Director Anubhav Sinha’s recently released film Article 15 just made me rethink and rewrite on the existing caste system in the country. I am basically from a small town in a remote part of the country but due to my extremely supportive family I could come and dwell in a city. Hence, I have been away from such ugly truths of our society.
Urban India is still more receptive to the concept of discussing caste as compared to our rural counterparts; probable reasons could be different geography or a cosmopolitan population or a fast life (you know you have more important things to do to survive than worry about your caste).
When we read of Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, it says there should be no discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex place of birth or any of them. I find it the most ambitious law in the Indian Constitution.We have discrimination embedded in our country, it is omnipresent. We discriminate inter-caste and intra-caste, on the basis of religion, gender, skin color, profession – the list is unending. Leave others, women are always questioned on their single hood and choice of profession. I have never seen a guy being asked these irrelevant questions.
Although many of us refer to our Vedas and Shastras while discussing caste, I feel we misunderstand it completely! We hardly look for important things in the same scriptures. Why don’t we read the Bhagwad Gita and understand the value of strategic thinking, instead of the inherent godliness? We conveniently skip the part of the Vedas which will expose us to the futility of materialism.
I am really proud of being an Indian and of our rich heritage but I am ashamed of the misconstrued information our ancestors derived and produced in front of us.
The film Article 15 is a fair chance for us to accept that the caste system is still rampant in the country. Our politicians would never speak against it because it helps them fetch votes. The onus is on us millennials to take baby steps towards a caste free India. We might not be able to fix all forms of discrimination right now, but let’s start with this one.