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Caste and Cultural societies

Caste and Cultural societies

By Jamal Hamid Saleh

Cultural societies/clubs are present in university spaces with the objective of "contributing to the wholesome development of students as complete human beings", as a space where students can engage with pursuits that are not strictly academic in nature by organising various activities like plays, bookfair, and so on. A space where on the basis of shared interests and likeness, students can form communities and interact with each other, increasing the vibrancy of the campus. This view is what these societies ought to be and what their roles should be, though in practice this is far from the truth, the questions of for whom do these societies exist, who are allowed in, who the decision-makers are, to be asked and addressed. The wider societal cleavages, socio-economic inequalities are also reflected in the composition and working of these societies. The essay tries to argue that these societies, in many cases, have become mechanisms through which privilege (caste, class etc) is maintained and propagated.

The mere mention of caste in this context, is often enough to attract a barrage of accusations of creating division, casteism, not respecting merit and hard work etc. similar to the ones faced when trying to raise such issues in any public forum. The changes in the student composition of educational institutions had led to the search for alternative mechanisms that can be used to maintain privilege, it is no surprise given the stranglehold over 'culture' and the vast amount of cultural capital possessed by the upper castes, the mechanism, in this case also was through cultural activities.

Recruitment and Leadership

The recruitment of new members to these societies are the first step in maintaining this bastion, the criteria for selecting new members are very vague and subjective. The process lacking transparency and accountability. Some societies often require or give preference to prior training, such as in music, dance etc. most recruitment process, if not all have interviews, this given the lack of oversight leads to the entire process being turned into gate-keeping process that leads to exclusion of students belonging to marginalised communities.

The leadership of these societies almost invariably comprises students with upper caste, upper class background with private education. A limited survey of societies in educational institutions in Delhi led to this conclusion. This is also a direct consequence of the recruitment process that already excludes students from marginalised communities.

Opposition to Affirmative Action

The opposition to affirmative action stems from arguments that can be broadly classified into three categories:

The first category bases their arguments on the lack of resources at their disposal to 'help' students from marginalised communities, this line of argument is inherently problematic as it is paternalistic, patronising and stems from a latent sense of superiority. It sees affirmative action as charity rather than seeing it claiming one's rights under law.

The second category bases their arguments on their organisational structure being inclusive but students from marginalised communities not joining. This is ironic as ineffectual measures and policies are the same as absent measures and policies. What does not work has to be fixed.

The third bases their arguments on art (kala) being inclusive, therefore anything related to art is by default inclusive, this argument can be countered by referring to Arthur Danto's institutional theory of art, any object is only considered to be art if the 'artworld' decides it is art.

The Way Forward

Now the question is what is to be done to address this issue, the first step is to conduct surveys to ascertain the socio-economic composition of these cultural societies, these should be conducted under the aegis of the administration, officially as a social audit. And this data should be made available in the public sphere. Independent observers from students and other stakeholders of the educational institution should be appointed to ensure transparency and accountability in the recruitment process. A post for implementing DEI measures and for affirmative action should be set-up in the societies and regular open-hearings held. An objective criterion put in place for recruitment and clear reasons to be given for non-admittance. These are some measures that can be put in place to ensure proper representation and leading these societies promoting holistic development of students but also fostering the ideals of equality, egalitarianism and social justice.

Jamal Hamid Saleh

Jamal Hamid, am currently pursuing BA(H) Economics from Dr. B R Ambedkar University Delhi. I have been actively involved in making educational spaces more inclusive and combating forms of discrimination present there. I am interested in questions of Development, Institutions and their relations to Justice social, economic and political.

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