Asserting caste? Bhishti sanitation workers and Muslim caste associations in Jaipur

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article analyses the ways in which low-ranked Muslims mobilise collective terms for self-identification to avail preferential state policies (reservations). Specifically, it focuses on the strategies deployed by the Bhishtis, a caste group associated with carrying water, to be listed as Other Backward Classes (OBC) and claim municipal sanitation work as ‘safāī karamchārī’. Reservation policies are instrumental in shaping the Bhishtis' demands and social positions. They reproduce caste-based division of labour and accentuate internal cleavages within the community. While distancing themselves from elite emulation (Ashrafisation), the Bhishti simultaneously deploy caste-based and Islamic identities in their quest for material gains. Caste identity is used instrumentally vis-à-vis the state to avail OBC reservation and demand municipal sanitation jobs. Additionally, it functions as an oppositional identity towards upper class elites within the community. Islamic identity emphasises a work ethic and dignified labour, and enabled criticism of the state for practicing religious discrimination when a commitment to Bhishti employment was officially removed from the sanitation department. Internally, the Islamic identity helps keep the various factions within the community united. In fact, local articulations of birādarī identity evolve across space and time, questioning whether it is fruitful to talk about birādarī and caste.