Who Said Casteism is Dead?

I really don’t know how and where to start this post. Much has been spoken about this topic by many writers, but the casteist mindset of people is still prevalent even today.

The Internet, in general, and Twitter and Facebook, in particular, have shown me how even educated people still stick to their casteist identities strongly. Caste-based handles and bios on Twitter, Facebook display names displaying one’s caste so blatantly—it’s all there in the social media world.

While the people of the city themselves have such strong casteist tendencies, it’s not surprising to see the same among people in small towns. I got to witness this personally last month when I had gone to Mantralayam for a cousin’s wedding.

I was at the ‘sathram’ having my lunch. The caterer was sitting beside me and having some discussion with another person. The conversation was in Telugu. The translation is below.

Caterer: The uggaani-bajji and other items we make cost Rs. 75 per plate.

The other person: Whoa! Really? Why is it so costly, man? We get the same thing for a much cheaper price at roadside shops.

Caterer: That’s made by maadigas. So there’d be a difference.

T.O.P: Ah, yes. You are right.

I felt really bad on hearing that conversation. I’d have taken it as a valid response if the caterer had said that the hygiene levels are low in such roadside shops. But he didn’t. It was the vendors’ caste that seemed to bother him more.

I’ve heard a lot of my relatives use the words maadigoda or maadiga munda so frequently while cussing at someone. During my childhood, I used to think it was just a generic cussword like poRukki or poRamboakku. It was not until a couple of years ago that I realized it referred to the name of a caste. That too was when I had been to the Chennai High Court regarding an accident case in which a few friends from school and I were the victims. A vehicle with the name “AAI Associates” and “Proprietor: Madiga” on it was what opened my eyes. And the vehicle was that of manual scavengers who clean up the city’s sewer system—people who regularly get themselves dirty in order to clean up our impurities. I first giggled at the appropriateness of the name “AAI Associates” for a scavenging service, but realization dawned upon me when I got to know that all these years, I’ve been hearing people use the name of a particular caste to refer to someone as inferior.

And that changed the impression I had on many people I knew.

There’s another incident that I must talk about here. This happened in 2007, the year I stepped into college. One day, we had some other lecturer substituting for one of our regular ones. I’d heard that this lecturer knew the subject well, but he wasn’t going to teach us any of it. He suddenly started lecturing on the varna differences mentioned in the Manu Smriti and justifying that Brahmins are superior and people of the other three varnas, especially Shudhras, were inferior. His substantiation was a sloka from “Purusha Sooktam”.  He went ahead with the Brahmins came from the Purusha’s head and Shudhras came from His legs crap. I hadn’t known much about the intensity of casteism in our country back then, but one of my best friends from college, Suresh, put up an argument with him. The lecturer had no rational explanation for the claim he made, but kept parroting that “The holy scripture says so. Therefore, it’s true.”

That’s another occasion when I got to know of the cheapness of the so-called high caste people.

And keep in mind, this is not the 18^th or 19^th century. This is the effing 21^st century when people are envisioning a world without boundaries and trying to make “One world. One humanity.” a reality. It is, therefore, really saddening to see such people live amidst us even today.

It’s really funny when a Brahmin says “It’s very painful to be treated as a second-class citizen in one’s own country.” Those are exactly the moments when irony commits suicide and vows not to return ever.

Yes, it’s not just Brahmins who consider themselves superior. Yes, the aforementioned caterer was not a Brahmin himself, but he belonged to another so-called high caste. Therefore, everyone shares the blame equally. But Brahmins should never talk about being considered a second-class citizen.

They are the ones who created the spark. So they should never ever cry that it has turned into a wildfire and started burning them in return. In one word, karma.

Another argument that today’s Brahmins put forward is “This is something our forefathers did. How is it fair to make us suffer the consequences?”

Well, let’s take the example of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Over 5,00,000 people were affected by a major gas leak that happened in 1984 in a Union Carbide factory. Though the exact death toll is unclear, most sources say it must be somewhere between 15 and 16,000 in the initial few days. But the tragedy did affect more than 5 lakh people, as mentioned earlier.

It’s been close to three decades since this tragedy happened, but people still claim compensation from the main culprit, Union Carbide. If you remember well, we Indians outraged greatly when Union Carbide said it’d sponsor the London Olympics in 2012. Now why do we still demand compensation from UC even after nearly 30 years? Because the impact has been very huge.

This is not very different from the impact of casteism. Why do people so strongly support reservation? Because the negative impact of your “forefathers’” casteism is great and long-running. People are still affected by it. Reservation is the compensation for those people who were suppressed in the name of casteism. If the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy deserve compensation even after 30 years, don’t those who have been subjected to suppression for centuries together deserve it too?

Please be conscientious when you answer that question. Be objective.

I find it very painful when Brahmins say that they’re treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Just because they’re not being true to their conscience. 

Peace.

PS: You HAVE TO read the great Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand's "Untouchable" to really be able to gauge the kind of cruelty Brahmins and other high caste people perpetrated against the others. Do read. You won't regret it.