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April 27, 2006
The Shame of Upper Caste India and the Furor over OBC Reservation in Institutes of Higher Learning
For the last couple of days I have watched with huge embarrassment the upper caste-led English media TV talk shows in India react to the proposal of India’s Union Ministry for Human Resources to give the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) reservation in the Central Government-aided institutions of higher learning such as the IITs, IIMs and other central universities.
I am deeply ashamed at the blindness of upper caste India as demonstrated by the talk show hosts and the majority upper caste studio audience members who seem to be completely out of touch with the realities of the social injustices and inequities meted out to the majority Dalit-Bahujan people by the oppressive and degrading caste system. Above all there seems to be a complete lack of the history of modern India vis-à-vis the caste system and a total ignorance of the works of Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar. It seems upper caste India wants to be socially ignorant, comfortable, secure and content in their modern, globalized, English-speaking enclave and let the rest of the caste-oppressed Indians be condemned in their own struggle for existence.
One Indian talk show host described the television audience within the studio as a representative sample of “middle class Indians”. But when pushed into the corner to mark out the identity of those English-speaking Indians in the studio, it was clear to those of us who were watching the show across the nation that the studio audience was 90% upper caste.
In another show, the OBC/Dalit minority audience in the studio staged a walk out because of the farce of the so-called “impartial middle class” India in the studio and the agenda of the show itself which heavily favored the majority audience in the studio.
What is English-speaking, middle class India if not a mainly upper caste India who are there because of opportunity, economics, power and freedom enjoyed by upper caste Indians for 3,000 years? The truth is that upper caste India has enjoyed a perverse system of reservation for 3,000 years through the enforcement of the caste system. The minority upper castes who make up just 17% of the population have usurped over 90% of all economic, educational, political, spiritual and social power in India for 3,000 years. Why not discuss that issue for five minutes in the talk shows? Or is it threatening to the very system that runs India? It is only now in a democratic India that some attempt is being made to redress this horrendous injustice.
Talk of meritocracy in this context is highly hypocritical. Meritocracy works where there has been a consistent level playing field for all over a consistent period. Do most of the Dalits and OBCs have the same level playing field and opportunities? How many Dalits and OBCs in the past 50 years have had access to the highly expensive private English-medium school education?
Why is upper caste India not bearing its shame in what has been done to the oppressed castes in India down through the centuries? Without this sharing of guilt and shame there will be no healing and reconciliation in India. The caste system will bitterly divide and bleed our India.
Why is upper caste India so blind? How can we walk the streets of India and fail to notice what our oppressive caste system has done to the country and her majority people? How can we ignore the oppression and poverty of our people? Is just economics the primary reason for this or is social injustice meted out by a degrading social system? Just look at the conditions of most Dalits whatever their religious affiliation. Are we not ashamed at all for the part we have played in their deplorable condition?
How can we deny that we are faced with two Indias? President Bush may cause us revel in an “India Shining”, but what about the “India in Darkness” which is present in our streets, slums, towns, villages and forests – the India of the vast majority?
And do we think that a mere 50 years of reservation has resolved the Dalit problem and that the OBC reservation of the past two decades has resolved the problems of the Backward Castes?
Upper caste India has to carry its historic shame and guilt and lead the struggle to abolish the caste system permanently in India. Upper caste India must develop a social conscience that intentionally includes the Dalits and the OBCs in all spheres of power – economics, education, politics, science and spirituality – this will mean proportional representation. Upper caste India must embrace and entwine their lives, future and their bloodline with Dalit-Bahujan India for the sake of their own children’s future.
Our politicians will not deliver. We the citizens of India must deliver emancipation to the Dalits and the oppressed backward castes – now and forever.
Posted by klajja at April 27, 2006 10:57 PM
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