Book Review: Suryakant Waghmore,Civility against Caste: Dalit Politics and Citizenship in Western India

This book is a vital contribution to the literature on civil society and caste. Importantly, it is a timely and a much-needed nuanced analysis of the dynamics of civil society, and the challenge to caste hierarchies by particular Dalit movements and parties.

A recent report submitted by the Intelligence Bureau criticizes non-governmental organizations (NGOs), specifically those funded by foreign agencies, for working against national interests. This book criticizes arguments that believe in considering everything foreign, or rather ‘western’, as evil. It moves beyond the dichotomies of local against global, state against civil society, and more importantly, caste against civil society.

Waghmore employs a multi-sited ethnography of the Manavi Hakk Abhiyan (MHA—Human Rights Campaign) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at three levels: the activists/leaders of these movements; participants/supporters/volunteers; and the network of movements. This multi-sited ethnographic approach gives the reader a much closer understanding of the processes and dynamism at the very local level.

The MHA is a local movement organization that has played a critical role in raising awareness amongst the Dalits, particularly landless Mangs, whereas the BSP is a national political party known for its emphasis on Dalit politics. The ethnography focuses on the Beed district of Marathwada, and on Marathwada, because the political and economic deprivation of this region merged locally with traditional hierarchies of caste. This makes it largely representative of the Dalit situation in Maharashtra, allowing the argument to travel beyond the immediate context.

Waghmore begins by critically problematizing common understandings of civil society that are largely restricted to elites, and which revolve around non-ethnic identities. He also critically explores a narrow definition of civil society as a space against the state, free of active party or electoral politics. Waghmore clearly shows the limits of Partha Chatterjee’s concept of ‘political society’ for capturing the complex challenge of civility (it involves treating others as, at least, equal in dignity, never as inferior in dignity [p. 4]) and civil society in India. In contrast, in order to illustrate the emancipatory potential of civil society, the author includes, within its definition, associations that are ethnic in nature (for instance, the MHA), and also those engaged in active party politics (such as the BSP). Quoting BSP founder Kanshiram (p. 1), the author argues that the strategies adopted by post-Ambedkar Dalit movements involve avoiding sharp boundaries between ethnic/caste and institutions and organizations of the state and politics in order to radically transform the unequal character of Indian society and democracy.

The author moves on to trace the trajectory of the history of Dalit movements in Maharashtra, particularly Marathwada. He creates a framework to further explain the two case studies of the MHA and BSP. Scholars have often highlighted the fragmented nature of Dalit politics in Maharashtra in the post-Ambedkar period. However, while acknowledging the factionalization, the author makes the case for Dalit agency. Waghmore’s active participation with the two movements at the very local level helps him understand the complex nature of Dalit participation, which is often overlooked by the macro-level survey perspective.

Moving on, the author emphasizes the importance of public spaces in civil society. Waghmore clearly breaks the dichotomy of the public and private spheres by reflecting on caste hierarchies. He highlights how the local dominant castes consider the public within its private ‘cultural’ realm, and pursue violence if moral codes are broken by assertive Dalits. This points towards an understanding that sees increasing violence against Dalits as a sign of their assertiveness rather than solely seeing it as repression.

Subsequently, the author engages in the debate on the vulnerability posed by the internationally-funded NGOs. Through his case study of MHA, he critically explores the role of NGOs in resolving the land redistribution question for landless Dalits. His close involvement in the field makes him highlight the complexity of these processes. Far from dismissing the role of NGOs as de-politicizing or anti-national, he argues that local organizations, such as the MHA, are able to vernacularize their mission. In other words, they manage to effectively negotiate their local demands with their foreign donors. This complex understanding effectively counters those who consider local Dalit activists as docile agents who are easily mesmerized by foreign donors.

Waghmore further helps to understand the complexity of anti-caste dynamics in postcolonial India. In discussing the mobilization techniques of the BSP, the author highlights how the party makes use of caste identities. He shows how the party is trying to build an identity of ‘Bahujan’ (‘majority’) by uniting all those communities that experienced (to a varying degree) exploitation by upper castes. The author refers to this process as caste substantialization; however, he quickly underlines the difficulty of turning it into reality. Similarly, he argues that this does not particularly involve annihilation of caste, but its strategic use in fighting for equality and justice in a deeply hierarchical society. Christophe Jaffrelot refers to this process as caste ethnification or ethnicization.

Consequently, Waghmore further explores the complexity entrenched in this process of caste substantialization or ethnification. The run-up to the 2009 general elections give him the perfect opportunity to explore the process in further detail. Being a participant observer in the BSP campaign before the election, he is able to underline the challenges in forming a consolidated ‘Bahujan’ identity. Simultaneously, he also underlines the heterogeneous nature of the Dalit socio-political identity, which makes the ‘Bahujan’ project a distant ideal. Hence, Dalit political parties, like the BSP, have had to recruit other social groups within their fold despite their unreliable nature. According to him, this weakens their movement, and undermines the transformative potential of democracy in India.

Through an ethnographic approach, the author successfully draws attention to the complexity of anti-caste challenges and active Dalit agency. Indeed, the book goes beyond traditional dichotomies such as the local versus the global, the civil versus the political, and the ascriptive versus the non-ascriptive. Civility against Caste provides a fresh and critical work on the dynamism of the caste system and its innovative uses in Dalit politics in post-colonial India.