Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 75

The Backwards Turn Right in the Hindi Belt: Trajectories and Implications
I. Other Backward Classes:
Multiple and Shifting Meanings
Originating in the late nineteenth
century, the term “Backward
Classes” (BCs) has been
marked by multiple and shifting meanings.
5 By Independence, it had a variety
of referents across politico-spatial
contexts, and therefore had come to
mean different things in different places.
For instance, Galanter traces at least
ten usages of BCs: (i) as a synonym for
Depressed Classes, Untouchables, and
Scheduled Castes (SCs); (ii) as comprising
the untouchables, aboriginal and
hill tribes, criminal tribes, etc.; (iii) as
comprising all communities deserving
special treatment; (iv) as comprising all
non-tribal (Hindu) communities deserving
special treatment; (v) as comprising
all communities deserving special
treatment except the untouchables;
(vi) as comprising the lower strata of
non-untouchable communities; (vii) as
comprising all communities above the
untouchables but below the most “advanced”
communities; (viii) as comprising
the non-untouchable communities
who were “backward” in comparison to
the highest castes; (ix) as comprising all
communities other than the highest or
most advanced; and (x) as comprising
all persons who meet given non-communal
tests of backwardness (e.g., low
income). 6
The Constituent Assembly (CA)
debated the questions of what constituted
backwardness and who the Backward
Classes were but failed to settle the term
“BCs” unlike those of “SCs” and “Scheduled
Tribes” (STs). Eventually, the Constitution
left the matter with the executive
at the state level, with an option for
the Centre to unify it. 7 Following this,
several states, using varying methods,
mechanisms, and criteria, created such
a category for the first time and conferred
benefits to those who belonged
to it. 8 With the listing of SCs/STs being
already done, the category of OBCs had
now widely come to mean (a) those who
needed special treatment and (b) a social
stratum higher than untouchables
but nevertheless depressed. In brief, the
term lacked a definite meaning at the
national level. Neither was there any exclusive
method nor any particular agency
for their determination.
As early as 1951, judicial interventions
brought the issue to the center
stage. 9 In response, the central government
appointed the first Backward
Class Commission in 1953. It was directed
to “determine the criteria to be
adopted in considering whether any
section of the people ... (in addition to
the Scheduled Castes and Tribes ... )
should be treated as socially and educationally
backward classes; and, in accordance
with such criteria to prepare
a list of such classes.” 10 Accordingly,
the Commission came up with a list of
2399 groups and sub-groups as socially
and educationally backward classes
(SEBCs). In determining SEBCs, the
Commission took into account secular
criteria, comprising a variety of social
and economic indicators, in order
to measure backwardness, which were
used to rank groups/sub-groups, not
individuals. The Commission’s report
generated controversies and sparked
debates. Kaka Kalelkar, the Chairman
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