How India rewards backwardness

Recently, the Gujjar community, a tribe of northern India, took to the streets and protested, blocking roads, burning tires, and putting Delhi and surrounding regions under siege. They demanded to be classified as a “backward” class, so that they could enjoy the reservation quota benefits the Government gives to historically oppressed people.

The mockery is that the Gujjars are a Kshatriya community. In other words, they rank second in the five-tier caste system of India. They have been chieftains ruling over small territories, and occasionally larger ones too. This hardly qualifies them as an oppressed community. In fact, the Kshatriyas along with Brahmins and Vaishyas have been the chief perpetrators of the caste system, oppressing the Shudras and Dalits. Now to gain official patronage, certain Kshatriya and Vaishya subgroups are aligning themselves with the people they oppressed. The entire category of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) came about as a result of these mid-tier castes wanting to call themselves backward. Some of the very families who submit OBC certificates to get their children into colleges also build walls to prevent Dalits from entering their section of town. The oppressors continue oppressing, but adopt the guise of the oppressed when it suits them.

India is the only country where people are clamoring, fighting and even rioting for the right to be known as backward. Backwardness is rewarded in India. We find people tripping over each other to run in reverse.

There is another way India rewards backwardness. Backward states get spoonfed by the Indian Government in the form of increased tax devolution. According to this article,

“An important aspect of the devolution of Central tax revenues under Finance Commission dispensation is that it has inbuilt bias in favor of fiscally weaker states. Population and per capita income of the State get high weightage in the distribution formula. A state with larger population and lower per capita income gets a higher share in the Central tax revenues.

Progressive states which have controlled their population and developed their economy are being penalised for their progress. Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, expressed his discontent a few years ago when he said,

“It is ironical to note that all those states which have taken corrective measures to reform the State finances and managed to bring down their revenue gap are now at the receiving end of the Commission’s recommendations. For instance, efforts of the State Government to bring down the poverty level through targeted programmes has, in fact, become counter-productive for a State like ours.”

“While States like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar, will have better revenue inflows based on their revenue deficits, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, who have taken up several developmental works, would suffer.

“If you look at the 11th Finance Commission report and compare finances of various States, it would be clear where Andhra Pradesh is heading. As reflected in the report, we are better than others. Ironically, this has in fact had adverse affect on the flow of funds going by the recommendations of the Commission.”

The infamous Bimaru states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and their offshoots Uttaranchal, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand) lead the way when it comes to population, and lag behind in per capita income. So a great deal of taxpayer’s money is thrown into the bottomless pit comprising of these states. Industrialized, urbanized and economically progressive states like Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are given a raw deal in tax devolution due to their lower population and higher per capita income. The Indian Government’s signal is simple: Be backward, do not control your population, breed at an alarming rate, keep your per capita income low, and the Government will reward you by giving you an increased share of the taxes.”

We hear a lot about India shining. But with this culture of rewarding backwardness, how can India compete with the objectivity and pragmatism of other emerging economies like China or Brazil?

India is slowly reaching the state portrayed in the movie “The Planet of the Apes”, where apes have become the ruling race and humans have become subservient. With India’s culture of encouraging backwardness, that day is not far.