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February 09, 2007
Of Freedom of Speech and the Malaise Within
A recent BBC survey reveals that 55% of Indians believe that the caste problem is an impediment to India’s growth and development into a super power. Casteist Indians both in politics and in industry deny that caste tensions and caste discrimination exists in India. They are content to put their head in the sand and wish that the inhuman discrimination against the Dalits will just disappear without proactive action and the restructuring of Indian society. Can India ever achieve its true greatness without abolishing the caste system?
The Hindu nationalism of the RSS and the BJP rather wants to enforce the caste system and other banned practices like Sati (widow burning). Their version of Hindu nationalism is amply demonstrated in the state where they are carrying out the Hindutva experiment – Gujarat State – where now yet another new movie called ‘Parzania’ is banned because it tells the story of the Gujarat riots of 2002.
When the present Prime Minister of India said the following about Dalits in a Dalit meeting on December 27, 2006, in New Delhi, the RSS/BJP was up in arms:
“In studying the problems captured by this theme, it is necessary to make a distinction between the problems faced by Dalits in India and the problems faced by “minorities” in all societies. Dalits have faced a unique discrimination in our society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general. The only parallel to the practice of “untouchability” was Apartheid in South Africa. Untouchability is not just social discrimination. It is a blot on humanity.”
I fully concur with the Prime Minister’s words and also attempt to identify the malaise within. Our aspiration for greatness as a nation in the modern world depends on our ability to unflinchingly look at what is wrong in our social structures and to deal with it. India’s poverty and backwardness is not just about economics. It is also because of the slavery of the caste system. We need not be afraid about what the world thinks of us when the Prime Minister speaks like this, as the RSS leaders are saying. It is the greatness of our Prime Minister that he has had the courage to look at a problem squarely and call it for what it really is – India’s apartheid. The Dalits are examples of modern day slavery!
The root problem is the caste system and the ideology that says humans are created unequally, that one man is lower than the other, and that Dalits are put just outside the caste system itself, not linked to God at all. The answer is to abolish the caste system itself. This is in the interest not only of the Dalits, but of the upper castes as well.
The movie ‘Parzania’ has received rave reviews and tells the story of a Parsi family in the midst of the Gujarat riots of 2002. As the parents search for their missing son they confront the hired mobs, the police, and the apparatus of the State which all participate in one of India’s darkest communal genocides.
But the truth is bitter and Chief Minister Modi and his State apparatus (which have been trying to sell Gujarat to the Americans by bringing in loads of businessmen and also US politicians) have once again stayed true to their ilk by banning the movie.
The reason being given for the ban is that the movie will give rise to communal violence. Why is that in the other parts of the nation where the movie is being watched with interest, pain and sadness there is no communal tension anywhere?
This attempt by Indians to look at themselves critically – be it by a Prime Minister or by a film maker – is a sign of our maturity. I am encouraged by the fact that the Bollywood fraternity has united behind the maker of “Parzania”.
Posted by klajja at February 9, 2007 11:09 PM