Race, Caste and Prejudice
Posted 11/21/2006 10:25:26 PM
In India the police and the media were busy with British security guards who were accused of manhandling students and parents, and called them "bloody Indians" or “bloody Muslims” as they tried to enter a school. During the same period England cricketer of Indian origin Monty Panesar was called a "stupid Indian" by some spectators in Australia.
Both the news dominated the precious media space for more than a week and both were termed as racial abuses punishable under the law. Unfortunately the British bodyguards could feel the taste of Indian police while the spectators got away. But what I don’t understand is how these personal attacks on individuals have become a case of racism.
The Wikipedia describes racism as ‘a belief or doctrine where inherent biological differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, with a corollary that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others'
So when somebody calls us an Indian with a prefix or suffix, we feel that our race is inferior and so we have the right to feel offended. But does it apply if an Indian calls an American ‘bloody American’ or an Australian the same way. Will they also complain it as a racial abuse? Why a case of racial abuse not registered against an Indian spectator who discovered that the Pakistani cricketer Inzamam Ul Haq was a potato? Why such a complaint was not registered when Sunil Gavaskar was abused in Calcutta?
So it is legitimate that a lower race can abuse a lower race but not by a ‘superior race’. Who defined the inferiority and superiority of the race? By mere colour of skin? In that logic donkeys should be a superior race than horses.
Why did the Muslims felt offended when they were called by the name of their religion – of course with an objectionable prefix? But will this same feeling be there if those same Muslims abuse the bodyguards by saying ‘you bloody Christians’ or ‘gora’ or ‘angrez’. Will the same charges be applied in this scenario? A South Indian feels offended if you call him Madrasi while he is happy if you call him Tamilian. Both are same but the humans have certified and classified that the term Madrasi is objectionable while Tamilian is not.
So we have classified ourselves into various stages of prejudice, discrimination, segregation or subordination where unwritten rules are framed. To see that these unwritten rules are adhered to we have laws that deal with such discrimination. Take the case of Indian caste system, which is divided into social stratification. Basically it is a Hindu tradition and has nothing to do with religions that came to India at later stages. But today we have not only Hindus but Muslims, Sikhs and Christians too practice it. In order to protect the lower castes from the routine mud slinging by the upper castes and to retain their dignity, the government of India formed strict rules. If you speak any offensive terms against a lower caste, you are punishable under a non-bailable offence. That precisely means on a complaint of such a nature, you have to prove yourself innocent. No proof is required by the complainant to put you behind the bars. In other words, this law is more dangerous than POTA, a law that was designed for terrorists. It is a matter of debate and further musings that such laws are misused in urban centers while in rural areas such laws are hardly implemented.
The immediate name that pops up when we discuss racial discrimination is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a Christian American political activist and the most famous leader of the American civil rights movement. He fought for civil rights and equal rights and for which he was assassinated in 1968. Same is the case with our own Mahatma Gandhi and he also paid the same price. Both of them did not fight for superiorities. They fought for equalities.
Now consider this :
There are 3.22 Million Indians in America and every Indian in India dreams of reaching that dreamland legally or illegally, with or without racism, 38% of Doctors in America are Indians who service the superior white race leaving their inferior race back home to government health centers, money minting super specialty hospitals or the Almighty, 12% of Scientists in America are Indians who make that nation proud by achieving unachievable targets, 36% of NASA employees are Indians, 34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians, 28% of IBM employees are Indians, 17% of INTEL employees are Indians and 13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
According to Mark Twain India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. So more than half of the world is ours and still we feel inferior by merely being called an Indian.
Every one want to go to heaven but no one is willing to die.

Binu Alex

Gujarat has stopped producing leaders
Posted 6/7/2006 11:01:29 PM
Gujarat has stopped producing leaders – Don’t you feel so?

The last leader that I can remember from Gujarat is the same that no one from Gujarat want to associate with. His name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Ever heard of him? Well, see the postage stamps. The last democratic protest Gujarat had was Navnirman and it was four decades ago. As the state stopped producing leaders, the state stopped looking towards solutions. Instead of leaders, we have smart politicians today. The politicians are always biased. They have a basket called development. This basket is full of skeletons. Full of ghosts of those who died silently waiting for their rehabilitation or as urban slum dwellers. The politicians opened this basket far too often and automatically it started producing wealth and created millionaires. As more Nirmas and Reliance mushroomed in the state, more people became refugees. On the road to prosperity, you have no solutions. You crush whoever comes your way and the state will help you in doing that. Whenever a helpless poor shed tears, the politicians opened the same basket again and again. Whenever an influential shed tears, the courts came to their rescue. The oppressed stood dumb looking for a leader but he never turned up because there was none.
And this is exactly the reason the BJP rebellion in Gujarat died before it could germinate. Mistake – Keshubhai thought he was a leader. It is the same reason Congress is orphaned. Mistake – Too many crooks disguised as leaders. It is the same reason the Left parties are part of history in Gujarat. Mistake – They became number one enemy for the basket holders.
Leave the political field for a little while and enter the NGO sector. They too have a basket where they create nothing but wealth. In order to do that, they have to be at loggerheads with the government. If you are against the government you earn. If you are with the government, you still earn. Not a single NGO can gather a thousand people to a rally without arranging for logistics. The people have lost faith in all the system. They come only when they are transported. So here too leaders are hard to come by.
Now pause a little while we go through theatre scene. Ooops, are there anyone in this field? Anyone who have enacted a political play on the stage that evoked good applause?
Now let’s come back to the political scene. There is not a single person to counter the series of misinformation campaign unleashed as far as Narmada is concerned. I wonder how Aamir Khan has hurt the feelings of the people of Gujarat by speaking for Gujaratis? How is that the people from the valley who are going to type Cntl+Z in their life not a Gujarati? I remember the elections campaigns in these tribal areas where the same party – BJP – asked these tribals to oust missionaries from the region because ‘you all are our brothers and sisters’. That was the reason the BJP did well in Central Gujarat in the last assembly elections. That is the reason they could easily put the tribal to fight against the Muslims in these areas. No body dared to ask how suddenly they have become orphans. If they are not Gujaratis, they are not from any other neighboring state as well. Where do they belong to? I pity the tribal leaders who have not questioned this logic. They have been staying in the valley for centuries. Civilized people created provinces and divided them into different states without taking their consent. They didn’t protest. The civilized people created a new government department called Forest Department and cleaned up the forest wood which they had preserved and worshipped for centuries. They didn’t protest. The civilized people created cities and to have water right upto the asshole, they created dams and asked them to vacate without giving any notice. They didn’t protest. Now somebody like Aamir Khan said a word in support of these helpless refugees, there are protests everywhere.
Because there was blood shed during partition and we have a Kashmir problem burning, there is a cruel logic when people like Pravin Togadia thundering that Muslims should got to Pakistan. Because the majority of the nations in the world are Christian dominated, I can understand the logic of the same guy asking the Christians to go to either the US or the UK. (It is a different story altogether that he withdrew the statement immediately and as to who are desperate to go to these places). But how can you uproot a tribal on whose land you and me are staying by preparing some paper documents? How are they not as loyal to the state as you and me? Is it because they are demanding the basic livelihood needs in lieu of their ouster?
You made them refugees by vacating them from their land. You made them orphans now by disowning them. Is there any leader who can help them? Is there any one please who can give them a state because they don’t belong to any state? Is there any one who can at least report in the media how they are living away from the land they owned and preserved? Any one please.

Binu Alex

Home \| Edit Profile \| View My Blog \| Messages \| Post an Article \| Log Off \| Browse Users \| Forums \| Contact Us \| Help \| Ripside Inc.
View with default template \| Who's Here?