Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
There is a general impression among many that the best way to escape social prejudices of the villages, especially from the stigma of caste by the lower castes is their escape to urban centers.
But prejudices in urban
There are several related issues. One is the role of the government itself. Many cities have slum clearance boards. These are built with a lot of public money and the officials enjoy a lot of clout. But the buildings they have been constructing for rehabilitating the slum-dwellers are a clear reflection of the mindsets of the officials as to who should be living in these dungeons, namely the socially weakest of the weak; and they are mostly from lower castes, especially Dalits.
Once these buildings are constructed and handed over, they remain neglected, and anyone can rightly ask whatever is the role of the slum clearance boards – whether clearing the slums and/or rehabilitating the slum-dwellers.
It is like another callous and senseless act of abolition of scavenging, which has often meant doing away with scavengers. These scavengers are again the disposable Dalits. In the government quarters for different category of officials there is a clear hierarchy, with built-in prejudices. The traditional caste-based social hierarchy is still reflected in the spatial hierarchies in cities.
When it comes to those who can afford to buy flats on their own, the role of real estate, realtors, or builders is extremely anti-social. More often than not, they identify the caste and religious background of the potential buyers, and since most of the builders belong to the upper castes they prefer selling to buyers from upper castes.
Turning to the flat owners, in Chennai, where I live in my own flat, there is concentration of Brahmins in all the posh and important areas of the city. If they are a majority in an apartment complex, they dominate the rest. If they are a minority, they adjust to the rest!
Turning to the plight of the tenants, a Brahmin flat owner mostly prefers a Brahmin or if not, other upper-caste vegetarians. In upper-castes owned flats it is often difficult to find place for the lower castes, particularly Dalits and for members of other religions, especially Islam.
As founder-secretary of a registered flat owners’ association, for about six years, I tried to bring in some civility, sanity, humaneness, and rationality among the members. Out of the 18 flats about 14 are owned by middle class Brahmins. Gradually, all of them turned against me. I do not practice religion and caste. Eventually, when the Association was “hijacked” I was forced to file a civil suit against it!
In this context it may not be out of place to mention two concrete instances. When the
In another instance, a teaching staff of a university, a Dalit, complained to me that he was finding it difficult to live with his family in a Brahmin-dominated area. My response was, if there is any specific instance he could inform me and I will visit the place.
A few years later, the same person built an independent house, and invited me to his house-warming. I replied to him that I do not believe in rituals, but out of my consideration for him I shall visit his house before the house-warming. When I did this along with another friend, he informed us that he has engaged three Brahmins for the rituals!! Whether he should be blamed or the social ambience of which he is a victim should be blamed is a moot issue. As of now we have no remedies, and if there are any they are worse than the disease. Many of the NGOs and some of the consumer action groups I know make fast bucks, by exploiting the situation; and more often than not, the main actors are again Brahmins!
