WILFUL NEGLECT
Dignity of an individual
B. G. Verghese

The Indian social reform record is abysmal, with the State backtracking for fear of a populist backlash.

Few realise that the word “dignity” is a constitutional term that occurs in the Preamble, which sets out the nation’s guiding philosophy. The constitutional edifice rests on the four pillars of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity “assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation”.Thus, a most onerous role is cast on the concept of Fraternity to invest the individual with dignity. And dignity, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means “a state or quality of being worthy of honour”.

Reports of atrocities against dalits (a scheduled caste woman sarpanch being auctioned by superior caste members in a Tamil Nadu village), a meeting of the Indian Social Forum in Delhi to discuss the inequities heaped on the disadvantaged in our society, and submission of the Sachar Report on the sorry Muslim condition in India have been prominent in this November’s calendar of events. Each speaks of indignities against vast numbers of citizens and constitutes a mockery of Fraternity. That sacred constitutional promise is being savaged daily and with impunity before our eyes.

How long shall we turn away from this daily shame even if most of us do not actually participate in denying our fellow-beings their basic right to dignity, livelihood, justice, caring and sharing and all that goes into making the Fraternity or togetherness? The Prime Minister spoke with anguish on this very topic while addressing a recent Leadership Summit in Delhi.

He warned against building a “better future” with dreams of becoming an economic superpower. Instead, he emphasised peace and dignity by ensuring education and health for all, a safe environment and a just world order and an inclusive social order. He warned against widening disparities and urged participatory governance. On the Sachar Report too he invoked the principle of not just quantitative growth but qualitative development that is equitable and inclusive, in keeping with India’s great plural tradition. The country cannot long endure as a dual society – “Bharat” and “India”, “we” and “they”.

The Sachar Report is not the first of its kind, only the latest. From 1857, when Mughal power was finally and formally extinguished, the Muslim elite felt disempowered and experienced symptoms of withdrawal, that men like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan sought to dispel through modern education. But the community turned inward and thereby lost its competitive edge. The result was reflected in Sir William Hunter’s 1870 Report on “Our Indian Musalmans”.

This revealed the marginalisation of the Muslim Indian in the civil services and professions. Partition dealt the community another blow, with a continuing competitive disability aggravated by positive discrimination. The Gopal Singh Commission on the status of minorities set out the dimensions of the Muslim handicap in the economic and social life of the nation in the 1980s.

Little has changed since then, sporadic efforts to correct lags and biases being neutralised by the growth of the Hindu right and the stereotyping of Muslims as covert Pakistanis and terrorists in the context of Kashmir and international developments. Rath-Ayodhya politics, cynically played and climaxing in the Gujarat carnage, as much as vote-bank politics on the other side combined with jehadi outrages have further vitiated the atmosphere. None of this, however, detracts from the need to make good the “rights” and “dignity” deficit against the dalits, tribals, Muslims and other disadvantaged segments of the population, including women.

The Sachar Report must not only be debated but acted upon earnestly and urgently to correct a whole array of economic and social indicators. This is a national imperative as much as addressing the deplorable condition of dalit and tribal India. The Sachar Committee has at least reported. But the reports of the Scheduled Castes Commission are not up-to-date and have not been presented to Parliament in time, on the plea that the government is preparing corresponding action-taken reports.

These are long overdue in gross infringement of constitutional deadlines. Strangely, neither the media nor the parliamentarians have questioned this persistent dereliction. Nor have governors been assiduous in overseeing
the Fifth Schedule (tribal) areas in their charge and reporting on them as constitutionally enjoined. None has questioned this callous neglect.These are serious gaps in national governance and it is a pity that instrumentalities like the National Integration Council and Inter-State Council have not been more purposefully used to goad and monitor action.

If today the nation bewails what has come to be called as Left Wing Extremism and is paying a heavy price in blood and treasure in combating it, it is because of years of wilful neglect despite warnings. Both State and society have also been tardy or even inimical towards social reform.

Political and economic reforms have at least been brought forward and pushed, howsoever desultorily, from time to time and some results have been achieved.

This is not the case with social reform where the record is abysmal, with the State backtracking for fear of a populist backlash when not pandering to feudal and obscurantist elements. The writing is on the wall. Tens
of thousands are on the march – demanding dignity. The gun cannot be a default option.


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