Chandalika & the Caste Drama
Chandalika is a dance drama written by Rabindranath Tagore back in 1933. I was watching it on TV last night and found that it is perhaps as relevant now as it was in 1933.
It's a story of a girl named Prakriti, who is ostracized by the society and lives on its edges. She does not understand the consequences of her birth into a family which is regarded as 'untouchable'. She watches wistfully from the shadows as the world passes her by as even her shadow was inauspicious, the sweet meat vendor, the bangle seller and the flower girls all shunned her existence. One day a Buddhist monk appeared and asked her for some water to quench his thirst, he brushed aside her hesitance and said God made all men equal and her origins were inconsequential and proceeded to drink water offered by her.
The 'caste system' sometimes rears its ugly head during matrimonial alliances but otherwise it’s quite forgotten - at least in urban India. Now with the fresh wave of proposed reservations in education institutions like IIT and IIM, we are reminded again of the antiquated concept of 'castes' and discrimination on the basis of religion.
Now if we extrapolated the Chandalika situation to education and reservation, things are quite simple. Education is the 'water' to be given to one and all irrespective of his or her origins. Unfortunately, money and not caste or religion, is a limiting factor. Some students may be brilliant (no matter what caste or religion they belong to) but have limited financial resources to consume premium education. If reservations are necessary then they should be modeled in a different way which helps such students to gain education on basis of merit.
Obviously the creators of such preposterous plans are some dim witted politicians and political parties who have their own agendas to pursue and think that there are even dim(mer) witted people out there who'll just accept their diktat as manna from heaven. Before India can truly compete at a global level we still have many such seemingly ridiculous problems to solve at the grass roots.
It's a story of a girl named Prakriti, who is ostracized by the society and lives on its edges. She does not understand the consequences of her birth into a family which is regarded as 'untouchable'. She watches wistfully from the shadows as the world passes her by as even her shadow was inauspicious, the sweet meat vendor, the bangle seller and the flower girls all shunned her existence. One day a Buddhist monk appeared and asked her for some water to quench his thirst, he brushed aside her hesitance and said God made all men equal and her origins were inconsequential and proceeded to drink water offered by her.
The 'caste system' sometimes rears its ugly head during matrimonial alliances but otherwise it’s quite forgotten - at least in urban India. Now with the fresh wave of proposed reservations in education institutions like IIT and IIM, we are reminded again of the antiquated concept of 'castes' and discrimination on the basis of religion.
Now if we extrapolated the Chandalika situation to education and reservation, things are quite simple. Education is the 'water' to be given to one and all irrespective of his or her origins. Unfortunately, money and not caste or religion, is a limiting factor. Some students may be brilliant (no matter what caste or religion they belong to) but have limited financial resources to consume premium education. If reservations are necessary then they should be modeled in a different way which helps such students to gain education on basis of merit.
Obviously the creators of such preposterous plans are some dim witted politicians and political parties who have their own agendas to pursue and think that there are even dim(mer) witted people out there who'll just accept their diktat as manna from heaven. Before India can truly compete at a global level we still have many such seemingly ridiculous problems to solve at the grass roots.
Comments
btw, here are my views on the reservation debate
@ichatteralot : Sorry for being away these days...I was just pretending to be working and not being on the bench ;-)
@TCP: Even I take advantage of the 'ladies seat' when I am tired so I dont think thats gonna happen soon...
@Achtlandia: Maybe we watched the same show as this post is kinda inspired by the story! I know - its hackneyed but could not resist a pot shot!
@Albatross: Welcome back, as long as you are pretending - its fine. I am tired of pretending now!
But I dont totally subscribe to the view that Quotas will harm India's growth... The economy is too capitalistic and meritocritic.... it will balance itself.... but the achivers who will miss the bus due to this will b the only losers
They with their years of corruption have failed to provide basic primary education or uplift standards of them to the rural population. This is their way of appeasement else their 'kursi' will be in danger. We see a rise in people demanding basic needs now and the politicians know how to save themselves. 'Survival of the Slyest'.
The quotas has to be rejected by us, by showing that doing this will cause trouble to the kursi of all politicians. Have a 100% electorate on voting day in all cities against it and reject that preposterous idea. It will not be rejected by the ones benefitting. Human nature is to be selfish.
As Rajiv Gandhi said during the Mandal Commission report proceedings to VP Singh in the parliament. "You are going to divide my country, I will not allow that".
@TCP: I dont believe IIT is Evian Mineral Water. ANd it may so happen that I am the only person saying that in the entire country. But let me reason it out. I believe, IIT should be the quality of water as everyone has it. What invention in its 60 years of history has it done? - None - Give me a pathbreaking scientific breakthrough acheived by a premier institute know world over. - None -
It may have given rise to Vinod Khosla etc .. but aint they good managers. A technical insitute is for progress of science.A managerial institute is for developing leaders. Think about it.
Compare IIT to an undergrad program in MIT and you will come to know, it is the water which should be the standard. It is not Evian Water.
@chatterbai : I finally managed to put down something today...hope to keep it up regularly now on :)
@Kausum: Agree on all points. Hopefully, politics in India will take a new turn with IIT-ians forming a party. We need more educated and sane people.
@Albatross: Good - keep writing!
@Rishabh: Agree and agree. Hope the fresh wave of reservations will not be implemented
@Sue: Omigosh! But yes down south caste is a big thing. If you notice, in udipi joints the ppl who serve are brahmins and ppl who clear away are from lower castes.