What Do Our Rituals Tell You About Us?
Note: Anybody can read this post (and I hope they do and critique if they can spare the time and grace). But, since I am a Brahmin woman, and the people I am trying to reach are upper caste Hindu, the ‘we’ in this post refers to upper caste Hindu.
We need to listen to Muslims, other minorities, Dalits from all classes, and women and LGBTQ+ from those groups, but I can’t share that experience. I used my own. I have linked a few articles here that could help with others. Please read and follow Dalit women, Black women, Muslim women, and of course men of these communities for better understanding of these communities and the difficulties they face due to majoritarianism and supremacist and ethnonationalist tendencies. (I’d recommend progressives among them, and all communities have that, mainly because if we are acting as per confirmation bias, we would look at someone with the most narrow vision of what their religion or ideology says, and then decide that our worst assumptions about them are true. We easily brush others with their worst actions, while we judge ourselves by our best intentions. That does not help.)
And if your question as an upper caste person is, don’t people from those communities have an agenda at self-presentation, well, don’t you have the same agenda?
Alright. Onward.
Pandemic and festivals do not mix.
This was brought home to me rather uncomfortably on Varalakshmi Puja when a strange woman, well-decked in a gorgeous saree, turned up at our doorstep without a mask. At 8 pm. With no prior notice.
Did I mention the ‘no-mask’ part?
Without much of a preamble, she turned to my mother and said, “it is Varalakshmi Pooja” and then, smiled and nodded. We all just stared at her—my mother with a smile—because, well, what was going on at least in my mind was, “She is here without a mask. And, is she asking my mother to come over? During the pandemic?”
After explaining her purpose in three languages—Kannada, Hindi, and English— and assuring us that she also understood Malayalam, she waited expectantly. My mother hesitated for a bit, and then went to change. I stared at our guest blankly and then pointed out that there is this Covid-19 situation. The answer: “Oh, we don’t have Covid. We never left our home.”
My mother came out, again smiled, and then, whispered to me “Should I wear a mask?”. And I, stupidly, parroted the question back at her. “Shouldn’t you wear a mask?”.
Since I was no help, my mother looked at the woman. Our guest was without a mask. And she was smiling and looking at us, waiting for my mother to accompany her. Standing just on the threshold. Expectantly.
The decision was made. No mask. Mask would be rude.
And thus, she went, without a mask, to the Varalakshmi pooja at the neighbouring flat. And, I just watched her do that with barely a murmur.
People. If you ever wondered how anyone could be so stupid as to attend religious or other social rituals without mask or proper social distancing, this is your answer. I am a prime example of that kind of stupidity and caving in under social pressure.
And, social pressure is no joke. Neither are rituals.
Rituals tell us something about ourselves. And, it is a signal to others about us too.
A few years back, I wrote a blog post on bullying.
My father had a job that required relocating every 2-3 years, and my younger sister and I spent our school years shuttling from one school to another. In almost every school, at least the first year, the kids hazed me. My lunchboxes used to disappear. I used to be accused of stealing other people’s lunch boxes. Or, lying about it. Of colluding with the teacher because I answered a question. My notebook pages used to be torn out for making planes and stuff. Basically, hell. As far as I was concerned.
This wasn’t just part of school either. Brothers (cousins, we Indians have the same word for siblings and cousins in many of our languages) were up to it too.
A few spent an entire summer telling 11 year old me that I have a boyfriend—after asking me to share my classmates’ names and picking a boy’s name from among them—and making fun of me for that until I broke down crying (and then, doing it all over again the next day).
Another used to tell me regularly that my parents would take me to the same place where I had had a horrible burning accident when I was three, which I took as suggestion that I would be burnt again (at 5-6 years, I didn’t have the understanding to know it was unlikely).
As an adult in her thirties, I thought what I faced was bullying.
And I blogged about it.
After I blogged the post, another brother of mine pinged me and said, “But di (elder sister), isn’t that what everyone does? My friends make fun of me all the time, and I do it back and we just shrug and move on.”
He had a point.
Isn’t it normal? Don’t friends do this all the time? What was the big deal anyways?
Truth, yes?
It feels ritualistic, all this teasing.
I am not using ‘ritual’ as a figure of speech. As per studies (see Cimino, 2013), hazing is an initiation ritual that brings new people into groups. It can get out of hand, and violence may ensue, but it is still practiced in many higher education places all over the world. It is definitely practiced in India. Or, at least it was, when I was in college. In the form of ragging.
Indeed, why not?
As my brother asked, isn’t this how friendships work?
As a classmate said once, “If brothers tease you, that just means they love you. And they would do anything for you.” Ditto for friends, yes?
The other side of the coin? How are expressions of love and affection treated?
My experience, until recently, has been that people rarely express love, and any sign of affection or consideration needed to be followed by teasing. Or light hazing. PDAs between couples are discouraged in most parts of South Asia, and people can be arrested or harassed for engaging in public displays of affection.
Harassment is love and affection is shame. That is many of our friendship and sibling ritual (brother-sister or brother-brother). (Even het familial ritual – husband/wife sometimes).
Rituals are how we define ourselves or form relationships. What do these rituals tell you about us?
What do you do when you are faced with an ethical dilemma?
The modern states and corporations, even social institutions such as schools and colleges, assume that you make your decision independently. We are taught values and based on that we make our choices. As if there is no other pull on us but that of our own ‘moral’ and ‘rational’ conscience.
But, is that how all of us make decisions?
Humans are social animals. As one wit noted in a democratic blog I follow, our name shouldn’t have been ‘Homo sapiens’ but ‘Homo socialis.’ Social rituals—whether cultural or religious—are means of reinforcing group identities for us. We are wired for social cohesion and harmony. Not for truth. That is how we ended up ruling the world. You know, like ants. We build large groups and then get together and kill all the other ant tribes who we think threaten us. (And then, a few grab all the fruits while worker ants toil for those fruits.)
If one of us has any dissenting opinion, social pressure may be too much for us to reveal that opinion. This is exacerbated when we are encouraged not to talk about dissenting views and when data that may threaten the group’s uniform view are censored.
It is the legal expectation and assumption that we behave as individuals, but we don’t often. We act in favour of the groups we are members of. Or, we act so that the groups that we belong to or aspire to belong to don’t cause us pain.
This isn’t harmless.
Group think and our need for social harmony has led people to commit inordinate amount of violence around the world (see Stanford article cited in notes).
Because, that is what we are wired for.
What are mobs?
They are crowds who lose their sense, aren’t they? (Who in their right mind would kill other people or destroy property? Right?)
Once heightened to a passion, mobs have no idea what they are doing and just act based on emotions. They are chaotic and mindless. That is what contemporaries used to think of religion-inspired violence in 16th century France. The economic historians of the late 20th century disagreed about it being baseless. They thought that the ‘mob’ were acting out economic grievances in the garb of religion. It was still considered irrational.
We, rational and moral that we are, would never do that. Commit mindless violence in the name of religion. Or economic situation.
We would never murder cats for fun either.
Natalie Zemon Davis, in her work on the religious ‘riots’ in sixteenth century France, has demonstrated that the violence that broke out was ritualistic (Davis, 1975). It depended on the group identities of people, and it took specific forms that called the rituals they practiced in churches to mind. Ritual invocations were made. People were aware of what they were doing and considered their actions legitimate. They were standing in for the state or religious priests who in their minds had failed and thus, they took it up on themselves to do what the people in authorities failed to do. Purge society of impurities. In their minds, they were restoring order. The people weren’t limited to peasants or workers. There were aristocrats involved. And bourgeoisie (middle-class business owners).
The folks who resorted to violence during partition (that followed India and Pakistan’s independence) or in 1984, 1992-93, 2002, or 2020 (and others) in India were restoring order too. They were also, probably, telegraphing membership to a group.
And what about the apprentices of a printing shop who killed a bunch of cats including the beloved pet of their master’s wife? That was totally irrational, wasn’t it?
Robert Darnton says no (Darnton, 2009).
The late 17th and early 18th century France saw a consolidation of printing enterprises that locked out advancement for working class apprentices and journeymen while the masters became rich and lived a luxurious life, with wives and pets.
Wives who gave the apprentices and workers slop for food while they fed their cat the choicest piece of meat.
Cats who in those times were associated with witches.
Thus, the cats were murdered.
For months afterward, the apprentices who murdered the cats had great fun mimicking their master’s and his wife’s reactions to the results of their actions. Every time somebody brought it up, the rest of the shop would go into paroxysms of laughter, remembering the great time they had.
It was fun. Killing cats.
It was intentional. It was fun. And, it was a group activity of resistance against perceived (or real) injustice.
But we are not like that. We don’t kill cats. We don’t hurt people or instigate violence needlessly. We would never cause pogroms or genocides. It is those others.
It will never happen here.
Isn’t that so?
Wars between good and evil are a staple of Hindu mythologies. You have incarnations such as Ram. You have ‘evil villains’ such as Ravana (who abducted Ram’s wife Sita). Battles are fought. Foes are vanquished. Dharma is re-established on Earth and the ‘just and moral kingdom’ of Ram is ushered in. Bad elements purged and order restored.
We Hindus celebrate these wins of ‘good’ over ‘evil’ with festivals. In some cases, with commemorative burning of the ‘evil demon’, such as Ravana.
What would it mean to a group that chants ‘Jai Shri Ram’ (Hail, Lord Ram) to signal its group identity to encounter people who aren’t, by religion, allowed to say, ‘Jai Shri Ram’?
Who is Ram here? Who is Ravana? Who is Sita? Which is the kingdom that Ram promises?
What happens when a group of people who think that by birth they are allowed a better place in life meet with lower caste folks who are trying to assert their right to occupy space in this planet and hold their head high while doing that?
How does that work in a society where we are told that our status is a result of our karma?
In February 2019, I had a fight with a few uncles of mine about Modi. It was election season and I had been appalled to find so many family members—both young and old—support BJP and Modi. A cousin and I pointed out the Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom as a reason for not bringing BJP back to power.
My uncle’s response? These things happen.
These things happen. But to others. In some faraway land.
We would never participate in these kinds of stuff. We are respected people who vote for Modi because he speaks the truth about appeasement of Muslims. And about corruption and dynasty politics. Besides, who else is there but Modi? Who can govern us with such decisiveness?
Yes, there are people who engage in violence. In those other lands. One or two or five or twenty may be. And, there has been an occasional ‘riot’ or two, but that isn’t the norm.
‘We’ are good people who would never engage in ‘that’ kind of behaviour. And who we vote for has nothing to do with that.
Right?
Remember the mask fiasco I started with?
Guess what I did to ensure that I didn’t make that kind of mistake again? I came up with a plan.
Inform parents that you wear masks to protect others not yourself. Hence, it is not insulting (they agreed);
The next time someone visited, talk about asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, Covid-19 cases and deaths in the neighbourhood and latest science; and
Point out that mask wearing was mandatory in Karnataka.
Essentially, I:
Reflected on my ethical position and settled on my core principle.
Decided on appeal to expert authority.
Decided on appeal to law and governmental authority.
How will that work in the prevailing social and political situation in India?
If a Muslim is likely to be lynched (or rounded up into concentration camps) or lower caste people are likely to suffer a beating or worse…
What would ‘we’ the ‘good people’ do?
We, who believe that Muslims are appeased, and brahmins are Jews (WhatsApp forwards and Quora posts). What principle are we protecting there?
Which expert authority would we appeal to?
In a country where Whatsapp forwards as well as media were telling you how Muslims have always been the Hindus’ enemies and we have been living in oppression until Modi government came to power? Where with surprising regularity, mosques are added as having been built from Hindu temples desecrated somewhere in the past? Where education may be compromised and ‘historians’ blithely argue for their version of history in courts?
Where courts strike down reservations and refuse to help workers and employees with regard to unfair labour practices.
Which governmental authority would we appeal to?
In an environment where ruling party members give speeches about teaching Muslims a lesson. Where people who have been accused of militant nationalism and terrorist attacks become MPs? Chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Goli maro salon ko, desh ki gaddaron ko’ (‘shoot them down, the traitors’) and ‘Mandir wahin banayenge’ (‘we will make the temple there’) raised against Muslims and Muslim places of worship are means of social cohesion and group membership?
Where ‘Gurus’ with tens of thousands of followers obfuscate and demand that people protesting be made to pay for a few malcontents’ behaviour?
Where crimes against Dalits, lower castes, and women (of all classes and castes but esp. lower castes and tribes) are routinely ignored.
Which authority of law and justice would we appeal to?
In a country where government gave no thought to the plight of workers before announcing a lockdown so that migrants were forced to walk hundreds of miles back home; and the police beat them up for their ‘obduracy’ in daring to return home?
In a country where dissenters and activists are locked up as urban naxals? And people who participated in violence and destroyed minority property were never even named in FIRs?
In a country where police kill suspects with impunity?
In a country where courts take months to even look at basic human rights abuses such as the lockdown of an entire state for a year?
What ethical principle? What authority? What law?
In a country where chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is ritual. Beating up people to make them chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is ritual. Making fun of girls and women (and boys and men too or people of any gender) is ritual.
And participating in a ritual is how you maintain social harmony.
What would ‘we’ the good people do?
In a country where the party that governs is the group leader asking us to think and act a particular way? Where Ram Janm Bhoomi (birthplace of Ram) and Ram Mandir (temple of Ram) are considered government matter. Where Kashmiris are locked up without any internet, and few protest. Where many Muslims are painted as ‘illegals’ who need to be deported or sent to deportation camps. Where lower castes are asked to stop expecting reservation and start ‘working.’ Where women are asked to not complain about sexual harassment (see, Ranjan Gogoi, others).
What will happen to the Muslims? And the lower castes? And the upper caste women and non-binary people (those who aren’t happily supporting these efforts)?
How many of us will desist? And resist?
Clifford Geertz said that a Balinese cockfight is the Balinese reading of Balinese experience. A story they tell themselves about themselves.
What story are we telling ourselves?
That of love? Or of violence?
Thank you to my friends Manasa and Soumya for reading through and pointing out gaps and providing suggestions.
I always forget this part. If you read so far, thank you. If you liked this post and think someone else may find it worth their while, please share by clicking the button below.
To subscribe, click:
Notes:
On the personal story part:
In know that my personal data is anecdata. That is, partial data. If any of it resonates, feel free to add to comments, so that I know that I have not had a uniquely weird experience (or I was not uniquely sensitive).
For any family member who reads this: No, I am not angry, and I don’t hold grudge against anybody, and I do even like a couple of those cousins. But that is neither good nor, depending on the context, bad. It is what it is. I am angry at the system and I will continue to be until it is destroyed, and something better arises.
If you want to read more about anger, read about it, in a different context, here: https://racereflections.co.uk/2020/07/26/forgiveness-injustice-and-oppression/;
I think the article is behind a paywall now. Please subscribe and take a membership when it opens up if you have the money to spare. This place can teach a lot and paying for the knowledge is right. Nobody owes you teaching or news. Not in a capitalist world.
If you would rather not pay to read, work for more and better libraries; and for more public money to be given to folks like Race Reflections for their labour, knowledge, and wisdom. If you expect them to teach you for free, it is exploitation (be it black men, lower caste men, women of any caste/race/class and so on, with again, tiers there.).
The gendered nature of the personal story doesn’t mean that on the whole, men are oppressors and women and other genders aren’t. The teachers who have made fun of me for asking questions (one calling me into another classroom and pointing it out before a whole class) were women (and, that was in North India not Kerala).
But they all play within the same system. Where showing love is shameful that spoils someone and teasing and hazing are character building.
That has been my read of the gender relations since I was five (I have memories before then but don’t remember gendered thoughts). I read that men or what is perceived as masculinity seemed to be more respected and what is perceived as femininity wasn’t worthy of emulating.
What is the point of such hazing rituals? The thesis as per studies linked below is that this kind of abuse makes joining the group costly and simultaneously, allows people to demarcate between us and them (the inner circle, sort of). It leads to group cohesion and endurance. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
This is why I have such a love-hate relationship with Kerala (and a lot of Indian culture too).
I am not saying friendly ribbing between peers isn’t okay. But power relations matter.
Note: If you are showing sarcasm to someone who holds power over you, that could be resistance. To your peer, that could be friendliness depending on the context. To someone who has less power than you, through caste, class, religion (minority), gender, sexuality, race, or age, it is bullying.
On Social Rituals
References:
Davis, Natalie Zemon, Society and Culture in Early Modern France: Eight Essays (Stanford, 1975), pp. 152- 187.
Darnton, Robert, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, 2009), pp. 75-104.
Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York, 1973), p. 448.
Who is Sita that these men chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are trying to protect? Sita, IMO, is the pure and chaste past where men of the twice-born castes are all brave, kind, and just and thus rule, while the others are wonderful servants, with option for going up in the caste and class structure for men who show loyalty and worship (like Guha of Ramayana). Women are ‘good’ wives like Sita or Urmila.
(But that is just a philosophical proposition. Sita is just a stand in here. Like upper caste Hindu women (and women in general) have been sites of contest when it comes to casteism and religious identity, or white women in the case of racism).
The ‘kingdom of Ram’ that we aspire for, or Ram Rajya is the place where this past exists.
The reality and people that threaten that sense of chaste and heroic masculinity is the Ravana (Muslims, lower castes and upper caste women who don’t stay within their lane).
I am not saying Hinduism is unique here. All religions do this. Many secular philosophies and cultures do this. All of them have collaborative and inclusive effects and all of them have divisive ones. It is how you choose to interpret your religion and philosophy that matters. There are progressives among all religions.
- “If you need me to prove my humanity, I’m not the one who’s not human.” — Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan #PeacefulMosques
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“If you need me to prove my humanity, I’m not the one who’s not human.” <br><br>— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan<a href="
No, Hindus aren’t uniquely tolerant either. We had our fill of violence. How did Pushyamitra Sunga, Guptas, Satavahanas, Harshavardhana, Krishna Deva Raya, and the Marathas build empires (of any size)? By playing gilly danta? Not to mention the violence of caste oppression (check genetic studies if you want to date it), gender oppression (read Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara, Mandodari), and caste and gender oppression (see rapes of lower caste and Dalit women). Polytheists have been just as oppressive and violent as monotheists.
If your logic is that but they weren’t fighting for their religion (well a. that may not be true, and b. I guess EU/US can now claim to be uniquely tolerant too; given they weren’t fighting wars for religion the past couple of centuries either; after all, as per them, the Age of Enlightenment was not about religion (not true)).
Vara Lakshmi Pooja: https://divyapracharam.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/varalakshmi-vratham-significance-and-puja-procedure/
Social Pressure and Group think (and Rituals):
The link between social cohesion and social conflict is proportional: The more there is a breakdown of norms, the more violence ensues. https://gsdrc.org/document-library/the-nexus-between-violent-conflict-social-capital-and-social-cohesion/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10611-019-09828-7
University of Southern California. (2011, September 11). Peer pressure? It's hardwired into our brains, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 10, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906164312.htm
https://thewire.in/culture/people-loyal-groups-abuse-newcomers;
Aldo Cimino, ‘Predictors of Hazing Motivation in a Representative Sample of the United States’, Evolution and Human Behavior, 34 (2013).
Whitehouse, Harvey. (2012). Ritual, Cognition, and Evolution.
Richard Soasis, Candace Alcorta, ‘Signaling, Solidarity, and the Sacred: The Evolution of Religious Behavior’, Evolutionary Anthropology, 12 (2003), pp. 264-274.
On the ants thing:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/things-that-divide-us/
I don’t know whether ants can change their behaviour or not. But, humans certainly can.
On Brahmins Being Jews
Because I just couldn’t leave it well enough alone.
Source: https://www.tamilbrahmins.com/threads/how-is-being-a-brahmin-good-or-bad-in-india.42861/
https://www.quora.com/How-is-being-a-Brahmin-is-good-or-bad-in-India
Well, clearly, the person who made the post (and the ones who support that view) doesn’t know much about history. Or, current affairs. Or, mathematics.
For history, follow Auschwitz twitter. For current affairs, follow Dailt Camera (or their videos or posts). Also read and follow Dalits. I am listing a few to start you off.
Ambedkar (always). https://www.mea.gov.in/books-writings-of-ambedkar.htm
Suraj Yengde https://thebaffler.com/salvos/apartheid-in-fancy-dress-yengde
Also, Caste Matters
J.V Pawar (Dalit Panthers: An Authoritative History)
Dalits, Adivasis in regional languages.
Proportionality is a thing: If you are 5%-8% (or 15-16% if you include other upper castes) or less of the population and occupy 30% of the parliament and used to occupy 75% to 90% of it + bureaucracy during colonial times and at the turn of independence, you have a much larger slice of the pie. Sharing it equitably isn’t oppression.
In 2014, 2019, upper caste parliament rep was (and is) 30%.
https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/brahmin-kayastha-hegemony-re (Behind paywall)
How do Dalit and Muslims fare in our criminal justice system?
Entrenched caste discrimination (violence plus more people incarcerated): https://idsn.org/report-finds-entrenched-caste-discrimination-in-indias-criminal-justice-system/
An increase in crimes against Dalits in the last decade: https://theprint.in/india/governance/over-a-decade-crime-rate-against-dalits-rose-by-746/47516/
Entrenched prejudices against Muslims, Dalits: https://www.thequint.com/news/50-percent-policemen-feel-muslims-more-prone-to-committing-crime-csds-common-cause-study
Representation in police? I couldn’t find any recent data. But it was far less than their presence in population in 2009: https://bprd.nic.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/file/9131400434-Chapters%204%20SCS%20%20STS%20IN%20%20STATES%20POLICE%20FORCE.pdf
As for government policy:
And you think caste doesn’t matter?
Yes, even within the upper castes, wealth is owned by a minority. https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/income-inequality-within-castes-top-10-among-forward-castes-own-60-wealth
If you are against poverty, why are you not agitating for alleviation of poverty? Through better governmental/low cost health care; better and more equitable infrastructure; wider access to education through more schools and colleges, more and better teachers from diverse backgrounds with better pay; and through provisions for basic food, clothing, roof over head (roti, kapda, makan). This would help everyone.
Instead of that, if you are fighting reservation, then you are not against poverty (or your fight is misplaced); you are against lower castes gaining their just due.
And oh, for the men thinking men are oppressed these days and aren’t the women free already and dominant?
Our parliament has 14% women. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/new-lok-sabha-has-highest-number-of-women-mps/article27260506.ece And, that is a record (we have been worse in gender than caste in parliament and that is saying something).
General Police? 9% https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/women-police-personnel-constitute-a-meagre-8-98-of-police-force-across-india-bprd/articleshow/73736033.cms?from=mdr
IPS and officer ranks: 6% https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/women-officers-police-force-india/
IAS: 25% (which is kind of better, I guess. But look at the top jobs).
https://www.ndtv.com/jobs/upsc-cse-number-of-women-joining-civil-services-is-less-than-25-2196839
Workforce participation is falling or stagnant: 23% (or 24%) apparently.
Gender Gap Index: India slipped 4 places. Place: 112. Labour participation is 24%. Check Page 185 for details.
And among these women, again, lower castes/Muslims fare even worse (in many places).
India has the dubious distinction of having a low gender ratio. What this means to men, you can read here.
So, there is missing women and lonely men (and lonely gay women and agendered persons with preference in women too but that is a whole other kettle).
So, yeah. It is still cis-hetero patriarchy. In fact, Brahmin cis-hetero patriarchy. (And liberals in India who call it just Brahminical patriarchy, you folks are ignoring the non-cis and non-hetero.)
Basically, what the upper caste men see as oppression is the other groups seeking a more equitable distribution of power. And a bit of criticism and scolding. Apparently, scolding equals holocaust for upper caste brahmins and their fellow dwijas, go figure.
If you are thinking, but what about merit…
The merit doesn’t depend on exam marks (where the subjects taught are of questionable provenance anyways). In case of a job, it depends on the job and the appropriateness of the person for the job. Most of that is with on-the-job training.
If you got 90% in 10th, 12th and engineering that doesn’t mean you are more intelligent. It just means you have perfected the art of acing those kinds of exams. You would still fail if your practical experience in a mechanic job, farming, or even cleaning manholes, is nil and the requirement is that kind of job. Also, getting in isn’t a guarantee for success. You still have to go through the system and come out with credentials.
The value placed on the job is based on culture. After all, essential jobs like cleaning isn’t valued highly, even though it would be hard for people to live comfortably if it is not regular, while IT is, even if it is just a programmer copy pasting a piece of code from one place to another.
Plus: Upper caste people, and men among them, have more resources (as a group). The lower castes have far less. Lower caste people have to deal with far more structural impediments. Based on that who is meritorious? The one who has to climb stairs with one hand and one leg tied up or the one who just has to carry on ahead?
Given all these talk about brahmins being Jews, frankly that meritocracy argument is looking worse and worse by the day. I mean, you guys can’t do basic math and you think people should hand over the management of the world to you?
https://scroll.in/article/903542/why-it-is-utterly-wrong-to-call-brahmins-the-new-jews-of-india
Also, this: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reservation-vinod-kambli-dalits-varun-grover-6501257/
The current government and its tendency for ethnonationalist patriarchy:
Delhi violence:
Economic situation:
https://thewire.in/rights/disturbed-areas-act-in-gujarat-a-tool-to-discriminate-against-muslims
https://caravanmagazine.in/policy/the-gujarat-state-is-enforcing-communal-segregation-and-criminalising-property-transfers (behind paywall).
Terror-accused MP: https://www.reuters.com/article/india-election-priestess/terror-accused-hindu-hardliner-pragya-thakurwins-parliamentary-seat-in-bhopal-idUSKCN1ST1I9 (Also, read up on Adityanath before he became a high BJP guy).
Guru’s words: https://scroll.in/article/948963/how-jaggi-vasudev-has-helped-strengthen-fears-about-muslims (He also said that the ‘tukde’ ‘tukde’ gang (the video was artfully edited to make it look like activists were calling for India to dissolve without any reason), which is a euphemism for student activists protesting, should be taken off.)
Activists jailed:
https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/article30912135.ece Dr. Kafeel Khan.
19-year old jailed for saying both Pakistan and Hindustan zindabad (as if wishing your neighbour well is bad): https://thewire.in/rights/amulya-leona-bail-bengaluru
(And, many others)
Encounter killings: https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/vikas-dubey-and-the-problem-of-encounter-killings-in-india/
Muslims forced to chant Jai Shri Ram: https://theprint.in/india/9-of-those-killed-in-delhi-riots-were-forced-to-chant-jai-shri-ram-police-tells-court/453904/ (Also, many others).
Rape (and other stuff): https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/clamour-against-rape-in-parliament-bjp-has-116-mps-facing-criminal-charges As I said, India has a gender problem. Not likely to be limited to any party including BJP. There are many other cases. Google and find. Verify sources.
Do we need to talk about the lack of internet in Kashmir? (Yes, Yes, Kashmiri Pundits, I know.) https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/17/india-failing-kashmiri-human-rights (Note: Yes, what happened to Kashmiri Pundits was bad and they need repatriation and compensation but what had been done and being done to Muslim Kashmiris is also bad, and far worse in absolute numbers and continuing terror. Both are terrible and justice isn’t served by hurting one over the other.) https://theleaflet.in/internet-lockdown-in-kashmir-281-days-and-counting/ Also, terror had fallen to a low around 2012 and then risen in the past few years: https://www.satp.org/terrorism-assessment/india-jammukashmir Yes, now it is reducing, but that is with brute force at a population level. And as for what Kashmiris think: https://indialogue.substack.com/p/a-dark-year-for-kashmir?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cta
For the upper castes who say they shouldn’t be blamed for their forefathers’ sins (though caste discrimination still continues), why is an entire population being criminalized for a few hundreds’ sins? Especially when some of the violence (esp. Kashmiri Pundits) was owed to Pakistani infiltrators. (South Asian geopolitics is stupid. It works better for both India and Pakistan to be friends; but do they work like that? No. Politics and grift are more important).
If you liked this post, please share by click the button below.
To subscribe, click: