Casteism – Still a dilemma
What is a caste? Do drivel things like that still exist in this world? The new generation children ask their elders this. Are we still living in an era of misleading thoughts? Where have we reached? What are our stages of development? The imperial era of the Harappas, Mugals, Cholas-cheras and Zamurins etc show a beautiful and rich cultural past. To strangers it is really nice view and they only see its prosperity. When we go deeper into Indian society and culture, we start to see its evils and debauchery. It is nothing other than the flawed caste and class divisions that create a big gap or division in India. Take the recent incident in Dharmapuri as an example. It was an eye opener and gave a shocking perspective of this constringed world view.
The village turned into a battle field due to the narrow attitude amidst society.Even though hi-fi Indian metros are moving towards world class levels, the real soul of the India, the rural space, face intricate issues. Dharmapuri and all the nasty play that happened there forces us to question whether India has really accepted equality or is it just a statement in the constitution? Though everyone claims that there is equality in India, reality says otherwise.
In Dharmapuri, the problem erupted when an inter caste marriage took place in the village. This was the beginning of the communal violence there. We, as Indians daily face and deal with struggling news stories which touches facets of Indian ethnicity adversely. What we all say in one voice “unity in diversity”, does it really exist? Three colonies in a village lost everything they own in a single day. Their home, accessories, food, clothing everything that they own was burned. The conflict was visible in the terrified eyes of the children and teardrops of the elderly. Their frozen bodies and stunned eyes tells an isolated story. The horrible days that they suffered, no words can convey them.
Every one of them had their own story to tell. They never imagined that their neighbors will give them such a gift. One of the victims, a 35 year old lady, shared with us her suffering with a tear drop touching her chin. When she got back from work, she saw that her house was completely burned. All her son’s educational certificates, bicycle, money, clothes everything was lost. She asks what she can do when people do unfair practices like this on her.
Another victim said that when he received a call from Dharmapuri, he never thought that the problem was so crucial. When he reached Dharmapuri, his whole life became a mirage. He said that if a girl and boy ran away, it should be dealt between their families. Why should he and his family be punished for it? Their home has become a picture of a gruesome attack. Burned TV sets, ashes of clothes, broken utensils. His wife said that the children didn’t have any clothes left to wear at home. Everything was burned by the attackers.
This is not an isolated story in India. In every corner of this vast nation, such incidents happen, some maybe small while some are large shocking incidents. In the name of caste, people are being marginalized, isolated or ill-treated.
What is scary is that these attacks are planned. The rioters had cut trees around the areas in the previous day to block the way. After they burned the homes, they used this wood to block the way. The villagers were stuck and rescue activities were delayed. Children found it hard to get over the panic of the incident. Investigations revealed that the real reason for the attack was that the high caste were jealous of the prosperity of the Dalits, and didn’t want them to achieve anything in life. They still wanted the Dalits to be under them, doing their slave work. If this is the real face of Indian villages, what is the future scenario for a developed India? Will she wipe out all these obstacles? Will she break all these barriers? Will she overcome the hindrances and fly her flag on the top for social justice?
Maneesha K.V.
2nd yr Mass Comunication
