'Caste Founded on Social Harmony’, MP Govt Tells SC; Experts Call It a Dangerous Historical Revision
New Delhi: In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on September 23, the Madhya Pradesh government claimed that India’s caste system was originally founded on “social harmony, equality, and fraternity” – a statement that has sparked fierce debate among scholars, sociologists, educators and activists.
The Indian Express reported that the claim, submitted as part of the state’s plea to raise Other Backward Class (OBC) reservations from 14% to 27%, has been widely criticised as an attempt to whitewash one of India’s most violent social hierarchies.
The submission draws heavily from a 2023 study by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow, titled 'Survey and Social Scientific Study of the Socio-Economic, Educational, and Political Status of the Other Backward Classes of Madhya Pradesh and the Reasons for Their Backwardness'. The report, approved by the Madhya Pradesh Backward Classes Welfare Commission (MPBCWC), argues that the varna system during the Vedic period was based on work and merit, not birth, and ensured “social balance and equal opportunity.”
“Social status was not predetermined by birth,” the study claims, adding that caste “never existed in undivided India.” According to the document, hereditary hierarchies and social rigidity emerged only later, due to “foreign invasions and cultural influence.”
The affidavit contends that India’s original social order was karma-based and egalitarian but was “corrupted” by outsiders. Contact with foreign powers, it says, led to the “centralisation of authority” and the “collapse of the meritocratic order.” The report blames this for India’s fragmentation, the rise of divisions along caste, religion and language, and even for the subcontinent’s eventual subjugation.
“Ancient India was a democratic and spiritually rich civilisation,” the report concludes, “until it was enslaved politically and psychologically by foreigners who introduced unscientific and religiously motivated classifications.”
Experts slam ‘myth-making’ and historical evasion
Historians and sociologists across India have been quick to condemn what they describe as a deeply misleading and politically motivated reinterpretation of caste.
Speaking to The Wire, Bir Pal Singh, chairperson, Centre for Tribal Studies and Research, National Law Institute University, Bhopal, said, “The caste system in India has existed since the arrival of the Aryans.”
He added, “Varnas have always been considered the structure of society. A child’s social and economic mobility has been fixed at birth for millennia; that’s not foreign influence, that’s homegrown hierarchy. To call it social harmony is not only ahistorical but dishonest.”
Speaking along the same lines, Paras Kumar Choudhary, associate professor of sociology at Ranchi University, said, “Scholars such as Suraj Yengde, Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, and Anupama Rao have repeatedly argued that caste hierarchy and untouchability have deep indigenous roots, long predating colonial rule. Ancient Hindu texts; including the Manusmriti and Dharmashastras, explicitly codify social stratification by birth, laying down rigid rules for marriage, labour, education, and punishment.”
Meanwhile, Surinder Jodhka, a professor at Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU, told The Wire, “Blaming foreign invasion for caste rigidity is historically dishonest. Caste evolved through internal hierarchies, control of labour, and religious justification. Outsiders did not invent, impose, or implement it; we did.”
Feminist economist Wandana Sonalkar noted that such narratives “erase the lived experiences of Dalits and Bahujans, who have borne the brunt of systemic discrimination for millennia.” Citing her work on Dalit writing on this topic, she added that “calling caste ‘harmonious’ romanticises oppression and sanitises structural violence. It’s a dangerous rewriting of history to suit political ends.”
‘Balance for whom? Harmony for whom?’
Comparing the present framing with the historical reality, grassroots educators and activists say the state’s argument is “not only offensive but actively harmful.”
Rahul Karanpuriya, an educator and grassroot facilitator, told The Wire, “When people say caste was meant for social balance or harmony, the real question is; balance for whom? Harmony for whom? Millions have never known peace because of caste.”
He continued, “Our ancient scriptures institutionalised inequality; they speak of purity, exclusion, and humiliation, not harmony. From the moment a child is born, their social place is fixed. Social mobility dies at birth.”
Karanpuriya added that caste still dictates “how people live, love and labour.”
“Ask any grassroots worker; caste decides what you eat, what you wear, whom you marry, even whether you get access to water. The violence may be invisible in cities, but it’s everywhere. Even today, people die cleaning our sewers, and they are still called ‘impure.’ Where is the harmony in that?” he asked.
He called the government’s argument “a modern PR twist; an attempt to rebrand oppression as cultural heritage.” Such reinterpretations, he warned, “threaten to undo decades of progress made through constitutional safeguards and Ambedkarite movements.”
A political subtext?
The affidavit’s timing is crucial. The Madhya Pradesh government’s plea to raise OBC reservation comes ahead of political contests that are bound to shape upcoming electoral battles. The ruling party appears keen to consolidate OBC support, a crucial voter base for the 2028 general elections. By invoking a supposedly egalitarian ancient past, experts say, the state appears to be walking a fine line; defending caste identity while disowning caste discrimination.
Surinder Jodhka says, “The rhetoric of harmony allows the state to sidestep uncomfortable questions about systemic privilege. It shifts the narrative from justice to nostalgia; from dismantling hierarchy to celebrating it.”
The stakes beyond the courtroom
The debate has now gone far beyond the legal merits of reservation expansion. It cuts to the core of India’s reckoning with caste; whether the state acknowledges centuries of graded inequality or puts them behind the smokescreen of “harmony.”
“If the state calls caste ‘harmonious,’ it delegitimises every struggle against it,” said Karanpuriya. “It means the pain of generations; from manual scavengers to Dalit women assaulted for fetching water, never happened. That’s not history. That’s gaslighting.”
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