Debt-Bondage Slavery in India

Sarah Knight is a recent graduate of Brandeis University with a MA in Global Studies, focusing on human rights. Her work is motivated by a desire to increase awareness about modern slavery and the multifaceted human rights abuses in India, and to advocate for change.

There have been numerous investigations in recent years to determine the incidence and prevalence of modern slavery worldwide, and debt bondage in India has been found to be the most extensive form of slavery in existence today, occupying the greatest number of captives. Although there is an abundance of data to support these findings, the Indian government has not allotted sufficient effort to end the practice. It is apparent that India has unique conditions that have enabled slavery to persist over a great length of time, and allowed slaves to exist in greater numbers there than in any other country on Earth.

The objectives of this paper are to outline the socio-political context in India that has allowed the continuation of slavery, to describe the practice of Indian debt bondage, to identify the current anti-slavery laws and organisations in the country, and to recommend interventions that may improve the present set of circumstances.

The Social Consequences of Caste

To understand the social structure in India, it is imperative to outline the caste system. This system of social hierarchy is the most important contributory factor in debt-bondage slavery. The caste system has been described as uniquely Indian,¹ and it is unlikely that slavery could exist without it since the majority of slaves are Dalits (the lowest social group, actually outside the traditional varna system of caste).

Caste is one of the oldest customs in India, the roots of which date back more than three thousand years. In theory, the hierarchy consists of four tiers, or varnas. These varnas include the Brahmins, the highest caste, traditionally consisting of priests and scholars; the Kshatriyas, warriors and rulers; the Vaishya, merchants; and the Shudra, peasants, labourers, and servants. The Dalits have been known as the “Untouchables” (including Scheduled Castes/SCs and Scheduled Tribes/STs, which will be referred to as Dalits for the purposes of this paper) and were not part of the original ranking system. Technically speaking they remain outside the varna structure today.

In 1935, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act with the professed intention of balancing British and Indian economic interests, yet according to Jawaharlal Nehru in reality it strengthened the roles of elites (both British and Indian) while excluding the possibility of interference by representatives of the Indian people.² The act broadly separated Brahmin and “non-Brahmin” castes, presumably to simplify the structure of the caste system for British understanding. The non-Brahmin groups were classified into the categories of “backward classes” and “depressed classes”, which later became Scheduled Castes. (It is important to remember that individuals are born into their caste status; therefore, caste affiliations have little to do with life choices and are largely beyond one’s control.)

The importance placed on the caste system by the British had dire consequences. Social inequality was ingrained in British-ruled India. Nicholas B. Dirks has posited that “Caste became the colonial form of civil society; it justified the denial of political rights to Indian subjects (not citizens) and explained the necessity of colonial rule”.³ India is steeped in tradition, and caste has been socially accepted and tolerated throughout its history, especially since its reinforcement during the British colonial era. Although the Indian Constitution (passed in 1950) includes numerous articles that specifically prohibit all forms of “Untouchability”, discrimination, and exclusion according to caste (as well as race, sex, or religion), the reality is that caste is still a detrimental and obstructive factor for the “weak” or lower classes. It is common for Dalits to experience discrimination in the form of arbitrary detention, rape, torture, murder, the withholding of resources (including disaster relief), and segregation or complete exclusion from schools, places of worship, housing, public services, and private businesses.

An underlying factor in caste discrimination is the widespread social acceptance of individual caste status as the foundation of personal identity. Sukhadeo Thorat provides an insightful summation of the societal effects of the caste system:

The unit of society is not the individual. Even the family is not regarded as a unit of society … The primary unit of society is caste. There is no room for individual merit and the consideration of individual justice. Any rights that an individual has are not due to him personally; it is due to him because he belongs to a particular caste.⁴

Thorat’s analysis makes clear that while the caste system prevails, Dalits will never experience social justice. Under the caste system, India has evaded the Western model of individualistic society. Embracing individualism and/or egalitarianism is not essential, but finding a balance between the two is necessary for recognising the human rights of Dalits.

Debt-Bondage Slavery

Debt-bondage slavery is a practice that has a long-standing history in India, with its roots in the caste system. Wealthy higher-caste landlords typically give small loans to destitute individuals and/or families without assets, whose labour is their only means of repayment. It is clear that land ownership, wealth, power, and higher caste status are interrelated. Dalits have been coerced into working the land of others, because they have no opportunity to purchase land of their own. By and large, the only asset belonging to the Dalits is their labour. Many Dalit families currently residing in rural India began as migrant labourers and settled upon finding agricultural or quarry work. Employment agencies have often been used to help migrant workers find positions with upper-caste landlords, and in such circumstances the fee paid by the landlord to the agency becomes the worker’s debt.⁵ Without the caste system, it is unlikely that debt bondage would continue as a socially accepted reality; it would be more widely challenged as a violation of fundamental human rights.

Although India is culturally diverse in many ways, an unfortunate common thread is found in debt-bondage slavery. Eighteen of India’s twenty-two states have documented cases of