"..Dalits, who number around 17 million.." In a country of 1.25 billion, there are only 17 million Dalits??? Really?? From which sewer does the rediff "smarties" get their news....???
In my opinion, ending caste system in India is virtually impossible. My observation is education tells evils of caste system, but it has no altenative. Caste system will end only if a better social system is created.
As per Educationists all over the world, teaching a child in a medium other than mother tongue is a crime and we urban people are doing that crime for last 20-25 years. In fact to stop reverse reservation, reduce language discrimination of the poor and safe guard our beautiful scripts, we must amend the constitution, banning all English medium schools (This was once done by the Tamilnadu government, but it was declared unconstitutional). These schools have also become money minting factories. China has developed a lot compared to us without them knowing any English whatsoever.
As regards your comment on %u2018chori chamari%u2019 etc I never thought it in terms of any caste. Today after you told the meaning I now have noticed it. New generation of people do not think in terms of caste. So do not bother about such things any more. Though I can understand your feeling.
RE:Language problem 2
by Nanchil on May 30, 2007 04:11 PM Permalink
But Mr.Sharma, even those who are against English as medium of education are also joining their children in English medium schools. Think about it.
It is true that unlike other non English speaking people, we Indians do not like our own languages and give much more importance to English. Because of this chances of getting white collar jobs for people not knowing English is reduced. This means reverse reservation, i.e. reservation exclusively for rich. When someone speaks in English, he is given more attention than someone speaking in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu etc. But Mr Prasad it does not mean that we should forget our languages. In fact our scripts are much superior to the Roman script as our scripts (except Urdu, which is based on Arabian script) are fully phonetic. The problem mentioned by you is not the problem of dalits only, it is problem of all Indians, except the elite. Yes we should all learn English language as a subject from say class III onward. For learning English, we do not have to learn all subjects in that language, which is a more difficult option. Though I am a Brahmin, but my parents also had never been to a school and we belonged to lower middle class. I am 58 year old. I studied in my school in Hindi medium and started learning English from class VI onward. But I never faced any problem. Had I been admitted to an English medium school (though then such schools were very rare and very costly), I would probably have dropped out of school in a few years. Since in our family and society, we do not speak in English, learning English as a language is much better than learning all subjects in English medium.
In my observation, except when it comes to marriage and close/intimate social interaction, nobody really cares about a person's caste in most scenarios (ex: at work or while doing business or when met on the streets). But then, when it comes to social interaction, poverty can also be an aleinating factor. Further, most(but not all) brahmins are vegetarians and most (maybe all) dalits are non-vegetarians. Similarly alcoholism. Such cultural differences can also segregate people. I have seen that even in the center of Bangalore, our whole street is filled with Brahmins basically because the owners do not want their houses to be "desecrated" by non-vegetarians and drunkards. I do not subscribe to the extreme idea of "desecration", but if I had to rent a house and if I had a choice, I would rather have a vegetarian and non-alcoholic for a tenant.
My two cents - instead of looking up to equality from Brahmins and the elite, the Dalits should form their own snobbish cults (like brahminism if you like) and play with elligibility to be part of these cults. If they are smart in marketing such a cult status, they will be on an equal footing with brahminism. That way they can find their own victims to take advantage of. Leave the brahmins alone and let them practice their own 'cults'... Don't victimize yourselves to an age old trick of snobbish birth. Every person who tried to break the cult of brahminism ended up forming his own cult (obviously of "lower class?" like Basaveshwara).
Re: Poverty not Casteism
by Shailesh Matekar on Nov 04, 2010 11:03 AM Permalink
Hi Madhusudan, I don't agree with you that nobody cares about the caste. Caste plays a critical role but indirectly. If you are a Brahmin, you cannot become chief minister in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu. Your progress will be slow in Government jobs. There are numerous examples one can give.
RE:root of all evil in India
by Sabarish Sasidharan on Apr 07, 2007 07:20 PM Permalink
The problem is not with the religion but with how people understand and practise it.
