IS MR.LALU REALLY DOING CASTEISM?

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav  during IBN Dialogue Bihar 2.0 organised by Network18 Group on 11^th  September,  asked his audience, mostly youth, in his usual rhetorical way, “Do you believe in casteism?"  and   the  reply came : "No". Lalu paraphrased his question: "Is caste relevant or not?" and reply came "No, caste is irrelevant."  Also one girl remarked, "You are doing casteism."  He took recourse to the late socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia and said “No, I am not doing casteism, rather I am taking up the cause of socially and economically marginalised sections of society."

Marcus aurelius, a roman emperor has  truly said that “everything  we hear is an opinion, not the fact and everything we see is perspective, not the truth”. So my dear youths of India the ground reality is that the discrimination based on caste still deeply rooted in our society.  The wordy opposition to caste in respect of some generalized condemnation of caste surely leaves the existing structure almost intact. Why not our society is allowing inter-caste marriages? Why our society is still enquiring the caste before renting a room to a needy one?  Why our society has different living areas for different castes?  Why Muslim area, Dalit area, Brahmin area?

Talking about Ram Manohar Lohia who argues that there are three kinds of opposition to caste order. First, there are ones who believe in the wordy opposition to caste like Nehruvian liberals, the communists and the Praja Socialist Party. Second, there are those who believe in partial opposition to caste by the Sudras like the DK politics in South during his time or Yadava politics of the North during our time. Third, there are those who believe in a wholesale opposition to caste order. Lohia prefers the third alternative as the first two groups are basically hypocrites. Any other social and political attempt to do away the caste inequalities is condemned as “casteist”. He prefers a broad‐based opposition to caste involving Dalits, Sudras, Muslims and women who are all victims of caste‐based hypocritical politics.

  

Followers of Lohia who surrendered his manifold criticism of caste into the sectional politics of Sudras in North India through the Samajwadi Party of Mulyam Singh Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav. Lohia’s attempts in characterising such partial elevation of Sudras in South India should not be forgotten. He criticizes the Sudra politics in South for being concerned with “partial elevation” of Sudras, for alienating itself from Dalits, women, backward Muslims and Adivasis and for not showing interest in carrying out the agenda of destruction of caste system. So sectional elevation brings about some changes within the caste system, but leaves the basis of castes unaltered.  Finally, a true struggle against caste is concerned with elevation of all rather than one or the other section of lower castes. This struggle aims to pitchfork the five downgraded groups such as women, Sudras, Dalits, backward caste Muslims and Adivasis, into positions of leadership, irrespective of their merit as it stands today.

To end caste, social measures like mixed dinners, and inter‐caste marriages and economic measures like “land to the tiller” from among the lower castes must be encouraged. Women’s issues like fetching drinking water from distant areas or building of lavatories for women in rural areas must be resolved, apart from the distribution of property to press for women’s rights. Discussions, plays, and fairs should be organized. Even, in government jobs there should be reservation for those who marry outside their caste. This is a sure way of breaking caste barriers. The socialists must make all efforts towards the destruction of caste order among Hindus and non‐Hindus. While Lohia’s critique of caste must be distinguished from his followers in electoral field today, his alternative model merely relies on state action for equality and justice.

A NEW CASTE SYSTEM : ENGLISH VERSUS VERNACULAR

It may seems funny to you but I bet even you must have experienced once or several times this new way of discrimination. If you are well in english then at some place you have thought of yourself as of higher rank and if you are good in vernacular but bad in english then the situation is surely adverse for you. whether you are in academic or in any profession your competence and talent is measured based on how good you are in english. I doubt if this kind of discrimination continues then our government has to take legal measures of reservation for vernaculars too, as already there exists a federal law covering language discrimination enforced by EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

After my graduation one of my junior who was in my contact even after I completed my studies informed me that during her graduation project she performed very well. Products that she developed were being marketed very well and profit was earned. When she asked for job offer by the company she was refused to hire saying that you are not good in english, we need a person who is well in english. No doubt that she was very talented and competent in her work but was refused just because of not speaking english as she belongs to a lower middle class of a hindi speaking state. Company compromised with production quality over english speaking.

You may also have gone through a novel “Half Girlfriend” written by Chetan Bhagat. In this you can see how a hindi speaking boy being discriminated based on language he speaks. How he faced interview for admission in a language he hardly knows. How he was compelled to interact and limits his friendship with hindi speaking guys and gals. How he felt inferior in front of his girlfriend who speaks and knows english very well. How he does not find himself fit in the society of english speaking people although he belonged to a royal family of hindi speaking state.

In multi-linguistic country like India it is very much questionable that basic needed things like food items, medicine, nutritional items, government forms, access to law, politics etc. are provided with instructions in english. Academic conversations, admission to good universities, projects, research work, dissertation, creativity etc. are needed to be in english to be effective and valuable. I think these talents can be found in its best form even in the vernacular.    

RESERVATION : AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAM THAT RESERVES 0.05% OF JOBS FOR PROTECTIVE DISCRIMINATION OUT OF A WORKING FORCE ~478 MILLION INDIANS.

In India reservation was brought to provide opportunity to traditionally underrepresented and dis-privileged or oppressed communities to get higher education and noticeable life. But with due time it has become anti-national policy for the people of higher caste. They started protesting against it. I just wanted to ask them a simple question that if they were given this reservation after the independence then would it be possible for the people who are presently given reservation to protest against them like they are doing. The  answer is simply “NO”. To protest against reservation for these people would have been like fighting for another independence.  I am sorry  but this is the ”TRUTH”.  As we all know reservation policy was basically implemented in 1982. So even after 33yrs of reservation policy  upper caste are very much capable of challenging this policy then what difference has it made in the life of so called underprivileged and oppressed.

In democratic country like India the idea of reservation was set up to provide the basic need to the underprivileged  which will create equality and provide opportunity to access the resources irrespective of caste, creed, gender, class and economic disparities but many arguments came in the way in which few can be listed as:

# It is the spurious ploy of merits.

#Reservation in elite institution will degrade the institute’s quality.

# Reservation should be based on economic criteria.

# Reservation promotes further caste-ism.

Now the thing  I wanted you all to know that first of all measurement of merit is totally based on academic performances but when the oppressed with the handful of resources make advances into this aspect the focus changed to performance and later on “personal potential”. This is nothing but a myth that reservation in elite institution will degrade the institute’s quality by less competitive performance by the reserved students. In a report it was found that in the AIIMS and IIT entrance examinations, the difference between the toppers in open and reserved category is large of the order to 20 to 30% . However, when it comes to the last successful candidate in either lists, the difference narrows down to about half of it. If reservation should be based on economic criteria rather than caste system then also it will not be able to change the attitude of Indian society and bridge the gap between the upper caste and lower caste. It will be more easy for them to show themselves an economically backward on papers. I questioned that how much percentage among the lower caste is economically forward and socially well established and how much percentage among  the upper caste is economically backward and socially challenged. It is very clear that reservations are meant to address something more than economic corruption and cannot be viewed as counters to poverty. Further, this is not true that reservation promotes further casteism. The policy of reservations is recognition of the brutal reality of casteism . Protective discrimination is something more, in the sense that it addresses individuals who are dis-privileged in more than one category like social, economical, psychological, gender etc.

Now the bothering thing is that why the upper caste people are showing this much of anger and agitation against reservation which is just a mode to avoid social unrest based on casteism. Why they are not more interested in protesting against lack of healthcare facilities, work to improve technology, management in rural areas etc. Are they fearing that reservation will limit their share of future generations of their families and caste or are they fear that resources will only be accessible to those who have suffered centuries of oppression and contemptuous ?

BRINGING PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGE BY LEGAL MEASURES IS DIFFICULT HYPOTHESIS : UNTOUCHABILITY

I felt shame on my society and culture with an incident that happened with me. A friend of mine blonging to schedule caste who is a section engineer in Indian  railway came with me to attend a marriage function in my village. He left the function in between and went back without saying anything. After long enquiry from my other friend’s I came to know that one of a village person asked him his caste during the PRITI BHOJ and when he answered that he belongs to schedule caste, the villager asked him to get up from his side and go sit next to the other schedule caste’s member who were eating in a corner on the ground carrying their own utencils and drinking water. I wonder why our society dont care for the person’s value instead of asking his caste and colour.

You all must have  heard  about   the recent  news where A khap panchayat in Uttar Pradesh has issued a diktat that a Dalit woman and her sister should be raped and paraded naked in their village as revenge for their brother’s action of eloping with a married girl from the Jat community. Not only this when under threat, victim’s family moved to Delhi their house in the native place was allegedly ransacked and taken over by the Jat community. 

An affluent educated dalit is still a dalit..Its a social septicaemia following septic foci theory in the society and not  based on economy. It can be addressed only by changing of perspectives or a paradigm shift which can be expected to occur after long run of time or even not after an indefinite period.

If I ask you to name an influential Dalit academic. You can't. A big name journalist? There isn't one, You will say. A Supreme Court judge? Two out of hundreds appointed in the last 65 years. According to National crime records bureau of india, a crime is committed against a dalit every sixteen minutes;everyday, more than four dalit women are raped by the caste hindus,every week, thirteen dalits are murdered and six dalits kidnapped. In 2012 the year of delhi gang rape and murder, 1574 dalit women were raped and 651 dalits murdered.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, father of Indian Constitution dedicated his life for the upliftment of untouchable’s , fought against hindu code of beliefs and dogmas. He strived for their liberation, as Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. did for the African Americans, as Mr. Nelson Mandela for the blacks in South Africa .

Abraham Maslow presented a hierarchy of human needs as:
1. Need for self-actualization.
2. Esteem need, such as need for prestige, success and self- respect.
3. Belonging-ness and love needs, such as need for affection, affiliation and identification.
4. Safety need, such as need for security, stability and order.
5. Physiological needs, such as hunger, thirst and sex.

In this hierarchy it has clearly been indicated that a person in the society may get the 1, 2, 3, 4 or may have to wait to get them, but no. 5 is what is most essential and imperative and comes as the first priority. One can do without the first-four but one cannot do without the last one. This need having been met, other needs would follow in due course – sometimes automatically. If ‘Life’ is assured one can strive to achieve the other through his efforts. But a hungry, thirsty person—not getting food or water—is already a ‘living dead’.

The attitude between the high and  low caste gradually developed in to the worst form of untouchability which pushed a major section of population to a state of lower than of an animal. In 2006, our then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called untouchability India’s “Hidden Apartheid”. Dr. S. Radhakrishanan had once remarked: “Unfortunately caste  system , the device to prevent the  social organisation from decay ultimately prevented it from growing”