The So called Educated Mass of India

A lady wearing an ultra-modern dress, sipping wine from her glass is making nonchalant conversations with her companions seating with her in a classy pub located in a posh area of Bangalore. The waiter comes with their main courses and serves one by one. Her dish had not come yet and she comments “Oh, my God, I am treated like a SC/ST, he will serve me later”.  My eyes popped out literally, it seems we live with funky gadgets in this techno savvy Modern India but our thoughts are still from Medieval Indian Society.  

I work with a private corporate IT giant of India. Once we were planning in office to go for recruitment of fresh graduates to some college. One of our HR Managers calls me one day and asks if I was available that week to go out to that college for technical interviews. When I said I was busy but could go out the next week, he tells me, “We need to hurry up, and go this week itself, otherwise, only SC/ST candidates will remain”. WHAT? I was in total shock.

We stay in an apartment where all so called educated people stay. Most of us claim of high degrees, so called double-triple post-graduations. It’s impressive, isn't it? I got acquainted with a gentleman and his wife, who were equally very impressive with their higher degrees. So, first day we meet, I politely ask them which part of India they belong to, he tells me, “We are from so and so part of India and we are BRAHMANS”. I could not understand whether he wanted me to touch his feet and pray his praises? Being born into an upper caste, these educated Indians still think themselves as privileged.

Well, I can’t forget what used to happen in my premium college, one of the best deemed Universities of India, where I had done my post-graduation in Engineering (Yes, pun intended). In a hush-hush manner, some student will point out to another student and say, “Do you know he/she is from the reserved category”? As if the other person is some criminal. Please wake up modern India, our batch’s gold medalist was from a lower caste and he is now an I.E.S officer.  And please, don’t even try to tell me that he got the gold medal because of his reservation rather than merit.

In the corporate, hi-tech world of ours, people may not practice discrimination and would show total disgrace to untouchability still prevailing in some parts of rural India. But still the talks or mannerism show their total disrespect of humanity. For example, they will make funny comments when someone is sitting alone in a canteen table away from a group like “Achhooton ki tarah kyu baithe ho (Why are you sitting like an untouchable)”?  One of my colleagues used to like a guy in office. It was obvious the guy was also interested in her. I asked her once if she wanted his number, I could arrange it for her. Her reply was equally nerve-racking for me, because she replied, “what’s the use; anyways my parents will kill me if I marry a person from lower caste”. How do you even talk of a caste less Indian society when you cannot marry your kid to a lower caste person or when you have become so arrogant with your caste identity? It is so disgusting that you would rather kill your own child than marrying him/her to a person of lower caste.

I had the false notion of how education transforms lives. Yes, it definitely has opened up paths and created opportunities for many, allowing people to rise above the circumstances of their birth and background. But still educated mass of India likes to live with their so-called privileged upper caste titles. As India transforms, one might expect caste to dissolve and disappear, but that is not happening.  Instead, caste makes its presence felt vibrantly alive when it comes to two significant societal markers — marriage and politics.

Discrimination based on caste has been illegal in India for more than six decades. But still it shows its colors in a hush-hush manner. And, the irony is that we call ourselves a secular and free country.