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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Casteism does not exist in today's India

I thought up of several beginning sentences for this post, like, ...so says a Hindu Brahmin, upper-middle class, urban woman; or perhaps, so says a blind bat, or maybe, so says the conveniently-affluent-driving-in-her-a/c-car-with-a-devil-may-care-attitude- woman,  well you get the drift. I don't actually think casteism doesn't exist in today's world.


I must however confess, there was a time in my life when I thought casteism was shelved to times before 1947, until of course I got married eight years ago to the love of my life who happens to be a non-Brahmin BC boy. While post-wedding rituals were a shock in itself, I had also become acutely aware of how different "they"-my in-law's were from "my" family-they ate tons of garlic, they were (and still are) non-vegetarians, they killed a goat for sacrifice after the wedding, they grouped (and still do) into women folk and men folk at all gatherings- the list goes on, and it didn't help that my family accentuated this difference by constantly talking about it "oh my God, its impossible to step in to their house, it STINKS of garlic!",etc.  With that, I was introduced to how much of a Brahmin I really was -"you got married to a sudra payyan (boy, in tamil) Aarathi!" I would hear myself exclaim. Hence, like an onion (which Brahmins shouldn't eat mind you) peeled the notion of "everyone is equal", and I became very aware of the presence of casteism, and class-ism so much so that I did not want to be a Brahmin anymore. Hindu? what Hindu? I am spiritual. Not religious I would say.


And what's more, the Hindutva waves that often flood Indian politics made me uncomfortable confessing I was born Brahmin. I would completely resist any attempts made by my mum to get me to pray, or participate in rituals or functions. In fact, I was such a frowny b*#ch (i'll bet, that's what my mom was thinking) when our sects' "Pope" equivalent graced my grandma's home. I would not stand beside him to take a picture and I prostrated at his feet like it was a punishment! ah! the good old times. So again, my reasoning was, I am spiritual and not religious, so leave me alone.


And then it all started to fall into place- my understanding of my privilege and my disadvantage. It happened in a class I was taking called Race Lab, as a part of my counselor training in the US. In this class, we began to explore each of our various identities. I learnt that my identity can be grouped into-gender, class, race, caste, sexual orientation, religious/spiritual orientation and more. As I began to explore each of these identities I began to see how much of a feminist I was. I also began to realize that as a upper-middle class brahmin woman I had a lot of privileges in this society-privilege of education, opportunity, etc. and at the same time I am discriminated against for being a woman- the clothes I wear, the behavior I display, etc. But what I also realized was how I was running away from embracing my spirituality/religion because of what it meant to be a Hindu brahmin in the society. Thanks to Race Lab, I slowly began to thaw at it to find my divinity within the same oppressive religion Hinduism can be.



I write about it all now because of this wonderful book I just read, called "A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule's Fight for Liberty" by Srividya Natarajan and Aparajita Ninan. It is a graphic novel that I totally wanted to get my hands on when I read about it in The Hindu. Though I found the book four years after I began my quest to find likeminded books and work in the area of casteism, I found it to be brilliant, thought provoking and eye-opening at many levels.


First of all its a graphic book that beautifully outlines a historical work, that itself gives it all the brownie points. But the best part of the book is that it gives you an interesting perspective on Hinduism, the Brahminical scriptures and religious texts. It does so with a dialogue between the two writers of the book and it also does it through the voice of Savitri Phule, the child bride of Jotirao Govindrao Phule. The book essentially outlines the work of the latter in "abolishing slavery of India's 'lower' castes" and pulls details from his book Gulamgiri (Slavery) written in 1873. 


What can I say, I loved every bit of this book. Natarajan divides the book into chapters called: The Wasteland of Caste, the Weed-Bed of Myth, the Roots of Tyranny and the Seeds of Education. Both Natarajan and Ninan then go on the break Hindu Myths and the role of Brahmin's during the British rule to continue the suppression of lower castes and women-all this borrowed from Phule's work and narrated through the voice of Savitri Phule, who played a major role in educating both boys and girls of sudra's and atisudra's in the 1800's. The book is very relevant in today's society and the authors go on to glisten that fact. They talk about the Babri Masjid, Gujarat Riots and the Quota politics to show how caste system and oppression from it exists even today. 


Excerpts from the Novel
You cannot just read a bit and close the book and run off and do errands, well what I mean is that, its a gripping read and you will want to read it again once you are done. Some parts are shocking and hilarious too. Like the one about Brahma menstruating from several orifices given the four castes were born out of four different parts of his body. 


It reminded me how after reading about the caste system in my history class when I was in 6th grade, we asked everyone what each of their caste was, I dont think anyone admitted to being lower than a Kshatrya then. 


Phule wondering about Brahma's four days a month issue.






While I do consider myself open to new perspectives, some parts of the book really did take me by surprise. Like the Hindu mythology of Dusavatara, desconstructed by Phule gives you his perspective of how Aryans under the guise of Dusavatara essentially invaded India and destroyed indigenous rulers and kingdoms like that of Mahabali or how what happened in Narendra Modi's Gujrat was essentially "Parashuram, updated for the 21st century, Hinduta-style". The authors also go on to point of what I took for granted so many years. Take for instance what Natrajan says about our good old Amarchitra Katha series, ' remember how the women were always impossibly curvy?' and "the good guys were always fair and the baddies, the rakshasas were always dung-green?"Ninan wonders. 


The book is a lesson in staying open to a variety of perspectives-even to something one group considers sacred, like scriptures, that "myths are interpreted differently in different communities" and that "history, like myth, changes depending on who writes it and who reads it". Most of all however, it has made me aware of how important it is to gather these perspectives and educate ourselves and our children in staying open, and being aware of our identities and how it came to be. It is also a wonderful lesson in not setting rigid boundaries to our identities and what defines us.  If you haven't already read the book, go get it. It's available on flipkart.com at just Rs.200! And when you are done, let me know what you think. 






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18 comments :

  1. Beautiful post yet again Aarathi. Loved the part about identities. I guess it is etched so deep that it is impossible to separate it from who I am - excepting perhaps with greatest effort at introspective transformation.

    I have always believed that Hinduism is a way of life, a science - not really a religion. That way, I am proud to be a Hindu. I don't believe in castes but guess somewhere it is in me that I am a FC. Wonder how I would have felt otherwise. Scary.

    In a relationship with a Brahmin thpough I am not one. Guess it is going to be interesting.

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  2. Hi Sindhuja, Thanks so much for your comment :-) You are right to say its hard to separate from an identity that is so deeply conditioned, but acknowledging its presence is a first, and often asking for help and learning about differences in experiences helps, I think that's what this book among others did for me.

    Hinduism is so many things for so many people. It is a cultural way of being for most Indians regardless of their religious orientation. There are some amazing parts to it like Yogasutra's, the Bhagvad Gita, etc. but there are some stupid ass parts, like Manusmriti, that this book talks about. I was really shocked to learn about some things Manusmriti says. Nonetheless, I am a Hindu and I am proud of it as much as I am shocked by some parts of it.

    Thanks so much for reading!

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  3. such an interesting post!! It expands my little world from central PA!

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  4. Absolutely loved the review A! I am so going to get the book. You should absolutely write more book reviews.

    Believe it or not, I just read Karakku by Bama an autobiography by a Dalit woman writer and a post with a similar title has been on my mind. I will link this post of yours to it.

    Sharing it on twitter :-)

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  5. I don't believe in casteism, but it still amazes me how people are so particular about the caste believes. Caste is something we've created for ourselves, no God has created a caste and separate groups. Its all in our mind, Gods creation was in his own image and unique, never he created different identities.

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  6. Very fine post. I will request you to read a blog from Shekhar Kapoor on the subject "To uphold the spirit of constitution if the parliament should be dissolved for good" or something like that. A person said in his post in respose to another relevant post that he is a Hindu, Bengali & Brahmin by default and so there's nothing to be proud or ashamed about. That was such a fault by him!! he had been condemned to death. Cast-ism is very much alive & you know about the cast panchayats and killing for preservation of casteist pride.

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  7. @momto8: thanks momto8, this is a very india specific topic and given some of my assumptions in writing it it's hard for individuals from other cultures to fully understand, at least that's what I think. But -isms are not new to any part of the world, glad you liked it.

    @towards harmony: I know! Thanks for the inspiration, I think I will write more reviews :-) I always wanted to write a post about this topic and was glad it came thru the book. Thanks for sharing on twitter. I cant wait to read your review on karskku and get the book as well.

    @elvirah: welcome here."being particular about the caste believes" is what makes casteism. The book I talk about mentions how castes etc are infect created by people in power and acknowledging the differences amg peple in terms of their identities helps us become more mindful to how we are within our identities and this makes us less discriminatory in our behaviors, at least that's what research and my experience suggest. thanks for reading.

    @dipak kumar bhattacharya: hi, and welcome here. Thanks for your comments. I read the blog you mentioned. The comments were quiet harsh indeed.

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  8. Not a comment on what you wrote on this post, but on what you write on your blog...


    Congratulations! You are on my list of recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award. You may want to check out how this works and whether I had anything nice to say about you at the award post at http://subhorup.blogspot.com/2012/01/versatile-blogger-award-2012.html

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  9. Subho: yay! I'm thrilled for the award! Means a lot, thank you for that little blurb about my blog on your post.

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  10. Arathi,i dont want to say anything about casteism-thats a vast subject & so many ramifications to it....but do you condone what has been depicted about Lord Brahma ?even i m not dogmatic about religion & rituals,but Brahma is the highest God in Hinduism &this sort of depiction will hurt millions...even i found it offensive & blasphemous...u must have read how some groups get volatile if even a chip is damaged on a statue of-say B S Ambedkar,& this is about our God....do u think abusing him & maligning him like this will remove casteism or accentuate it?
    secondly even today science cannot authentically say how the world came into being...today a woman can get pregnant without being touched by a man....why should we assume that Brahma gave birth to us mortals like ordinary women do?we can only affirm what has been proved beyond doubt but we cant say anything about what is not visible to us.
    i think this bit was in very bad taste...does anybody think like me or am i d only one to have taken offence????

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  11. @indu: welcome here,I'm sure that this book is meant to elicit all kinds of responses and distaste and offense is certainly one of them. I was shocked by it whilst I read it too. If you get a chance to read the entire book(quelching your distaste for a bit) I would love to know your thougths on it too but then again maybe you won't :-) thanks for visiting.A-

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  12. Fantastic review! and i cant wait to get my hands on this book!

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  13. @Nithya: Thanks sisterly! :* Its a neat book you should totally read it :*:*

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  14. Sounds really interesting! Added it to my wishlist on Flipkart! :)

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  15. I did the undoable yaar!!! Started reading the book and read a few pages and forgot and left it behind at your home !!! I did the same to this blog too so fully deserve to be kicked. That's probably because I don't care for the subject and my way of disapproving something is to totally ignore it and act like it doesn't exist (I mean disparity).

    You must start sending your review posts to news paper and magazine editors re baby. I am sure they will be published. You have no right to deprive the wide world of print reading public from your awesome reviews ok?

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  16. @Appi: I wrote this blog post in jan!! and you comment only now. K for. Anyhow Iam actually surprised that you did comment at all on this one. I know that you totally ignore the subject which is why I am actually happy you read the post :D Thanks appisa for the compliment, I am glad I started writing reviews, its a neat way of integrating what you learn from books no? Its like times when you would tell us the moral of every movie on our way back from the theater. why did you stop that?. hehe.

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  17. I just read the book babe, it is totally brilliant and there is no way I can do better justice to it in a review than you have. I am going to link your review and just write a few lines.

    This is an awesome review!

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    1. Thanks so much for writing back to let me know what you thought babe :-) so pleased youu liked my review :D thanks for linking it!

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