Ever since childhood I have been taught in all my history lessons that the Upper castes oppressed the lower castes! Loads of textbooks, newspaper articles, magazines, literary works, movies, media narratives have often defined and decried about the untouchability and the social ostracism that was perniciously practiced across India. I have read countless stories and have been told innumerable times about how the cunning Brahmins set stage for a casteist society fraught with their hegemonic religious doctrines. Every time I read about it, I felt that my ancestors must have been blood sucking leeches that deprived a whole generation off their social rights!
But then if Brahmins have discriminated against Dalits and didn’t include them in their places of worship and social circles and continue to do so even today as alleged, does that mean that the Muzrai system of taking control of Hindu temples introduced by the British Government in 1810, ineffective and discriminatory in its inclusivity?
Does that mean that it is the successive governments that have engineered these social divides, who with their ruling upper hand pass the blame on Upper castes?
The Muzrai system was introduced by British to control Hindu temple money and was portrayed as yet another affirmative action for inclusivity but the fact remains out in the open that even after decades of such predatory practices under the garb of inclusivity, the weaker sections remain alienated, but strangely this rule continues till date where Hindu temple revenue and recruitment are all handled by the state Governments.
When even religious recruitment is handled by the state bodies how is it that Brahmins become oppressors?
In Karnataka alone the government controls more than 10 lakh temples and people from all castes are hired. It is another thing that only Hindu places of worship are controlled by governments as against the Article 26 of the Indian constitution that assures freedom to all religions and non-interference from the government but till date it is only the Hindu Hundi that is reaped to subsidize all and sundry just like how hardworking tax payers are made to let go off their LPG subsidies to subsidize the poor farmers, use up tax payers money for Haj subsidy and various minority appeasing schemes only to cry Dalit atrocity by upper castes yet again!!
The caste reservation policy was brought in as a panacea from paradise that would put behind all the social inequalities and equalize classes within a definite span of time and bring down the cries of subjugation but interestingly as I grew up, even the narrative of upper castes subjugating the lower castes grew obnoxiously and has today augmented to such large proportions that it keeps reverberating everywhere _ on the social media, on the television, on academic debates and even on the tall political manifestoes.
I get to read every single day as to how a Dalit was deprived of his rights _ of how Dalits are still socially alienated from the mainstream discourse and how the upper castes continue to practice their isolating innuendoes.
On the contrary our governments both past and present have left no stone unturned in appealing to the Dalits, be it the latest Anthyodaya scheme or the past numerous Dalit and minority appeasing policies or the recent overt mindless enthusiasm to up the reservation quotas in all educational institutions and job opportunities and even promotions that are made readily available for the SC and STs.
But what remains for introspection is that in spite of all these elaborate exercises about up lifting the oppressed masses the poor continue to remain poor and excluded.
The caste based reservation system that was first proposed in 1882 during the British rule as a glorious antidote for affirmative action against alleged social injustice has even after a 100+ years of its introduction proved to be a faltered and flawed attempt that has only reversed the pyramids of injustice creating more social divides and has the volcanic potential to blow societies into spurious ashes of civil unrest if left unchecked!
In fact the reservation system is a subtle form of racist communism thrust upon every hardworking Indian, belittling his belief in hard work and competition.
Reservation system as I see it is a disguised advocacy of communism that proposes to distribute demerit across the society as the social normal and rations merit by throttling the meritorious under the garb of equal rights and democracy thereby reducing the economic growth potential of a nation where social justice and upliftment is only an obsolete rhetoric rendered fit only for a political pitch!
India is perhaps the only naïve country in the world with a caste reservation policy where the responsibility of uplifting the oppressed is cleverly distributed amongst the gullible masses while the state or ruling authority or politicians in our case, hold no personal obligation to see social justice in the eye in its true sense!
Perhaps the champions of caste reservation system should in all earnestness,
Practice the idea of social justice by seeking education for their children only from a reservation quota teacher in a government school who has scored not more than 40% marks, Compulsorily seek medical aid from a reservation quota doctor in a government hospital and should refrain from seeking medical aid abroad or in private hospitals.
Always take services only from a reservation category candidate. And this should be applicable to both the ruling and the opposition as they have a big hand in its implementation!
Get their children married only to reservation category candidates
The intention of the post is not to mock a reservation category candidate but to reflect back on the flaws of the construction and continuation of a system that has lowered the quality of education and standards of services made available to the poor of this country and has reduced the overall standard of lives in India.
How many of us reading this post today can say that we will send our children to any government school for a good education? The answer is definitely a big no as we all know about the substandard quality and multilayered corrupt corrigendum where merit has no place.
Growth or upliftment, is all about ascending the ladder without stepping on other’s back when one moves towards merit which will automatically take care of his or her social and economic status but how can one move up the ladder when they are being taught by ill equipped non-merit candidates who are hired under a reservation system who may or may not have the passion to teach but have taken up the job because it is a relaxed permanent lucrative offer with a lot of benefits without having much to do!
The salaries of a government school teachers(permanent) is anything between Rs.45000-50000 per month and the salary of a private school teacher ranges between Rs.15000 to Rs.25000 per month, yet many deserving teachers take up jobs only in private schools as a job in a government school for a General Merit candidate is unthinkable as of today!
Hence it is not surprising that the number of castes in the backward classes have gone up ever since the introduction of reservation system where people seem to be vying to be called backward as it has more premiums than being a toothless GM category.
93% of schools are government run and only 7% are private run, yet if this 93% is unable to make a difference and imposes RTE in the 7%, if 40% or more people are dependent on this 7% private aided education, it indicates that our educational system is dangerously set on a futile fallacious foundation spending crores of rupees only to refurbish the poverty/underdeveloped narrative in all its apathy!
In the same casteist India while private multinational companies without reservation system are exceling their global counterparts, the Government departments are infested with laxity, pregnant with inefficiency and are synonymous with lethargy! Thanks to the reservation system where the educated and meritorious rarely look up to or even dream about taking up any Government job as it is rigid with redundant practices and riddled with incompetency and corruption.
Social equality is not a commodity that can be given at discounted prices in government shops nor can it be imbibed amongst people by imposing unreasonable social responsibilities upon them or impeding opportunities by lynching another man’s talents! Social inequality cannot be solved by trampling merit nor can it be solved by sharing outsourced Idlis in Dalit houses or sleeping on Charpais in Dalit homes! Parity can be pursued only by providing the prudent paraphernalia to persevere and perform by venerating that perseverance irrespective of the profession!
Any policy or practice emerges as per the prevailing social and political circumstances at that particular period of time in the society. Curing alleged social injustice with caste reservation system has perhaps served its time and has long lost its purpose of bringing about social equality. Although the Zamindari system was a local version of a European feudal system installed by the British in pre-independent India, the makers of English written history were profoundly successful in metamorphosing this narrative of zamindari dominance by cleverly mixing it with incidents of caste discrimination leading into a theory of Brahmin aggression over the Shudras who have now been christened as Dalits.
Today if I question the Brahmin oppression theory, I would probably be shot down with the most acerbic of verbosities but then why did the British think of promoting the non-Brahmins who were mostly farmers by creating a 50% representation/reservation cap in the administrative services in the late 18th century?
Did they really care for the poor Indians whom they mercilessly caned at the drop of a hat?
Starting from the Hunter Commission in 1882 to the Morley Minto Reforms in 1909 to the Mandal Commission of 1990 the oppression theory has always been kept alive and painted as a thing practiced in the whole of India just like how Sati system was attributed as a regular practice across the whole of India although it existed only in few western parts of India during the Mughal tyranny.
Since Brahmins were engaged in administrative roles for their political acumen they could sniff out the divisive agendas of the British hence the caste complexities in our social system was totally pinned on the Brahmins then and continues to this day when the fact is that subtle social discrimination exists across all castes and classes not just in India but even in western countries.
It is quite ironical that BR Ambedkar who constitutionalized the caste based reservation system for inclusivity of Dalits and to fight supposed Brahmin hegemony, was himself nurtured by a Brahmin who took upon himself the onus of educating Bhim Rao Ambedkar and incidentally even gave his surname to him!
The overtones of reservations are today fast moving towards a dangerous precedent of furthering appeasement politics and creation of more and more caste groups and the Indian polity is raging in a race to call its own people backward with increased zeal and vigor. It is no secret today that this caste culpability is being rampantly misused for evangelical conversions of Dalits who remain Dalit on paper but are dedicated to the cause of Christianity at heart and are vulnerable to be enslaved to the western agenda of disintegrating the Indian social fabric.
The so called human rights activists like John Dayal supposedly representing oppressed classes(read Christians) who seem to have more clout than the ruling government is testimony to the fact that Dalits/minorities are no more oppressed but are turning oppressors themselves at the cost of national integrity.
The Modi Government seems spineless in front of these evangelical missionaries who are making double bonus out of our reservation systems by making the general categories pay with their nose while equipping a debilitating culture of non-merit. But hey the evergreen theory of _ THE BRAHMINS OPPRESSED THE DALITS shall be kept alive as they must be hated throughout their existence but the Mughals were art and architecture loving noble and secular administrators!
To set the agenda straight I do not know how the 2% Brahmins managed to oppress the other 98% in the 800 years of Islamic and Christian savagery but then even if the Brahmins have sinned oppressing the Dalits then they better pay up by teaching at the Government schools and working for the upliftment of the oppressed masses in all Government initiatives!
The root of all problems boils down to the narrative of our history and quality of education imparted. Education system is the spine of a nation that cannot be clutched with a string of weak bones! The abolishment or even decrease in the cap of reservation system seems like a far-fetched reverie in the current political context but will the Modi government pitching its sab ka saath sab ka vikaas dare to live up to its slogan in its true sense by reversing this acrimony and help the Brahmin sinners wash their sins by employing only General Merit category teachers in all the Government schools as a gesture to cleanse the educational system of all its sins?!