印度：商业与种姓制度（上）

Business and caste in India

With reservations种姓专用

Oct 4th 2007 |BANGALORE, CHENNAI AND DELHI
From The Economist print edition

India's government is threatening to make companies hire more low-caste workers

印度政府正在强迫企业雇佣更多低种姓出生工人。

A 23-YEAR-OLD dressed in white pyjama trousers and a black over-shirt represents two worlds in India that know almost nothing of each other. One is fast growing, but tiny: the world of business. Strolling through the Californian-style campus in Bangalore that serves as the headquarters of Infosys, a computer-services company, she grins and declares herself glad. Her brother, she adds shyly, is so proud that she is an “Infoscion”.

一个身穿纯白睡衣裤和黑色罩衫的姑娘代表了印度的两个世界，他们相互之间了解甚少。其中之一是数量不多但成长迅速的商业。她轻启朱唇，笑容灿烂，漫步于班加罗尔带有加利福尼亚风情的校园——计算机服务公司Infosys的总部就坐落于其中——快乐之情溢于言表。她腼腆地补充说，她的兄弟为她的“Infosys血统”感到自豪。

He is in the rural world where 70% of Indians reside: cultivating the family plot in Bannahalli Hundi, a village near Mysore. Life is less delightful there. Half the 4,000 population are brahmins, of the Hindu priestly caste. The rest, including the software engineer and her family, are dalits, members of a “scheduled caste” that was once considered untouchable.

他则居住于70%的印度人生活的乡村，在距离迈索尔市不远的的Bannahalli Hundi村子里耕种着自家的小块农田。村子里4000人的总人口中有一半人属于印度教僧侣阶层——婆罗门。其余的人，包括软件工程师及其家人在内都是达利特人——这是过去被认为是贱民的“在册种姓”之一。

(注：scheduled caste是S-Caste的全称，在印度种姓制度中是“不可接触”的贱民阶层，可以翻译为“在册种姓”.)

Sixty years on this is still the case in Bannahalli Hundi, says the young woman, who does not want to be named. She has never entered the house of a brahmin neighbour. When a dalit was recently hired to cook at the village school, brahmins withdrew their children. Has there been no weakening of caste strictures in her lifetime? “I have not seen it,” she says.

这名不想透漏姓名的年轻姑娘说，虽然六十年过去了，但是Bannahalli Hundi村的情形仍然没有改变。她从来没有进入过婆罗门姓氏的邻居家中。不久前，本村中小学雇佣了一名达利特出生的厨师，随后婆罗门家庭就让他们的孩子退学了。种姓狭隘的现象在她的生活中有削弱的迹象么？“我没有看到，”她说。

The tale is in startling contrast to Infosys's modernity, and she is embarrassed by it. But it partly explains how she came to be hired by a company that is considered to be one of India's best. She is the beneficiary of a charitable training scheme for dalit university-leavers that Infosys launched last year.

这个故事和Infosys公司的现代性形成了令人吃惊的对比。她处境尴尬。但是这也是她为什么能得到全印度最好的公司之一雇佣的原因。Infosys公司去年针对即将离校的达利特出身的大学生发起了一项慈善培训计划，她是那项计划的受益人之一。

In collaboration with the elite Bangalore-based International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Infosys is providing special training to low-caste engineering graduates who have failed to get a job in its industry. The training, which lasts seven months, does not promise employment. But of the 89 who completed the first course in May, all but four have found jobs. Infosys hired 17.

Infosys公司和位于班加罗尔的精英学堂——信息科技研究院——进行合作，为那些无法在产业系统中找到工作的底种姓工科毕业生提供特殊培训。培训为期七个月，不担保能找到工作。但是在5月份结束的首期培训课程中， 89名学生只有4人没有找到工作，其中Infosys公司雇佣了17人。

The charity was born of a threat. India's Congress-led government has told companies to hire more dalits and members of tribal communities. Together these groups represent around a quarter of India's population and half of its poor. Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, has given warning that “strong measures” will be taken if companies do not comply. Many interpret that to mean the government will impose caste-based hiring quotas.

这个公益项目是因为一项威胁才产生的。国会领导的印度政府已经命令企业雇佣更多达利特人和部落成员。这两个群体的人数大约占印度全体人口数量的四分之一、全体人口的一半。总理Manmohan Singh已经警告企业，如果不遵守这项规定政府将采取“强硬措施”。许多人把它解读为政府将要实施种姓雇佣配额制度。

Quotas already apply in education and government, where since 1950 22.5% of university places and government jobs have been “reserved” for dalits and tribal people. In addition, since 1993, 27% of government jobs have been reserved for members of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)—castes only slightly higher up the Hindu hierarchy.

从1950年开始，配额制度就已经适用于了教育和政府领域，在这些领域，大学的就读名额和政府工作岗位要为达利特人和部族人口“预留”22.5%的空位。另外，从1993年以来，27%的政府工作岗位要预留给那些其他落后阶层(OBCS)——这个阶层的地位仅仅略微高于印度教阶层。

Promoting the wretched改善悲惨境遇

This is not enough for supporters of reservations. Since the introduction of liberal reforms in the early 1990s, public-sector hiring has slowed and businesses have boomed. Extending reservations to companies, they argue, would therefore safeguard an existing policy of promoting the Hindu wretched. It would almost certainly require changes to the constitution. But low-caste politicians are delighted by the prospect, so it could happen.

预留职位的支持者对此仍然不满意。自从1990年代引入自由化改革以来，公共部门雇用人数已经慢了下来，商业部门蓬勃发展。他们主张把预留职位适用到企业界，因为这可能使提高印度教民阶层生活状况的现存政策得到维持。这几乎肯定需要修改宪法。但是低种姓的政客对此前景颇为欣喜，因此有可能发生。

The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, a dalit leader called Mayawati, has said 30% of company jobs should be reserved for dalits, members of the OBCs and high-caste and Muslim poor. Chandra Bhan Prasad, a dalit journalist, applauds this and argues that it would be in the interest of companies. “It is in the culture of dalits that they are least likely to change their employment because they are so loyal to their masters,” he says. It would also help them become a “new caste [sic] of consumers”.

贱民出生的领导人，Uttar Pradesh的主席Mayawati已经表示，公司职位的30%应该为那些达利特、OBCs成员以及高等种姓和穆斯林中的穷人而预留。达利特出生的记者Chandra Bhan Prasad对此拍手称快，并表示这也有利于公司的利益。他说：“达利特出生的雇员改换工作的可能性最小，因为他们对雇主非常忠诚。”并且还会有助于使他们成为一个“新消费种姓(记者的原文如此，照原文引用)”。

Businessmen are unconvinced. Government, in both its intrusiveness and its incompetence, is a hindrance to them. Caste-based hiring quotas would be just another burden. People given a right to a job tend not to work very hard. So, in an effort to avert Mr Singh's threat, many companies and organisations that represent them are launching their own affirmative-action schemes.

商界人士对此并不认同。行政干预既是干扰又毫无根据，这对他们是个妨碍。基于种姓的雇佣配额只会是另一个负担。有权获得工作的人往往不会努力工作。因此，为了应对辛格的威胁，许多公司和组织发起了他们自己组织的积极行动计划。

The Confederation of Indian Industry has introduced a package of dalit-friendly measures, including scholarships for bright low-caste students. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry plans to support entrepreneurs in India's poorest districts. Naukri.com, India's biggest online recruitment service, with over 10m subscribers, anticipates that companies will soon actively seek low-caste recruits. It has therefore started asking job-seekers to register their caste.

印度联邦工业部已经引入了一整套有利于dalit阶层的方案，其中包括向那些优秀的低种姓学生授予奖学金的制度。印度工商理事会联盟计划对印度最贫困地区的企业家提供支持。拥有一千万用户的印度最大的网上招募服务公司Naukri.com预计，企业不久就会积极地搜寻低种姓新人。所以他们已经开始要求职者注册自身种姓出生。

（未完待续）