FC,BC,MBC,OBC,SC,ST - it is funny to observe that our identity is finally reduced to a mere two or three letters. Courage, Intelligence, Hard Work,Bravery, Goodness, Skill, Excellence, Merit and all virtues can go to hell. It is painful to see fourth and fifth graders discussing about which categories they fall under to weigh their opportunities to life. India is the only country in the whole world where people fight to be backward ! All this in a so called secular and democratic country where every man should be treated equally. How would a 7 year old respect a country and its policies if you say India is a secular country in the history/civics classes and implement reservation right from admissions to LKG till retirement benefits. Why are we driving more and more of qualified people to the developed nations ? Why are we fighting to be a country of mediocres ? Some analysis on the caste system which is the basis of all reservation.
To start with, why was the caste system created and what was the basis for the categorization ?
"A caste system is one in which a caste's community occupations, traditions, social & multicultural heritage are maintained and respected, in a given society"
The fundamental idea of creating a caste many many years ago was to form homogeneous groups primarily based on occupation.
Let me give an example to make things clearer: Naidu is one of the popular castes in the southern states; population under this caste is estimated to be around 60 to 70 million. There are many subcastes under Naidu which range from FCs to OBCs to SCs.
Source of Naidu: Medieval Andhra dynasties like the Vishnukundins and Chalukyas conferred the title Nayaka/Nayakudu to a commander or a leader of a band of soldiers/village or lineage headman/ warriors/ army commanders etc - fundamentally all titles leading to the job description of a team leader or project leader of what we call them in the corporate world. So basically all Naidus - Balija, Boyar caste, Gavara, Kalingi, Kamma, Kapu, Mudiraju, Reddy, Telaga, Uppiliya and Velama.(TN,AP,Karnataka and Kerala), Naiks(Maharashtra,Orissa and northern states), Nayakars(TN),Nairs (Kerala),Naiko, Naickers - all of these castes stemmed out from one homogenous source - the "team or project leader" !! How many of these castes continue to do their TL/PL functions in their current lives?? Will the categories which were created centuries ago still apply?? No Nah Nope. We boast of being rational at every instance, see how foolish we are! Trying to follow some code which is no longer useful or valid, it is like using the punched card technology in the wifi world!
I bet all these caste fanatics will not even know the history/background of their caste without reading the Wikipedia!
Each category finally rolls up to the core of the profession which forms the crux of the caste. What started as 4 many centuries ago has become 400,000 now not because of reason but due to pure convenience and vote bank politics based on differentiation.
What’s the solution ? Mathematically the reverse of differentiation is integration. Since we know that the fundamental idea of all Nairs, Naidus, Nayakars is the same, the first step can be to integrate all the sub castes and castes with description matching to "TL/PL" to one and giving it some name. Let us say "Nair Naidukkar", we can add more letters to satisfy all the constituent castes. If this is made mandatory by the government and even if everyone becomes BC or OBC in "Nair Naidukkar", we will still be successful since some 40 sub categories would have been erased from the records.Junta will have no other option but to integrate if the Government mandates that all these subcastes will be invalid with a deadline.
Future phases would be to slowly integrate sub castes with homogeneous factors and there would be some day when there are 5 to 6 major categories only. And these 5 to 6 would be mostly based on FC,BC,OBC,SC and ST. What an achievement - there will be no caste system! Just reserved categories and that is good because it would be a stepping stone for unity at least at a larger scale. Add economics, income levels to these categories, even reservation can be removed from the system eventually.
Only sad thing is that it should be initiated and implemented only by the government which is a distant dream! But since a thought is the seed for a destiny, I sow the seed today for a "Caste Away" India tomorrow. Jai Hind! Close
Thanks Usha.
I think only time will resolve this issue. If there is a reservation of 69% in a system, after a period of 10 to 20 years, the demand for intelligent professionals would be so high that the society cannot survive with mediocre minds. May be there would be a hue and cries to cut down reservation then !
One thing Ive understood about India is that the choice is never between stability and chaos but tolerable and intolerable chaos ! truly democratic!
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That was very well written UGAIN DE. The Governments & the So-Called-Social Leaders have reduced the country to this pathetic state...Brain - drain is naturally the outcome. All the caste consciousness is also created by these Political leaders. But I do have hope that things will change. let's see !
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R K Das,
Brilliant point of view and reasoning. Every rule in this world, I think , would eventually have the roots in some convenience for a smaller group.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts.
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Shobs,
Very true, leave it to the younger generation - why caste, even religion will become history. Old sticks stuck in the mud will never let it happen. I was surprised to see that caste and religion are mandatory fields in marriage register certificate in India !
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Nice suggestion. Weird thing is caste was a social structure - never political. And now you see it crashing all around you in society with inter-caste marriages. (Practically every family has one).So left to itself it will die a slow death. But our politicains will not let that happen will they?? The least the government can do is to at least declare these couples and their children as casteless - just plain Indians.
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Purefriendship,
Thank you sir, for the visit and the generous flow of thoughts. Ive heard that as homo sapiens we should strive to make future generations lead a better life than what we lead today, unfortunately we push ourselves so hard to make it impossible !!
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My dear UG,
Almost all our citizens who are educated, matured and practical minded persons do think on those terms and wonder about the future of Indian higher educations, of course it is beyond reach for common, poor, downdrodden people irrespective of caste due to so much higher fee structures, restricitons in admissions etc.,
Pity that the yester years of decade back excesses by a few dominated religious leaders who advocated the superior caste, inferior caste policies , to day we suffer.
Those oppertunist political leaders and religious fanatics too had the oppertunity to exploit it furthur to divide people ( Courtesy our British who ruled us) and spread hatred among communities.
Vote bank politricks played its havoc and victims are those poor meritorious students of middle & lower income groups.
Those rich and elite knows how to corner the Quoto regime or send their wards to overseas universities and institutions.
Even many of our politicians timed their future generations to be the citizens of greener countries by sending the parents to overseas and deliver their babies there, thereby claim green card citizenships.
Since the modern facilities and infrastructers are so much devoloped and many of the citizens irrespective of their religious faiths performing various professions.
Earlier we had business community, priests, warriors, and other professions by caste based categories, where as now every one look for survival in this competitve race and ready to take up any job.
All this ends up in getting admissions for higher studies scarce and reservation policies played their part.
What left out is educations for caste based policies forfeiting merits and what not.
Imagine a profession without much expertaize and specializations and how it can deliver the goods to the satisfaction of Quality and merit.
Let the people decide to uplift their wards to study well and score higher by proper tutoring and not by spoonfeeding reservations.
Never ever deprive of any students by caste and spoil his chances of higher educations.
We can be proud only if we have the quality and maturity and let there be no bias among society.
Subbu
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Y,
Thanks for the encouragement ! God bless Wikipedia !
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Sad state of affairs - the current reservation system. You put it rightly - i dont know why our country is striving to be mediocre. I am glad we are done with the "education" part of life lest we need not go through this nonsense. These 'reservations' are created to cater to one's own selfish needs. Someday it will backfire - lets hope it then makes a difference!
Good research on the origination and purpose of the caste system.
Good blog with a creative and wishful thought in the end. Way to go
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