Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Caste system

Justice Markandey Katju’s argument that the caste system will be destroyed in 10 to 20 years from now (Jan. 9) is a dream. Technological advancements have only helped to dismantle caste-based occupations, not caste-based politics. Atrocities in the name of caste are rampant. The caste system will vanish only when people give up their caste-based identities like surnames.

P. Abinandhan,

Neyveli

The social and economic causes that are responsible for the caste system may have weakened but they have not gone away. Caste-based reservation and caste politics are certainly not likely to end in the near future. In a multicultural society like India, the egalitarian concept is at best an ideal.

Thangkhochon Haokip,

New Delhi

Agreeing with the views of N. Venu (Letters, Jan. 12), I wish to add that the caste system has been made to take deep root in our social structure by government policies fraught with dishonesty.

Dilip Bhattacharjee,

Kolkata

Does reservation encourage the building of walls between communities? Is reservation responsible for the two-tumbler system in village tea shops across the country?

J.P. Saulina Arnold,

Chennai

G. David Milton,

Maruthancode

It is difficult to accept the argument that members of the communities known as the Scheduled Castes today were treated with indignity only after the British destroyed their vocation and they became poor. They were shunned due to their social status by the evil practice of untouchability. Their places of dwelling were located far away from the villages. They were allowed to pursue only menial, inhuman occupations.

A poor man’s indignity ended once his children prospered whereas the oppression of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes never ended. They passed on their misery to their children. They were made to endure this for 5000 years.

S.A. Nasser Khan,

Chennai

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