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Social Discrimination in India: a Case for Economic Citizenship

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Social Discrimination in India: a Case for Economic Citizenship
SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA: A CASE FOR ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP Barbara Harriss-White** and Aseem Prakash* I: Introduction Through the Constitution the Indian state promises equality to all its citizens. The various provisions of the Constitution elucidated in the chapters on Fundamental Rights (justiciable) and on Directive Principles of State Policies (non-justiciable) delineate the state’s obligation to provide equal opportunities to all its citizens in social, political and economic spheres.1 Yet the ubiquitous presence of stark inequalities continues to do offence to the idea of India visualised by the writers of the constitution. Furthermore, persistent poverty and deprivation overlap with particular castes, communities and differ between genders. Poverty and deprivations are also without shadow of doubt the result of deep rooted class structure formed over centuries. While accepting this social fact, rather than to look at class derived unequal outcomes our essay explores the reasons whereby individuals with the same endowments (assets, entitlements, rights, skills, education, experience) but differing in social group (caste, religion, gender, ethnicity etc.) command different tangible returns (income, development benefits, realised entitlements) and less tangible ones (such as dignity and respect). It is the experience of comparable endowments and widely differing treatments and outcomes that we understand as social discrimination. Social discrimination2 is necessarily an intergroup social phenomenon transcending class differentiation – visible when one or few social group(s) commands and practises social sanctions against other social group(s). For the purposes of this essay,, ‘social group’ is defined as group of individuals having a shared socio-economic history and cultural practices which not only provide them with a group identity but also distinguish them from other social groups. In other words, social and cultural norms become the basis for
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