Order of Capitalism
By Chandrabhan Prasad
With due regards to the reason deficient Left/Right intelligentsia, Capitalism is not just about exploitation and wealth accumulation. Capitalist exploitation can be emancipatory as well. And Capitalism, in fact, puts wealth in circulation. Views such as these can be endlessly debated without ever achieving a consensus.
What, however, remains least debated is the social order Capitalism creates and how, for that, strangulates the regime of prejudices? In India particularly can caste and Capitalism go together? Arguably, Capitalism can reproduce caste with all its hierarchical characteristics, only to fit into the aspirations of the caste Capitalists. Mandating the above extremity as the possible truth, the issue however remains open for a new debate. The probability that Capitalism must reproduce caste, the Capitalism prima fascia thus, turns into an anti-thesis of the caste order. In other words, the Caste Capitalists with all their temptations of retaining caste-hierarchies can't go with the original Caste Order. The duplicated edition of the Caste Order would loose its originality.
The Capitalistic Order transforms the psyche of societies, and the mad rush for money begins. In that madness, many a prejudices would wither away on their own. In that sense, the Capitalism becomes a social activist, more powerful and effective than the activism mounted on men and women.
India's social degradation is instinctively linked to social-occupations. The social hierarchies are intrinsically tied with levels of degradation or salutations assented to different occupations. Citizens are born in occupational categories, as classes of citizens are born into Caste categories. There has not been a Caste without an occupational identity, and vice versa. It is this lethal Caste-Occupation inter-connectivity with has held caste system for ages. Can the Capitalism therefore, crack that age old Caste-Occupation inter-connectivity?
Occupations such as priesthood and scavenging have been in all the civilisations. In India however, the priest is revered, and the scavenger despised. This has been India's tyrannical social tragedy. To undo that, the activism mounted on men and women would require recreating a new social context where children of the priests could become scavengers, and children of scavengers, priests. That didn't happen and can never happen under agrarianism.
The Capitalism is now doing what many a great reformers failed in. Brahmins in Lucknow are now prepared to take up jobs - reserved for the impure. According to an ANI report of 6,000 candidates who had applied for sweepers jobs with Lucknow Municipality, 1,607 were Brahmins. "We need jobs. There is so much unemployment in the country that people want jobs irrespective of the fact whether they should or should not do as per the caste system," said Rajendra Shukla, a Brahman candidate.
Suman K Jha's ground breaking feature-article on Dalit entrepreneurs (The Week, May 28/2006), a must read. He in his article has profiled Hari Krishna Pippal, a Dalit who owns a state-of-the-art Hospital in Agra, and employs many a Brahman Doctors. "Every thing is fine, apart from the fact that we have to report to a Chamar", say the doctors in hushed tones.
The doctors' "Hushed Tones" sum up the debate. But, compulsions to work under a Dalit employer is ordered by Capitalism. The Capitalism therefore, without any mandate - self regulated or imposed, on its own, disturbs the caste generated occupational hierarchies.
The Capitalism thus, is not only about money or business. Capitalism engineers industrialisation, which in turn, produces urbanisation. As the experiences show, Socialism retarded industrialisation in the former USSR, and East Europe. China's re-industrialisation occurring with the introduction of Capitalism. Capitalism thus, is also a Social Order. As a new Social Order, the Capitalism has to replace the older Order, which nothing but the Caste Order.
The question however, remains: how to produce these Pippals. The American model of diversity seems to be the surest answer.
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