News Highlight
Since the 1960s,a new democratisation has characterised India’s formerly silent majority, the lower castes that comprise more than two-thirds of the population.
Key takeaway
- Today India’s most populous state is controlled by lower-caste politicians and lower-caste representation in national politics is growing inexorably.
- This trend constitutes a genuine “democratisation” of India and the social and economic effects of this “silent revolution” are bound to multiply in the years to come.
Major social revolutionaries in pre-independence.
- Jyotiba Phule:
- He organised a powerful movement against upper caste domination and brahminical supremacy.
- He founded the SatyashodhakSamaj (Truth Seekers’ Society) in 1873.
- The main aims of the movement were
- Social service.
- Spread of education among women and lower caste people.
- Phule’s works, Sarvajanik Satyadharma and Gulamgiri, became a source of inspiration for the common masses.
- Phule aimed at the complete abolition of the caste system and socio-economic inequalities.
- This movement gave a sense of identity to the depressed communities as a class against the Brahmins, who were seen as exploiters.
- Savitri Bai Phule:
- Savitri Bai Phule was the social reformer of the 19th century who worked in the field of women’s education.
- She opened a school for women in 1848, It was the country’s first school for women started by Indians.
- In the 1850s, the Phule couple initiated two educational trusts—the Native Female School, Pune and The Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs and Etceteras—which came to have many schools under them.
- In 1852, Savitribai started the Mahila Seva Mandal to raise awareness about women’s rights.
- She simultaneously campaigned against child marriage, while supporting widow remarriage.
- Sahuji Maharaj:
- Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj was a social reformer well ahead of his time.
- He was Maharaja of the princely state of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
- From his coronation in 1894 till his demise in 1922, he worked tirelessly for the cause of the lower caste subjects in his state.
- Primary education to all, regardless of caste and creed, was one of his most important priorities.
- He established the Miss Clarke Boarding School for the socially quarantined segments of the community.
- He also initiated a compulsory free primary education for all in his state.
- E V Ramasamy ‘Periyar’:
- He is remembered for the Self Respect Movement to redeem the identity and self-respect of Tamils.
- Periyar’s fame spread beyond the Tamil region during the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924, a mass movement to demand that lower caste persons be given the right to use a public path in front of the famous Vaikom temple.
- He would later be referred to as Vaikom Veerar (Hero of Vaikom).
- In the 1940s, Periyar launched a political party, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), which espoused an independent Dravida Nadu comprising Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada speakers.
- As a social reformer, he focused on social, cultural and gender inequalities, and his reform agenda questioned matters of faith, gender and tradition.
Social revolution after independence.
- The Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP):
- It was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972.
- SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964.
- Article 340:
- Article 340 of the Constitution of India provides for the appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions for improving backward classes.
- The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India.
- The Kalelkar Commission:
- Adhering to Article 340 of the Constitution of India, the First Backward Classes Commission was set up by presidential order in 1953 under the chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar.
- It is also known as the First Backward Classes Commission, 1955 or the Kaka Kalelkar Commission.
- Its conclusion that caste is an important measure of backwardness was rejected on the ground that it had failed to apply more objective criteria such as income and literacy to determine backwardness.
- The Mandal Commission:
- The Mandal Commission, the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission, was established in India in 1979.
- The announcement of implementing one of its recommendations, of 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the central services in 1990, was the “Mandal moment”.
- The 73rd and 74th Amendments:
- The 73rd and 74th Amendments have furthered the idea of social justice by extending reservation benefits to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.
Content Source: The Hindu