G Babu Jayakumar

A recent hullabaloo over the revelations made by a circular from the Tamil Nadu school education director, urging his officers to initiate steps to stop students sporting wristbands as ‘caste markers’, resonated with the usual biases, prejudices and ignorance that overshadow the study of caste politics in Tamil Nadu.

Though the story of the ‘caste band’ is old hat — reports on the practice have appeared in national English media as early as 2015 — the education department woke up to the reality of ‘identification bands’ only after some IAS trainees of the 2018 batch took note of it and made a representation to the government.

Undoubtedly, the ‘caste band’ is the most colourful indicator of the vibrancy in which caste exists in Tamil society — and it needs to be banned. The circular itself says: ‘in addition to this, rings and forehead thilakas’ lead to caste discrimination.

It also says: ‘These practices supposedly, are being used for sports team selection, reassembling during class and lunch intervals. Allegedly, these practices are enforced by students themselves and supported by influential caste persons and teachers.’

The passage, of course, evoked a sense of déjà vu. For it sounded like the popular grandmother’s tale, narrated repeatedly through the generations in Tamil society, that the ‘sacred thread’, worn across the torso from the shoulder to the waist, is a defining caste marker that teachers and office bosses looked for by patting boys on the back.

Tales apart, the implicit fear expressed in the circular is that the lower castes are using the wrist bands to proclaim their caste identity to enable teachers and other benefactors of the same caste to identify them for extending favours.

So when the school education director is justified in issuing the circular, why was it that his political boss, school education minister KA Sengottaiyan, sprang up to say that the circular would not be implemented? Also why did the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary H Raja describe the move as ‘anti-Hindu,’ saying that tying threads and putting a mark on forehead were matters related to the Hindu faith?

Even if both the politicians had different motives to support the display of ‘caste markers’, they were on the same page because the roots of the wrist bands run deep — deep into murky electoral politics.

‘These wristbands, which come in shades of red, yellow, green and saffron indicate whether they belong to a ‘Lower Caste’ of ‘Upper Caste’,’ says the circular, which raises the question as to who assigned the colours to castes.

A cursory look at the wristbands would reveal that they have gained their shades from the colours of flags of the respective caste outfits, which are a bane to Tamil Nadu politics.

At one level, the caste outfits promote caste pride and fan fraternal feelings and at another level join hands with political parties of various hues with no qualms about shifting camps displaying a total lack of ideological mooring.

The leaders of the caste outfits — all castes have their own outfits — cause enmity between people and project themselves as champions of the members of their caste, even if they do not enjoy the support of the entire group. Many caste outfits have even evolved into political parties themselves.

Since the popular perception is that people vote on caste lines in the elections, all political parties play the caste card. One of the ways is in fielding candidates belonging to the dominant caste group in the constituency.

Another way of garnering caste votes is to align with caste outfits, a trend which explains why Sengottaiyan and Raja are not ready to ruffle the feathers of the caste outfit leaders by banning ‘caste markers’.

Indeed it is the caste outfit leaders who promote the practice of wearing caste bands and it is they who benefit from it. For they keep caste feelings alive in their communities and infuse ‘caste pride’ in the minds of school students through insignias such as coloured wrist bands.

So it will be unfair to blame students of impressionable age for wearing their caste on their wrists when the white sacred thread — probably the most recognisable caste marker —is left untouched, and when people continue to vote on caste lines, feeding the caste leaders with political power.