By Justice Markandey Kaju–
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
These days, laws against caste discrimination are being made or are in the process of being made in some American states. Read here here here and here.
I submit that such laws are largely gimmicks. Caste and caste discrimination can only be ended by changing the mindsets of most Indians, and this requires a mighty historical social revolution in India.
The truth is that most Indians who migrate to the West carry their caste baggage with them. To give an example, in the US there is an organization called TANA (Telugu Association of North America) consisting mainly of people from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, belonging to Kamma caste.
There is another organization called NATA (North American Telugu Association) consisting mainly of the Reddy caste. There is even an association of Komatis (Vaishyas of Andhra) and a Telugu Brahmins Association in the US.
There is a Brahmin Samaj of North America, and other caste organisations.
I was informed by a friend who lives in Fremont, California, that some time back a cricket match was played in Fremont between a team of Reddys and a team of Kammas (both are castes in Andhra Pradesh), which was abandoned midway as a result of a physical fight between members of the two teams.
I was shocked hearing this. How could casteist teams be formed in California, and how could a fight take place between them?
This shows how deeprooted casteism is in India and among Indians abroad. People who travel 13,500 km can still not leave behind their caste baggage, despite migrating to a highly-developed country.
Can socioeconomic evils can be abolished simply by making laws against them? They cannot, and it is silly and puerile to think they can.
Supposing a law is made abolishing poverty and unemployment (which too result in social discrimination, as caste does). Will that abolish them? No, such a law will remain on paper only, and unimplementable. Jobs are created and poverty abolished when the economy is rapidly expanding, that is, by rapid industrialization, but the Indian economy is presently stagnant.
Similarly, caste and caste discrimination cannot be abolished by merely making a law against them. They can only be destroyed by a mighty united people’s revolution which destroys the present semi-feudal society in India and replaces it with a new modern society led by modern-minded patriotic leaders.
In the Indian Constitution, it is written that India is a secular country. However, the ground reality is different. In fact, India is a very communal country, in which most Hindus are communal, as are most Muslims. So, the Constitution is just a piece of paper, whose provisions may have nothing to do with ground realities.
Similarly, Articles 14 to 18 of the Indian Constitution proclaim equality in India. But the caste system, which has been around for centuries, makes a mockery of these provisions.
When I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court, a High Court Judge who was a Dalit came to meet me with his wife. His wife was an upper caste Hindu, and she told my wife that she had a love marriage with that Dalit Judge. But when they married, her relatives performed her funeral rites, saying she was dead for them, and thereafter had nothing to do with her.
Even today, for a Dalit boy to fall in love with or marry a non-Dalit girl is often inviting a death sentence (‘honor killing’, as it is called).
Dalits are regularly discriminated, assaulted, and insulted in India in several ways even today.
Great social evils cannot be destroyed by merely making laws against them, but by historical social upheavals of the people.
