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Annihilate caste Globalisation has brought nations closer. It has triggered IT revolution, racism is a new social issue the world has come to debate. Slowly the issue of caste too will become just as debatable. India will soon emerge as a formidable world economic power, applauded and celebrated, the country will also have become a subject of social auditing. After WW-II, the US had emerged as the world's largest economy, but by 60s', its race question too had become intense. The embarrassed America looked for answers. Similarly the world is going to ask Indians the following questions. Why are nearly half of the Dalits still uneducated - can't read, can't write? Why are nearly half the Dalits landless agricultural labourers with less than US $ 1 in income per day? Why are English medium schools virtually shut for Dalits? Why are there no Dalit owned companies traded on India's stock exchanges? Why are there no Dalit models endorsing products? Why are Dalits not a part of Bollywood? Why are Dalits out of media workforce? Why are successive Finance Ministers un-connected with the Dalit intelligentsia? Why are Dalits outside the PMO which scripts fortunes of Indians? Why are there no census reports of the number of Dalit-non Dalit mix couples? Well, Indians can very well say - as they keep saying, that Dalits are unworthy and only they are to blame for what they are. But, will that satisfy that world public opinion! Who after all, wrote the Constitution of India? How did a Dalit become the President of India? How could a Dalit become the Chief Justice of India? How could thousands of Dalits became engineers, doctors, scientists, and doing very well in India's public sector. If the answer is "because of affirmative action", then why affirmative actions is not seen in other areas. Doesn't Hollywood have Black actors? Doesn't American Society for newspaper editors track representation Black journalists in the American media? Don't most of the US corporations have a "Diversity/Affirmative departments" monitoring recruitment of Blacks? The world leaders and opinionists will ask such questions. And India will have reply satisfactorily. As the debate would get intense, somebody from some part of the world would ask - "Why was it that Dr Ambedkar, and not Gandhiji, wrote Annihilation of Caste? Is it because Gandhiji was not a victim of caste order? The world would ask - "Why Dr Ambedkar, and not Pt Nehru, walked the path Buddha once laid?" Is it because Pt Nehru was not a victim of Hinduism? By each passing day, the world is becoming smaller, societies are getting too close within each other. Indian society thus will not be able to keep all its secrets as 'sacred'. All 'sacred' secrets will be known to the world. The viciousness of untouchability would amaze the world. Soon, the world would feel sorry for Mother Earth - "why should this planet have possessed South Asia!" Before India falls into that kind of situation and is despised, Indians should start asking themselves few questions. Why did they conceive a caste order? Well, the past cannot be erased. But, why does the present possess that vicious order. Then they must start questioning - can ever India have any glorious future without annihilating caste? The day the mainstream India asks itself these questions it will become a place worth living. And it is easy - one simple resolve to de-segregate society will make the caste order ineffective. Dalit Diary is a classic case. Dalit Diary happened two weeks after Dr Chandan Mitra thought the The Pioneer should have a Dalit columnist. Today, if other newspapers/TV channels want Dalit columnists, they can find many. If a film producer wants a Dalit actor, he is easy to find him. It's easiest to produce Dalit capitalists - start buying goods from a million Dalit manufacturers and hundreds of them will evolve into multi-millionaires. A Dalit billionaire will follow suit. But, can caste India tolerate this?
