Bitter conflicts and broken promises

This book rivetingly tells the story of the cruel reality faced by so-called untouchable castes in India, and simultaneously narrates the story of the ordinary and remarkable lives of the Dalit men and women. The author rightly notes that Pariahs were ‘part of one of the most dehumanizing social orders the world has ever known’. By exploring the history of the ‘Pariah problem’, Viswanath shows how the present debates and discourses regarding caste are not only informed but often shaped by the past.
The period that this book covers is roughly three decades, i.e., 1890 to 1920. The ‘pariah problem’ and debates concerning this problem was articulated by the colonial state, the missionaries, and native elites and Indian social reformers. Digging deep into the archives, missionary records and contemporary newspapers, Viswanath not only analyzed the background and politico-economic context of the ‘Pariah problem’, but its broader implications and ramifications for the Dalit community and post-colonial Indian society.

Caste-State nexus

Examining the alliance between British and Indian officials on one hand and native high-caste employers of the Pariah labor on the other, Viswanath termed it the ‘caste-state nexus’. In fact, it was this nexus which was the most pertinent answer to the question of why the ‘Pariah problem’ remains unsolved. It is in this background she examines the complex role that the colonial state and its officials played in the continuation of the agrarian slavery. She defines this slavery as ‘the reproduction of accustom rules in which the inequality between masters and slave was mitigated by personal ties’ (p. 5). She argued that the difference between the Dalits and the others was rooted in the political economy of production.
There were officials like C M Mullaly and J H A Tremenheere, who recorded the acute misery of the Pariahs, but they were hushed-up by their superiors. Even the ‘welfarist’ spirit of the Raj towards the so-called untouchables came to a sudden halt, keeping in mind the colonial state’s concern for tax revenues. Viswanath pointed out that the bondage system, which had deprived the Pariahs of any alternative livelihood, was based on the alliance of local powers and state authorities. She delineates the multiple ways in which the lives of most subordinated elements of the native society were molded by operations of the state.    
While slavery was abolished in 1833 in other parts of the British Empire and a decade later in India, the agrarian slavery in India continued. Faced with this dilemma that the ‘Pariah problem’ had created, the Colonial officials and their Indian counterparts both sought to define the relationship between the Pariahs and their masters as ‘mutually beneficial’. Reading against the grain, Viswanth explodes the familiar trope of ‘mutually beneficial’ relationships.
After the Revolt of 1857, the Queen’s Proclamation (1858) was issued that laid the policy of ‘religious neutrality’, which in turn played an important role in the making and persistence of the ‘Pariah problem’, because by this time the view that caste discrimination was sanctioned by religion held its ground. Though legislative reforms opened up some space for Dalits in legislative councils and they are represented, in their daily life they were denied of most basic rights, and had no access to public goods. To the extent that they had no ownership over the sites of their houses (ceris), and whenever colonial government took any step to provide them ownership, it was vehemently protested by mirasdars (who under the traditional agrarian system had control over land, laborers, and irrigation facilities). But, Viswanth also shows that the Depressed Classes in Tamil country responded to state welfare schemes introduced by colonial state.

‘Pariah’ and Christian Missionaries

To study the rural caste relations, Viswanth explores the rich corpus of missionary writings, which are so far explored only to write history of conversions, proselytization, missionaries, and religious history etc. In fact the part concerning the ‘Pariah problem’ and the missionaries is most interesting. She argues that the initiative for conversion to Christianity came not from missionaries but from the Dalits. The issue of conversion further brings the discourse of the Pariah ‘authenticity’ to light. She agrees with the fact that the missionaries played a significant role in forming the image of Pariahs in the eyes of the colonial state. But she also reasons that while the missionaries preached ‘equality before God’, at the same time they were opposed to social equality, encouraged the maintenance of ‘natural hierarchies’, and worked hard to suppress Dalit insubordination against caste employers. While reading missionaries’ descriptions of the practices of Pariahs, which they viewed as ‘low’ and ‘degrading’, the reader is also reminded of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, though this belongs to a different political-cultural context.      

Past and Present of the ‘Pariah Problem’

Late 1910s also witnessed a phase in the Indian political scenario in which discussions around the question of public purposes and public goods was transformed by the notion of public opinion. It was also the period when the ‘Pariah problem’ was limited by the colonial officials to the realm of domestic and social, and it was argued that the ‘Pariah problem’ has nothing to do with the realm of the imperial and political. Viswanath justly argues that the story of the ‘Pariah problem’ is ‘the story of its containment’ (p.241). She cites many examples to depict how political, scholarly and legislative responses to the misery of Dalits in the present day are often shaped by the debates of a not so distant past. Indian social reformers, Viswanath argues, downplayed the legislative politics and structural reforms like land reforms, and gave priority to the social reform to overcome the plight of the Dalits and severe form of inequality faced by them. It was the ‘socialization’ and ‘spiritualization’ of the whole issue, which obstructed the path of structural reforms. I wish that this book could get a South Asian edition as well.

Shubhneet Kaushik, PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Centre for Historical Studies (shubhneetkaushik@gmail.com)

Citation: Kaushik, S. 2016. Review of  Viswanath, R. 2014. The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India, posted to New Asia Books on 22-1-2016, http://newbooks.asia/review/bitter-conflicts-and-broken-promises