Insignificant Indian's

Biggest democracy of the world, largest populated country, most young nation but most of them disinterested in the Nation’s building and in its administration. Neither do the government considers them serious nor do they bother anything about the government, this gives birth to a term - ‘Insignificant Indian’s’. Not a good sign for the future of India and Indian’s. Reason might be anything from being genuinely averse towards Politics and the politicians to being deeply dejected about their helplessness but the result is the same and that’s the suffering. No one is an outcaste for this suffering let he be the richest, or a politician, the working class or the poor.

Irony here is the poor had the insight to realise this decades ago and they have been making and breaking the governments of this Nation. Whereas, the well educated, working class could never realise that even his life is very much dependent on the government as its dependent on his employer. This section of the society who swears on their technological understanding and who vouch on their analytical aspects and rightly believed to be the intelligent class failed miserably to comprehend that though he is employed by his employer, it is the Government that has issued the license to his employer. So, rationally government can make or break his career.  If the educated, rational section of this society doesn’t realise this, who would? One change in the government policy can change the course of their industry and no industry is an alien to it. If opening up of the economy has created so many opportunities for the industry and for the educated class, a good reason to think; what would happen if more conservative government comes into the power? What would happen to the numerous Internet companies if web censorship comes into place? What would happen if government puts in more regulations in terms of FDI in FMCG and what if the government repels the more recent FDI in multi-brand Retail? What would happen if Healthcare were to be nationalized? What would happen if government takes up to state run industries on the lines of China? What if censorship increases on entertainment industry? What if media would no more be free flowing and would be rather regulated? One option they would then left with is to contest these in courts! But do they really want to be in that situation or be more vigil and openly place their opinions on the matters of importance and not merely when it is matter of popular sentiment!

Politicians need to be lauded for their efforts in keeping the more rational, educated society at bay from the politics. They have been successful in portraying their profession to be murky and violent and result they have been able to shoe away everyone with noble intentions. So, now they enjoy the absolute share on the political career and not only theirs but they have secured the careers of their kids and of course the kith and kin.

Though the downtrodden poor of this nation might be illiterate but they are highly cognizant about the happenings in and around him and so aware about the happenings in his state capital and Delhi as well, whereas the present savvy, polished English speaking section of the present society are turning out to be more and more political illiterates, who wakes up now and then only when a popular swing like the recent anti-corruption tirade comes through. Otherwise he is usually happy as long as he receives an alert on his mobile about the salary getting credited and he is able to find some entertainment vending venues and would be highly elated if he finds time to spend with friends and family. But he doesn’t realise how important he could be in structuring the policy of this Nation and in building this country instead he maintains his staunch silence during most of the happenings in the political circle, few of them vent out their anger only when there is popular wave but largely sticks to astute silence in more important policy aspects be it the FDI, balance between the development and welfare issues and many more out there!

When it comes to the other section of society who is more politically aware, vigil and reacts on the policy matters strongly, whenever there is a drop or curb on welfare measures, they are the ones who are strong enough to bend and mend the government. Hence the political parties will obviously care and hear to them, why would they waste their time in heeding to the rational, intelligent, polished English comments on Facebook? When the educated class have got themselves into this position were they no more matter, why would they send out a hue and cry when a popular tide arises, bet they wont be heard!

The educated class has a greater responsibility to drive this nation on the right path and influence the others, educate the less privileged section as well to steer the Nation into the right direction.  It is no less than obvious that they command respect from the others and their words are given value but the problem is they never speak. After having seen the city life and have seen lot more, if they ever try to speak to their own villagers or their family back home, would they not they not be heard? Once the political class realises that this section of society has an influence across the society would politicians not give them the needed importance? Isn’t it a reason enough to introspect?

Isn’t it time to show the ruling classes that they cant ignore the learned section any more? Isn’t it late for the political section to believe in this section of the society that they are powerful enough to break or make their political career? Of course no more time left to shout openly that governments cannot form any more with mere throwing money and freebies around to one section of the society and today is when India needs it well nurtured society to show that they are not insignificant anymore.

So, question still remains, would you want to be an Insignificant Indian?

It’s here again, yes the Ganesh immersion!

Last year during the same time, with an equal anguish I have written an article suggesting and pleading the society to be considerate and little more compassionate towards the environment. When the most famous, well respected individuals and institutions have failed to make people realise what they are up to, how can an insignificant writer who attempts to touch upon only the very serious un-interesting topics can bring about any change?

But here I would like to try once more, once again because I care for my nation and for my society and above all I love Hyderabad! Speaking about Hyderabad, the only misfortune for this city is that it doesn’t have seashore like Mumbai, Chennai and other big cities. The only river it had, the river Musi that once always was up to the brim with serene flowing water is now reduced to no more than a sewage line. It did not take a long time for this, just a few decades! Present young Hyderabadi’s have every right to question the previous generation on this, as no one has the right to spoil the natural resources we are just the custodians who live on these resources and are bound to pass them on to the offsprings. The same is also true in the case of already much neglected Tank Bund, the future generations will have every right to question us!

Not many of us know the origin of having Ganesh pandals during Ganesh Chaturti. It was Shri. Bal Gangadar Tilak, a good enough reason why Ganesh Chaturthi is huge in Maharashtra, he initiated this tradition and he had two reasons to start it. While those who know this story know only one reason i.e., it was a strategic move against the British, a move that helped in social gatherings which was not allowed by the British then. The other reason is Shri. Bal Gangadar Tilak was keen on spreading the brotherhood and bridging the gap between Brahmins and non-Brahmins! Which clearly we know is not happening every community now establish their own Ganesha and don’t really show an inclination towards joining other communities in organising Ganesh Chaturthi.

When it comes to selfishness in the form of customs and traditions nothing matters, even if it means destroying the very place where we live! Having understood this well, now I would like to propose another easy and simple solution to this problem. We have tried educating people to establish the eco-friendly clay Ganesha’s but how many have done so? Abysmally low! So, now the Government can have a system in place where it could collect all the Ganesha’s from Hyderabad and move them to the sea and immerse the Ganesha’s in Bay of Bengal.

The government can make various proposals like the organisers can still have the procession and celebrate with same fervour as they otherwise do the only difference is instead of they immersing the Ganesha in Tank Bund; they would handover the Ganesha to the government institution on Tank Bund itself, as this place is now synonymous with Ganesh festival for decades and as become a sentiment! From there it’s the institution responsibility to move the Ganesha safely to the sea. Various logistics can be considered here, the best would be the train as we Necklace Road railway station from where the Ganesha’s can be loaded onto the tracks. The government if it can also sponsor the travel of one or two organisers per Ganesha, so that the organisers have an assurance that their loveable Ganesha is safe and they would get to see their Ganesha being immersed with great respect and divine ceremony.

It might be an extra cost to the government but it saves the environment and more importantly the most historically important site of Hyderabad, the Tank Bund! At the same time the government would save some cost that it usually incurs on cleaning Tank Bund post the immersion day and the other arrangements that it usually makes on Tank Bund.

The solution might not be full proof but in this world no solution is a wholesome solution. If there is a better solution lets propose and resolve, we need to move quick, we need to decide, and we need to protect our city we just can’t let this happen to great Hyderabad.

India, when would you arise above Caste?

India, a great nation with great history enriched with rich culture, I remember having read these words in my school and we also read, “India is diverse in its languages, behaviors, culture but then we all are united, We have Unity in Diversity!” Yes, we are united but only in the name of ‘Caste’, which is stuck to each of us from the womb to the deathbed. It’s a harsh reality, which India and most of the Indians have ignored or probably have learnt to live with. Indians today have dared to change the world, made millions, showed humanity a path but what they really can never change is their own Caste, we may change their religion but cannot leave back their caste, it would haunt us wherever we are and whatever we do, thus we stand united in this ordeal!

We aspire to be a developed nation and a super power, but can we ever be? Even if we reach there can we ever withstand it? When I put these questions to myself, I hear a stern echo, “No, it can’t!” Because India doesn’t know what its real problem is, it never introspects deeper than a mere superficial check by the self-proclaimed intellectuals putting in numbers to show that our money is stacked in Swiss Bank and we can just laze around as we would get that money back, making India the richest, a great fairy tale indeed! Why do we still believe in Treasures which once discovered will wipe away our tears, why do we relate all our problems to Corruption and then why do we show one single solution and one super hero and put all our strength behind it, why don’t we introspect little more? Why don’t we understand India’s real problem? Why don’t we realize that India’s problem is not a few decade old corruptions but its real problem has been seeded few thousand years ago in the form of corruption of our minds.  How can we target and resolve a problem when we even fail or refuse to realize. Why do we always brush it away saying it’s the colonial ghost haunting us still, that’s an easy way out but facts defer and its important for us to understand it further, or how else we would understand this great nation; India in its entirety can only be realized if its social evolution intertwined with caste for thousands of years is understood. And yes you heard it right, it is a great nation but with inflicted with a scar! Many of us think that scar is our birthmark and fail to understand that its actually not and we belittle our strength to subdue that mark. How can we overcome our biggest curse and the meanest enemy when we don’t even want to identify it?

Thousands of years from now we have built the walls around and above us in the name of Caste, today however hard and tough we try to out beat ourselves we always hit those walls and fall back into our own trench, they alone have been successful who have surpassed their own walls of restrictions. Once I was talking to a English man in London and we ended discussing state issues and he seemed thoroughly impressed with the progress that India has made lately in Technology etc. but when I happened to mention that we still struggle with social challenges like Caste to which pat came the reply, “Yes, we see in the news here now and then about the killings in India in the name of Caste, India is very backward!” To cite another instance, in an argument with Dr. Sudramanyam Swamy during a News chat show, the Pakistan Ex. ISI Chief Hamid Gul, was groping for words in his defense, but then he targeted India saying, “Class system in your country is built over hatred, only religion in the world which promotes hatred among people of its own religion. They have no right over education, not allowed into temples, for God sake don't be so evil towards your own people!” if we have a vulnerability we cannot stop its exploitation. Fixing the corruption demon might help us to sustain and meet our needs inside these walls of caste but to be a super power it does not suffice! It requires immense emotional strength to bulldoze the caste walls around each of us. West is able to demonstrate its power as it has conquered its internal racism conflict even though God can be attributed with some credit of racism, which is missing in the caste issue, but we haven’t done enough, when would we be doing the same? Its too late, we have lost quite a many men and opportunities but our hopes are not yet down, today is the time we stand against it, today is the time to overpower it, imagining any more delay mean along with delay in realizing the Super power dream it might also result in dire consequences!

If you still feel that God has defined and structured the caste and that’s how Hindu society should work then you ought to read further.

This was when the ‘Aryans’ have not yet landed on our soil, around 2500 B.C., the Indian society was divided into the – Priests, Warriors, Others and Slaves but notable point here is that the division was wholly based on the profession and neither it was based on birth nor it was a hereditary identity! Sati and Animal sacrifice was prevalent. Around 2000 B.C. Aryans started to appear in India and they declared themselves to be a superior race and treated others as inferiors and slaves, what’s interesting here is, the Priests, Warriors who earlier treated a certain section of their own society as Slaves are now started getting treated as Slaves by the Aryans! If the factual excavations proved this, does Hindu mythology agree? ‘Maharishi Brigu’ and ‘Maharishi Bharadwaj’, both the ‘Saptarishi’s’ met one fine day to discuss how to structure a stable society. There were four absolute sources of power in the society - knowledge, Weapons, Wealth and Land. They decided these powers should not be in one hand, not even two should be in one hand. So those who have knowledge will not have wealth, will not have weapons and will not have lands etc. Those who will have weapons will rule the country but they will not make policy. They need to go to people having knowledge to seek their permission and advice. Those who are having wealth, their social status will be decided by how much philanthropy they do and not by their wealth. Those who have land have to produce food for the society. In fact none of these four categories or ‘Varna’ was based on birth. Mythology also seems to be in tandem with our argument - God had never created Caste and Casteism. In Bhagvad Gita as well Krishna said “Janmana jayate sudraḥ" - Anyone by his birth is a ‘Sudra’, the lowest in the order. Even if he is born in the family of a Brahmana, he is to be considered as a Sudra. “Saṁskarad bhaved dvijaḥ.” One has to take his rebirth, by Samskara (culture), by education, by knowledge. Through this cultural birth one becomes Dvija. Unless he takes this cultural birth, he is to be considered the lower grade person, or the Sudra. ‘Beeshmacharya’s’ life teaches us how a person’s caste changes from birth to death, when he was born he was a fisherman (Ganga Putr) and when he was in the court of the king he was Acharya (Brahmana) – a teacher who helped with the policies and during the Mahabharata war he became a Kshatriya – a warrior; but its sad to know that he is being used as a brand object by one of the community today! So was Maharishi Veda Vyasa a fisherman turned into a rishi and wrote Mahabharata, Maharishi Valmiki who wrote Ramayana was born in Sudra family, Kalidasa a great poet was a hunter, Maharishi Vishwamitra was a Kshatriya.

During 1500 B.C. to 1000 B.C., two big conflicts arose and they ended up in wars. One was between the Aryans and Non-Aryans and the other among the Aryans itself, during the latter war few Aryan tribes added Non-Aryans into their fold to fight with the other Aryan tribes. ‘Rishi Vishwamitra’ (who wrote Gayatri Mantra) led the battle ‘Dasaranja’ (Battle of 10kings) on river Parusni against ‘Rishi Vashistha’, which later ended up with Bharatas becoming the supreme clan led by ‘Rishi Vashistha’. The same battle has been depicted in a mythological as ‘Rishi Vishwamitra’ fought with ‘Rishi Vashistha’ for the cow ‘Nandini’ daughter of ‘Kamadhenu’. Its mystical how our mythology has been derived from the actual happenings, we can deny the mythology but not the history! After this war a major merger of cultures took place and the differences between the Aryans and Non-Aryans dimmed. Before, Sati was not practiced, women had all freedom to choose her man, had equal right in education and property but after, Sati again came into vogue and status of women deteriorated.

Later Vedic times were a cultural mix of Aryan and Non – Aryan cultures and a large influence of culture existing before Aryans is evident. Though, Vedas are most scientific we undermine Vedas and follow Puranas as a prime source of Hinduism. Whereas Vedas are the first scriptures of Hindus and Rig Veda containing 1028 Hymns mentioning ‘Om’ 1028 times is the world’s oldest scripture dated to 1500 B.C. Today we use Varna, as a synonym to caste but Varna is just a word to differentiate based on colour. Gothra is a place where the cattle are kept but today we divided ourselves on Gothra as well, surprising and weird! Swastik, as a symbol has great significance in Hinduism but what it really depicts barely any one would know, the symbol has two lines crisscrossing and moving in opposite directions but at the same time they are balanced at a point, it shows man that in life we always see two opposites like Good and Bad, Man and Women, Wealth and Health, these opposites has to be balanced to lead a happy life. Such is the greatness of this symbol that Hitler, adopted the symbol for his Nazi party. Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda collectively called, as Trayi were termed as eternal i.e., not man made and cannot be modified. Such was the importance given to the Vedas. Purana’s, Upanishads, Brahmanas weren’t given the same status of being eternal and Purana’s though actually written more or less during the same time of Vedas was again re-written during the Gupta period and today the Purana’s what we read are actually not the original Purana’s and most notifying point is, the Brahmanical Hindus mostly quote Purana’s to justify their act of Casteism.

Slowly, Caste started taking a center stage, a probable reason might be a few sections of the society started seeing the advantages of it as they were now treated as masters and superior and they are able to enjoy the absolute power, holistic right over the resources, be it Land or anything else in the name of God. A very notable point here is that through out the history whenever the Caste system deepened and was revered as a system made by God, even the status of the Women deteriorated. Women were ill-treated and were deprived of their right to education, property, freedom. It’s very logical to conclude from this that a few selfish groups who wanted to enjoy the resources all by themselves by out casting more than half population i.e., the women and the out castes in the name of God! But if the castes were to be defined by profession, any selfish person would fear of loosing the status when ever they change their profession or would fear that his off-springs might not enjoy the same status, so he started identifying Caste as a birth identification and made it hereditary such that they can gain those rights forever i.e., even for generations after the generations, A slave would remain a slave and his offspring would also remain a slave. A heart rendering question that today India needs to answer, till when?

Around, 1000 B.C. - 500 B.C., Caste has modified the Indian society so much so that everything started to revolve around it and become a single most rigid system. Brahmanas still on the top, followed by Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the others termed to be ‘Dvijas’, who are allowed to read and gain knowledge and then there were the Sudra’s called as ‘Advijas’ who are not allowed to read and had no access to any kind of knowledge! Even though the selfish few were successful in tramping the others in the society in the name of God, it was not always a free run for them there was constant clashes; we can find a mention about this in ‘Anushashana Parva’ of ‘Mahabharata’, where it is said that Sudra’s will destroy the King, a warning which still holds good? May be! ‘Shanti Parva’ of ‘Mahabharata’ which was completed in 4 A.D. during the Gupta’s who were completely Pro-Casteism, asked to unite Varna’s for betterment of society. India would you ever listen to this?

The present India might have become deaf to this but, ‘Gautama Buddha’ and ‘Vardhamana Mahavira’ both being Kshatriyas questioned the superiority of Brahmanas in Hindu structure and both felt deep pain towards this inequality and misery brought in by the new coin trading system. Both came out of the worldly pleasures of kingship and promoted the Equality and Karma, sternly protested the caste system and propagated acetic living. They were so staunch against the Brahmanical corruption of Hinduism that they came out with new religions and their religious scriptures like ‘Agam’, ‘Ardhmagadhi’ were written in ‘Pali’ and ‘Prakrit’ and not in Sanskrit. Pali and Prakrit lesser-known languages to Indians, but they both existed along and may be even before Sanskrit in India. In fact, Prakrit is the origin of many regional languages like ‘Shauraseni’ from which Marathi originated.

Many kings embraced ‘Jainism’ and ‘Buddhism’ for the same reason of Brahmana’s superiority in Hinduism, like the great ‘Chandragupta Maurya’ embraced Jainism and became a reason for wide spread of Jainism and none other than the greatest ever king of India – The ‘Asoka’ embraced Buddhism after the Kalinga war and propagated Buddhism. Mahavira abolished animal sacrifices as well as non-vegetarianism as the farmers were finding it difficult to plough their fields due to the constant killing of the animals. Whereas Gautama Buddha was more rational in his approach and realised that agriculture alone cannot feed the humanity, hence banned only the animal sacrifices but allowed non-vegetarianism. Asoka after becoming a Buddhist, he passed orders banning animal sacrifices and regulated the animal slaughter, this made some unhappy. It would be a whammy to know who were unhappy and revolted and they were the Brahmanas! They revolted against the king whom we still revere as the greatest, whose symbol is on our emblem, flag and which was also on the Rupee note until Mahatma Gandhi. Reason behind this hatred towards the great Asoka was banning animal sacrifices, which is usually accompanied by mantras by ‘Yajamana’ (Brahmana) and this affected the revenue of the Brhamanas. Today if some one feels he is superior due to his eating habits, they have to look into their history! It’s not yet clear how the Brahmanas who fought against Asoka as he abolished animal sacrifices have eventually embraced vegetarianism. According to Vedas Brahmanas are one among the 16 priest groups, what happened to the other 15 is not known, this mystery behind the lost priest classes might have a hidden reason behind the change in the eating habits. It’s incredible how Purana’s have pictured all major historical events in a mythological pattern, Brahmanas financial struggle can also be related to a mythological story in Purana where goddess of prosperity and wife of ‘Lord Vishnu’, ‘Maha Lakshmi’ cursed ‘Maharishi Brighu’ that she would never visit Brahmins and they would all live in absence of wealth as Maharishi hit Lord Vishnu on his chest which left a foot print on Lord's chest known as ‘Shri Vatsa’ as God Vishnu did not realise that Maharishi Brighu was asking for his attention.

After the fall of Asoka i.e., the fall of Mauryans, Brahmanas established various kingdoms major among them are the Gupta’s around 300 A.D. Though Gupta’s are credited to be one of the finest kingdoms in terms of Literature like Mahabharata & Ramayana was completed in 4^th century A.D. and Technological advancement like meteorological and others but History had failed to reckon other contributions by Gupta’s like Education system became more Brahmanical based on ‘Shruti’ and ‘Smriti’, which was open only for the Dvija and not for the Advija - the Sudras. Sudras were allowed to hear to Puranas and perform the rituals, which would bring in extra revenues for the Brahmanas. Large land donations were made to the Brahmanas and the Dvijas, which created in-equality. Make believe in the purity of Brahmana increased, which even today is very much in existence and we never question why should we donate clothing, ornaments, food and much more to a Brahmana after every ritual that is taken up and we never question why a Brahmana should be revered as equivalent to God! From Gupta’s, Hinduism was majorly dominated by priest and priest intervention became necessary for every prayer every visit to a temple, even now every temple remains open only when a priest is available otherwise the doors remain closed for any other! Buddhists tried to present a protest and brought in their education setups to which the Brahmanas reacted adversely and forced Buddhism to migrate away from India, today Buddhism is 400 million strong! Yet Gupta period is termed as a Golden age in ancient India may be because they have released more gold coins than any other kingdom.

There is more to the credit of Gupta’s, under their rule Women status deteriorated further, Sati was legalised and now women were treated just as a property, they have no right over education or property, in fact upper Varna women had more stringent restrictions than the lower Varna. Untouchability became a norm. Purana’s were re-written and given the present form! Due to the trade in-equalities and land in-equalities the Vaishyas rose to power and more Caste’s were formed.

It requires prudent thinking to understand the motive behind the arranged marriage system of India, which is unnatural and no where mentioned in the Vedas, Purana’s, Upanishads, Shastra’s but it’s a very rigid norm in India today which no other ritual can match to. Why would any society want to turn a pure feeling that is innate and godly into an artificial system governed by commercial trading in form of dowry and regulated by terms and conditions? Why would there be a need of Brahmanical verses to unite two souls if they are united before? It’s greatly surprising that generations have passed but none has questioned this! Hindus believe the God makes marriages in heaven but their actions speak completely in a different manner, every act of Indian arranged marriage system is a business, it’s a trade of cash, property and even human exchange driving the humanity to its shameful discourse. What might be the reason for this? If history is to be believed then its very evident that this system was brought in to safe guard the in-equality and protect the property gained in the name of caste and god and to restrict the resources only among them. Marriage is a major dilution factor that would have diluted the Caste structure, fearing which the selfish few have designed this Indian arranged marriage system which is another curse of India. After all these ghastly in human acts throughout our history, we today say that our values, ethics and politics are deteriorating day by day what a misnomer!

This continued for many hundred years and India is still not been able to overpower this curse. Although many in due course from the Gupta’s till today, tried to nail the demon called caste but today it can clearly be stated that they all failed! Failed miserably! Today, every political party plays caste cards for votes, today the hatred among the castes have heightened to an extent which we recently witnessed during the protest over the reservations, in Andhra even the Cinema hero following is determined by the caste and I am sure we all are living by all this and elaborating it further is not necessary.

Moghuls though ruled India but they haven’t ever stood against or for Casteism and untouchability. They maintained the status quo probably as it was helping them in extending their empire. Moghuls even married Hindus to protect and expand their empire. Akbar too married a Hindu and made efforts to unite Hindus and Muslims against the evils of both the religions and started a new religion, Din-I-illahi. Later Portugese, French, Dutch invaded India but they had no major role in Casteism apart from Portuguese drawing parallels between our Varna system and Casta, the inherited class status within the Portuguese society. English though initially established itself in India by taking advantage of Casteism that was in synchronous with the divide and rule policy. But later after they established themselves all over India, their outlook towards the social malice started to change and they abolished Sati, Slavery, supported widow re-marriage, banned human sacrifices, and initiated equality before law, abolished judicial function of caste based Panchayats, provided open opportunities in services for all castes, stood for secular educational system but also promoted conversions into Christianity, made English as the court language and a necessity for a government job these were the sublime reasons for the Indians to feel their culture is being compromised and felt devastated, introduction of Ranfield Rifle catridge was only a immediate cause for the outbreak of 1857 sepoy revolt but underlining reasons still remain to be acknowledged!

I am sure most of the Hindus would have participated in the ‘Jagaran’ during the ‘Shivratri’ and would have seen ‘DakshaYagna’ most of the times if not every time. What does that small story teach us? When ‘Daksha Prajapati’ insulted the Lord Shiva as he thought Shiva was no match to them, he committed another mistake before as well by not approving his daughter ‘Sati Devi’s’ wish of marrying ‘Lord Shiva’ naming him to be an outcaste and the result we all know was complete destruction and Daksha had to lose his head! This story should have awakened you from your deep slumber but its startling that this story which helped us to be awake during the Jagarans but it could never confront us with our ignorance. The same can be learned from the life of ‘Lord Krishna’ where he celebrated being son of ‘Yashoda’ more than ‘Devaki’ though Yashoda is from yadava community. And if you don’t believe in God or you are not religious, I am sure you would believe in practicality. So, in all rationality every problem that a human faces is due to his/her bad doing to others! To explain it further if a person has harmed some ten people, all ten might not retaliate but at least one would avenge, that’s how all our miseries and hardships can be related to one or the other person. So logically we receive less troubles than what we actually deserve as not everyone avenges. It’s fascinating to quote another Hindu mythological instance here; Lord Krishna forgives 99 mistakes of ‘Shishupala’ but punishes him for his 100^th mistake. This might be a possible reason why it is said that God makes us suffer in this world itself and how truly it is said that ‘In the court of God there is delay for justice but there is no denial to it’. We believe that ‘Serving humanity is serving God!’ but why do we forget that insulting a fellow being and denigrating him is equivalent to insulting God and demeaning him!

Many social reformists like Raja Rammohan Roy who started Brahmo samaj opposed the Brahmanical system and propagated Vedas and equality, Devendranath Tagore, Viresalingam Pantulu in south, Vivekananda declared Vedanta as rational condemned caste system, rituals and superstitions and started the Ramakrishna mission, Swami Dayanand Saraswati started Arya Samaj that revolted against the casteism and Hinduism preached by the Brahmanas and believes that selfish or may be ignorant priests have perverted Hinduism based on faulty Purana’s and stated Vedas to be infallible and tried to prevent the conversions which were happening due to the vexation rendered in corrupted Hinduism. Sayyid Hamid Khan of Aligarh School of Thought tried to reform the social malice in Muslims, Mahatma Gandhi all through his life fought against untounchability, Mahatma Jyothiba Phule stood against the Brahmanical society, B.R. Ambedkar stood for the deprived castes, Sri Narayan Guru promoted One religion, One caste, One God even before all this the Bhakti movement by Kabir, Meera Bai, Tulsi Das was in search of revival of Hinduism. Even in the other religions like the Akali movement in Sikhs, the Parsi religious reforms. Not sure how effective these reforms were in other religions but even after the great efforts from the greatest sons of this soil couldn’t uplift Hinduism from its self strapped trench!

Are we going to let India be were it is or we will lend our hand to it? Today is the time we decide, monetary corruption can wait but corruption of our minds cannot! It has left India dry and left Indians nothing but to cry. Young India, the so-called Youngistan, where are you lost? Are you lost in the same world created around you in the name of Purana, in the name of God, in the name of caste? There is no more time left to delay, there is no more patience left and if ever India witnesses a civil war, it would not be due to the corruption, it would not be for a region but it would be for the caste based in-equality just as lava which remains calm and quiet for centuries underneath but once it erupts as volcano, it drains and burns everything. Or how many more centuries we would keep the majority at bay while just a few minorities have all the resources to them like in Andhra Pradesh almost all the land is owned by only two quantitatively small sections of the society, Politics is dominated by these two alone and there could be no other Chief Minister to AP other than a person from these two communities, Majority Business houses are owned by this minority, Bureaucracy is dominated by them again; for how many more years this goes as acceptable? One day it won’t be and that day it’s hard to even imagine the end!

Time immemorial, man yearned to prove his existence and prove his contributions to the humanity like the early man’s strong desire to leave back his messages in form of the cave paintings, the scriptures, which even now govern and show humanity the path. But what have we contributed? Can’t we stand against this injustice? History remembers only those who stood against the wrong and rest is just lost in the pages of history untraceable and insignificant. Today the choice is yours if you want to stand against this social malice and be a part of this history or just be an ordinary person lost in the time. We are like that wild elephant which doesn’t know its real strength and it is made believe that it cannot break its feeble chain as when it is trapped it is chained with the toughest chains over the time the elephant gives up and thinks that it cannot ever overpower those chains but the truth is with one stroke it can break its chain whenever it wants, even we could do the same if for once we keep our inner fear aside. Vivekananda’s words are so true here; ‘Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached’ and today our goal should be to bring down the casteism. I make sincere appeal to our revered elders please support your lads while they fight against this social injustice. You might have not thought about it, you might have failed fighting against it or you might have as well supported it but for sure somewhere, sometime you would have felt that its wrong and today is the time to react!

Indian government’s answer to this outage is the Reservations but reservations are not a solution for this problem instead it is deepening the issue. If caste system has inscribed the hatred among the classes in the name of God, the reservations are heightening the hatred in the name of equalizing. To render the reservations caste needs to be acknowledged and once its on your face the society becomes even more divided and it would get exploited as it was exploited by the Moghals, French, Dutch, Portugal, English and now the Political class! Why do we fail to reckon that equalizing in this format would never be possible? Once, there were two cats who were fighting over the bread, there entered a monkey who made them believe that he can arbitrate and divided the bread in two pieces and gave each to the two cats but one cat complained that its piece was smaller than the others, so the monkey took a part of the larger piece and ate, but then this part became smaller than he grabbed a part from the other piece and ate, this continued till all the bread was over! Its not difficult to guess who fits into the monkey role in todays India. We are doing no service in the name of reservations but rendering more harm to the Indian society at large!

India is not isolated, most of the nations like Korea, Japan, England, Italy, Latin America, Caribbean Nations, China, Myanmar, Bali, Tibet, Hawaii & Polynesia, Yemen, Africa, Roma, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Russia, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Poland and many more all of them at some point in the history have suffered with social class system and they have been successful to curb it and brush it aside on way of development. But our India, is still burning and bleeding in the name of caste and I am not sure when we would put an end to this when we would be honest and genuine enough to our fellow Indians and treat them as we would treat our brothers sisters. We all know Vivekananda’s famous greeting (My dear brothers & sisters) in the Parliament of religions in Chicago when he could lend out his heart to the other nationalists, cant we treat our fellow Indians as our equals?

Lets dream, no not a dream but a promise that we would see a brighter India where there would be only Indians and no Hindus, no Muslims, no Brahmins, no Sudras! A promise that the future India would be read that there was Sati practice and there was Casteism in India. That day we all would take India forward hand in hand in roads to development on a path that would make us the next super power.

 Harish Bheemarthi

www.indiaagainstcaste.com

How Corruption and Caste can put a check on each other?

Lokpal, Janlokpal, Jokepal, Sarkari Lokpal…. If we Google these terms we are sure to be introduced to thousand’s of blogs, hundred’s of articles, millions of comments. So, if so much has been written already on this context, this article might get lost in oblivion, might not even receive any views or might actually become a joke. But the thought that’s been lingering in my mind for quite some time now urges me to put down them on this topic. My views might be funny to some, nonsense to some other but for me it would remain just too weird thoughts…

So, Lokpal is all about combating against Corruption, a habit perceived to be the single most demeaning characteristic for the Indian society. But to me and for all the like-minded friends it is not the only element for the cancerous situation of the country. Even Caste system has been equally challenging our development, our futuristic mindset and it has anchored our progress to a cliff, which is far from our reach.

Corruption and even the Caste system is no less in comparison in hurting India for a long time now. So, the weird thought is why not Corruption and Caste combat with each other and the one that would remain after this combat can be dealt with the ideas that are coming in from all the corners to fight against Corruption.

Let’s make this simple, we all know how deep routed is Caste system in India and how people deeply identify themselves to the community they belong to. Down south this intensifies to a level where actors or celebrities belonging to their community is only accepted and revered to no less than a god and an actor belonging to another community is disrespected and mimicked. It is also well known that many families revere their caste and community more and they consider it more than their own kids, whether its due to the pressure from the others or due to a fear they do not question back the authorities in that community. And the authorities or the leaders of the community will keep expressing their authority, as they know that, it’s the only way to keep the community under their control.

If the Caste System is so deep routed and seems to be becoming stronger day by day, why cant we utilise this system for doing some good for the country? Solution is simple, rope in all the caste / community heads and leaders and make an arrangement where in a person belonging to a particular community if found guilty of Corruption; his family should be expelled from the community. This will hit the bull’s eye and work for sure as its well noted that this is one fear and pressure that every family in Indian society feels deep inside their hearts and whatever it might be, they follow the customs and traditions of their caste. It’s like come what may, sell anything we have, do anything we can but caste’s custom and tradition should be followed. If a person feels so pressurised that he can sell everything that he has just to follow the customs of that community, why will he not restrict himself / herself from indulging in Corruption?

This logically might not work for the high flung corruption but will definitely work for the lower level corruption. Since, high net worth Indian’s doesn’t really care about their communities any more but they know well how to pressurise or appease their groups to support them.

This thought might sound as an archaic, arabic, or dictator lead rules, or might seem to work in a country like North Korea etc. But, in this context its not a law being passed, neither it’s a process where the government is getting involved. Caste system is already well prevalent and the said pressurisation is present across India, it’s like an unsaid rule we all follow for being born into a particular community.

When the modern democratic measures of monitoring, punishing and controlling the Corruption doesn't seem to work, the old Indian way of controlling and punishing the bad in the society might just work. The old Indian way of group control, group pressure, village authorisation, and community commandments has always worked for India, so why wouldn’t it work now?

This idea works either way i.e., its good if individuals feel pressurised and doesn’t indulge into Corruption. It would be even great if they stop caring about their community since they care about their bribes more, then this non-obedience towards the Caste System will help India in long run towards its burgeoning progress.

Social Networking was born in India!

The title looks very Indian, isn’t it? Seems like someone who has read a lot of invented, discovered, born in India and migrated to the rest of the world stories or facts, has stated this ‘Social Networking was born in India!’. Yes! The guess is acutely right but instead of being a stereotype in either of our views let us look deep into what lead to such a thought. For an average Indian every existing thing in this world has its roots in India but migrated to the other parts of the world, well if so then the Indians taught the world how to network socially! Social networking has been built mimicking the social behavior of the Indians, don’t you believe? Ok, read further…

How is the Indian society defined? Many in the west and also the Indians themselves define as a society that has been characterised into Caste and Communities. Whether or not the caste system was born in India is largely debatable but irrespective of this from the ages back and even today India as a society defines it identity through castes.

How is Social Networking defined? Though the name says social, the social limits ends within a group and is largely limited to that group. For example, in Facebook the sharing happens based on the lists or groups, an individual largely shares with limited set of users defined under a list or a group. Drawing similarities, ‘Lists’ can be said to have drawn its influence from ‘Castes’ and ‘Groups’ from the ‘Communities’. Further evolution of social networking in terms of Google+ has deepened this dependency by means of ‘Circles’ again derived from ‘Castes’ of India. This sights the importance of the social structure mastered by the Indians for thousands of years now!

In India largely members of other Caste’s are not provided an access to many facilities that are under the authorisation of different Caste. And in the Social Networking world, if an information is being shared to a Circle / List it remains to that circle or list alone, it cannot be accessed by the members of other Circles or Lists. Indian castes are further divided into Sub-Castes and Social networking Lists or Circles can be further customised for the exceptions and thus more restrictions can be put in place even for the members belonging to the same circle and list.

Each circle or lists access levels are pre-defined and they defer in terms of reach and access authorisations. Doesn’t it look very similar to the India’s ‘Reservation’ system?  India has set reservation levels across education, employment, administration and everywhere based on the caste he or she is from. Social networking world defines this as the access or authorisation levels for a particular List or a Circle.

In India whether its Politics, Business they all get influenced and majorly is dependent on the Caste. What it means is, a person’s Caste will define his success or failure in Politics or Business and might be in the other fields as well. A politician needs a strong caste or community backing for sailing through the elections. Similarly in social networking to make an impact and produce results you need to be a member of that group and needs strong backing from the circles or lists you are in! If it is votes in India, it’s the re-shares, likes, +1’s, comments, re-tweets in the social networking that rules the crux.

In Social Networking, an individual is judged through the groups, he or she has subscribed too and in the individual perspective he sets his boundaries with the help of the lists customization. In India, his Caste and Communities he mingles with judge a person.

How is western world perceived as? Free, open to all, outgoing and loud. Do we find social networking structured this way? Theoretically it might have been defined that way but preference and features revolve around lists, groups and circles. Even if you post a status on Facebook as Public, it’s public only to the Facebook users and not to the outside world. So, doesn’t social networking architecture look to be very far from the western world? And the similarities make it more Indian than anything else!

A lot of other similarities can be drawn too, but the question is will these are enough proofs to say that Social Networking sites has its routes in India but migrated to the west and got patented there? Similar to all the facts or the established facts about an entity that has its origin in India and being patronized elsewhere, the Social Networking similarities too would remain in the cold storage for now or forever!

Well, if this idea of Social Networking having its origin in India or the idea of social networking having its influence from the structure of the India society sounds funny and the drawn similarities are rib tickling and funnier. Then it’s silly to think that Indian’s society is born fractured by terms of Caste’s, well it was not born so; it was influenced and artificially cultivated by the invaders with vested interests. You, cannot agree to this? Ok, then you should agree that the present proud invention of the west actually was born in India or has its strong roots in Indian culture as the caste system is. To put it in simple terms if Caste system is Indian then so is the Social Networking!

- Harish Bheemarthi