No caste is also a handicap

MANGRUL DASTGIR (Amravati): Thirty five is an age when men are generally married. Harishchandra Nimkar is 35, but yet to find a bride. For, no one wants to offer their daughter's hand in marriage. City dwellers may find his problem surreal, but Nimkar's reality is an existential one. No one wants to marry him for he is without a caste.

His desperate brother, Janardan, has gone to the extent of digging into century-old records to find out their caste. The search, says Janardan, has proved they are from the 'Mali' caste, which according to the Government of India gazette falls in the Other Backward Caste (OBC) category. That, incidentally, should entitle both Janardhan and his brother Harishchandra the benefits of reservation.

"He (Harishchandra Nimkar) wanted to contest panchayat polls, but without a caste to his name, the babus wouldn't accept his form," says father P L Nimkar, a retired teacher. "You need a caste with your name for all practical purposes," accepts the old man sadly.

Over 80 years ago, P L Nimkar's father, Harischandra's grandfather, joined a movement against the caste system in the village and renounced his caste. Though not well known, it is probably the only movement of its kind in the modern history of India.

At its height, tens of families of various castes and creed renounced it in an attempt to abolish that system and bury inhuman discrimination. Among them were also Brahmins. The new community described itself as Ajaat (ones without any caste) and called their new religion Manavta.

Inter-caste marriages then became an easy norm and gender parity a must. The families, proud of their new casteless status, heralded the Indian independence with a dream of a society based on equality. Their generations still cling on to that status, but have realised that in official ledgers this status has become a caste of sorts. Ajaat, they realise, has become the new caste.

"Our elders had not denounced the caste system so that they clubbed together into a new caste altogether. They had renounced their caste identities to build a new social order," explains Shyam Bhabutkar, grandson of Ganpati Maharaj who founded this revolutionary movement.

Ganpati Maharaj today enjoys the status of a sage and has a huge fan following for helping lower-caste "untouchables" to enter a temple he built in this village. Though the reformist's legacy continues, his fourth-generation descendents are digging up old revenue records to discover their original caste for everything from ration cards to college admissions."The other villagers look down upon us," says Ganesh Bhabutkar. "What is even more pitiable is the Mahars (the dalits) too look down upon their community members who left their castes to become Ajaat." Contending with social ostracism on one hand and a system bent on providing access to goods and services on the basis of caste identity on the other, the younger generation is caught in a no-man's land. "Our younger ones are reverting to the caste-system," admits Ganesh.

But it is easier said than done. In many records, the Ajaats are officially listed as casteless. In the Kotwal records, for instance, the caste column shows generations of Bhabutkar and Nimkar families as Ajaats.

Historian and scholar Bal Padwad says, "Ajaat is not a caste, but a metaphor for those who gave up their caste." Hundreds of such families, originally belonging to 18 different castes, are scattered in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as Ajaats.

"While the government asks us to banish the caste-system, it seeks to know the caste at every step," fumes Sunayana, Shyam Bhabutkar's eldest daughter. Shyam had to file an affidavit before the court to win back the Mali caste entitlements for her daughter. "Her college would refuse to admit her until we filled in the column of caste in the admission form and proved it with a caste validity certificate." "My teachers wonder what is this Ajaat business? They do not know that many of the chapters in our BA course are essays and poems penned by my great-grandfather Ganpati Maharaj, the reformist who founded the 'Shwet Nishandhari Ajateey Manav Samstha' in 1920s," says Sunayana. 

Adds Nimkar: "Ganpati Maharaj influenced scores of families in an era of strong caste prejudices. He practised what he preached and drew upon himself the wrath of the upper caste. But the ultimate aim was to end the prejudices of all kinds and untouchability."

Nimkar wants the government to set up a special category of Ajaats. Not for reservation benefits, but to continue the remarkable legacy of the sage who gave a new philosophy, a new way of living to his followers.  Sunayana's 83-year-old ailing grandfather Sopan Maharaj is the last living direct link with what would perhaps be a very important chapter in the history of Vidarbha and the caste-based reforms in the country.

That he himself lived a secluded life, ostracised by the mainstream society for being the casteless son of the reformist, is sad. But his eyes have seen it all. "Our experience shows you can't survive without a caste in this country if there are no legal provisions to support the new system," he says. "It's difficult to cast away caste but not impossible."

It is this endless optimism that is keeping the burning desire for an equal society alive in the hearts of many.

Read Part 2 tomorrow: Perfect secularism and a piece of history