Castism – A dark face of society

 

By. Prof. Dewakar Goel

 

Probably India is the only country in the world which has got the golden face and also the dark face when we unfold the pages of history. The dark face of our country were the centuries when we practiced inequality among the masses on the basis of caste and creed. The upper caste and lower caste concept was so strong that even the untouchability was prevalent between the two groups of the society. We can not imagine victimization and exploitation of lower caste by so called upper caste people. The lower caste people were not allowed to take water from the well, which was being used by upper caste. They were not allowed the access to the temple and their only work was to serve the upper caste without remuneration.

 

The golden face of our country was shining all over the world as much as that these dark spots were hardly noticed. The poor lower caste people could not raise their voice and continued to get exploited. We feel like weeping to read these dirty pages of the history. In today’s world we can not imagine that this was the condition of the people of our country. I personally fail to understand as to why this all was allowed since at the time of birth the cry of a child is the same and there is no caste or creed given by the GOD. We should be known by our qualities, human behaviour and culture of course the difference on account of religion was quite common and is still prevalent and known to the people. Our country was divided solely on account of the religion but from where the question of discrimination on the basis of caste that too upper and lower was made and by whom?, why we should believe in racism?

 

Our country had number of saints who tried to highlight this problem and opposed it but somehow there is no concrete evidence that they succeeded in their efforts for eliminating this cause.

 

Now came the face when country got the independence. What is the backbone of the country; undoubtedly it is the constitution which is the base. It is the constitution which gives the fundamental rights to the citizen of the country. We were fortunate to have Bharat Ranta Baba Saheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as the man who is known as the father of the constitution. He proved by way of his exemplary qualifications, intelligence and intellectualness that there could not be any other person to head the constitution committee except him. He was chosen for being the only person in the country who could do justice in formulating and making the constitution of the largest democracy in the world.

 

The problems of exploitation and victimization of lower caste by the upper caste people were very much in the mind of Constitution Makers And make embodied the articles and clauses embodied in the constitution which gave the right to the citizen for having equality. The constitution gave the voice to the people to say that all citizen in the country are equal in all respect. There is no scope for allowing discrimination of lower caste. If today our country could have President from the lower caste. It was only because of right of equality granted to all citizens.

 

Today we are seeing the Bureaucrats, Politicians, Ambassadors, Industrialist and even the Big Writers, Poets, Singers belonging to lower caste, it is all because of freedom they got to prove their worth otherwise for centuries and centuries, people were not allowed to exploit their talents to show as to what they are.

 

The constitution came into practiceas a instrument to eliminate caste differences and today we are seeing the stringent law safeguarding the interest of down-trodden lower caste people. Number of Commissions, Corporations and Association are there to ensure it.

 

I wish that we all should unite and become one and a day should come when there should not be any identification of persons as SC, ST and Others. We should be known for what we are by virtue of our qualities and deeds. When the debate goes on uniform civil code I feel now the time has come to have casteless society.

 

If we serve the humanity, if we help the poor and needy, if we spend a little amount of our salary every month for the cause of poor people, I think that will be the real respect to our constitution. We may belong to any religion but the tools and ways of worship are the same.

 

Lastly I will only say "Chalo Kyuna Aaj Kisi Rotey Huey Bachey Ko Hansaya Jayae".

 

            Prof. Dewakar Goel

Dy. General Manager(P&A)

39-C, DDA (SFS) FLATS,

POCKET-2, SECTOR-6,

DWARKA, NEW DELHI - 110075

Email- dewakargoel@hotmail.com Web : dewakar.tz4.com