In recent times, identity issues have had a significant influence on how conflicts arise and escalate. Identity issues are those in which collective identities such as those based on language, religion, sect, caste and tribe, assume preeminence.Identity issues are not unique to India, they are a worldwide phenomenon although they prevail in a particularly intense form in today’s India where communities based on language, religion, sect, caste and tribe have strengthened their identities. Conflicts based on such identity issues often lead to violence. A recent example is the increasing conflict generated by sections of society wanting to be counted as tribes, as evident in the agitation by the Gujjar community and its opposition by the Meena community in Rajasthan. Ideally, such issues should be adjudicated by the institutional mechanisms provided for the purpose such as the National commissions for Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes and the backward classes and the decisions of these commissions should be final and accepted by all concerned.
Gujjar or Gurjars — a farming and trading community — are classified by the government as an "Other Backward Class". They are part of the caste system that does not face as much exclusion or discrimination in society. The Gurjar community feels it has been economically and educationally left behind and it wants to be reclassified as a Scheduled Tribe. They demand scheduled tribe status so that they can qualify for government jobs and state college seats reserved solely for such groups. The Indian government has put in place an affirmative action plan that sets aside job and educational quotas for the disadvantaged groups that it classifies as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. These tribes, the government believes, need extra assistance to overcome centuries of neglect. Gujjars or Gurjars basically nomadic tribe who are believed as ancient immigrants with relations to Huns and have mostly employed themselves in occupation of animal husbandry, from Himalayan footholds to plains mostly concentrating themselves in the North West region of India. With time they even had few kingdoms in various parts of north India at different times in history .They have been in all Varna with some at par with Kshatriya varna and while few have been in Brahmin varna like gaur and some have been even placed in Shudra varna. Various places in India and Pakistan like Gujarat in India and Gujrat and Gujranwala in Pakistan shows their deep influence in Indian subcontinent.
Meena or Mina another predominant caste in western India , whose correct origin is unknown as to they were indigenous or migrated tribe believe their lineage from matasya avtar of lord Vishnu .They are believed to be original rulers of mataysya kingdom (now Rajasthan) but degraded in power in Rajasthan after Rajputs ,Jats and other communities takings control of kingdom and land .
The similarity between the Gujjars and the Meenas appear over the way in which the British treated them.During British rule esp. after 1857 Gujjars and Meena were listed in criminal tribes which further degraded their cause of status in society, it may be seen that both had belonged to a much higher caste order and were later relegated into Criminal Tribe during the Imperial rule later abolished by govt of India in 1952. At that time Gujjars and Meenas were almost equal in society with respect to economic and social standings in society. Initially a certain section of Meena (of Rajasthan) was given ST status in the reservation and Gujjars were later given OBC in Rajasthan and UP.
Meena who are :- The Zamindar Meena , The Chaukidar Meenas , Parihar Meenas and The Bhil Meena (Tribal). In society , Zamindar and some Chaukidaar Meenas are enjoying equal status to Kshatriya in society and were better placed than most of the Gujjars in that region. ST status was ought for tribes in Meena (Bhil Meena of southern Rajasthan of Udaipur belt) but due to political game got extended to the whole society. So in subsequent years Meena got better advantages than Gujjars in Rajasthan , so Gujjars started feeling that they were at a disadvantage and Meenas were enjoying better advantage of govt services and education and taking the lions share of ST pie .This entire vote bank politics game called "Reservations" is dangerous. The short sighted politicians have failed to see that they are playing with fire in enforcing and supporting reservations because it is a great dividing force and would divide the country on caste and creed basis. Gujjars have been recognized as ST in Himachal Pradesh and J&K, but not in other States, underlying the geographical differences. Despite their recent fury, there has been no attempt on the part of their leaders to articulate their demand for inclusion in the ST list, or how they qualify the criteria.
The ongoing agitation by the Gujjar community in Rajasthan is a reminder of the dangers of playing competitive caste politics. The immediate provocation for the agitation, which has erupted time and again on the reservation issue over the past five years, was the State government's decision to recruit people for 100,000 posts — jobs to which the Gujjars, who have been demanding a five per cent reservation, want the quota extended. Although both the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party declare their commitment to giving them a five per cent quota in government jobs and educational institutions, the problem lies in giving effect to this. At one level there is the legal impediment, something the Rajasthan High Court called attention to recently when it stayed the operation of a 2008 Act that provided reservations for various caste groups, including the Gujjars. The level of reservation under this please-all Act, which earmarked quotas for poor upper castes as well, increased to 68 per cent, considerably above the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court in the Mandal case. At another level there are serious practical problems about extending a special quota for Gujjars. It was the Rajasthan unit of the BJP that promised to include Gujjars, a pastoral community, in the Scheduled Tribes list in the run-up to the 2003 election, which it won. But the violent opposition this evoked from the numerically stronger Meena community saw the State government back down.
While the violence and disruption that has attended Gujjar agitations for reservation must be roundly condemned, it must be recognised that the resentment of the community is largely a result of cynical vote-seeking politics. The anger and political consolidation within the community assumed worrying dimensions only after the Vajpayee government decided to reclassify Jats as an ‘Other Backward Class'. Having promised the Gujjars ST status in 2003, BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was forced to expend considerable time and energy in trying to appease the community with all manner of sops. Eventually, she bought time by declaring a new quota regime that classified Gujjars as a “separate backward community,” a proposal that found expression in the legally unsustainable 2008 Act that now stands suspended by the Rajasthan High Court. In a bid to woo communities, political parties often forget that the reservation pie is limited and that any attempt to provide quotas for one community will have adverse implications for others. This is exactly what has happened in Rajasthan. And the cost has been an intermittent cycle of agitation, social unrest, and violence. Today, Gurjars are demanding for inclusion of their community in the ST list, Rajputs have already many a times created protest to be included in OBC just of reason "If the Jats can get reservation, why can't Rajputs?" . Meena in MP are in for demand of ST status .Tomorrow, Yadavas would demand listing of their community in the SC list and this game would never end. So, politicians should open their eyes and see to it that all sorts of reservations in jobs and Central Education Institutes etc. are immediately abolished otherwise it is sure that the country would go mess.
There are over 3000 listed castes among the OBCs alone. In a caste-based reservation system is it not inevitable that such demands and grievances will never stop proliferating? Neither politicians nor the judiciary display the guts to address the issue courageously. The Indian establishment seems totally overwhelmed by false conventions and traditions that are in no way sanctified by law. Unless there is radical reappraisal of India’s political system and culture, the nation will continue to blunder from crisis to crisis.Over the last 60 years or so, the Scheduled Tribes appear to have evolved into two distinct groups: those who have able to take advantage of the protection and benefits guaranteed to them under the constitution and have been able to decrease the gap in development between them and other communities; and those Scheduled Tribes whom such programmes and protection have failed to reach and who, therefore, still exist at subsistence level with poor health, without education ” jobs and low income levels. I believe the main problem is the "classification of the caste”. There is wide intra-caste disparity in income levels, educational and even social backwardness in many castes. That too in large states like Rajasthan with many geographical regions, this disparity in effectuates any serious caste based solutions. Rajputs of Rajasthan are considered backward than Rajputs of MP . A Shekhawati Jat cannot be compared with a Bharatpuri Jat. The Jat in Barmer stands somewhere in the middle. A Bhil Meena in Aravallis is no where near the Meenas in urban Tonk. The problem of Gujjars is even more acute. Gujjars in the upper reaches of Poonch in Jammu, Gujjars in trans-Jamuna Delhi and Gujjars in Rajasthan are a world apart. Now we see this bizarre spectacle of all of them coming together in the struggle for their brothers in Rajasthan .
Caste is a too large a brush, ineffectual to capture the whole picture. We need some other standard of reservation ,maybe economic. Moreover as we saw in Gujjar meena clashes , Caste based reservation has just been perfect for “Division in always divided India“ . The Gujjars and the Meenas seem to have been living most harmoniously before the “socially just” policy of reservation was implemented. And yet, its supporters will have us believe that reservation does NOT divide society.
