“I can wash your plate,” my host whispered to me. Then, gesturing to the driver, he said: “But I cannot wash his. If people in the village find out, it will become difficult for us.” By the rules of caste, a vessel that has come into contact with the saliva of another person is contaminated. At that point, it cannot be handled by someone whose status is higher than that of the eater. My host wanted me to make this clear to the driver.
I was mortified. I had never had to tell anyone something so awful. I froze. I neither had the courage to upset their laws — and get up and wash the driver’s plate myself — nor the ability to tell him this terrible instruction.… Seguir leyendo »
Of the many protests to convulse public universities across India in recent weeks, the one held on Feb. 23, in which thousands of students, faculty and activists marched through central Delhi demanding “Justice for Rohith,” was the largest and perhaps the most palpably indignant.
A month before, Rohith Vemula, a 26-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Hyderabad, in southern India, hanged himself from the ceiling fan in a friend’s hostel room. Mr. Vemula was raised by his single working mother, who is from a “scheduled caste,” the lowest rung of the hierarchical system that structures traditional Hindu society, and which used to be deemed “untouchable” until India’s independence in 1947.… Seguir leyendo »
Growing up in India, I remember our middle school civics teacher telling us clearly: caste discrimination was a thing of the past.
And yet, not really.
Yes, the system that forced so-called "untouchables" to clean public toilets was outlawed; yes, the importance of one's caste was eroding as India grew more middle class, especially in the big cities. But we all knew that caste clung to us all. It was everywhere.
In many cases, it was broadcast in our surnames. Political parties were created to cater to castes. Marriages and business alliances were plotted to further them. Castes stuck together.
