Meghna on the caste system
19-year-old Australian-Indian artist Meghna recently released her new single, In My DNA. Here, she writes an opinion piece about the caste system:
Quite a while ago, a young girl had a friend who was of a lower caste to her, an ‘untouchable’. When her friend visited, she offered her friend some water. When the girl’s grandmother saw that her granddaughter was interacting with an untouchable, the grandmother threw the water away and gave the young girl a shower to clean her from the contact with the untouchable. As the young girl’s family evolved and progressed, people from other castes came and joined the family. This young girl is my grandmother. Although the caste system rules in my family have vanished, many people in India still believe and follow the rules of the caste system
By recognising inequalities based on what humans cannot control, such as the family one is born into, and proclaiming it to be the will of God, refusing to look at the original logic of conception, Indian society has created human stereotypes to justify a social structure that favours a few at the expense of many, denying a vast majority of people opportunities to use their inborn talents and pursue their own dreams and aspirations freely.
Simply put, the caste system is discrimination in its worst form. Untouchables are the very bottom rung of this preposterous system, below all the other castes and persecuted as such. Headlines such as ‘Untouchable tortured by cops for three days’ and ‘7 Untouchables burnt alive in caste clash’ are common headlines in Indian newspapers.
Yes, the caste system is a form of racism, the difference being the caste system involves people of the same race and nationality. For example: we know each other, and we look the same, but you are of different caste to me. You are an untouchable. If people saw you talking to me and reported the sighting, you could be punished or even killed, all because you were an untouchable interacting with a person of a higher caste.
There are still instances of couples having to elope because they cannot marry being from different castes. I’ve heard stories from my grandmother that if a doctor is an untouchable, the patients from a higher caste will not let the doctor treat them.
Untouchables face discrimination every day. They cannot get good jobs or good positions because their bosses are from different castes. These ‘Untouchables’ did not do anything to be treated badly. It was not their fault that they were born into particular caste that was considered to be low.
Although the caste system is a cruel and evil indictment of our time, there are promising signs looking into the future with my generation. If we set the environment up right, future generations will not care about who we make friends with. We will be more accepting of people for who they are. We are not as ready to accept old ideas and beliefs, as readily as past generations. Nowadays we have access to a huge amount of information readily, and we question everything a lot more. We apply logic and look at personalities, skills and abilities. We can shy away from stereotypes and are less judgemental. We are rewriting, in some way, how human evaluation should work.
Words by Meghna. Keep up to date with Meghna on Facebook.
