Caste, Icons and the Unfinished Journey to Equality
On the occasion of Mahaparinirvan Diwas, salutations to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, a truly learned, visionary, fearless and rebellious great man who was deeply aware of the complexities of Indian society.
There is a flood of tributes overflowing with emotion. But it is a flood that reaches only certain rivers.
Why?
The very caste system against which he fought all his life confines him today to being seen as the leader of only a particular group.
Caste, Icons and Our Selective Reverence
Why does this happen? If we look at a surface-level reason, it lies in the deeply rooted and deliberately preserved hierarchies within Indian society.
Every fragment of society worships its own great person. All the great figures of India are divided up as: “one yours, one mine and one theirs”.
The one belonging to our caste is ours and he alone is the greatest. Other great leaders may be remarkable but for us there is only one.
Sometimes you even hear snide comments whispered softly in person, “Only ours is truly great”, “The greatness of this person is unnecessarily overhyped”, “What exactly did they achieve?”, “What did they ever do for us?”.
On social media, the same extreme views are expressed in a shrill, abrasive voice. This is not the opinion of just one particular caste group. More or less, every caste group thinks similarly about the icons of other groups.
Educated and thoughtful individuals do understand that every great leader has made a specific contribution, and that because of those contributions our country and society have gained a kind of philosophical and intellectual richness. It is precisely due to this that we have managed to reach where we are today. But caste pride does not allow even these wise and almost liberated individuals to internalise that truth fully. And even when they do, it does not allow them to acknowledge it openly.
As a society, we are split into multiple fragments and there is a strong likelihood that we will continue to remain so.
This division prevents our citizens from living a life that is complete in the aspects that it should be. The potential exists but it is rarely realised. Because of prejudice and hollow pride, we are unable to progress in a truly comprehensive way.
Forget becoming highly developed. We are not even able to stand on equal footing with developed countries.
The Superpower Dream and the Reality Check
Our dreams, however, are gigantic. We carry an intense desire to become a superpower and to enlighten the world. On what basis these dreams are dreamt or shown to others, who knows. One just has to travel by a state transport bus or by train in any state of India, stay for two or three days in a few of its villages and towns, walk around on foot and the disturbing reality will hit them in the face.
This situation becomes all the more painful because Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and many other social leaders and reformers worked tirelessly to reduce economic and educational inequality in society. Yet a society fragmented by castes fails to understand that when the people at the very bottom advance, the standard of the entire society is lifted.
Thinking in a narrow, self-centred manner, we keep strengthening this unequal system and do not reflect on our own role in sustaining it. This applies to all castes. Many so-called eminent players in this game are driven by self-interest and filthy politics. In such a system it does not take much insight to realise that those who are larger in number and occupy positions of power are the ones who benefit the most.
Once we push aside the bubbles of festivity, cheerfulness and self-congratulation, our medieval reality starts becoming clearly visible. The year 2025 is drawing to a close and yet, in our conduct and thinking, it feels as if we have pitched our tent firmly in the year 1025.
Questions We Need to Ask Ourselves
Few questions one needs to ask oneself:
- Does our behaviour towards a person rise above their economic status, their caste, religion, language and region?
- Do we alter the basic humanity that we show to another human being depending on who that person is?
- Do we use sympathy, empathy and feelings of belonging selectively?
If the answer to even one of the above three questions is “no”, then as a society and as a country, we have not yet attained maturity. We still have a very long way to go. Forget being a superpower. Even in terms of peace and discipline in civic life, we have not come anywhere close to the Western countries.
The Fight Against Caste and the Question of GDP
The fight to annihilate caste is also a fight against inequality. This struggle adds a different dimension to the hotly discussed topic of GDP.
GDP is the volume of currency transactions within a nation. The higher the currency transactions, the higher the GDP. A large section of society that is in a state of economic distress can hardly contribute to GDP.
But if their economic condition improves, they will begin to spend more on goods and services. This means the currency transactions will increase and GDP will grow.
Secondly, as more goods and services are consumed, more employment will be generated in those sectors and gradually the country will reach a very high level of development.
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