Beware of the K.G. Balakrishnan Commission Report
- Ravikumar, MP
The Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Commission, appointed to examine the demand for including Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Caste (SC) list, is expected to submit its report shortly.
Since the Commission was constituted by the BJP government, I fear that its recommendations may be adverse to this demand.
Earlier commissions appointed during Congress governments had taken a positive view. The Ranganath Misra Commission recommended making Scheduled Caste status religion-neutral, finding no empirical basis for excluding Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. The Sachar Committee and subsequent studies reinforced this conclusion by documenting the persistence of caste-based discrimination even after religious conversion. However, the Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Commission may not follow the path laid down by its predecessors.
If the Commission recommends against the demand, it will have ample precedents to cite. Several court judgments have rejected or declined to uphold this claim.
In Soosai v. Union of India (1985), the Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of Christian converts from the SC list on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to establish the continuation of the same degree of social and educational backwardness after conversion. In S. Anbalagan v. B. Devarajan (1984), the Court acknowledged that caste identity may persist even after conversion, but stopped short of extending Scheduled Caste benefits on that basis. In C.M. Arumugam v. S. Rajgopal (1976), it recognised that caste identity could revive upon reconversion, implicitly acknowledging that caste is not automatically erased by a change of religion.
In State of Kerala v. Chandramohanan (2004), the Court reaffirmed that Scheduled Caste status is governed strictly by the Presidential Order issued under Article 341 of the Constitution.
The underlying spirit of the demand to include Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Caste list is the unity of Dalits. Such inclusion would add Dalit Christians to the official Scheduled Caste population, thereby strengthening the numerical and political weight of Dalit communities. The growth of Dalit numerical strength has always been a matter of concern for proponents of the Sanatana social order. Historically, they have sought to weaken Dalit solidarity by dividing oppressed communities along the lines of sub-castes and religions.
Therefore, anyone who genuinely seeks to strengthen Dalit unity and enhance the collective strength of historically oppressed communities must support the inclusion of Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Caste list. If the Commission’s report recommends otherwise, it should be examined with great caution and subjected to rigorous public scrutiny.