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A week ago, one Indo-American friend of mine who is a hard-core political activist sent
me an e-mail message which contained the writing of one Yadav. This writer
uses inflammatory language to insinuate that India is not a civilized country because
there you have atrocities committed against the people belonging to the lower
caste people.
I sent this message to my Hindu contacts along with a preface written by me which
sharply condemned the Caste System. In this essay I would like to express my
thoughts on the Caste System.
First of all, let me tell you that my last message regarding the insidious
Caste System of the Hindus in India has evoked quick response.
These responses are given at the end of this essay.
Now here are my final thoughts on this matter:
Just in case you did not know, I was born in a Brahmin family
in Bihar state in India just afer India's independence. I dropped my Brahmin last
name while in high school in protest against the caste system
because I saw that from your last name people would know which caste you
belonged to and they would immediately decide whether or not they
should be friendly to you.
There are three main religions in the world today: Hinduism,
Christianity and Islam. Of these three religions, It is the Hindus who
treat their own brothers and sisters in the most cruel and
discriminatory manner. This fact has been cleverly exploited by
others to convert millions of Hindus of the socalled "untouchable" castes
to other religions. This conversion has not helped the Hindu
psyche.
It is a fact that millions of Muslims in India too
are poor and destitute but they suffer on account of their
poverty. Their fellow Muslim brothers do not look down upon them along
caste lines.
But the poor Hindus suffer on two accounts, first because they
are poor and second because they belong to the 'sudra' caste.
I spent the early, formative years of my life in a backward
village of Bihar, and I still remember how cruely we
upper caste people treated the people belonging to the backward
castes. I had one friend who was a Muslim and another
friend who belonged to backward Hindu caste. My
grandfather really resented the fact that his
grandson "always made friends with the lower caste people." I
never understood why making friends with a Muslim or a backward caste was
such a bad things after all.
Now the situation has changed greatly and in some cases it
is indeed the backward caste people who have more money and power
while many Brahmins are indeed poor and destitute. Politicians
belonging to the lower castes have cleverly exploited the caste system to gain power and to
enrich theselves through corrupt methods.
Still my aim in writing is to say that we Hindus must learn to
treat all Hindus equally. The caste system is like cancer in the early
stage. When a man gets cancer in the arm, the doctor decides to amputate
the arm in order to prevent cancer from spreading and and causing
man's death. We must cut off the cancer of caste system in
order to keep our Hindu religion strong.
But the sad fact is that many of us still harbor strong
feelings of caste. Many Hindu priests in temples across
America openly support the insidious Caste System.
Rather than use their Sunday discourses to teach people to
shun casteism and adopt lofty ideals of equality and universal brotherhood,
they
give boring lectures on boring topics that have little relevance to
the lives of people today.
Some people have formed caste based associations in America, which
is a sad fact indeed. There is an association of Brahmins in the U.S. and
so is an association of Aggarwals. These are regrettable events that
show how well-entrenched casteism is in the minds of people.
The caste system is so old and so strong that it is
hard to shake it off. "Habit is a second nature of man!" How true it
is!
My sole aim in writing is to convince you to adopt the ideals
of equality, fraternity and universal brotherhood. I believe in
equality of all people, no matter which caste or which religion, or which
race they belong to.
When we Indians have purged our mind of casteist
thinking, when we will truly treat all people equally,
when we will respect talent rather than the caste in which a person is
born, then only shall we become strong and invincible.
Our strength will stem from our unity for in unity lies
strength!
As regards inequality based on economic
situation, that will the topic of some other writing in the
future.
Nirmal,
Many of my Hindu friends are strongly against any discrimination
based on caste or on any other factor. Especially people in the Sangh
organizations are against caste and often in India just know each other by first names.
I think there is hope that many people will come to this way of thinking.
Beth
I am supposed to be born a vegetarian brahmin in southern part of India. I relish critically reading, watching and listening to Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavat Gita in several Indian languages since my childhood. I also relish my beef steak and BigMac today and am not sure if the Farishta on my left shoulder is noting down all my sins vis a vis my eating habits. I whole heartedly believe and agree with any rationalist (they are so few now a days as India and expatriate Indians alike are infested by charlatans parading as numerous swamies, babas and gurus) like Nirmal that caste system is a curse for Modern India. Politician only perpetuate it for their vote banks and middle class Indians are fed on fairy tales of its utility and encouraged to look backwards in the name of tradition and culture instead of moving beyond superstition and occult.
Great Nirmal Ji,
I liked your explanation.
I ask those brahmins or yadavs or kurmis or baniya or whatever cast they belong, did God created you differently? Do God treat you differently? Isn't it true that you share the same air to breath, the same water to drink, the same earth to live, the same universe, the same sun, all of these being gift of God.
Let's consider two castes X (supposed to be upper) and Y (let's say untouchable for example) at a given place. Let say both of them are equally intellegent. Let's say X & Y have never heard of casts. Will X consider Y as untouchable or vice-versa? I guess both of them will work together & be best friend.
In another situation, consider that X knows that Y is untouchable. What would happen in this case. I guess X would treat Y meanly.
I ask those castists folks, which system would you consider to be more
logical? If second one, can you explain why? Here, just by changing you
reference frame from X to Y, can you think how would you feel? (I mean
if you are "brahamn" and consider "mochi" for example untouchable, then
just consider yourself to be in place of mochi & then try to emulate the
feeling/pain they go through. ask yourself what's bad).
In my opinion, there is
only one caste -- human being,
only one religion - humanity,
only one God - the nature
only one country -- the earth.
dear nirmal,
are you from india, from where
are you a
christian,
are you trying to denounce hindus, their
social
system,
the brahman,
are you getting paid to do
this,
are you married, do you have a spouse and children,
what kind
of education and job you have,
just curoius to know your background so
that i can
relate to your thinking better, thanks for
responding,
One Brahmin from Houston, who
is a persuasive writer, writes:
Nirmal jee,
This might be a good story but still is biased
towards the so called "Dalits" May be the writer is a big guy sitting in
the airconditioned and travelling in Airplanes....he has to travel in 2nd
class in the railway and visit the villages in UP and Bihar to see the
atrocitites being done on Brahmins or the so called Forwards. I have seen
Brahmins beaten and killed by them, Brahmins not having two meals a day
and in drastically poor condition. They don't have that much of courage to
insult or speak against the so called "Dalits or Backwards" like Mulayam,
Laloo, Ram vilas paswans or Yogendra Singh Yadav, the
Director.
These reports might have just created in imagination or
for the purpose of getting popularity and votes. At present in India, the
so called "Dalits" and "Backwards" enjoy much more benefits than the so
called " Brahmins" or "Forwards". At some places these atrocities can be
found because our political leaders want it for the purpose of the
Votes..
One political activist from the same land called the U.S.A. writes:
One proud Hindu who lives in Houston and who is truly interested in the betterment of the Hndus writes:
Thank you for putting together such a classic piece. It is
really
nerve-shattering. I cannot believe such things still do happen
in
India....,and I am not surprised WHY it happens. This is a clear
proof of
"ingrained illiteracy" in mass scale. That is why I hope the
govt. stresses
basic education - be it farmers, fishermen, housewives,
pandits, policemen,
food vendors, laborers etc...anybody. Men should
never be discriminated by
their source-of-birth, rather distinguished
by talents and performance.
We, from here, can certainly work towards
eliminating such discrimination
problem by asking the State &
Central Govt. to invest in education at every
level - from big cities
to smallest village. Then & only then Hindus will
unite to form the
most powerful "house" to face all external threats.
Laws can help...but
we have to change each individual's mind and heart
towards civil rights
of all Hindus.
Dear Nirmal,
This morning I read your essay and the comments that followed, this is a
topic
that is always going to evoke a varied response. I am more outraged
that we
tend to forget the fact that we are human-beings! From the little world
I have
seen, I do experience that religion or caste is seen in one's CHARACTER
and we
can only make it worth living by excercising a 'good' or atmost a
'better'
moral status as a HUMAN. I think we owe it to ourselves and generations
to
come---to provide and inculcate a humanitarian environment for us all.
BUT how
much of this are we really DOING??
I must commend you on your task and hope to read more of your works.
Regards,
Sincerely,
R. Sinha
Dear Nirmal,
..... I realy enjoyed your essay on the caste system.....
Keep up the good work.