Caste System

System of brainwashing people for centuries

Imagine an American or an European meeting two Indians for the first time. One of the Indian happens to be from a higher caste and the other from a lower caste. How do you think the foreign national will treat them?

I guess we can safely assume that he/ she will treat both of them the same way. But why would he/ she not treat them differently? What is it which does not let him/ her not see the caste of the individual and treat them as per the hierarchy of caste?

Well the answer is pretty simple, it is because the foreigner has not been brainwashed with the non-sense of caste. He/ she sees both of them as human beings belonging to the same human species of homo sapiens born the same way having the same potential and capabilities as every other human on this planet.

In India, we have this system of designating people to certain status in society just by being born. Caste of the family is passed on to the new born child. If he/ she is born in a Brahmin (designated as the highest caste) family then he/ she is as good as to have been touched by the hand of God and if he/ she happens to be born in a family of Lower Caste (Untouchables - not even allowed a place in the caste system) then he/ she is to be shunned like plague. As it is clear, "there is no merit" in these designations, they are as arbitrary as either winning a lottery or losing it altogether.

It is believed in the Hindu religion that you get birth in a certain caste on account of your actions in previous births. (This is such bullshit - which is evident from the fact that how come this system happens to be applicable to only the humans living in India or following Hindu religion - what about the rest of human population? Are they beyond these eternal laws? Why do they not get judged by these divine laws? How is it any different from the Bible which said that Blacks are to be treated as slaves? How is it any different from the Quran which accepts slavery?)

This inadequacy itself is a reason enough to discard this caste system as a practice which is not only disgusting but reduces a mass of population to sub-human levels. (Curious: Do the Hindus check for caste when they take blood donation? No.)

Just imagine this: A child who is just born will be treated like shit for the rest of his/ her life by the accident of birth in a certain family due to no fault of his/ her.

This is the Indian society we live in, which destroys the confidence and potential of its own people by placing them on a social ladder just by the accident of birth. Those who are placed on the top feel proud and those at the bottom or some not even on the ladder feel worthless - this is not at all adjudged by the capabilities but just by being born in certain families.

So, essentially, whereas in USA or other western countries, people would say that no matter where you are born you have the potential to be great and achieve big things, we in India say that certain people just by accident of birth are superior and others are lesser human beings - thus making some complacent about their capabilities and some told that they are no good.

In conclusion, people who believe in caste are no less brainwashed than those jihadi terrorists blowing up buildings. Here the only difference is that instead of blowing up buildings, these people are destroying the nation by dehumanizing their own countrymen/ women. And they do it daily.

Reservation and Merit

In order to counter the discrimination faced by the so-called lower castes and untouchables, the govt provided reservations as a part of its affirmative actions policy - which made the so-called upper castes forcibly accept them in their environment - where they were not once allowed access to educational institutions and govt jobs, where, if by any luck they got admissions they would be failed just because of caste - now had access.

It was never a question of merit, the lower castes and untouchables were not or even now are not welcomed and looked at with different perceptions by most people - merit does not even figure. Yet these so-called upper castes would say that compete on merit, why do you ask for reservation?

It seems that they are right on this point. Let there be competition on the basis of merit. Let there be a ban on caste names, caste itself, and let there be marriages on the basis of merit and not caste. The day this happens, then there would be no need for a reservation because there would be no caste.

But, is it really possible that the so-called upper castes would give up their privileges for which they had to "literally" make no efforts. What have they done to claim being called a Brahmin or a Kshatriya and demand respect from others? At least the so-called lower castes, in order to avail the benefits of reservation, have to achieve certain minimum qualifications, unlike the so-called upper castes. 

P.S: Have not the Hindus committed treason against their own country in the interest of their caste?

Returning after a very long time

I think it's almost a year since I wrote anything. I have just lost the excitement and interest to write and share my thoughts with anyone at all. Right now at 00.24 AM, I am just forcing myself to write whatever is coming to my mind.

I often wonder, what should I write about? But, I get no answer. Maybe it is better to just write whenever something comes to my mind but then those are just fragmented thoughts having no coherency at all.

Maybe, I am writing just because I am a lot disturbed today. And more often than not it's the casteism of this society in which I am forced to live that makes me feel so. Sometimes I feel like a Jew living among Nazis. The same fear of being discovered or asked about your caste. The same fear of persecution and humiliation, of being told every now and then that you are worth nothing.

Whenever I searched for a house for renting, I was fearful that I would be asked about my caste and indeed it was asked. But this time, to get a decent house, I had to circumvent the truth. Instead of lying, I did not say anything and let them assume what they wanted to. I don't know how would they react once they find out.

But it is lying nevertheless, of not being able to live freely without any fear of confronting your identity.

I don't think this country will ever change. These people just want to even deny the fundamental rights to the people of their own country and when the government does something to help through affirmative actions, they say that that is unfair, "Earn your position". Well, guess what you did not even leave them with enough confidence to even believe in themselves that they are also as good as you are but instead since birth told them that they belong to the gutter.

Even then I say let's compete on merit, give up your caste names and ban caste.

Update: In the end, I actually did not take the flat instead found one where the landlord did not care to ask about caste.

A Sunday...

(This post was originally published on Sunday, 4th March, 2012 when I was at site.)

I

Sunday was supposed to be spent sleeping and doing nothing but I ended up working and if not exhausted, was certainly tired out at the end of the day. Nevertheless, I think it was a day well spent rather than doing something futile.

In the office, cautiously opened my mailbox with a fear that there might be a response to the mail that I had sent a day before. And lo! There was one. “Can we develop a sketch incorporating all the above?”, the reply mail said. And that’s how I was set to work. There are days when I do not feel like doing anything and then there are when I feel addicted to work, fortunately it turned out to be latter of those. So, to my relief, I enjoyed working.

Once upon a time or should I say that once of those many times, someone asked me my caste. And, as is my usual policy, I told that person also, "I do not know, but what do you think?". Now to say something like that can only be considered a blatant lie. And so he said that it is not possible and turned his face away with a countenance that suggested, “He is not telling me because he must be from a lower caste”. Was he right or should his right or wrong even matter? Because the point of discussion cannot be what caste but it is much more than that. It raises some fundamental questions, which needs to be considered before we decide if an answer is even applicable, such as what is caste, why and how it was conceived, what were the benefits because of which this system was preferred over others and is the present practice adheres to those rules, if it does then has those benefits being realized and if not then what has led to this degradation (may be some other day).

II

I do not know why people fail to understand a simple fact that everyone is just a human being composed of same flesh and bones, having same sort of desires and wants, and if these customs of caste, religion, nationalities are not artificial and prone to error as well as subjected to rectification, then what are they? Caste system, in its purest form had it existed of that of division of labor, I believe, and not division of laborers, would have certainly been fruitful but it has now become a dreadful system which serves no purpose but flagrantly promotes hate and even being an intelligent set of species, it is beyond the ambit of my understanding, why can’t we get rid of it. Where all the rationality, intelligence of men does fade away like wisps of smoke when they discriminate with their own kind on the basis of religion, caste, color, creed, etc instead of treating everyone equally.