I belong to the majestic mountains of North India that are famous all over the world as the mighty Himalayas. People from far-flung places come to witness the colossal hills of Himachal Pradesh.
These snow-capped and picturesque mountains are known for many things. Casteism or caste discrimination is not one of them.
Yet something similar happened to me when I was about 10 years old. Our family was visiting a village for a relative’s marriage. Being from Solan, a comparatively modern town of Southern Himachal, my cousins and I were planning on enjoying every delicacy -culinary or otherwise- of a village wedding. So, we didn’t find it odd when the people distributing the food threw it from well above our plates.
Not being from the area, I thought it must be a local ritual. My elder brother told me the reality; even without knowing my name, I was being discriminated against due to my caste. The people distributing the food were throwing the food from a distance so as not to touch us by mistake lest they become dirty and polluted like us. Being a child, I didn’t understand it, but I knew it was wrong. I still remember I didn’t eat anything that day, perhaps in shock from being introduced to a concept so vile for which I haven’t found an equal to date.
A child doesn’t know what discrimination means, what belonging to a lower or higher caste entails, or what caste is, for that matter. Encountering a social evil like casteism at such a young age is like watching a dream, isn’t it? You don’t know what happened, but you know it was something bad.
Caste Works Through Us, Even When We Don’t See It.
Caste is neither a human nor is it an animal or a bird for that matter. Caste is not the name of an old shrewd sitting in a dark room calling everybody up and forcing them to create hierarchies amongst humans who were born equal.
The infamous caste system entails social and personal discrimination on the basis of a set of castes that originally used to attribute to a person’s occupation but slowly grew out to be much more heinous. For hundreds of years, the people belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) have been treated as impure and not worthy of holding a respectable position in society. These SC people are called untouchables by the general or so-called higher castes because it is believed that if someone touches them, he, too, will become untouchable.
I have often heard many of my friends from the metropolitan cities dismiss casteism with a laugh.
“The times have changed.”
“It doesn’t exist now.”
“Maybe in the villages of Himachal but that too for quite fewer people.”
The saddest part is that they believe these uninformed statements. It, however, takes only one question to break their little bubble.
“Have inter-caste marriages started happening in India?”
The Dark Face of Himachal
Any news channel you put on is full of stories of snowfall and tourists flocking to Himachal in search of everything from a bit of cold air to nirvana. A handful of times, places like Himachal are mentioned by mainstream media when the summer is at its peak or during the winters when throngs of sunburnt tourists run towards the hills to witness the snow-covered peaks in all their glory.
Whether it is ignorance or a deliberate attempt of the mainstream media to hide this dark face of Himachal, I’m here to tell you that you are not being told the entire story.
The discrimination of people based on some randomly made-up caste and tribe hierarchies exists to this date in our state. Whether it’s casual discrimination in the workplace, not being allowed to fetch water from a well belonging to other castes or not being allowed entry inside temples made by high caste individuals, caste pervades all aspects of our society.
The ex-CM and late Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh was from the royal bloodline and the undisputed king in the state. Yet no person belonging to a Scheduled Caste was allowed to touch him for fear of becoming untouchable. So, SC people touched the tyres of his car as a gesture of touching his feet.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. These stories may seem mythical or from a long-forgotten past to you, but they are as real for us as our resolute mountains.
Even today, Scheduled Castes cannot buy land in places like Kinnaur, Chamba, and yes, Manali because we are not considered worthy by the high classes to own their lands. My mother, who has worked more than thirty years as a government servant to earn many accolades and promotions, is still treated as non-deserving by her colleagues.
After all, an SC man or woman can only reach a high position in society because of the supposed minority status helping them. For the high castes, it is because they have worked hard for it.
Caste is All Around Us
In psychology, we call this ‘internal bias’. You know it by the name casteism. Discriminating on a person on the basis of trivial things such as the family they were born in or the work their ancestors used to do is despicable. But being so unaware and ignorant as to practice caste discrimination and then claim it doesn’t exist is pure evil. Thinking the caste system is a thing of the past is just privileged when you demand a Shuddh Brahman Girl or Boy when handing out advertisements for marriage.
I visited the famous Markandeya temple of Himachal sometime back. Being a computer engineer and an MBA from one of the best business schools in India, I developed a confidence that feigned arrogance. But I was quickly given a reality check when I read what was written on the gate of the temple. In black ink, like my ancestors’ fate, it read, “Shudras are not allowed inside the temple.”
I could see Lord Shiva smiling from inside the temple, for he, too, had once been ostracized by the society. Yet here we were. Standing on two sides of a wall. A wall built by people who pretended not to know why it had been built and would go on to claim that it wasn’t even there. But in our country and even outside, this wall exists, and we so-called lower castes or pariahs of the society will continue to bang our heads on it until it falls under our sheer willpower.