Are there conflicts between groups of people (castes) in India?
Yes, there are. However, they do not follow any strict lines: sometimes members of some jatis fight members from other jatis; sometimes, there are fights between Muslims and ‘non-Muslims’; sometimes it is the trade unions that struggle and so on.
Are there caste problems related to castes in India?
The castes such as Brahmins, lingayats, madiga etc. do have problems among themselves. Like all human groups, across cultures and ethnies, these people also fight with each other, make fun of each other, hate each other and so on. The question is this: can we surmise from this that there is a caste system or that caste is responsible for their mutual fight and hatred? No one has proved this until now, and it is not even clear how one can prove it in the near future.
Do ‘caste-based discriminations’ exist in India?
(a) Here, one has to be more precise. In a way, Yes. The (educational and employment and other) policies of various state governments and the central government discriminate between the citizens of India based on the caste to which they belong. Thus, these are caste-based discriminations. Many caste groups among the so-called ‘Dalits’ discriminate between each other (not touching, not eating , not inter-marrying, etc) based on ‘caste membership’; some castes do not allow the entry of individuals from particular castes into their kitchens and temples (yes, one could also call this caste-based discrimination). In all these senses, yes, there are caste-based discriminations.
(b) First, when it comes to caste discrimination, two kinds of problems are involved. On the one hand, there is the discrimination and conflict among the different ‘scheduled castes’. On the other, the same thing can also be observed to exist between the ‘scheduled castes’ and the ‘high-caste’ Hindus. Generally, it has been claimed that the chief problem is the second: the ‘higher castes’ discriminate against the scheduled castes. Apparently, this is what ‘caste discrimination’ is all about. As far as similar injustices are committed by different scheduled castes against each other, this is said to be an imitation of the behaviour of the higher castes towards the scheduled castes.
‘What is the mechanism that produces these discriminations?’
There might be one or many ‘mechanisms’, depending on how one characterises these ‘discriminations’ and who practices them. For instance, if you want to explain the caste-based discrimination practiced by various governments then you will look elsewhere for an answer than when you try to explain why someone’s mother does not allow the servant (from some other caste) enter her kitchen. Further, depending upon whether one looks at it as a biologically innate mechanism (say, as ‘nepotism’), or as a socially learnt behaviour (say ‘ethnic discrimination’) or purely prejudicial in nature (say, ‘racism’), and so on multiple mechanisms might be involved. As yet, we have no clear grasp of these issues in the social sciences even though many hypotheses are developed. Consequently, I do not know the name of this mechanism: call it ‘hipkapi’ for all I care. Of course, by saying that ‘hipkapi’, or whatever name you want to give, produces caste-discrimination, you have not explained anything.
There is indeed some caste-based discrimination present in India. There might be many mechanisms that generate this and all kinds of discriminations in any given society, including India. We do not know the name of the mechanism, if there is indeed one mechanism.
While the mechanism’s technique and accordingly the form may change over time, can its political canvas be denied?
I do not understand this sentence at all. The ‘technique of a mechanism’? The ‘form’ of a mechanism? Is it about ‘social form’, ‘cultural form’ and such like? Or about the more philosophical notions of ‘appearance as form’ as against the ‘essence’ that the content is? Even then, I do not understand this question.
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Read also: On Stories of Discrimination (or ‘Horror stories’)