Newspapers today give bad signals to its readers. They spread gloom and give opinions instead of facts. In fact, save those souls who read only the sports columns and drag themselves half heartedly till 'world news' section, i can safely say that those who read the balance portion of Indian Newspapers atleast are becoming more paranoid and rigid in their views. One can almost sense a divide between those reading vernacular newspapers and english ones. While the former pride themselves on being updated more on the local happenings, the latter believe that they read more global events and are even more informed.
Ignoring the previous para which has nothing special to do with this post, we go about on discrimination. This word has kept me fascinated for the past couple of months. Caste discrimination being practised today resulting in untouchability seems far fetched from my cosy armchair of my home. But why such a hue and cry? Untouchability definitely does not pluck the right strings. But where do we stand as regards discrimination. Is discrimination only an act or is it a thought? Do we stereotype and prepare ourselves for discrimination at the required time?
Why do caste votes have such a powerful force in elections? Why do we prefer our own kind as our colleagues while reccomending a job? Why do we give preference to the background of the speaker than the item spoken?
I would say discrimination (atleast in thought) is a way of life and more of a culture for the Indian subcontinent (and by extension 1/6 of world population which is a good sample for the world as a whole). We are people who discriminate on a day in day out basis. In fact what would we do without discrimination, since we have a sorry history of discrimination? Sample this for various levels of discrimination:
1. We discriminate on a country to country basis (we have a special corner of our heart discriminating Pak)
2. If India and Pak were to Join - Language - Urdu guys vs Hindi guys (sub matches like tamil vs kannada, telugu, malayalam .... etc)
3. If One language is accepted as common language - Religion - Hindus vs Muslims vs Christians (3 way tag match)
4. If one religion is accepted as a common ground - caste becomes a factor
5. If all castes become one - town vs village (land based discrimination on a minor scale) for e.g. "Inda pasanga tirunelveli, madurai lendu vanduttu, kannu mannu theriyaama otranga!!! ******!" - regular stereotype we give for a cab driver who drives rashly
6. If that stops, we have wealthy vs the unwealthy in the same area.
7. Beyond dat if people have same wealth, we discriminate on fairness / darkness of the skin
8. Even if we are blessed with same skin tone, we will have no other way except to go with male vs female gender discrimination.
All said and done we may preach equality on the surface and seem to follow it but what is the situation in our heart. As instantly as seeing , we opinionate and stereotype and prepare ourselves to discriminate in times of need. As the Joker says in the Dark Knight - "You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other... "
If discrimination is so hardwired into our system how effective is quota / reservation system to achieve social equality? How effective is inter caste marriage to bring about social equality? They can only solve one issue and make people effectively focus on other forms of discrimination.
How do we address the culture / nature / psyche of the normal human being? School? Meetings? Politics? Only way and which makes it all the more harder to achieve or almost impossible to achieve is the change shud come "From within". Till that day, all that differentiates a rationalist and a radicalist is a mask!!
Am i confused or do i see something?
