When will India get freedom from Religion and Caste? written on May 10 2018

It is said that many Whites felt that they should leave UK and find a safer place on earth to live, in early seventies. An old lady wrote a letter to the lawmakers in UK. The contents of the letter are as follows; I am a British woman who lived here for several years. My husband passed away few years ago. I am suffering from different diseases. I have rented a portion of my house and it is my only source of income. The place where i reside was quiet till last year. Now I see many African (Blacks) tenants in the neighborhood. They play loud music till midnight and dance on the road after getting drunk. This spoils my sleep. I have had several sleepless nights in the last one year. Their kids stuff excreta into my letter box. Those kids won’t speak English. But they follow me everyday till milk-booth chanting ‘Racist Racist’. I don’t think they know the meaning of Racist. I am not going for my morning walk due to this. My tenants vacated saying that, it is no more a quiet place as it was earlier. No white men are renting my house. Prospects say that there are too many Blacks residing in the street. I have a home equity line of credit and I am not able to pay the dues. I been to the bank and explained my situation. The sweet lady there helped me in restructuring my loan, so that I can catch-up with my payments. She advised me to rent my house to those Africans, if I don’t get Whites as tenants. I said that I am not comfortable with them. Then the sweet lady at bank said hastily; ‘you cannot get very far in life, with such racist attitude’. Neither I nor my husband ever treated this Africans (Blacks) with racist attitude. Now what I am going through makes me think, it is no longer safe to stay in this country. I should move to place, where I have a say.

Those who read this letter written back in early seventies will of course think that in 2018 there is no racial discrimination in the west. But the reality is even now Blacks are being targeted by racists. ‘Stop and Search strategies’ by police, which can lead to arrests and sometime even murder. Several such incidents took place in USA, when it was ruled by former president Barack Obama. In fact Obama was an iron jawed icon of Anti-racism manhood. This means racism is an issue which affects the life of both Whites as well as the Blacks. There many innocent Whites as well as Blacks, whose life is affected by this. The only way is to forget the past and treat everyone as humans. It is difficult to see good humans around. So be the change that you would like to see around and inspire others.

In india we do not have racism, but we have something which is much more complex than racism, called ‘Caste’. The supreme court bench of justice AK Goel and UU Lalit ruled on march 20 2017, that the arrest of an accused under the Schedule castes and Schedule tribes Act ( prevention of Atrocities) should be made only after preliminary enquiry. This was popularly known as dilution of SC and SC (prevention of Atrocities) Act, which led to nationwide protest demanding the union government to file review petition. The barath Bandh was backed by almost every political party. What made SC, ST community member so insecure is the way they are being treated by the society, even after 70 years of independence. Pouching is illegal. We will inform police or forest personal, if we come across someone engaged in pouching or we will just ignore it. Our civilized society will beat a Dalit black and blue, if they are caught with beef. The opposition parties are blaming the ruling BJP, because they are vociferous about ‘Gov Raksha’. Even when India was ruled by so called Secular fronts, there were numerous instances of beating up Dalits for taking a wedding procession on horse (Bharaath). IN 21st century, many of us think, all works associated with filth like cleansing cesspits, cleaning sewers etc, is the lot of the Dalits and poor Muslims or low caste people from an under-employed countryside. The popular notion is, “We” make the mess and “They” clean it Up. People, who exhibit Jingoism in ‘Swatch Bharat’ campaign, are not ready to accept public health and sanitation as shared task. Manual scavenging is illegal under legislation passed in 1993 and reinforced in 2013. But manual scavenging continues even now without any mechanical equipment or safety and protective gear. Subsequent governments and political parties who did the least to improve this condition will talk about Dalits welfare, during every election. Suicide of Rohith Vemula , an activist of Dalit organization in January 2016 was big news and almost every political party in India tried to make best use of it. Along with Rohith Vemulas suicide, there was news about death of 4 Dalits, who entered into Septic-tank of a hotel for maintenance in Chennai. And they died due to lack of protective gears. Weeks later there was news about another such incident in Sriperambur. No politicians spoke a word about it and were busy in mudslinging about ‘Rohith Vemula’ death. Safai Karmachari Andolan documented more than 1300 deaths in the last 20 years due to unsafe working condition. And none of these political parties made an attempt to change this condition.

There are several such elements which make them feel insecure. And it is their insecurity which made them call for a nationwide protest, when Supreme Court tried to amend the law to make it fair for all. This means we find atrocities on Dalits, even when there is a strong law protecting their interests. On the other hand, the laws which came into existence for the protection of the oppressed community are being misused by well educated people from the same community. The saga of defiant judge CS. Karnan is a text book example of such misuse. Some wealthy educated Dalits misusing those protective laws as a weapon is making the others life miserable. So in other words the struggle is not between the castes and it is between the classes. It is a struggle between the haves and have- nots.

The political parties who claim themselves as cocoons of democracy, equality and constitution, the socialists, the rationalists as well as the guardians of Hindutva, are all beneficiaries of the caste system in India. Many of them, who at one point of time fought for equality, came to terms with the reality that they cannot exist without supporting Caste system. So they nurtured it and took advantage of it, for political gains. For example, in Kerala left parties were instrumental in forcefully stopping several evil practices of caste system. It garnered over whelming support for left parties back then. Now the scenario has changed. There are several factors which led to this change. One main reason for this change is; in the past, most of the feudal were from upper caste which is either Brahmin or Shathriyas, who are just one step below the Brahmins in caste hierarchy. This wealthy feudal were exploiting the rest of the society. The oppressed included all those from Dalits to those who are two steps below Brahmins in caste hierarchy. Hence ‘caste’ or ‘class’ struggle meant more or less the same. ‘Constitution’, the great gift of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar gave equal rights to all. Along with equal rights, a booster called reservation helped a section of oppressed class to become rich, over a period of time. It enabled another section of oppressed class to have access to basic necessities like food, Shelter, clothing, healthcare and education. But we still have a section of oppressed class, who are just entitled for the right to equality and morsel. Such people are being harassed by the rest of the society. Among them the worst affected are Dalits and Tribals.

Surprisingly, the middle class appears to be the most vocal champions of Caste prejudice. The hegemony is such that; Brahmins claim that they are superior to all. Shathriyas who are just one step below Brahmins in caste hierarchy, will accept Caste system by accepting Brahmins as most superior. This means other than Brahmins,all are inferior to them. Those who come in the third stratum have got an egalitarian approach towards those who are above them, but would look at those below them as inferior and subjugated. And it is the same approach all communities who fall in-between will have. This invidious arrangement called caste makes many find ivory tower in Christianity and Islam.

Each caste has its own welfare association which preaches the great legacy and struggles of their ancestors. Unfortunately all this forums which came into existence for uplifting the downtrodden, though created to eliminate caste prejudice were all under the banner of Caste. This forums did not succeed much in uplifting the downtrodden, instead exploited them to some extent. And these forums continue as a catalyst for the social divisive reality. This forums control the ebb and flow of politics, by excreting pressure on both ruling and opposition party

It is even more excruciating to see the raising loathe, among youths from poor upper caste family. They think the government is hampering their growth by denying education and employment opportunity. Patidar community seeking ‘other backward class (OBC)’ status went on state wide protest in Gujarat in July 2015. This protest killed 14 civilians and at least 27 were injured. 203 police personnel were injured and property damage worth around rupees 400 crores. This helped Hardik Patel to become a public figure and soon political parties were ready to accept this leader who was hell bent for the cause and been to prison. It was followed by Jats reservation agitation in February 2016. Jats in Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Delhi wanted their community included, in ‘other back ward class (OBC)’ which resulted in a loss of 340 billion rupees. This protest led to violent clashes between people of different communities; thereby leaving an unpleasant souvenir which widens the gap further. In future we may come across similar demand from several other communities. This caste prejudice along with communal polarization is the biggest threat to our country. This can even turn into a situation like civil war some day.

Some say that the ‘divide and rule’ policy was introduced by British and our politicians retained it till date. But the crux of the matter lies in the fact that the arrangement called caste, various forums representing caste and outcome of this arrangement, itself is capable of passing caste prejudice to next generation. So the time is ripe for a true class struggle in India, but it is suppressed, appeased and abused. It is impossible to break this caste rigidity, even if our country is ruled by Marxists who doctrine class struggle. Because a true class struggle is against many who are enjoying certain privileges in the name of caste, creed and religion. In the past left parties reached out people through trade unions like railway employees, factory workers and bank employees. And these union members fought for a common cause, ignoring their caste, creed and religion. But in today’s globalised world there is no much scope for unions in all the sectors. Then the one way is to create an atmosphere where a Muslim, a Brahmin and a schedule caste member will fight together for a common cause. Ruling NDA, with the majority they enjoy, had an opportunity to create such atmosphere, but they did not do so.

I have come across a charitable organization in Udupi in Karnataka, which takes care of educational expenses of students from poor family, who have scored above eightyfive percent in class ten. Every year they get at least one thousand applications and they visit all the applicant’s houses. I spent two days with those who visit applicant’s house. They decide eligibility, based on the applicant’s economic and living condition. Things they look at are parent’s occupation, whether it is own house or a rented one. Family owns a farmland or not. Any addition income the family gets through cattle rearing etc and not applicant’s caste. Our Government also can come up with a similar eligibility criterion for reservation in education and employment. This will not be a difficult thing to do with the help of existing systems like Aadhar, pan card and ration card. May be they will have to add few more colors in ration card to determine the exact financial status of an individual. The reservation in education and employment should be given for those deserving. It should not be based on caste or on the head count of a particular community. Someone who lives in penthouse, whose father is working in abroad and mother a government employee, of course won’t deserve reservation. People will not easily accept such change which is inevitable. It requires strenuous effort from all political parties as well as the citizens. Antagonism for such profound social reform won’t help us gravitate from this inglorious caste and religion mire. Our Prime Minister persuaded public to give-up subsidy on LPG to help nation building. And many of us, mainly the middle class of India, exhibited their patriotism by rejecting government subsidy on LPG. This helped many poor families to have LPG under PMUY. The same concept should be applied for reservation in education and employment. One would find more Muslims, Dalits and Tribals eligible for reservation, even if the eligibility criterion is purely the financial status. At the same time, it will help the government to serve those eligible and deserving from upper caste as well. This will definitely stop political nibs talking about Dalits and Minority during elections. It also will help people to tone-down caste prejudice to some lengths. Let’s make India a better place to live, where all are treated equally.