A lot many woke liberals and right-wing toadies tweet me back, often with casteist slurs, that CaStEiSm DoEs NoT ExiSt but little do they realize that facts do not care about their feelings and conscious ignorance?
Casteism does exist, in different forms, in multiple ways, knowingly or unknowingly. Just because many caste-apologists disbelieve that “casteism does not exist”, does not alter the ground reality of casteism in India society. Take a look at these uncomfortable examples of casteism:
Casteism is just not a British construct or a Portuguese construct as these toadies would want you to believe. They fear research, investigation and examination so they frequently resort to logical fallacies, especially whataboutery being the popular one amongst all, downsizing the discourse on casteism. Little do they know that casteism stemmed from their Vedas, even before the Quran and Bible came into being? Least said about Manusmriti, the better! Just because they have not read about their own religious philosophy in-depth, does not give them a green pass to lay off the burden of proof on the ones who question the caste system to smash casteism. This video on caste conundrum is fair enough to let you know how deep is the rabbit hole:
In fact, it’s because of social statism (casteism) I adopted Buddhism to escape the material realities of caste and untouchability. And, the buck does not stop here. Wherever these privileged ones migrate, they take casteism along with them: A survey of around 1,500 people of South Asian origin in the United States confirms that Dalits there face various types of caste discrimination in South Asian American institutions. This discrimination ranges from derogatory jokes and slurs to physical violence and sexual assault. In the survey, around 26% of Dalit respondents said they had faced physical violence because of their caste while 20% reported discrimination at their work places. When it came to religion, 40% were made to feel unwelcome at their places of worship, the report said. And 40% of Dalits said they had been rejected as romantic partners because of their caste. In all, 60% of Dalits reported that they had experienced caste-based derogatory jokes and comments.
Casteism is not so vocal in rural areas, but it is also existing in meso and micro forms (even in urban areas). From separate utensils to casteist slurs, from arranged marriage systems to ghettos, casteism is horrendously and vociferously practiced. In fact, urban cities are known to be the path of development and prosperity but unfortunately the very privileged ones residing in the non-rural spheres (not just on the realm of facebook and twitter alone) often condemn and scorn affirmative actions, inter-caste marriages (6% as per the 2011 census report, against the total population), compartmentalization and social equity, etc. They’re “Mohandas Gandhi with Modern Euphemisms”. Mohandas Gandhi, the so-called Mahatma, defended untouchability against Dr Ambedkar and eventually blackmailed him to sign the Poona Pact in 1930s, that established, shaped and strengthened the epoch of casteism. The contrast between both casteism, modernity and religion are a must read to know how open-minded Dr Ambedkar was, compared to the pseudo-Mahatma.
Nevertheless,
These racistic cretins are too quick to cite that ‘reservation is bad’ but their utter silence on abolishing the ‘management quota’ system tells a lot about their ‘casteist’ cognition, while trying to present a conspicuous picture around that “casteism does not exist”. A report (2011–12) by NCAER conducted ‘India Human Development Survey (IHDS-2)’ across 42,000 households and found that cowbelt states (Madhya Pradesh: 53%, Himachal Pradesh: 50%, Chhattisgarh: 48%, Rajasthan and Bihar: 47%, Uttar Pradesh: 43%, Uttarakhand: 40%) often practice untouchability or casteism willfully than other regional states in India. Majority of the caste-apologists here are Hindus, Sikhs and Jains.
They ‘assume’ that “casteism is a defunct idea”, but little do they know that it continues to subconsciously influence the culture, media and interactions. In fact, in a media sphere that is brahminically administered, there is not any structural transformation on news coverage and discourses on untouchable communities. Do these caste apologists muster the courage to scorn this paradox? Let me ask more: How many of them even dare to trend #DalitLivesMatter, speaking about the same to their kids or dare to print a t-shirt with the same label to reform asocial consciousness? Who will dare to lavishly treat manual scavengers, who are still appointed on the basis of caste? How many of them would pressurize their beloved government to undo manual scavenging in today’s century? I am not enticing any selfie-revolution here, nor propagating the idea that having an inter-caste dinner solves the problem. Casteism is not in surname or vocation alone…It’s in thoughts, social orientation and behavior too. If these uncles, aunties and millennials genuinely care and preach “casteism does not exist” then they should allow teaching of “Annihilation of Caste” in schools rather than merely circulate Poop India articles on whatsapp.
