Re: [ZESTCaste] Is caste an economic development vehicle? (Opinion)

[Shailesh Arya]

Your idea of relocating groups of people from their age-old caste-stricken 
settlements to different places, although will certainly give results by 
eradicating the feelings of castes, but is extremely difficult to achieve. For 
this, one has to influence every family and individual and convince them to do 
so. And if this was possible then government would have already convinced 
people of voluntarily removing caste feelings from their conditioned minds.

Asking the Hindus to stop practicing caste system is completely futile because 
without caste-ism, there is hardly anything else in Hinduism. Caste-system is 
the most strongest and foundational Hindu practice. Even though the Hindus 
might differ in their languages, gods, food habits, regional traditions and 
beliefs, from North to South, East to West, there is one thing that strictly 
binds them together through which they can be called as the people of same 
religion. And that thing is caste-system. All Hindus practice caste system.

The only way to fight caste system by native Indians is to assert their own 
identities and culture, which are usually difficult to trace because of intense 
"Brahmanization" since centuries. We have to distance ourselves from the 
backward Hindu beliefs and mindset, and adopt the ancient rational mindset and 
culture that we possessed.

I prefer to use the term 'native/indigenous Indians' instead of others like 
"Dalits", "untouchables" etc, for two reasons mainly:-

1. It doesn't have any stigma attached to it unlike the terms like "dalits" 
which automatically produce a sense of "weakness" and "helplessness" when used. 
Other terms like "untouchables", "harijans" etc are certainly derogatory and 
should be shunned by us.
2. 'Native Indians' is a broader term which encompasses not only the "dalits" 
but also the tribals and other minorities from the North-Eastern parts of India 
who have been the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent since thousands of 
years. This brings a sense of pride, even though we are an oppressed and 
discriminated people now. We are still the descendants of those who began 
civilizations in the Indian subcontinent.



--- On Thu, 29/1/09, C Ramesh <ramesh_del...@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
From: C Ramesh <ramesh_del...@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Re: [ZESTCaste] Is caste an economic development vehicle? (Opinion)
To: ZESTCaste@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, 29 January, 2009, 8:44 PM











            I missed your reply. Just saw it today. I certainly did not mean 
the actual act of physical 'killing'. What I meant was creating conditions by 
means of policies/utterances etc, whereby one set of people are forced to leave 
their place of residence and settle elsewhere. It effectively means the end of 
citizenship and nationality. For the moment let me just say that a lot of 
information is being concealed. Hindus, whether one believes or not, do have a 
caste. But merely because each person has a 'caste', does it mean 'difficulty' 
for others?

Christians too are divided into various sects. So are Muslims. So it is not as 
if everything is wonderful about other faiths, and everything is depressing 
about Hinduism.



--- On Tue, 27/1/09, Shailesh Arya <shailbr...@yahoo. co.in> wrote:



From: Shailesh Arya <shailbr...@yahoo. co.in>

Subject: Re: [ZESTCaste] Is caste an economic development vehicle? (Opinion)

To: zestca...@yahoogrou ps.com

Date: Tuesday, 27 January, 2009, 10:17 AM



I am not aware of any such killing of people in TN. Forgive me for my 
ignorance. But I definitely do not mean the extinction of people to end their 
suffering. Extinction of castes, is what I mean. Just like how there are no 
castes in Europe, Americas, Australia, China etc, there should be no castes in 
India also for any kind of real human as well as economic development to begin.



--- On Sun, 25/1/09, C Ramesh <ramesh_del123@ yahoo.co. in> wrote:

From: C Ramesh <ramesh_del123@ yahoo.co. in>

Subject: Re: [ZESTCaste] Is caste an economic development vehicle? (Opinion)

To: zestca...@yahoogrou ps.com

Date: Sunday, 25 January, 2009, 2:34 PM



The author claims that "If India has to prosper and develop, castes have to be 
obliterated completely". I hope it does not mean obliteration of a particular 
set of people as is happening in TN.