Hindu Caste Racism: My letter to "The Hindu" on the Racism of Caste:

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

My letter to "The Hindu" on the Racism of Caste:

May 31, 2012.

The Editor

The Hindu

Dear Madam / Sir,

This letter is with regards to the op-ed column titled “Let’s stop pretending there’s no racism in India” by Mr. Yengkhom Jilangamba (The Hindu, May 29, 2012). While I sympathise and agree with Mr. Jilangamba’s views, I have to emphasize that prejudice against Indians from north-eastern states is not the only form of racism in India. Mr. Yengkhom Jilangamba’s opinion piece overlooks the age old forms of prejudice, discrimination and oppression based on professing superiority or inferiority of endogamous caste descent in the vertically graded and bigoted system of castes which has been condemned as racism by no less a body than the United Nations Human Rights Council (formerly known as United Nations Commission on Human Rights) and the latter’s "Committee On The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination"(CERD) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has made it clear that caste falls within the ambit of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), ratified by India. General Recommendation 29 (2002) of CERD states as follows: “CERD strongly condemns descent-based discrimination, such as discrimination on the basis of caste and analogous systems of inherited status, as a violation of the Convention.” In addition, CERD reaffirmed through general recommendation 29 (2002) that CERD seeks to eliminate discrimination based on "descent" which includes discrimination against members of communities based on forms of social stratification such as caste and analogous systems of inherited status which nullify or impair their equal enjoyment of human rights. General Comment 20 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, also unequivocally prohibits discrimination on grounds of birth.

Thus it is amply clear that discrimination and bigotry based on caste is part and parcel of the legal discourse against racism under international human rights law.

Racism is not strictly limited to discrimination based on skin colour or physical racial features, but a belief system of bigotry that discriminates, inferiorizes or oppresses people based on their human (biological) descent. Anti-Semitism professed by Nazis against Jews is indeed considered as the most virulent form of racism human history has ever known, even though both Nazis and Jews were white skinned. Similarly, according to International Human Rights Law, any form of prejudice, bigotry, discrimination or oppression based on caste descent is indeed racism even though those who profess superiority of caste descent and suffer inferiority of caste descent (imposed on them) may not be physically very dissimilar to each other, but belong to different endogamous caste descent.

The vertically graded bigotry of castes where each caste is considered superior and inferior to castes below and above respectively, (except for Brahmins who are considered as the “most superior” caste and Dalits who are relegated as “most inferior” as outcasts – untouchables at the bottom of the caste system), is indeed the most virulent, long surviving and most resistant form of racism the World has ever known. But a state of silent acquiescence of the intellectual and media class of India to the bigoted, reactionary and regressive principles inherent in the practice of caste has so far prevented the genesis of a national fervour for ending all practices and manifestations of caste bigotry in India.

The racism of caste bigotry and its off-shoot called “untouchability” are the causes for honour killings, atrocities against Dalits, bondage to inhumane labour, poverty, caste segregation, social exclusion from literacy, housing and health-care and discrimination against students in elite higher educational institutions such as IITs, AIIMS etc., which has pushed many students of IITs and AIIMS (from Dalit and OBC backgrounds) to commit suicide just as the reported murders and suicides of students from North Eastern India.

In addition, one has to also state that attitudes that foster discrimination against dark and black skinned people while associating beauty or attractiveness bigotedly with fair skin is rampant in Indian society, media, advertising and films, with a consequent flourishing of multi-crore industry in cosmetic creams that claim to bleach the skin to whitish fairness!

Prejudice against North Eastern students is only an extension of the entrenched racist attitudes that sustain caste bigotry and prejudice against dark skinned people in India.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Iniyan Elango.

THE ABBREVIATED VERSION OF THE ABOVE LETTER WHICH WAS PUBLISHED IN "THE HINDU" IS GIVEN BELOW AND CAN ALSO BE ACCESSED BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/article3477422.ece

Prejudice against north-easterners is not the only form of racism in India. The article overlooks the age-old forms of prejudice, discrimination and oppression based on caste. The vertically graded system, in which each caste is considered superior and inferior, is indeed the most virulent, long-surviving and resistant form of racism the world has ever known. But the silent acquiescence of the intellectuals and the middle class in the regressive principles inherent in the practice of caste has prevented the emergence of a national fervour for ending the system.

Iniyan Elango,

Chennai

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HINDU CASTE RACISM

A blog against the racism of the Hindu caste system. The Hindu caste system is nothing but a system of racism founded on on descent (birth) based supremacy and bigotry that degrades and imprisons people in a system of vertically graded caste inequality of descending inferiority and ascending superiority, with each caste considered as inferior and superior to castes above and below in the vertically graded bigoted system, with the "twice born" Hindus led by Brahmins (at the summit of the caste system as the "most superior" caste) unleashing this bigotry to divide and rule the Indian working (Dravidian - Mulnivasi) masses. The castes lower to the "twice born” Hindu castes are degraded as "Shudras" (backward castes) by the Hindu scriptures who were traditionally restricted to physically laboring vocations and excluded from education, wealth and governance for millennia, until the advent of British rule. The “Shudras” (backward castes) are segregated from Dalits (who are enslaved at the bottom of the caste system as outcasts - untouchables). Dalits are bonded to the most degrading and inhumane labour while being subjected to heinous and manifold forms of physical segregation called “untouchability”. The "twice born" racist supremacist castes [Brahmins (priestly caste) - Baniyas (“Vysyas” or traders’ caste) – Kshatriyas (regal castes)] lord over as the ruling class of castes controlling the government, central (federal) government bureaucracy, army officers corps, top judiciary, business corporations, elite academia, arts and the mainstream media. Dalits are in the receiving end of violent atrocities, untouchability and segregation perpetrated by all Hindu castes (caste Hindus) above Dalits in this vertically graded and bigoted caste system.

All people who live by physical labour or descended from castes bonded to physical labour were derided as “Shudras” (slaves) by the Hindu religion and bigoted Hindu scriptures such as “Mansumiruthi” which codify the caste system, even if they acquire wealth. According to Hindu law, all people who do not belong to “twice born” trio of upper castes (Brahmans, Baniyas-Vysyas and Kshatriyas) are “Shudras” including those belonging to “untouchable” castes. The term “Shudras” literally means “slaves” or “slaves who serve Brahmins” apart from other degrading meanings ascribed to the term “Shudras” by Hindu religious scriptures such as “descendants of prostitutes”, "bastards", etc.

“Shudras” were profanely derided as “descendants of prostitutes” and accorded a “bastard” status by the bigoted Hindu scripture “Manu Smiruthi” and were entailed to serve the Brahmins as the latter’s slaves even if the “Shudra” acquires wealth. Shudras were traditionally proscribed from education despite some of them being land owners. “Shudras” are further divided into hundreds of vertically graded castes with each caste bonded to a physically labouring occupation and professing superiority over those castes below, with the “untouchable castes” at the bottom. “Shudras” were traditionally banned from literacy and education for millennia, until the advent of the British rule. Education was made available to “Shudras” and untouchables only after the advent of the British rule. The Hindu caste system as codified by the Hindu religious scriptures considers all people who make a living by physical labour and all descendants of castes bonded to physical labour as “Shudras” including those derided as “untouchables”, even though the “untouchable Shudras” are also referred to as “Panchamas” or scheduled castes, while the “touchable Shudras” are referred to as “backward castes” in governmental parlance. The so called “untouchables” are further divided into vertically graded castes, who are all forced to live in segregated slums in each town and village across India. The “twice born” supremacist trio off upper castes (Brahmins. Vysyas – Baniyas and Khatriyas) are explicitly excluded from all kinds of physical labour, while being given the monopoly over education, commerce and governance for millennia, which has made the "twice born" trio the ruling elite of the Indian governing establishment. The Indian working masses wholly consist of the backward castes and scheduled castes, who are divided by the caste system of the Hindu religion despite being members of a common working class. Backward castes and scheduled castes were traditionally excluded and banned from education, governance and acquisition of wealth, which started changing slowly only after the advent of British rule and the dawn of the independent India, while the core of the ruling elite still comprises of Brahmins, Baniyas (Vysyas) and Kshatriyas under the religious and ideological leadership of Brahmins.

Even a wealthy “Shudra” still remains only a “Shudra” in the Hindu caste system – as codified and governed by the bigoted Hindu scriptures. According to the bigotry of the Hindu caste system, a wealthy Shudra is still deemed and doomed to be a “Shudra” (“slave of the Brahmin”) who should use his wealth to serve the Brahmin and the latter’s bigoted agenda while wallowing in his inferiorized “Shudra” status in the caste system. Thus acquiring wealth does not abolish the inferiorized and degraded “Shudra” (slave) caste status and the allied caste identity of a person nor does it grant him a social status on par with Brahmins and “twice born” trio of supremacist upper castes (Brahmins, Baniya-Vysyas and Kshatriyas) in the caste system. A famous example of this was the refusal of Brahmins to coronate the Maratha warrior and leader Shivaji as “King” because he was born into a caste deemed to be “Shudra” by the Brahmins. Thus, even a wealthy person cannot escape his “Shudra” status and the allied inferiorized caste identity which are determined by birth and not by wealth. The same applies to the wealthy amongst those belonging to various castes stigmatised and segregated as “untouchables” by the Hindu religion – since acquiring wealth does not abolish the inferiorized and stigmatised “untouchable” caste identity of a person. This is why true advocates of social justice want affirmative action to be awarded to backward castes (Shudras) and scheduled castes (Dalits) irrespective of their economic status.