Big Brother, racism, self-righteousness and selective amnesia...

It was very amusing to watch the ruckus around the treatment of Shilpa Shetty in the TV reality show Celebrity Big Brother. Even more amusing is the reaction in India. I really wonder what would it be like to have a 'Big Brother' show in India (we have the desi-versions of so many foreign programs, anyway!) where you put people from different religions, regions and castes together - that would be real fun indeed! I am particularly keen to see so many pet-prejudices come to the fore...language-based, caste-based...etc.
Just as overt racism has long disappeared in the UK mainstream society, caste-based discrimination too has supposedly disappeared from Indian society. Just as everyone would like to show that racism has no place in modern society, so too in India, folks would pretend that caste-based discrimination doesn't exist and has no place - and this is true, to a large extent, at least in urban areas. But make no mistake - caste-affinity (to one's one caste) and caste-based discrimination in admissions to higher learning institutions, job selection, promotions, etc. are all quite prevalent, though not so overtly. Even when someone reaches a position based on his credentials, if his peers come to know that he is from a lower caste, there is likely to be some meaningful glances exchanged and some behind-the-back comments passed around...I have seen indirect comments directed against the former President of India, K.R. Narayanan being a neo-Buddhist (I have no idea where that term originated - obviously from upper caste Hindu society). The comment was made by a senior professor/researcher at a review meeting (before the meeting commenced, of course) in New Delhi at one of the ministries that funds various research grants. It was shocking to see the extent of prejudice, and more importantly, the assumption that everyone present in that room must be from an upper caste, and that everyone would share similar prejudices...But there is one major difference between racism and casteism, though...No one in their right minds would attempt to justify racism today, but on the contrary, you would find lots of so-called 'educated Hindus' trying to paint 'caste system' as just a well-intentioned social phenomenon that somehow went wrong and somehow got mixed up with the Hindu religion. It's true - Hindu religion is too big for anyone to be able to define it. However, those who would like to link mainstream Hinduism with the so-called Vedic tradition, are in effect justifying the caste system.

I thought I was the only one to make this connection - between the uproar over racism charges and the glossing over of caste-based discrimination. It turns out there are some who have thought about it as well - I came across a couple of letters to 'The Hindu' newspaper. Obviously upper caste folks reading this blog would think I must be crazy to talk about casteism as a form of racism...as they would obviously like to take a more 'enlightened' view of the whole caste system - that in ancient days it allowed for the smooth functioning of the society with division of labour among different groups... yeah, right, that would be fine as long as you didn't have to clean your own toilet, let alone other people's toilets...(I want to write more on this later - so check back again).