Let's Talk Caste

For our last book recommendation we give you a 1873 classic
Gulamgiri by Jyotirao Phule
Jyotirao Phule was one of the first voices to critique the caste system in India. The book, published in 1873, is written as a 16-part essay with four poetic compositions. The hard-hitting prose is in the form of a dialogue between Jyotiba and a character he calls Dhondiba.

In this book, he explores Brahmanical hegemonies, puts forth the ‘racial theory of caste’, critiques the Vedas and argues that “a superior, foreign race invaded this land, and they became what we know as Brahmins today” and the “lowly, indigenous people who were conquered … became the Shudras”.

Through his book, he points to the rampant discrimination in the social structure that allowed the upper caste Hindus to stamp down the basic rights of poor, lower caste communities.

Let's look back at the last one month of being together on this platform and think about what was the most important learning of them all.

We feel it's just that we're not as open as we think we are. We spend so much of our time telling ourselves that we are open and we understand everyone's problems but the fact of the matter is that we know very little.

We read one article and feel we know everything, one video and we preach our knowledge and we never take the time to tell ourselves that maybe we're lacking in how we perceive things.

That's our biggest flaw when it comes to dealing with casteism. We feel we're above it, beyond it or past it and we don't think that maybe we may be accentuating the issue by acting like we're ignoring it. So on a close, all we want to say is let's talk caste and maybe let's talk about what we don't know about caste.

We as humans tend to deny facts and circumstances that other people face just because we don't deal with them ourselves.
People deny that casteism exists just because they haven't faced it themselves or maybe haven't seen anybody else face it. They don't realize that there is a whole different world of people they don't know nothing about apart from their own little world.
ThePrint in this video talks to all kinds of different people of different ages and walks of life and listen to their viewpoints about reservation and whether casteism is a still prominent in society.
What unfolds is both shocking and sometimes hysterical, from a young man speaking about how people who want reservation are anti national to people saying how 'brahmins are the only community worthy of knowledge'

Caste conundrum : Why do upper castes believe discrimination doesn’t exist? the wake of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent comments about caste and reservation, ThePrint’s Shahbaz Ansar set out to find the truth about the need...

All throughout the past 60 days we have talked about why casteism is so prevalent in this country, how our mentalities are constantly shaping the way we view caste and why it's so tough to get over this issue.

Today, let's talk about something positive. Let's talk about what happens when you actually get out of the cycle of casteism. When someone's caste matters less than their personality.

Think of it like this, You're driving in the rain but without windshield wipers, everyone looks the same to you because you're putting everybody in the same categories and without knowing them you think you know everything.

But, one day you decide that you're going to use your wiper and you suddenly can see the road much clearer. You can see the people in front of you and you can easily differentiate.

What's less anxiety inducing? You have your answer.

What Europeans contributed to the caste system in India
It is known what the word comes from ‘casta’ in Portuguese. But when the Iberians came to Asia and the Americas, they began classifying people by descent.
It is not surprising that when the Iberians came to Asia and the Americas, they promptly began classifying people by descent. Even at the time, Indians did not marry outside a specific set of families, or “caste” defined as a “marriage-pool”. Iberians however promptly decided that this was motivated by a drive to preserve the purity of their “blood”. This was pointed out by the American anthropologist Morton Klass. At the same time, the Spanish and Portuguese also began creating a “sistema de castas”, a caste system in the Spanish Americas.
In the 20th century, with the mounting cultural power of the USA, proponents of this view have increasingly assimilated caste to the Western idea of race. They have also assumed it to be confined to the Hindu segment of the Indian population. This has been a powerful and persistent trope, even though many specialists, such as the veteran sociologist Joseph Elder, have listed seven errors in the popular Western understanding of caste.

One of these was that “Castes are uniquely Hindu”. He wrote that in India, “castes exist among Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Muslims.” Frequently the rules about marrying within one’s caste and avoiding interactions with other castes are as strict among Christians or Jains, for instance. as they are among Hindus. Elder also puts his finger on a key element of its durability. This was that the British colonial regime – the most influential of South Asian empires – deployed it in its legal and political system.
This use of casta to mean any kind of descent group entered other European languages. The Dutch, for example, were by 1640 describing the wives of some sailors as of “Portuguese casta”. It also traveled into English.

Dalit children in many schools are still made to clean washrooms instead of studying, sanitation workers even today continue to mostly belong to occupational caste groups traditionally assigned this task, in many places customary taboos of drinking and eating that discriminate against the untouchables are in practice and there are many instances when because of one’s lower caste a person is discriminated against and neglected from larger cultural opportunities of egalitarian membership.
We use washrooms but avoid having to tidy it, there are assigned workers who collect garbage from our homes each morning that the domestic help hands over, often we treat children on the street, construction workers with disgust and do our best to not allow them to lay their hands on the clothes or things that we are using. We have separate cutlery for people from the margins, we do not share our comfortable sofas, we expect this section to possess uncultivated tastes and be without any fine sensibility. Over the years with our knowledge and cultural capital we begin taking our own weakness for granted. Caste as structured hierarchy is sustained in a context where every day behaviours manifest discrimination and inequality.
The need to undo all oppression’s, differentiation’s and strive for a just and quality society is in sync with the requirement to change our own attitudes and values in everyday associations with other individuals. A change in our orientation will be intrinsic to a transformation of the society. Caste is outside as much as it prevails within.

Cinematic history has never failed to come up with voices for all kinds of cinema history. Indian film history is no exception.

It's rare to find film lovers in India who don't know Shyam Benegel. he's a historically popular Indian director. But here's the thing. It's a lesser known fact that his debut film was based around casteism. It's about the plight of what it means to be from lower castes. The film is known as Ankur and it's our recommendation for this week. Benegal’s debut was only the first glimpse of rebellion against the country’s social evils that dominated his filmography throughout.

Good evening, folks. Today we have for you an activity that can hopefully provide some insight. It's BINGO. We believe that games are a great way to make us change our minds on how we think because it mixes pleasure with information.

This activity is being conducted on our Instagram story. Here's the link for our page : https://www.instagram.com/lets.talk.caste/

Let's participate together and change how we think.

Why are we so uncomfortable when it comes to getting corrected?

There's an idea that we stick to ideas even when they are disproved just because we don't want it to seem like we were wrong. We are steadfast believers just for the sake for it, not because it's actually a hefty fact but because it's a lowly egoistic mentality.

This post is about getting comfortable with being corrected. Rather than responding with a "No, you're wrong." how about we try saying "maybe, you're right."

This has nothing to do with age. Don't think the older you are, the more correct you are. Older iPhones are not more compatible than newer ones.

Knowledge is not a patent for the older. We need to get comfortable learning from the youth. They are the ones on the brink of understanding, they are the fresh minded ones who can see more clearly. Sometimes it's good to just listen and then talk.

A couple of frogs, who seem to have been forced into an arranged marriage to ‘appease the rain gods’ say, “Our love started blooming as soon as the weather changed.” The human couple sitting by the lake nearby as it rains says, “Our love started blooming as soon as we realised we are from the same caste.”
This is a cartoon by Syama Sundar Unnamati which is typical of the incisive commentary at the core of his art. An Ambedkarite cartoonist from Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada whose work mainly revolves around anti-caste themes, Syama Sundar is currently pursuing his PhD from JNU’s School of Arts and Aesthetics.
“Mainstream media often doesn’t reflect issues and concerns of marginalised communities. I want to visually narrate these stories, from feminist issues to atrocities against Dalits,” says 37-year-old Syama Sundar, adding that the cartoon medium allows him to simplify ideas while retaining nuances at the same time.

Casteism is Indian-born but it's not only humans that are being brain drained to the west. Casteism has the same tickets for flights halfway across this world.

Today, we have for you a conversation on exactly this. Casteism in Silicon Valley. Sounds almost like an oxymoron. How can a place known to be on the cutting edge of this world be a hub for such conservative thoughts to exist?

The format? Well, it's the kind of content that is in vogue in the 20's. Podcast. We've provided movies and books and tweets but we can't forget about the number one most popular form of content right now. Casteism is global, it goes where Indians go and it's becoming representative of a culture that is still dealing with blows from this backwardness. We hope you enjoy it.

Here's the link: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915299467/how-to-be-an-anti-casteist