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Monday, Jan 21, 2008
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The caste question

The article “Discrimination for dummies: V. 2008” (Jan. 18) gives a refreshingly different perspective of India’s hierarchical caste system. It is journalism at its best in the midst of the triumphalist din that India is on the brink of global success with a record growth rate of almost 10 per cent and is poised to become a superpower. Respectable elites profess equal rights without realising that they are meaningless in a society in which opportunities are unequal. For all the talk of the fading away of the caste consciousness, it is no secret that depressed caste people are hated and harassed. As a result of their growing awareness and assertion over the past few decades, they have access to the constitutionally guaranteed reservation in education and employment. That a vast majority of those at the bottom of the caste system suffer from dehumanising poverty and lead a miserable existence is no excuse to do away with positive discrimination.

G. David Milton,

Maruthancode

* * *

Caste discrimination goes back a few thousand years, and it cannot be undone by a few decades of half-hearted reservation. Till such time as there are caste-based matrimonial advertisements, caste-based reservation should continue. Given the stranglehold of the upper castes over the media, it is not surprising that AIIMS-type campaign journalism proliferates. One cannot help feeling that the consent for economic liberalisation is a sly way of undermining reservation.

Sanjay Ghosh,

New Delhi

* * *

Caste in India is a hard reality and caste consciousness is deepening by the day. Reservation has surely made a change to the caste scenario though not at the expected pace. Would anyone have imagined two decades ago that a Dalit would become Chief Minister of the most populous Indian State?

P. Rajen,

New Delhi

* * *

The article rightly points to the media approach to caste which misses the broader picture. To call what happened at Khairlanji — a national shame — an incident is to undermine the gravity of the offence. Despite some educational progress by Dalits, they continue to face discrimination in different walks of life in some form or the other. There is an urgent need to understand the social malaise of caste discrimination in its right perspective. The media must let the truth prevail.

Sunil Kumar,

New Delhi

Civilised society cannot encourage discrimination on the basis of one’s birth. Just as we allow religious conversions by law, we should encourage caste conversions to protect the most backward from exploitation by political groups in the name of reservation.

G.L.N. Murthy,

Hyderabad

* * *

The article is a count-by-count rebuttal of the lies being spread by the media and a section of the elite. The overzealous media fail to see merit in affirmative action for the disadvantaged and feed the public with stories of upper caste victimisation. Unless the media present Dalit issues in a right perspective, bad blood will continue to flow.

Bankim Samaddar,

Faridabad

* * *

Cries of ‘reverse discrimination’ and ‘dwindling privileges’ are a sinister misrepresentation engineered by the powerful elitist lobby. Such jargons are dished out by the privileged only to create confusion among the naive and slow down corrective action. Just because our economic system is unable to achieve equal opportunities for all and eliminate inequalities, we cannot withdraw the helping hand of extending reservation to the weakest sections of our social fabric.

Kasim Sait,

Chennai

* * *

Even though ancient Brahmins were responsible for providing religious and moral sanction to the caste system, Brahmins today have no role in the injustices and inhuman cruelties inflicted on Dalits. It is only those sections which feel their economic and social status is threatened by the empowerment of Dalits that perpetrate atrocities against them.

S.P. Asokan,

Cuddalore

* * *

While Brahmins may not be the ones abusing Dalits in this day and age, it cannot be denied that caste oppression is the creation of Brahmins of the bygone past. To eradicate casteism, we should do away with caste-based reservation and ban the use of the word “caste” in the media. Let reservation be need-based: 40 per cent for the socially and economically backward, and 15 per cent each for only the socially backward and only the economically backward. Thirty per cent of education and employment should be merit-based.

Koti Sreekrishna,

Mason, Ohio

* * *

It is no one’s case that Dalits are not marginalised or that they do not need all the help that can be made available by the state. What the WSJ article rightly termed reverse discrimination takes place not in backward regions but in the highest echelons of Indian academia. Its effects are felt severely in higher education where the deserving are denied admission in favour of those who are less competent. Offering sops at such levels is not only ineffective in uplifting the poor Dalits of rural India but also introduces severe distortions.

As regards the Brahmin super-convention in Pune, it may be pointed out that the convention was held on private premises and did not disrupt normal life. No one has any issues with even the Shivaji Park meeting except that Mumbai is ill-equipped to cater to such a large gathering that forces the offices in and around the park to remain closed on December 6.

Hrishikesh Vidyadhar Ganu,

Kozhikode

* * *

The huge success of the BSP in the Uttar Pradesh elections is a perfect example of the fact that it is not Brahmins whom the Dalits consider their oppressors. It is time for Dalit sympathisers to identify the real oppressors and stop blaming the upper castes for everything.

C. Venkatagiri,

Austin, Texas

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The caste question

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