'Prejudice is the child of ignorance' - William Hazlitt
It's been a year since I have arrived in USA. Back in India, I heard a lot about racism in the western countries since childhood (Mahatma Gandhi's train case in South Africa being the very first one). As a kid I used to wonder how mean people could behave........how could they discriminate people based on color. But as I grew up, some facts were even more astonishing........'On a highly humid day, a daily wage worker was working for a household owner. After he completed his work, he asked the owner's kid to fetch some water in order to quench his thirst. When the kid took the jug of water which he uses at his home, his father stopped him immediately and said to never do that. He instead took a separate unused jug of water and gave it to the worker. When the innocent child asked his father why he did so........his father said 'he is of lower caste, never take anything he offers; never give him the things we use'. The kid kept thinking what would be the consequence if he did so, but as a respectful son he just followed his fathers orders.' Ever came across such a situation???.......Well I'm sure most of you would have.......may be not in a similar case but at some point of time you would have come across this 'caste feeling/discrimination'. This caste discrimination has been prevalent for ages.......which I thought would fade away as the people become educated. Of course, education has nothing to do with wisdom but I have aways believed that education would make us a better person atleast in terms of thinking.
I had completed my entire education upto my undergrad at my hometown, so I never had a chance to mingle with people from across the country. When there were riots in the country, I thought may be there are certain sections of people in the society responsible for such in-differences. But, to my horror I have been proved wrong again and again...........Every 2 out of 25 people are in-tolerant to other religions or caste. People come abroad for their higher studies or for a job (which is mostly the case) leaving behind their beloved family and loved ones, but unfortunately do not forget to get the in-human and in-different attitudes along with them. I have heard people around me saying 'He/she belongs to a backward caste, I will never eat what he cooks' or things like 'Lower caste people don't have manners, they look aweful etc'. Gimme a break...........Do all the high caste people behave well-mannered? Are all of them world's most beautiful and elegant people? Are only the upper caste people extra ordinarily talented? An obvious 'NO!' is the answer for all these questions. Then, from where do these differences creep in? It's all in the mind. Never think the other person is inferior to you, coz one day you will surely be at his place. I'm not very learned to comment on or discuss about the classification of the caste system, nor do I know when and where the caste system arose. My only concern is why do people behave so low at times. Don't they realize the supreme fact that we all are humans. Very learned and well settled people too are prejudiced and the saddest part is that they feel very proud about it. In my perspective, they are inferior to others and their category may not be 'lower caste' but will surely be 'lower n in-human minds'. If at all discrimination should exist in this world it should be based on the thinking and ethical values of such people.
And finally, this caste and religious intolerant section of the society dare not talk about the racism issue. What's wrong in discriminating people based on color when people belonging to the same country, same state, same region and same religion are in-different to each other based on castes??? I'm sure they would not have an answer for this. I just keep praying to GOD each day that all these differences on this earth fade away and such people should and will definitely realize and feel the pain they have caused to others.
