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 3rd to 2nd 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.
