Yaksha asked Yudhishtira, “Who is a Brahman? One who studies the Vedas, or one who is born a Brahman?

Yudhishtira answered, “Neither. The true Brahmana is he whose life is pure.”

The Mahabharata

In a society, discrimination is treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor or against, a person based on the group, class or category to which the person is perceived to belong rather than on individual attributes. An individual need not be actually harmed in order to be discriminated against. They need to be treated worse than others for some arbitrary reason. Some form of discriminatory practices and laws exist in every part of the world –developed or developing, rich or poor.

United Nations Resolutions against Discrimination

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This document was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948. It states that: ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national and social origin, property, birth or other status.”

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Described as an international bill of rights for women, it was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, and came into force on September 1981.

The Convention on the Rights of Person with Disability

This text was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, and came into force in May 2008. Parties to the convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy equality under the law.

India is a party to all the above resolutions.

Types of Discrimination

Age

Ageism or age discrimination is based on a person’s age. Ageism is most often directed towards old people or adolescents and children. For example-not hiring them or paying them less.

Disability

Discrimination against disable persons is common all over the world: in private and public services, education, and employment.

Nationality

Discrimination based on nationality is common in many countries. In Gulf States, for instance, citizenship is not given to foreign nationals working in these countries.

Ethnicity (Race)

There is no biological basis for race. Race is a cultural construction. The appropriate word is ethnicity.Ethnic discrimination is common in many parts of the world. It has or had been official government policy in several countries such as South Africa (apartheid) to discriminate against colored people, against Indians and Chinese in Malaysia, against Blacks and the Native Americans in the United States and South American countries, against Aborigines in Australia, against Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, Africans and people of Caribbean’s in United Kingdom, against Algerians and Moroccans In France, and against Turkish people in Germany etc.

Religious Beliefs

Discrimination against an individual because of her /his religious belief is common all over the world: Christian’s vs Jews and Muslims, Muslims vs Jews, Hindus vs Muslims, Muslims vs Hindus (Pakistan and Bangladesh), Buddhists vs Hindus (Sri Lanka), Buddhists vs Muslims (Myanmar). One of the worst cases of religious discrimination and killing was at the time of India-Pakistan partition. Millions of people (Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs) were murdered because of their religious affiliation.

Sex and Gender Identities

Women are discriminated in one form or the other all over the world. The United Nations has concluded that women often experience a ‘glass ceiling’ and that there are no societies in which women enjoy the same opportunities as men.

Homosexuals, lesbians and transgender individuals face all kind of discrimination all over the world. In 2011, The United Nations passed its first resolution recognizing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights.

Caste Discrimination in India

According to UNICEF and Human Rights Watch, caste discrimination affects an estimated 250 million people worldwide. While identified with India and Hinduism, caste system are found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Japan and some African countries. Caste discrimination is found among Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims in Indian subcontinent.

The term caste is derived from Portuguese “casta” meaning “race, lineage, and breed”. But the caste system in India has its origin in ancient India. It has been transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and especially the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. It consists of two different concepts, Varna and Jati. Varna literally means olden caste system. Ancient Indian texts describe four classes: the Brahmins (priestly people), the Kshatriyas (rulers, warriors) the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, farmers), and Shudras. The Varna categorization had a fifth element, being outside the four groups-such as the tribal, people and the untouchable.

Jati, meaning birth is mentioned much less often in ancient Indian texts, where it is distinguished from varna. There are four varnas but thousands of jatis. Jatis have existed in India among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Tribal people.

Untouchable and the Varna System

The varna originated in the Vedic society (1500-500 BCE).  However the Vedic texts neither mention the concept of untouchable people nor the practice of untouchability. The rituals in the Vedas ask the noble or king to eat with the commoner from the same utensil. The post Vedic texts, particularly Manusmriti (Law of Manu 3^rd to 2^nd century BCE) mentioned outcastes and suggests that they be ostracized. Dr B.R Ambedkar, the main writer of the Indian Constitution held that Manusmriti was responsible for the caste system in India.

There are at least two prospective for the origins of the caste system in ancient and medieval India. The first school holds that Indian caste system is rooted in the four varnas. This school justifies its theory primarily by citing Manusmriti and disregards economic, political and historical evidence. The second school of thought focuses on socio-economic, political and history of India (Wikipedia.org/caste).

Caste System Since Independence

India’s founding fathers of Independence, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar and others thought it necessary to make caste discrimination unconstitutional and illegal. Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits discrimination based on caste. Article 17, declares the practice of untouchability illegal. They also put in a reservation system (quota system) in the Indian Constitution for people classified as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Based on Mandal Commission’s recommendation (1990) Government of India has reserved additional 27% of the central jobs for Socially and Educationally Backwards Classes (SEBCs) in addition to 22.5% set aside  earlier for Dalits and Tribals.

Have all the reservations and quotas systems benefited the lower class and the Tribals ? The answer is “yes’ and “no”. The economic reforms since 1990 have reduced poverty and increased per capita income for all segment of Indian society. A 2011 survey by Aiyar found that among Dalits, television ownership was  up from zero to 45 percent; cell phone ownership up from zero to 36 percent; children eating yesterday leftover down from 96 percent to 16 percent…. Dalits running their own businesses up from 6 percent to 37 percent; and proportion working as agricultural labourers down from 46 percent to 20 percent. Experts believe that India’s overall economic growth has benefited the lower castes more than the reservation system. A 2010 study of 16 of India’s biggest state by Aimee Chin showed that political reservation system has led to small drop in poverty among the ‘Scheduled Tribes’ but made no difference at all for the ‘Scheduled Castes’. Other experts also believe that further advancement are likely to come from better schools in rural and urban areas and better overall economic growth.

70 years after independence and 67 years after the adoption of the Indian Constitution (Article 15 and 17) caste –based discriminations continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment and general social interaction in India. It is a real shame. The International Human Rights Watch calls it ‘India’s hidden apartheid” (Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa by the white minority against the colored people from 1948-1991). The discrimination in India against the Dalits may not be that bad but it is close enough. The past and present generations of Indians have made progress but failed to eradicate it. Hopefully the younger generation of Indians will succeed soon where their forefathers have failed. If India wants to be a member of the world community it cannot afford to wait few more centuries to eliminate this shameful legacy.

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.

-Aesop (620-564BCE)

The best portion of a good man’s life,

His little, nameless, unremembered acts

Of kindness and love.

-William Wordsworth

Kindness is an ethical virtue, and recognized as a value in many cultures and most religions. Aristotle (384-322 BC) defines it as being “helpfulness towards someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped”.

Kindness, love, altruism, caring, generosity, and compassion, are considered “pro-social” behaviors. These behaviors are carried out to benefit another without anticipation of rewards from outside sources. Most experts believe that “real kindness” changes people in the doing of it, often in unpredictable ways.

The Christian apostle Paul lists kindness as one of the nine traits considered to be the ‘fruit of the spirit”.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”    -Galatians 5:22

The Tirukkural (4^th to 2^nd century BC) Indian-Tamil works dedicates a separate chapter on kindness, along with hospitality, compassion, non-violence, non-killing, and vegetarianism. The Tirukkural is considered one of the greatest non-religious, secular works ever written on ethics and morality. It has been translated into more than 80 languages.

“Call them Brahmins who are virtuous

And kind to all that live”.

The Tirukkural

Dacher Keltner, Director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory and author of the book “Born to Be Good” (2017) writes that mammalian and hominid (all great apes including humans), have evolved the tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence, and self-sacrifice. He believes that these traits are vital to the tasks of evolution-survival, gene replication and the smooth functioning of the group (Scientific American, January, 2017).

Scientists have discovered that doing good promotes the feeling of good and the feeling of good makes us want to do more good. When we feel good about ourselves, we are more likely to reach out and help others. When we do good, we feel better emotionally and physically, as well. Research shows that there is a connection between loving, kind, and compassionate action and one’s physical and emotional well-being. Kindness heals. It heals the mind, the body and the spirit. The American author Ralph Waldo Emmerson summed this up: “It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself”.

I am over seventy now. I have had some life experiences. I have read the works of philosophers from Epicurus to Bertrand Russell.  I am familiar with the teachings of all the major religions of the world. I have read most of their scriptures, including the Vedas (some of them), the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, the Analects, the Old and the New Testaments and the Koran. If we compare all the world’s major religions, it is clear that they vary in certain ways. They differ, for instance, in traditions, rituals, belief in after life, reincarnation, heaven and hell etc.  At the same time, there are aspects of religions which are strikingly similar: ethics and morality. One example is the Golden Rule:

Deal with others as you would be dealt with.

                                                                              The Mahabharata

What I do not want others to do to me; I do not want to do to them.

                                                                           The Analects (Confucius)

You shall treat your neighbor as yourself.

                                                                             The Old Testaments

Treat others the way you would have them treat you; this sumps up the law and the prophets.

                                                                                                                                           The New Testaments

In my view it is not that important whether one believes in a religion or not. But one should lead an ethical life. To be kind to all is the best among all the ethical behaviors.

The English writer, humanist, philosopher Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) said towards the end of his life: “It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with human problems all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than try to be a little kinder.”

In the end probably is this simple and this difficult; kindness is the greatest thing we can offer to those around us and to ourselves.

Please be kind to all and be good !