From: ssankara@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Sornam Sankara)
Subject: Re: CASTE ! CASTE ! CASTE !
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:51:39 GMT




     I thought, I would not continue in this thread.  But a few personal mails
prompt me clearing the misinterpretation of my views.


ISSUE:  Caste divisions are very much alive.  In villages and small towns it is
very much alive in the form of upper caste illtreating the lower castes (mostly
the backward communities and the landowning forward communities are responsible
for the many cruelties against the poor most-backward communities and the
scheduled classes).  In cities caste exists in a very subtle form, all the
communities tend to group their own people in the educational institutions and
the government jobs.  The extent of domination depends upon which caste has
already established its command.  The upper castes have been dominating all the
central govt organinsations and discriminate other communities because they
held key positions right from the British rule.  In state government
establishments, the upper castes have been slowly losing their holds (in some
cases like southern states they have already lost).


EXPLOITERS

     In a true sense, the problem is not purely caste-oriented but also
class-oriented.  The rich in all the communities ultimately exploit the poor.
They talk about their caste interests in order to divert the anger of the
people against their exploitation in all areas.  The unemployment problem and
lack of opportunities is the primary problem (which is totally forgotten by the
pro as well as anti-reservationists) and it was largely created and continued
by the economy which in turn due to the exploitation by the crooked rich.  SO
the problem is largely a class problem.

     It seems to be a caste problem because the uppe class is largely
represented by the upper castes (with a lower percentage of lower castes) and
the lower class is largely represented by the lower castes ( with a very
lower percentage of the upper castes).


WHO SHOULD SHARE THE BLAME.


     Though the problem is largely a class problem and allow the affluent
people to exploit the situation, the bitter truth is that there are certain
castes who should share the blame.

     The schedued classes and tribes are the most suffering and even the very
minuscle percentage (we can count the numbers) of the affluent scetion of these
communities also do not want to identify with their community because of
shyness (there may be very few exceptions).  So the SCs/STs are only oppressed
and they are not oppressors.   They suffer from immense illtreatments like
homicide, rapes etc in the hands of the land-owning obcs and land-owning upper
castes in rural areas and also the 100 % criminal political, govt and the
judiciary.  The people who cry about violence in this net withink about
thousands of SC/ST brothers being tortured, killed everyday and the SC/ST
sisters being raped evryday.  The govt machinery (mainly police) and the
judiciary protect the criminals.  The most backward communities also undergo
this treatment but when it comes to SC/STs they join with the other
communities (there are exceptions).



     The landlowning backward castes and the upper castes of the rural places
are responsible for this. They share the blame for the caste violences.


     Thirdly the city based backward communities (migrated from the villages
for the salaried jobs) are the neo-brahmin communities (I will exactly write
about these communities in a separate article, especially why they are called
in that way) who are not worried about anything except thier stomach. They are
not worried about their own caste people suffering in the villages.  But they
are interested in groupism in jobs, to corner more jobs, facilities etc.  They
are jealous of the SC/STs in getting benefitted by reservations etc but at the
same time lament about upper caste (esp. brahmin)  dominations and hence ask
for reservations for themselves.

     Lastly the pure quote and quote upper castes who do not want to touch the
root of the problem.  Given a chance they will try to practice nepotism etc.
This is done by all the upper castes (not Brahmins alone).  The white collar
people of these communities are the tools of the rich and the politicians who
are responseible for the whole exploitation.  The upper castes are responsible
for maintaining the status-quo of the whole caste divisions and they control
the whole media (90 % Brahmins in this case) which is supposed to fight the
system irrespective of who causes the trouble.  They will make a criminal's
death a big issue and continue the death issue for years but at the same time,
they will write a half page editorial for the death of a large population and 
forget it. They never touch the root of the caste issue.  Moreover the idiotic 
HIndu religion is also dominated by these people and hence keep all the castes 
controlled by the Hindu religion.


My previous arguments:
======================

     Mere caste based reservations will never solve the problem.  The society 
needs a major shakeup irresepective of who loses.  Then talk about the 
reservations on the basis of classes and more than that the creation of right
environment.  Street shouting pro-reservationists will never give the above 
picture and never talk about the right solutions also.  The reason is 90 % of 
the street shouting crowd want personal as well as political interests.

     What about the so-called merit loving anti-reservationists.  These guys
never think about the root cause of the issue.  No matter, how many years they 
control the govt machinery they are not going to consider the sufferings of the
Dalits.  They only talk about merit to sideline the issue.  They are not really
interested in merit also.

     Why I did I shout against the anti-reservationist.  Because I hear only 
their mispropganda around me always whether I go to my house, my town or IIT or
in the US because they want to protect their interests.  These guys are deadly 
against the caste based reservations because it is caste based and hence 
maintain the castes.  I tell these guys, "I agree if you are against castes and
hence caste based reservations.   First you say that there is no caste and
you  dont  have any caste.  Remove all your caste identies, threads, names etc.
Be prepared to get married to any other caste person with your own life
requirements.  I will stand with you against caste based reservations "

If you dont accept it and still shout, then I will tell you, "YOU HAVE NO MORAL
RIGHT (YES THE SAME MORAL RIGHT YOU TALK) TO TALK ABOUT THE CASTE BASED 
RESERVATIONS WHEN YOU SHAMELESSLY ACCEPT THE CASTE SYSTEM !!


This is my final posting on the reservation issue.  You have freedom of 
expression and preach more philosophy.  In that case, yu can conclude that I am
defeated against your ignorance or arrogance.


With best regards,

S. Sankarapandi


(PS:  Please excuse me for all typos  because I always sit with the newsgroup
at the end of day.  In my previous postings also many typos were there)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian