The
past few months has been alive with news and views of Rohit Vemula and Kanhaiya
Kumar both dalit students and political aspirants. Rohit played the death card to
highlight his views or predicaments whatever one wishes to call it while
Kanhaiya wore the crusaders hat and took campus politics into every house-hold,
right into their drawing room during prime time. In the case of Rohit, the
establishment with a tongue which is forked on the politics of caste, couldn’t
help mismanage the whole incident. In the case of Kanhaiya, flowing in the
center of the discussion was the subject whether he was anti-national. That
brought into the arena multiple views about what constituted nationalism and
then the subject digressed into patriotism and disrespect towards the armed
forces. The drama soon shifted to Parliament and what followed was the big eyed
histrionics of Smiti Irani, a minister who has no idea about the pressures of a
PhD student. Very soon the arguments became partisan and it was proclaimed that
loud expressions of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ would be akin to waving the RSS
propaganda. Later on as the melee continued, some students of an engineering
collage in Srinagar Kashmir couldn’t contain their happiness as Indian cricket
team lost to West Indies while a few others got thrashed by the state Police
for creating a ruckus with the Indian national flag. All this back and forth
exchange of heat and dust was being conducted under the umbrella of freedom of
expression or ironically rather the perceived lack of it.
First,
arguments should happen, even if it becomes a circus, as it is a healthy sign
of a mature democracy and as long as nobody is trying to hurt another
physically, they have the right to say anything, even something grossly stupid.
In retaliation maybe they get out shouted. In such an atmosphere people tend to
modify their views and maybe learn something new. The spectators also take some
learning home. In no case should anyone try to stifle the voice of another. Inspite
of myself I have to concede that the noise which Arnab Goswani creates on Times
Now is good even though I hate watching it.
Secondly
let us look at the root cause; the problem of caste discrimination. Caste system
today is like a weather beaten mountain full of rocks which though unmovable
has developed several cracks and with vegetation growing from every nook and
corner. It is regrettable and a crying shame that it still remains non-budging.
Caste is the English language word for the pre-Vedic or could be even the Vedic
varana system of classification of people and their rights and obligations on
the basis of their work skills and contributing abilities towards society. The
knowledge bearers / teachers and the soldiers / protectors snatched a higher ranking.
This is a practical and commonsense approach to acknowledge those who had the
ability to help others realize their passions and those that protect while they
learn the requisite skills. The farmers, traders, artisans and other service
providers accepted the third ranking of those who are required in a society and
helped to make it vibrant and colorful. The last category was left to those who
couldn’t learn any skill or those who were too rustic to be molded or most
probably those who were forest dwellers and outsiders to that specific society
and its way of life. Apparently work skills and contribution to society was a
matter of personal abilities and likings. People could move up and down the
varanas based on their personal choice and it had nothing to do with rights by
birth. Probably such segregation served some purpose because it became
extremely popular and stuck on. People soon realized that the rights and
benefits were too attractive to be given up and thus they manipulated it to
teach their skills to their children even forcibly so that they do not get
downgraded and lose out on living standards.
Over
a fairly long period of time in came Alexander, then the Turks, the Mughals and
finally the British. Society changed. Passing on skills sets to children was no
more essential. What remained was the existing caste of the family which became
permanent. The entire concept has been rendered useless now because (a) the lesser
varanas had no way to get rid of their caste even if they have better skill
sets and ability to contribute to society, (b) the higher varanas still control
faith and resources which are important to living (c) the higher varanas find
no motivation to give up privileges which they have become accustomed to over
several generations. This dilemma has lead to social unrest; however unrest in
society due of caste considerations is not a new phenomenon. If I may be
permitted my mirth, I do subscribe to the opinion that Indian mythology is not
all fiction, it is part itihasa as well, or in other words, there are a lot of
facts which go unacknowledged. I would like to draw upon the story of
Parasurama, a Brahmin, who vowed and also is reputed to have killed several thousand
Kshatriyas for the reason that the latter community were either misusing their
privileges or were ill treating the Brahmins or in were interrupting his
ambitions. Another inference that I draw from Parasurama is that all the four
varanas were not defined in a vertical manner but rather in a horizontal. To
start with all of them were described as equal, and segregated by their
contribution to society. Subsequent developments of war, security, religion,
rituals, food and material comforts were reasons to pitch one community against
another and society ended up in accepting one community above others with the
Shudras or Dalits taking the last position.
Returning
back to where we started, a major casualty of the caste politics has been the alienation
from the feeling of nationalism. That society which considers one person
superior for the mere chance of birth can never bind itself together as a
nation. That society which considers some sections so inferior that others
cannot be permitted to mix with them, can never bind itself together as a
nation. Such segregations are breeding grounds of hypocrisy; where if a Brahmin
commits a crime he is let off with a warning but a Shudras or Dalit is thrashed and left
to die, where fruits of development is restricted to one’s own while others are
denied and ignored, where one justifies one’s own corruption as a
no-other-alternative or as a way of life while criticizing others. How does one
convince to nationhood a sufferer due to society’s indifference? History is
replete with stories of traitors to the national cause.
The demography
of this country is slowly but surely tilting towards the lower castes and to my
mind the best way ahead is to totally dismantle the caste equations, and I
really mean totally. Caste comes in handy in certain aspects of life for
instance while arranging a marriage alliance and while evaluating the extent of
religious rituals. Even in such neutral regions it would be better to find some
other alternatives and bypass the caste factor. People have to give up on
identifying themselves with their caste, and look up for some different
paradigm which will consider all people equal and rather evaluate them based on their skill
and contributing capability. Today, we can see that while ordinarily people don’t concern themselves with caste when dealing with others in their endeavor
to earn their daily bread, however some disgruntled ambitious elements are manipulating
this subject for their political and economic benefits.
