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Tribalism by Ashok Malik The Gujjars want to be declared a Scheduled Tribe. How, if at all, can this be done? And what does the Constitution and what do past precedents from Rajasthan say? Ashok Malik and Kumar Uttam find the answers They're squatting on train tracks, disrupting traffic and commerce and, by collecting in the heat of the Rajasthan summer, creating a potential health and hygiene crisis for themselves. Yet, the Gujjars are not giving up. While the community leadership has finally agreed to talk to the Rajasthan Government, it is adamant that its basic demand must be met -- Gujjars must be recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST). Gujjars, of course, are recognised as one of the Other Backward Classes/ Castes (OBCs) in Rajasthan. Yet, ever since the numerically larger and socially better-off Jats were also given OBC status in the State a few years ago, the Gujjars felt they were being squeezed out. As such, they sought strategic "demotion" to ST status. This posed two challenges to the Vasundhara Raje Government. First, the Meenas, currently the dominant ST community, certainly did not welcome the idea of more competition for jobs and education seats reserved for STs. Second, the Constitution provides for a well-defined route to identify STs. To bypass that method is impossible. To accept the Gujjars as STs in the face of set benchmarks would be not just illegal, but could open a Pandora's Box. So what can Vasundhara and her Government do? Can the Centre entirely wash its hands of the business? In the beginning To understand the dimensions of the current political stand-off, it is necessary to delve into history. Article 342 of the Constitution empowers the President of India, in consultation with the Governor of the given State, to designate certain tribes or tribal communities (or identifiable groups within these communities) as ST. Following this procedure, the list of STs for Rajasthan was notified by the Government of India in September 1976. Twelve groups were included -- Bhil, Bhil Meena, Damor, Dhanka, Garasia, Kathodi, Kokna, Koli Dhor, Meena, Naikda, Patelia and Seharia. No amendments have been made to Rajasthan's ST list in the past 30 years, since the 1976 notification. Rajasthan provides for 12 per cent reservations for STs. On their part, Scheduled Castes (SCs) have a 16 per cent quota. After the recommendations of the Mandal Commission were put into effect, in the mid-1990s, 21 per cent was earmarked for OBCs. Other numbers are more telling. While there are 12 communities recognised as STs, 59 castes are deemed SCs and 82 castes/ communities make up the OBC category. What does this imply? While population figures for each caste/ community vary extraordinarily, the fact is there is more competition among the OBCs -- about four castes/ communities per one per cent quota -- than among the STs -- one tribe/ tribal community per one per cent quota. As such, if the Gujjars succeed in getting themselves redefined as STs, other OBCs or even SCs are likely to take their cue and demand to be called STs as well. This would make a mockery of how STs are meant to be identified. The tribal template To be successfully considered for ST status, a tribal community has to conform to five sets of characteristics. It has to: Provide indications of primitive/ aboriginal traits in its lifestyle Have a distinctive culture Live in relative geographical isolation Be diffident or shy in contact with the larger community/ society Be "backward" -- or unprivileged in terms of educational, socio-economic or human indices What happens if a State Government wants to amend its list of STs? For instance, what is the method the Rajasthan Government must adopt if it wants to declare a 13th community as worthy of ST status? Any such proposal must be mooted by the State Government. Next, it must be recommended by the Registrar General of India. The Registrar General also doubles as the Census Commissioner of India. His office is responsible for population enumeration and is the national repository of demographic data. At the third stage, the proposal has to be approved by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Now the proposal moves into the ambit of the Central Government proper. It is sent for inter-ministerial consultation and discussed by the Union Cabinet. Once the Cabinet approves it, it goes to Parliament in the form of a Bill. After the Bill is passed by both Houses of Parliament, the necessary notification takes place -- and a new community is accorded ST status in the given State. Mindful of the delicate nature of traditional tribal societies, the process of amending or changing a State's ST list gives the local administration comparatively little autonomy. It is easier, for instance, to include new communities in the OBC list, as many Governments have done in many States, usually in response to election-time demands. Understandably then, lobbying for OBC status in a particular State has traditionally been a State-level issue. Lobbying for ST status in a particular State has, however, seen a fair amount of lobbying in New Delhi as well, as the concurrence of the Union Government is necessary. Meanwhile, in Rajasthan Over the years, a number of communities in Rajasthan petitioned the Centre, asking for inclusion in the State ST list. This was recognition of the Union Government's role in the process. It was also politically astute since the same party, the Congress, ruled in New Delhi and in Jaipur for over three decades after Independence. In 1981, Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Shiv Charan Mathur was the Congress Chief Minister in Rajasthan. The Government of India forwarded a list of communities to the State Government. At various points, these communities -- Banjaras, Gujjars, Lohars, Rabaris, Raikas and a few others -- had requested inclusion in the ST list. The Rajasthan Government's Social Welfare Department studied the representations. It recommended that Banjaras and Gadia Lohars be included in the ST list, but was categorical that Gujjars did not qualify: "These people are basically milk sellers and keep cattle. They are financially well-off and suffer from no shyness of contact with people of other castes. They also do not have any primitive traits." Consequently, the Mathur Government recommended that Banjaras and Gadia Lohars be deemed STs. A formal letter was sent to the Centre. It was, however, ignored. The Centre kept the request pending. It was only in October 1999, just after the BJP-led NDA Government was re-elected, that the Centre got back. It told the Rajasthan Government that the Registrar General of India had studied the 1981 recommendation but said that the Banjaras were economically and socially too advanced to qualify for ST status. On the Gadia Lohars, the letter was silent. It is obvious that if the Rajasthan Government surrenders to the Gujjars and recommends them for ST status, it will have a Banjara and Gadia Lohar revolt on its hands. As they see it, they have been kept hanging for 27 years. The Gujjar unrest In December 1999, the Centre sent another letter to the Rajasthan Government, forwarding names of more castes/ communities that had sought inclusion in the State's SC and ST lists. In March 2000, the State Government wrote to its District Collectors asking them to get back with factual and qualitative information on the status of the concerned communities in their districts. The Gujjars were among these communities. The reports from the District Collectors were slow to arrive. In 2005, the Gujjars began resorting to demonstrations. The State Government set up a sub-committee under its Home Minister and urgently sought the reports from the District Collectors. On May 27, 2007, the sub-committee met to consider the district reports. It was found that feedback from 26 districts was in order but six District Collectors had not furnished complete reports. On May 28, 2007, these six District Collectors were told to fill the gaps urgently. It was too late; the next day Gujjar mobs went on the rampage, killing two policemen. Twenty-three civilians also died in the violence -- and the story continues. Vasundhara's options With elections due in December, how Vasundhara Raje tackles the Gujjar rebellion could well decide her future. Legal opinion -- including from the Justice Jasraj Chopra Committee that was set up in June 2007 -- has more or less made it clear that the Gujjar demand for ST status is not lawfully or sociologically tenable. Politically too, Vasundhara and the BJP are hoping to consolidate the Meenas, the ST community that will be most affected if the Gujjars are allowed to eat into their quota. For the Congress, the Meenas have been an important constituency -- though some of them migrated to the BJP in 2003 -- and that is why that party too is wary of openly siding with the Gujjars. The Meenas constitute 15 per cent of Rajasthan, while the Gujjars are only five per cent of the population. Led by the late Rajesh Pilot, the Gujjars had come under the Congress umbrella. Now, Sachin Pilot has inherited his father's mantle. Yet, the Pilots have been recipients of Meena votes as well, and the Congress is as worried by the prospect of caste polarisation as the BJP. Interestingly, Pilot's constituency -- Dausa, just off the Delhi-Jaipur highway -- has just been reserved for STs. As such, Sachin Pilot will have to find himself a new seat for the 2009 Lok Sabha election, unless the Gujjars, by some miracle, are classified as STs! Against this backdrop, with the Gujjars missing robust political support, Vasundhara can perhaps buy time by promising to consider the Gujjar demand in the light of the Centre's letter of December 1999, and after perusing the consolidated reports of all 32 District Collectors who have studied representations for inclusion in SC and ST lists. This will give the Gujjar leadership an honourable exit route and postpone the problem. It is, of course, possible that the Gujjars will reject the option and insist on ST status here and now. Should that happen, Rajasthan is set for a hot, volatile rest of 2008.
