HOW MUCH WILL YOU PAY?
In many a class room in the US the following question is often asked of white students.
Imagine that you are asked before you are born how much money are you willing to pay to be born a white rather than a black. What will be your answer ?
Most whites say amounts ranging from $5000 to $50,000.There is then a debate on the responses . It then is revealed that whites do not fully appreciate the agony and the discrimination that blacks suffer on account of their colour and race. Blacks are willing to pay several millions to be born white. ! Whites are astounded at the strong feelings of blacks about colour and race and its impact on their lives.
One of the features about human thinking is the difficulty we have in understanding other people , their perceptions and experiences.
In the Indian context we could ask the question –WHAT MONEY ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY TO BE BORN IN A FORWARD CASTE RATHER THAN AN SC/ST OR A DALIT? A HINDU RATHER THAN A MUSLIM IN INDIA ?
My forward caste friends might say that SC/ST people are exaggerating their problems and politicians are ‘ playing the caste and religion card’ for political ends. I agree with the latter –more about this later—but it is difficult for a forward caste person to understand what the SC/ST or Muslim is going through . It is true that in some states there is no more the virulent form of caste discrimination that is now found in states in the north thanks to the social reforms movement that started in the South in the early 1900’s. This is not yet evident in the north hence the frequent occurrence of horrendous incidents of discrimination.
A Princeton university study has shown that in the employment market in India candidates with names that indicate their ‘ low caste’ origins are discriminated against. A counter argument is that these candidates are not preferred because they got their high qualifications by a process of dilution of marking standards even at the entrance exam stage. This may be true.
The other side of this is the way some people play the caste or community card when it suits them.
Md. Azharuddin was loved and admired as one of India’s very successful captains, an elegant batsmen and excellent fielder. But when he got into serious trouble in the match fixing scandal the first statement he made was that he was being framed because he was a Muslim .It came as a shock to millions who never ever looked at him with communal eyes and gave him our love and admiration Clearly he was playing the communal card . To his credit he withdrew his statement.
Witness the way Salman Khan puts on his Muslim traditional skull cap whenever he is dragged to court for his multifarious offences .He also plays the communal card on such occasions forgetting that the mainstay of his popularity and his billions is his vast army of fans that cut across the communal divide. When not going to the courts he prefers minimalist attire !
The likes of Laloo and Mayawati once they came to power and made their fortunes are now as distant from their clans as anyone could be. They have done nothing constructive for their people –education, vocational training etc for example. They have now enriched themselves on a scale that will make anyone blush.
My conclusion—discrimination, divisions and the animosity arising form it are hardwired into the human psyche. It is not true that it is only in recent times that there has been so much hatred and discrimination . It has always been like this. It is our tendency towards nostalgic thinking that makes us refer to the ‘ good old days’ I prefer the term ‘ bad old days’.
Humans have a tendency to feel superior to some people and feel inferior towards others. We bow and scrape before some and throw our weight around others.[Just see how I.A.S officers lord it over you and obtain reports of how they bow and scrape to ministers]
I understand from sociologists that even among dalits –the lowest in the obnoxious Hindu hierarchy—there are layers and those perched in the upper layers hate and will not share a glass of water with those unfortunately ‘ below’ them!
There is this biblical metaphor about the Tower of Babel that God deliberately created so that mankind would never unite and live happily ever after. Priests of all religions being ‘men of God’ can only perpetuate the divide.
I have many reservations about priests and politicians. I can do no better than quote Denis Diderot
MEN WILL NEVER BE FREE UNTIL THE LAST KING IS STRANGLED WITH THE ENTRAILS OF THE LAST PRIEST.
K.R.RAVI
USA
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New Delhi: A man belonging to a lower caste was beaten to death by a mob on the suspicion of stealing a cow in a case of caste violence in Bihar.
The victim, identified as Bharat Dom, was lynched on Tuesday in Chhapra town, 60 kilometres north-west of the state capital, Patna.
Police said a mob caught the man, who was in his mid-40s, on suspicion of having stolen the cow from the house of an upper-caste man.
'He was beaten to death with bricks and bamboo sticks,' a police officer said. A murder case has been registered, but arrests have yet to be made.
The incident comes a day after an elderly man was lynched in the same state when he intervened to save his grandson in a dispute over a love affair.
Over the past few months, more than a dozen cases of vigilante justice and mob lynchings have been reported in Bihar, which is India's poorest and most lawless state. Atrocities against low castes, also known as Dalits, are also common in the state
In September, 10 men from a Dalit community were beaten to death on the suspicion that they were thieves. Later, an inquiry found the men were innocent.
In August, a policeman in Bihar drowned two low-caste girls by throwing them in a river for stealing firewood from his orchard.
Although caste-based discrimination is banned, upper-caste Hindus still practice all forms of discrimination, including not allowing the low caste to worship at temples and insisting that they drink from separate village wells.
The most menial jobs, including the cleaning of sewers, often manually, are also largely done by Dalit community members, who comprise about 160 million of India's 1.2 billion people.
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