Caste of Relations-2 : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

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The respondent is unconcerned about the topic. She is unaware of discussions on casteism and racism in the media. She tells me that there are many like her; they have belief in dharma and don’t bother about what allegations others put on their way of living. Often I have to reconfirm what she says; “there was lots of bloodshed between the brahmins and kshatriyas” where bloodshed means that the boy’s family didn’t accept the girl. But she loves her home town, Jammu. She continues:

The first food was offered to a cow. It was only then that we ate food. I remember that the bhangan would come to take away the garbage bag from our home and clear the garbage vans outside our home. No, we would not touch her; we didn’t touch people who indulged in menial labour.

If we touched them by mistake then nothing major would happen. We would wash our hands. We were not punished or anything.

Note that the people indulging in menial labour worked with hands; they picked dead rats, pigs and other waste by digging their hands in heaps of wet garbage. This is not a small town phenomenon and the author found similarity in Mumbai (as reported in this story). The workers stink and people stay away from them.

We are Brahmins and we are not very rich. Many Brahmins are poor; they are supposed to be educated and wise. You also find rich Brahmins who are uneducated.

I note that the other castes are identified as lower castes.

Of course the higher castes have importance. Though there was no untouchability between the castes.

Caste distinction was impossible in schools. There was nobody to keep an eye on who’s touching whom and eating from who is eating from whose Tiffin box. We mingled freely and shared food. The shudra children also attended the same school.

However, we were forbidden to go to our Muslim friends’ home. They came to our home but we had kept a separate set of crockery for them. They too had their rules for us.

The reason is religious conflict and also that they were heavy eaters of non-vegetarian food.

The respondent and I discussed that demarcation of castes is based on profession and nature. She agrees but is unable to point out the reasons for ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ castes.

Inter-caste marriage was a big no-no for quite some time. Brahmin girls had to marry brahmin boys. Since brahmins didn’t give their girls to kshatriyas, they too didn’t give away their girls to brahmin families. That has lessened now. Why did this happen in the first place. I don’t know; we just followed.

Of course, she is not the first person to wonder why we follow something we are not sure of. We are told to follow conventions and we follow them without referring to the scriptures that are supposed to contain the instructions. Is this what is called ‘the slave mentality’?

Today we meet, accept sweets and hug everybody of respect; anybody who has worked hard and done something of note. Maybe it’s not the same in the villages but then they don’t know what we know. Little education and nobody to tell them about truth and untruth.

I think that last line defines the future of casteism in India.

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The Young India

Caste of Relations-2

on January 25, 2010

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