SHANA MARIA VERGHIS wrote:
Personally I was quite oblivious to MOST of the layers within layers that have become entrenched in the caste system, until I was handling a weekend news supplement which had a column by a Dalit writer. Chandrabhan Prasad. Then I discovered, and I'm going to put this down very generally, and simplistically, that the subdivisions and hierarchies that have risen within the castes are one reason the situation is one entangled mess. Within castes you have the 'lower' and higher and the someone or another of another religion within the caste and subcaste, and then the community that does a certain profession etc. It just gets complicated, but all these convolutions and complicated, weird arrangements are what keep the system alive. Ideally what they should do is just scrap the column, 'Caste'' entirely from all official documents, and then you'll see the people left floundering are the ones with the most prejudices. They will be those who give it most importance. And those who've given it unnecessary importance to their identity, because they don't know better or are complete innocents about the effects of being stereotyped or put in a box. On the other hand, the ones with the prejudices are also innocent because they haven't been in the right environment, or had the right experiences that would make them feel differently. Unless of course they are sociopaths, which is different matter altogether
If they just had the column, Indian, Asian (just for the sake of international communication)-though I and a million others would prefer HUMAN BEING, or INTERGALATIC SPECIMEN or LIFE FORM, which is what we essentially are-it would be a different scenario. Though I'm sure the silliness of the unemployed human mind would find something else to fill that gap. I think its too simplistic to say the 'politician' is the culprit. Doesn't a mass of over a billion people have a brain. The politician does not have an magic hypnotic quality, apart from the one that we assign to him. He fulfills a function that we have put him up to, because we don't want to do it ourselves.
It has served some factions interests to keep this ludicrous system in place, (though you will argue that Manu the Codegiver was racist, as he was sexist, but those were diffeent ages calling for a different social plan). Or so it seems.
But I also think a lot of people simply haven't thought over it much. They grew up with it, and its what they are used to.
Most people don't have the energy and luxury to ponder over these things, unless it affects them personally. They already have the job of survival to deal with. So its the job of thinkers and intellectualls to ponder over all that and incite change. Otherwise caste has no meaning. It is an abstract concept and only gains weightage if you give it attributes.
Otherwise, I mean will it really be difficult to put up an internet petition that calls for all Indians to sign and do away with the caste tag officially by scrapping it from the books and agree to Vasudev Kutumbakam. At least as a form of identification. It shouldn't take any machinery if we all thought alike. What will be interesting will be to see the reason why people might oppose such a simple idea. Because otherwise national borders are redrawn overnight, new currencies are created overnight, governments topple overnight. So will this be so difficult. Its mainly about reimagining reality as you thought you knew it.
And I don't think it will take that much longer to figure out what this will means and how you might identify people without all those earlier trappings, unless you've never done that in the first place. Or are starting life as a little kid without any adult baggage. I don't think if you said you were a Bihari Kshyatria or Himachali Kshyatriya I'm going to think of you as a person as someone who goes around fighting people with swords on horseback. And some of my so-called 'Brahmin' buddies have agreed that you only become a true Brahmin if you are acting with your higher nature. Because that is what it should really be about. The self. And everyone has a higher and lower nature. So that means everyone is a Brahmin and a Shudra depending on their action and how much thought they give to the outcome, as well as their intent. And this is different at different times.
So a priest will fall in behaviour to the level of a scoundrel, and a murderer can rise to the level of a saint. In fact as a journalist and writer the best part is when I find that the idea you built up of someone because they had a certain tag don't actually define them as a person. A lot of countries bring up kids without any such tags, so it will be the next generation which will get the benefit of some commonsense changes which is inevitable with information and more wisdom. And when people realise that they are no bigger or smaller than anyone else. And that we have all a dignified place in the world. Basically its just absence of love for the other. More love for one's self, one's family, one's tribe.
I'd like to think it was originally either a very abstract concept about the different behavioural tendencies from high to low. Or a practical social division that was simplistic at best, but probably not designed to be evil. Though it eventually got corrupted. Because of man's dual nature. What happened recently in Hyderabad was really sad. But I really wish that poor fellow had stood his ground, because he was the first in his family to study so far, and he should have taken it as a challenge. However, unless you stand in someone else's shoes, its easy to talk. And everyone, no matter how strong they might appear has a breaking point.
It has to take hatred to learn to love. Otherwise in actual fact both good and evil are just abstract concepts.
They don't really exist unless your mind manufactures them. And now that's a rembling essay instead of a reply!
I'm going to listen to some rock music on Youtube and listen to the rain.
Very good analysis...You can make it into an article and submit it , except the last sentence LOL...
