced complementary efforts to limit emissions, paving the way for the Paris Agreement. And yet, with President Trump’s planned withdrawal from the Paris accords and Xi’s consolidation of power—as well as mutual mistrust fueled by misunderstanding—the climate future is uncertain. In Titans of the Climate, Kelly Sims Gallagher and Xiaowei Xuan examine how the planet’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters develop and implement climate policy. Through dispassionate analysis, the authors aim to help readers understand the challenges, constraints, and opportunities in each country. They make the case that if each country understands more about the other’s goals and constraints, climate policy cooperation is more likely to succeed. Read more here.

About the Speakers

Kelly Sims Gallagher is Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She directs the Climate Policy Lab and the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Fletcher. From 2014 to 2015 she served as Senior Policy Adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and in the U.S. State Department’s Senior Envoy for Climate Change Office. She is the author of China Shifts Gears and The Globalization of Clean Energy Technology, both published by the MIT Press.

Ambassador Shivshankar Menon served as National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India from January 2010 to May 2014, and was Foreign Secretary of India from October 2006 to July 2009. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University, a Distinguished Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings India, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. His long career in public service spans diplomacy, national security, atomic energy, disarmament policy, and India’s relations with its neighbors and major global powers. He is the author of Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy, which was published by Penguin Random House in 2016.

Ambuj Sagar is the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies and the founding Head of the School of Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Ambuj’s interests broadly lie at the intersection of technology and development. His recent work has focused on innovation policy for meeting sustainability and inclusivity challenges, energy innovation policy and strategies (in areas such as biofuels, clean cookstoves, coal power, automobiles, and institutional mechanisms such as climate innovation centers), climate change policy and politics, capacity development, and higher education policy.

Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research. He works on climate change policy and governance, the political economy of energy and water, and the regulatory state in the developing world. Widely published in these areas, Navroz serves on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Coordinating Lead Author. In 2015, he was conferred the 12th T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on climate change policy. His most recent book (co-edited with Sunila Kale and Ranjit Bharvirkar) examines the political economy of electricity in India’s states, and a forthcoming edited volume will examine climate politics, policy and governance in India.

FULL AUDIO OF TALK BY ANURAG GUPTA
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS IDENTITY DISCRIMINATION

Listen to the full audio of the talk (above) where Anurag Gupta (Founder and CEO, Be More America) talks about the concept of unconscious bias and how it affects society, focusing primarily on his work on addressing racism in the US.

In this talk, he shares how Be More America utilises in-person trainings and e-learning tools to create targeted interventions than can facilitate the ‘un-learning’ of racial biases. Through Be More America, Anurag aims at a social movement that could potentially lead to an equitable society.

A short video introduction to Be More America and its work on hacking unconscious bias can be accessed here.

Watch the full video of the workshop (above), where Philip Harrison discusses ongoing comparative work on cities in BRICS, a grouping of countries that account for nearly 40% of the world’s total urban population.

There is enormous diversity in BRICS countries in almost all categories, including scale, economic performance, levels and rates of urbanisation, income and governance. This diversity raises questions over the meaning and purpose of comparison between the countries, argues Harrison.

In this presentation, Harrison looks at the far-reaching political and/or economic transformations experienced by all BRICS countries over the last few decades, as well as the differences in the national and local management of these processes.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here. More information about the talk can be found on the event page.