By Mrs. Asha Das, Member-Secretary

The arguments and justifications put forth during the visits, meetings and reports etc. mentioned above in favour and against conferment of SC status for persons of SC origin converted to Christianity and Islam were as follows: 

In Favour of Conferment of SC Status
(i) Even though Christianity and Islam do not recognise caste system or untouchability, the ground reality in India is different. Persons of Scheduled Caste origin converted to Christianity/Islam continue to be subjected to disabilities, including untouchability associated with caste and occupation, as they continue to be part and parcel of the Indian society.
(ii) It is not only the society that discriminates against them (inasmuch as such converts are not treated by other members of their own religion or by members of other religions as their equals), they are being discriminated against even by their own religious institutions like church or the mosque; the manifestation of discriminations being separate churches/ mosques or separate prayer halls or prayer timings in the same church/mosque for them and earmarked areas for the burial of their dead.
(iii) Denial of Scheduled Caste status to them despite untouchability related practices being enforced against them or atrocities committed against them deprives them of the protection of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
(iv) Despite no visible change in their social or economic status as a result of conversion, the converts are deprived of the bene.ts of reservation, support and development schemes formulated for their counterparts in Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist religions. This amounts to discrimination by the State on the ground of religion. 
(v) Exclusion of Christianity and Islam from the purview of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 is discriminatory and unconstitutional being violative of the provisions of Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Articles 14,15, 16 and 25 of the Constitution. Change of religion being a strictly personal matter, such change should not deprive persons of Scheduled Caste origin, protection and benefits available to similarly placed persons in other religions.
(vi) Although Sikhism and Buddhism do not recognise caste system like Christianity and Islam, both Sikhs and Buddhists have been given the status of Scheduled Castes by amending the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950. There is no reason as to why similar dispensation cannot be extended to similarly placed persons who profess Christianity or Islam. That this is not being done is discrimination on the ground of religion that is prohibited by the Constitution.
(vii) Such of the persons of Scheduled Caste origin converted to Christianity/Islam who are included in the list of OBCs should be de-listed there from and be given status of Scheduled Castes. Dissent Note on Conferment of Scheduled Caste Status on SC Converts to Christianity and Islam Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities

Against Conferment of SC Status
(i) The very basis of identification of a certain class of people as Scheduled Caste is social, educational and economic backwardness arising from the age-old traditional practice of untouchability that .owed from a rigid caste system in Hindu religion.
(ii) Persons professing Christianity or Islam were not treated as depressed class/ scheduled caste by the British in pre-Independent India or by the Indian Government after independence. The status of depressed classes/Scheduled Castes was an inseparable concomitant of Hindu religion in British and Independent India. The Scheduled Caste status was accorded to persons professing Sikh or Buddhist religions for the reason that they were basically sects of Hindu religion rather than being independent religions like Christianity or Islam.
(iii) Persons of Scheduled Caste origin converted to Christianity/Islam who are socially and educationally backward are included in the list of OBCs and are benefiting from reservation in services/ educational institutions in favour of OBCs and from other schemes and institutional support systems formulated for OBCs.
(iv) Apart from the bene.ts available to socially and educationally backward amongst Christians and Muslims as OBCs, they are also bene.ting from the constitutional, legal and institutional protection/arrangements as members of minority communities.
(v) Presently, reservation is available for SCs and STs @ 15 percent and 7.5 per cent respectively although, as per 2001 Census, their share in population is much more. Grant of SC status to converts to Christianity/ Islam would, therefore, adversely affect the benefits available to Scheduled Castes in the matter of reservation in services/posts and educational institutions and related matters.

In order to appreciate the reasons for separate delineation of SCs, it is important that the historical background and constitutional & legal position with reference to the same is examined.

Scheduled Castes: Historical Background and Constitutional & Legal Position

In order to understand who the Scheduled Castes are, it is important to go into its genesis. The term Scheduled Caste appeared for the .rst time in the Government of India Act, 1935. The Government of India Scheduled Castes Order 1936 was issued under this Act. Paragraph 3 of this Order issued on 30th April, 1936 provides that No Indian Christian shall be deemed to be a member of Scheduled Caste. The concern for selected Hindu castes, however, dates back to 1880 when Sir Denzil Ibbetson, the then Census Commissioner in British India, classified certain marginalised caste groups involved in diverse occupations into 17 groups. However, when apprehensions were raised regarding their Hindu background, more stringent criteria for identifying those who were 100 percent Hindus was adopted. The criteria for identifying them was based on relationship of the castes with the Brahmins; their authority to worship God, recognise Vedas; entry into temples for them and whether or not their touch and proximity caused pollution. It is obvious that even as early as 1880 the identfication of depressed classes was from within the Hindu religious community. An elaborate attempt was made by the Census Commissioner J.S.Hatton in Census Report 1931 to specify criteria for identifying the untouchable groups. He proposed a series of steps, which revolved around the incidence of disabilities arising out of untouchability amongst Hindus. 

The very basis for inclusion of certain castes in the Schedule to the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order 1936, and subsequently in the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 which was based on the earlier Order was the traditional practice of untouchability that had plagued Hindu society for hundreds of years resulting in social, educational and economic backwardness of such castes. Parameters or criteria applied by the British authorities for identifying depressed classes, which, later, came to be known as Scheduled Castes largely related to the practices and prejudices arising from untouchability. The phenomenon of untouchability in this country is fundamentally of religious and political origin. Untouchability is a part of the Hindu religious system. Thus religion was the basis for inclusion of castes in the list of Scheduled Castes in 1936 as also in 1950.

In the year 1956, an amendment was made in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 and the Hindu and the Sikh religions were placed on the same footing with regard to specification of Scheduled Castes. In the year 1990, another amendment was made in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Buddhist religion was also brought under the realm of Scheduled Castes.

Conferment of Scheduled Castes Status on Scheduled Caste Converts to Christianity and Islam

Admitting, for arguments sake, that persons of scheduled caste origin converted to Islam/ Christianity face discrimination within their own community, a pertinent question that needs to be answered is whether the discrimination or the disabilities/handicaps arising there from is comparable in their oppressive severity to the discrimination faced by depressed classes in Hindu religion. Separate enclosures in prayer halls of Churches or in burial grounds or the reluctance on the part of certain sections within their community to socialise with converts, though reprehensible, do not appear to match the oppression and consequential disability that has to be braided by depressed classes or untouchables in Hindu religion. There is also no documented research and precise authenticated information available to establish that the disabilities and handicaps suffered by Scheduled Caste members in the social order of its origin (Hinduism) persists with their oppressive severity in the environment of Christianity/Islam. However, studies conducted by Rev. Samuel Mateer a British Missionary in Kerala and Tamil Nadu (i.e. erstwhile Princely State of Travancore. Cochin and Madras Presidency) during his stay of over 25 years in India, and published in the form of two books titled Land of Charity and Native Life in Travancore in 1870 and 1883, respectively, show that the slave caste (the present Scheduled Castes) converted to Christianity in these States became socially, educationally and economically in a better position than their brethrens who remained in Hinduism.

Both Islam and Christianity do not accept caste system which is a basic feature of Hinduism. It may also be mentioned that discrimination on the grounds of caste/ untouchability within a religious community that does not recognise, much less sanctify, caste system calls for internal reforms within the religion and community-based interventions rather that governmental intervention for inducting them into thecaste system from which they chose tomove to an egalitarian religion.

Granting Scheduled Caste status to suchconverts by the Government may amountto formal introduction of caste system in Islam/Christianity and changing the basic tenets of the religion, which will be outside the jurisdiction of both the Parliament and the Judiciary.

In Soosai etc. vs. Union of India, the petition was disposed of by the Court on technicality rather than merit. The Court did not go into the question whether a person of scheduled caste origin converted to Christianity was entitled to the bene.ts/protection available under the Constitution to Scheduled Castes if such a person continued to be subjected to untouchability related practices despite the conversion. The petition was dismissed for the reason that no authoritative or detailed study dealing with the condition of persons converted to Christianity was placed on record.

Even though those who profess Christianity or Islam were never treated as Scheduled Caste in British India or in India after independence, efforts have been made from time to time to seek conferment of Scheduled Caste status on persons of Scheduled Caste origin professing Christianity. Private Members Bill had been moved more than once. The National Convention of the Parliamentary Forum of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes in 1992 also passed a resolution for extending reservation facility to persons of Scheduled Caste origin to Christianity. Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order (Amendment Bill) was also prepared in 1996 though never introduced. The views of the various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments were obtained in this regard. They drew attention to the debate of the Constituent Assembly and pointed out the need for determining the precise number of persons who would be covered. The absence of any suggestion on the cut off date for determining who would benefit was also pointed out
. It was also mentioned by several States and Commissions that there was no justi.cation for including Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity in the Scheduled Castes list. There would be enormous dif.culty in identification of the original caste in the absence of authentic records. Besides, their representation in services was adequate and that they were already getting the bene.ts of reservation etc. as OBCs.
Both Islam and Christianity are religions, which originated out side India. These came from foreign lands to India along with traders, invaders and preachers/ missionaries over a period of time spanning hundreds of years and firmly established themselves as more and more indigenous people converted from their religion to Islam/ Christianity. Both are religions that do not recognise caste. It may be extremely dificult to hazard a guess about the number of the progeny of such traders/ invaders/ preachers/settlers from foreign lands and Scheduled Castes who converted in the present population of Muslims/Christians in India. What can, however, be said with an element of certainty is that a vast majority of Muslims and Christians in India today comprise of the converts and their progeny. If this hypothesis is accepted, the identification of such Muslims/ Christians who were originally of SC origin will pose many problems as no authentic records have been maintained.

It may be difficult to fault the rationale adopted during British rule, and continued after independence, behind identification of depressed classes/scheduled castes on the basis of untouchability related disabilities which were peculiar to the Hindu society, arising from a highly rigid caste system. As already mentioned, the SC Order of 1936 was based on caste and its application to the Hindu religion is apparent from the fact that paragraph 3 of the order issued on 30th April, 1936 provides clearly that No Indian Christian shall be deemed to be member of a Scheduled Caste. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 was based on the Constitution (SC) Order of 1936 and adopted the same criteria for identification of castes i.e. practices and prejudices arising from untouchability that had plagued Hindu society for centuries and had resulted in the social, educational and economic backwardness of the castes enlisted. The 1956 and 1990 amendments to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 have been justified on the ground that Sikh and Buddhist religions were primarily homegrown sects within Hindu religion rather than being independent religions in the nature of Christianity or Islam. Besides they draw support from Explanation II below Article 25 of the Constitution which provides that reference to Hindu in subclause (b) of clause(2) of Article 25 shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religion.

That non-acceptance of small family norm and abysmally low female work participation are responsible for relatively lower per capita income of the Muslim community. Both of these are controlled by the powerful clergy of the community. No amount of reservations can cure this situation. The solution lies in rescuing the community from clutches of fundamentalist scholars and Mullahs. Therefore, the Constitution should be amended to introduce af.rmative action programmes for those minorities, which are educationally backward and under represented in legislative bodies and civil services. 

The Scheduled Castes Organisations have also been demanding that if despite their request the Scheduled Caste status is given to converts to Christianity and Islam, this should not be at their cost i.e. it should not affect the reservation quota and other privileges/benefits available to them.

In view of the preceding discussion with reference to the issues mentioned in para 3 of the note my views are as follows: 
(i) There is no justification for inclusion of SC converts to Christianity or SC converts to Islam as Scheduled Castes. 
(ii) The Constitution (SC) Order 1950 issued under Article 341 of the Constitution read with Article 15(4) is religion based. Therefore, the condition of religion from para 3 of the order should not be deleted.
(iii) The ceiling of 50 percent of reservation should continue as has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
(iv) As SC converts to Christianity/Islam do not qualify for inclusion as SCs, they should continue to form part of OBCs and avail of facilities and reservations given to the OBCs until a comprehensive list of SEBs is prepared.