Social harmony , caste problem in India and Hindu upper castes

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WHO IS GOING TO BREAK THE SOCIAL HARMONY OR DESTROY SOCIAL FABRIC IN INDIA?

We are living in India. It is in South Asia. It is a Hindu majority country of four Varnas – Brahman, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras and one group of Avarnas – the dalits or untouchables. It is in socially descending order. A big country of caste discrimination. Just think one billion people practicing casteism. And majority of them are suffering due to it. They have to because they lack resources and also lack any access to country’ resources. It is all artificially created disability. A man made disaster persisting for thousands of years. The human rights activists and agencies are working in India, against this system and to help the victims but without much impact. This is such a big country with rampant discrimination, an inhuman society (sorry, spiritual society?), with so many castes, ethnicities, languages and what not. There is Hindi, its sister languages and four Dravidian languages. And higher education is in English, so blog is in English also. It is largest democracy in the world. Large than United States of America. It should be matter of pride but it is not, the caste system destroys the egos of low caste people. Low ego goes with low caste status.

This country has its stinking parts.

Bright part is the superiority (of upper castes) acquired by birth – a highly intelligent thing to do!? – or one needs to be rocket scientist to do so - or may be work with more than 10 dimensions in Physics! The caste Hindus steadily refuse to be part of modern world. As noble prize winner Amratya Sen says that the rights are relative to society . This implies that modern human rights are not necessarily applicable to India. Thus India has all the right in the world to follow her traditional path and accompanied distributions of rights. Please correct me if I am wrong. Amarty Sen never seriously talks about caste problems in India.

It is a hugely diverse democratic country with multiparty parliamentary system based on Westminster model. There are two big political parties , Congress and BJP (both the claim to be anti-caste), and many small regional parties. The caste system, which is denounced and denied by almost all the political parties, runs deeply throughout the country with minor differences here and there. The caste system in its details was first described in Manusmriti, one of the 18 major dharma shastras of Sanatan Dhama which is now called Hindu religion. It is actually a matter of pride for caste Hindus, it gives them a sense of mental elevation, a kind of Yogic levitating exercise for which they do not have to make any efforts. The mental satisfaction comes effortlessly. This vertically hierarchal and demeaning (sorry, spiritually satisfying) society has its own notion of harmony. In Hindu society, the harmony means a state of peace where it is maintained in favor of oppressive twice born who form merely 15 percent of Indian society. This minority consists of upper caste Hindus who control all the resource in the country (long live patriotism, they corner everything in the nation, may be in the name of nation); subordination is left to rest of the people. The lower castes have to be patriotic without owning anything in the country and with all the paths to progress blocked! This society has disempowered the majority for thousands of years (it has such a glorious culture!).

Whenever the efforts are made to empower these underprivileged people, the high caste thinkers and activists raise the issue of social harmony. The word it is, designed to denote the peaceful amicable exchange between people in a group. It should be maintained, it has to be maintained at all costs – according to them. This seems to be the idea of upper caste people. This great civilization with great cultural seems to be thriving on social harmony which is built on the tomb of aspirations of low caste people. This harmony is a much needed thing. The upper castes oppressing lower castes without any protest from the exploited, is supposed to be a sign of harmony; the oppression has to be ignored; stability and peace(?) have to be emphasized. Absence of any violence is also a sign of harmony which however is result of powerlessness of low caste people. The harmony is essential to maintain the superiority of upper castes. Let there be harmony or in other words status quo. And everything will be fine. The affirmative action empowers the low caste so it creates disharmony by disempowering the upper caste. And who said power does not play apart. The reservation are demanded to be abolished in the name of harmony, equality and all other kind of things. The delicate social fabric will be destroyed by the affirmative action. All these arguments are paraded in media, academic circles , courts ( Supreme Court of India) and other places. What kind of harmony do they desire - the kind of harmony which results when untouchables are barred from entering the temples - or the kind in which the Dalits are insulted on the village roads or the kind of harmony where school children refused to eat the food cooked by a dalit woman or the kind of harmony where low castes are deprived of any highly paid job.

By harmony they mean a position where low castes willingly agree to their low station in life in name of scriptures, traditions and above all the law (?) of Karma. So these proponents of traditional harmony or peace indicate towards its breakdown. And who is going to break it down when affirmative policies empower the low castes? The backwards and Dalits? No not these people; those who benefit from affirmative action will not destroy peace. This constructive( the upper castes always say that they always do the constructive work, so by extension creating trouble in the society should also be constructive work - provided they do it!!) work of destroying the social fabric will be done by the high castes. Only the privileged castes which stand to get disempowered are going to break the harmony in the society. Why can’t they lend a helping hand in maintaining peace instead of trying to dominate the society? They will refuse to live peacefully with lower castes and use force. Or commit atrocities. And then blame affirmative policies for breaking the harmony in the society. Why it is not their responsibility to maintain the social fabric of the society? Or are they entitled to destroy the peaceful condition in the society? If they are entitled to create law and order conditions when their interests are hurt then aren’t others also entitled do so? Is being violent the sole prerogative of upper castes? Why the same entitlement should not be made in the case of low castes?

If the society does not run as upper castes wish then it is injustice! What a thinking !