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How Capitalism Is Undermining the Indian Caste System
By Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar of Cato.
"Karl Marx was wrong about many things but right about one thing:
the revolutionary way capitalism attacks and destroys feudalism. As I
explain in a new study,
in India, the rise of capitalism since the economic reforms of 1991
has also attacked and eroded casteism, a social hierarchy that placed
four castes on top with a fifth caste—dalits—like dirt beneath the feet
of others. Dalits, once called untouchables, were traditionally denied
any livelihood save virtual serfdom to landowners and the filthiest,
most disease-ridden tasks, such as cleaning toilets and handling dead
humans and animals. Remarkably, the opening up of the Indian economy has
enabled dalits to break out of their traditional low occupations and
start businesses. The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(DICCI) now boasts over 3,000 millionaire members. This revolution is
still in its early stages, but is now unstoppable.
Milind Kamble, head of DICCI, says capitalism has been the key to
breaking down the old caste system. During the socialist days of India’s
command economy, the lucky few with industrial licenses ran virtual
monopolies and placed orders for supplies and logistics entirely with
members of their own caste. But after the 1991 reforms opened the
floodgates of competition, businesses soon discovered that to survive,
they had to find the most competitive inputs. What mattered was the
price of your supplier, not his caste.
Many tasks earlier done in-house were contracted out for efficiency,
and this opened new spaces that could be filled by new entrepreneurs,
including dalits. DIOCCI members had a turnover of half a billion
dollars in 2014 and aim to double it within five years. Kamble says
dalits have ceased to be objects of pity and are becoming objects of
envy. They are no longer just job-seekers, they are now job creators.
Even in rural areas, dalits have increasingly moved up the income and
social ladders in the last two decades. One survey in the state of
Uttar Pradesh shows the proportion of dalits owning brick houses is up
from 38 percent to 94 percent, the proportion running their own
businesses is up from 6 percent to 36.7 percent, and the proportion
owning cell phones is up from zero to one-third. Some former serfs have
now become bosses. A rising proportion have become land-owners, and
sometimes hire upper-caste workers. Even more revolutionary, say dalits,
is the change in their social status. Once they were virtually bonded
laborers, and could not eat or drink with the upper castes. Today the
bonded labor system is almost gone, and dalits operate restaurants at
which upper castes eat and drink. They remain relatively poor and
discriminated against, but economic reform since 1991 has revolutionized
their social and economic status."
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