Why do we have caste-, religious- bias ingrained while judging anything new?




2 January 2022

Recent news that Parag Agrawal is chosen as CEO of Twitter Inc has brought cheers to the Indian diaspora abroad and Indians at large in the country. Sometime back, I was listening to the TV programme. The TV anchor said that what India exports is the talents as she listed many Indians like Indra Nooyi and others heading the multinationals in USA and other developed countries. Most of them were educated here in the prestigious educational institutions, before they migrated for greener pastures abroad. Some call it a brain drain, which we suffer economically as the country spent for their education. Others feel that it is better than to have brain-in-drain here. Yesterday, one of my colleagues posted a whatsapp note on this aspect listing all CEOs of Indian origin and commenting that merit gets recognised abroad unlike in India. Naturally it meant to show the consequences of as to how caste-based reservation is affecting merit based hierarchy in the country. Many just jotted on the line agreeing to this contention, without paying attention to inclusive needs of development of all sections of the society.  

Universally, people are religious as well as caste biased or even nation biased. And here is an example of national biasness. So, while the Twitter news was telecasted, the international news media showed it in the background of under-performance of Jack Dorsey who was co-founder as well CEO of the company, while national news media showed it as achievement of our fellow Indian, compatriot (legally he may not be), Parag Agrawal to this highest position in the company (see photo above).

Similarly, while deciding upon the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya last year, it became a matter of religious belief (astha ka sawal) even for the Supreme Court, as against the entitlement of land which had been an issue of contention over the past many years. And this religious biasness is wide spread, even in the developed countries. It was prominent even for the advanced country like the USA which has on its dollar bill, “IN GOD WE TRUST” printed on it. I am sure that many Americans may not be believing in God’s existence. But its Government does believe in it.


 

I have often come across my friends advertently mentioning their caste if they belong to the higher one or of equivalent to buttress the argument. So, the argument will run on this line. Oh, my son has married the girl of this caste (emphasizing or implying its higher status). We are now looking for a prospective groom from our caste only (he does imply that higher caste boy will be equally welcome). This could be also true if the discussion is on religion. Since, we Hindus are in majority, people feel more inclined to talk highly of Hinduism. And this could be a case for other christian and muslim countries. So, one of my senior colleagues said, our hindu sanskriti (civilization) still lives on for more than 5000 years. Good to have pride in ourself and our sanskriti but do not forget that there are equally old or older civilizations on this earth. Divides on caste and religion basis are deep if not intrinsic. And the agony of human biasness is rightly captured by the Lebanese musician-writer who responded to Maxim Gorky expression of freedom found at the birth by saying “five minutes after your birth, they will decide your name, nationality, religion and caste, and you will spend your life fighting and stupidly defending things you didn’t choose”.

While some think that merit is ignored in awarding the person, others feel importance of reservation to create more of egalitarian society, in view of past injustices. So, even in the developed countries, there is a recognition of injustices done by privileged minority over the majority over the past. It is natural to correct these imbalances in these contemporary times.

My question is why people like to ditto without thinking pros and cons of their action. Is human mind looking for lighter solutions, as it may like to be simple, uncomplicated, hassle-free?

Why we do not question our biasness? Is the society per se too complicated to expect solutions or it may be only for path-breaking thinkers to do so?

  

Comments

  1. Unknown9 January 2022 at 12:06

    Thanks Sir, for sharing this pertinent issue of caste, race, religion and gender biasness .. In private life/personal interactions we are so raw, ruthless, and animal like while discussing caste, race and religion but in public life we fail to acknowledge this elephant in the room.. I feel, people like you highlighting this bias is a step towards it rectification. I appreciate and admire you for the same. However, It left me wanting more..
    It appears to me that it is difficult to remove all biasness from human beings. But one ought to see, whether our belief/pride in something is harming the fellow citizens from other section/caste/gender/religion in terms of their right to dignified life in the society & equal opportunities. If such things happens then our belief is certainly not suitable for harmonious and progressive civil society. Therefore, we need to either modify that or discard that consciously.
    Caste has killed public spirit, national spirit and scientific temper. We prefer an immoral person of our caste than moral and meritorious of other caste especially lower than their own. Caste has also destroyed the sense of public charity.
    It has planted deep in our mind a notion of caste with ascending scale of reverence and a descending scale of contempt.
    We as a society can't progress as a whole until the caste is annihilated.
    As Dr. Ambedkar has mentioned in his book, 'Annihilation of Caste' (a must read on this issue) caste is a notion, it is a state of the mind. We perpetuate this in next generation by inculcating in minds of younger people.
    We need to stop this. And stop giving caste as religious sanctity.
    We should start giving importance to ones actions/karma/morality and not to the birth in this caste or that.
    As Buddha said "I do not call him a holy man because of his lineage or high-born mother. If he is full of impeding attachments, he is just a supercilious man. But who is free from impediments and clinging — him do I call a holy man" Dhammapada, 396
    Further, an inscription of King Ashoka is important to quote here for social harmony
    "One should not only honor once own religion and condemn other religion. Instead one should honor other religion for various reasons. By so doing one helps ones own religion to grow and render service to other religions. Acting otherwise, one digs ones own religion'
    May we progress as a compassionate society with fair opportunities for everyone to grow live happy and dignified life.

    ReplyDelete

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