Hindu Caste Racism: June 2013

Thursday 27 June 2013

UNTOUCHABILITY IS NOT SIMPLY DISCRIMINATION

Another letter of mine to "The Hindu" :

June 26, 2012,

The Editor

The Hindu

Dear Sir,

This is regarding the news report "Dalit discrimination takes different forms in Vadugapatti" filed by D.Karthikeyan (The Hindu, June 12, 2013). The various forms of social segregation imposed on Dalits which are described in this news report cannot be diluted away under the generic and unspecific terminology of "discrimination" but should have been recorded as evidence of the continuation of the unique socio-religious institution of bigotry called "untouchability" which perpetrates various forms of social segregation on Dalits. It is interesting that the word "untouchability" cannot be found anywhere in the aforementioned news report, which can only be construed as a devious exercise in journalistic and intellectual dishonesty to hide or deny the existence of a unique form of social segregation perpetrated on Dalits called "untouchability" by clumping it under the generic and unspecific terminology of "discrimination".

Yours truly,

Dr. Iniyan Elango, MBBS, Diploma in Counselling (UK), Diploma in Venereology and Genito Urinary Medicine (UK)

PRESCRIPTION FOR MAKING ACCESS TO MEDICAL EDUCATION ELITIST AND BIGOTED.

Since, the Brahmin and Baniya led "twice born" upper caste controlled Indian mainstream media never publish opinion that is inimical to the interests of Hinduism and Brahmin bigotry, I will be publishing my letters to "The Hindu" and other mainstream Indian newspapers which never get published due to this fiendish intellectual exclusion practiced by the bigoted Indian mainstream media. One such letter is given below:

June 26, 2013

The Editor

The Hindu

Dear Madam / Sir,

This letter is with regards to the opinion article titled "Doctors by merit, not privilege" by Sujatha Rao (The Hindu, June 26, 2013).

Ms.Rao advocates an "entry" and "exit" exam based on "third party certification" which sounds draconian and elitist in a country like India which suffers from acute shortage of doctors, a deplorable situation which demands facilitation and widening of access to medical education but not putting up more bars to accessing medical education through draconian entrances tests. Even in the UK, a country cited by Ms.Rao as an example in her essay, there is no "entry" or exit" exam to enter or leave medical colleges except the regular university examinations taken by medical students. Students are admitted to MBBS and its equivalent courses in the UK based on their grades in their higher secondary exams (which are referred to as "A" level exams in UK) just as it is done in states like Tamil Nadu in India which has refused to subscribe to the NEET test. When all medical graduates are subjected to rigorous written, oral and clinical examinations by the concerned University every year of their study and at the end of their studies in the final year, where is the need for “exit” exams through "third party certification" as suggested by Ms.Rao? Why is Ms.Rao advocating entry and entrances exams through "third party certification" when the teachers, lecturers and professors who teach the medical students (along with external examiners from other medical colleges) are well equipped to test the knowledge of the medical students? Ms.Rao's prescription will only end up making medical education as an elitist preserve of urban upper castes who can avail the expensive prep schools to crack the elitist and draconian entrance tests and indulge in nepotism amongst themselves to exclude the masses from medical education, which will have a deleterious effect in the advancement of public health care.

Without any "entrance" or "exit" tests but through rigorous affirmative action for backward caste and scheduled caste students, Tamil Nadu state has made relatively significant progress in public health care and in the standard of Government Hospitals (compared to other states) which has been lauded by no less an institution than the reputed international medical journal "Lancet" (as reported in "The Hindu" in the news report titled "The Lancet calls state's healthcare programme a success story", The Hindu, May 21, 2013). Scores of Tamil Nadu medical graduates are enjoying stellar careers in western nations and Chennai has also become a “medical city” and a nerve centre for “medical tourism” apart from becoming a citadel of scores of multi-speciality corporate hospitals, mainly because of the reservation (affirmative action) in medical college admissions to backward castes and scheduled castes which widened access to medical education and produced a huge number of doctors specializing in various medical super-specialties over the past six decades, which has boosted up the standard of medical education and medical profession both in the private sector and the public sector, which has led many westerners and foreigners from every corner of the World to choose hospitals in Tamil Nadu and Chennai for their medical or surgical treatment. This would not have been possible if an urban upper caste elitist monopoly was allowed in medical education through draconian, unnecessary and super-elitist entrance tests and exit tests as advocated by Ms.Sujatha Rao. The gains made by Tamil Nadu in public health care and private medical services are in serious jeopardy because the Brahmin and upper caste led central government bureaucracy and top judiciary are trying to scuttle social justice and the reservation (affirmative action) regime in state medical colleges for backward castes and scheduled castes by bringing in an "All India" entrance test, which would only serve as a bigoted filtering mechanism to keep out students from backward caste and scheduled caste backgrounds from the annals of higher professional medical education, which will seriously impede the standards and progress made by Tamil Nadu in public health care and medical education.

Yours truly,

Dr. Iniyan Elango, MBBS, LLM, Diploma in Counselling (UK), Diploma in Venereology and Genito Urinary Medicine (UK)

HINDU CASTE RACISM

A blog against the racism of the Hindu caste system. The Hindu caste system is nothing but a system of racism founded on on descent (birth) based supremacy and bigotry that degrades and imprisons people in a system of vertically graded caste inequality of descending inferiority and ascending superiority, with each caste considered as inferior and superior to castes above and below in the vertically graded bigoted system, with the "twice born" Hindus led by Brahmins (at the summit of the caste system as the "most superior" caste) unleashing this bigotry to divide and rule the Indian working (Dravidian - Mulnivasi) masses. The castes lower to the "twice born” Hindu castes are degraded as "Shudras" (backward castes) by the Hindu scriptures who were traditionally restricted to physically laboring vocations and excluded from education, wealth and governance for millennia, until the advent of British rule. The “Shudras” (backward castes) are segregated from Dalits (who are enslaved at the bottom of the caste system as outcasts - untouchables). Dalits are bonded to the most degrading and inhumane labour while being subjected to heinous and manifold forms of physical segregation called “untouchability”. The "twice born" racist supremacist castes [Brahmins (priestly caste) - Baniyas (“Vysyas” or traders’ caste) – Kshatriyas (regal castes)] lord over as the ruling class of castes controlling the government, central (federal) government bureaucracy, army officers corps, top judiciary, business corporations, elite academia, arts and the mainstream media. Dalits are in the receiving end of violent atrocities, untouchability and segregation perpetrated by all Hindu castes (caste Hindus) above Dalits in this vertically graded and bigoted caste system.

All people who live by physical labour or descended from castes bonded to physical labour were derided as “Shudras” (slaves) by the Hindu religion and bigoted Hindu scriptures such as “Mansumiruthi” which codify the caste system, even if they acquire wealth. According to Hindu law, all people who do not belong to “twice born” trio of upper castes (Brahmans, Baniyas-Vysyas and Kshatriyas) are “Shudras” including those belonging to “untouchable” castes. The term “Shudras” literally means “slaves” or “slaves who serve Brahmins” apart from other degrading meanings ascribed to the term “Shudras” by Hindu religious scriptures such as “descendants of prostitutes”, "bastards", etc.

“Shudras” were profanely derided as “descendants of prostitutes” and accorded a “bastard” status by the bigoted Hindu scripture “Manu Smiruthi” and were entailed to serve the Brahmins as the latter’s slaves even if the “Shudra” acquires wealth. Shudras were traditionally proscribed from education despite some of them being land owners. “Shudras” are further divided into hundreds of vertically graded castes with each caste bonded to a physically labouring occupation and professing superiority over those castes below, with the “untouchable castes” at the bottom. “Shudras” were traditionally banned from literacy and education for millennia, until the advent of the British rule. Education was made available to “Shudras” and untouchables only after the advent of the British rule. The Hindu caste system as codified by the Hindu religious scriptures considers all people who make a living by physical labour and all descendants of castes bonded to physical labour as “Shudras” including those derided as “untouchables”, even though the “untouchable Shudras” are also referred to as “Panchamas” or scheduled castes, while the “touchable Shudras” are referred to as “backward castes” in governmental parlance. The so called “untouchables” are further divided into vertically graded castes, who are all forced to live in segregated slums in each town and village across India. The “twice born” supremacist trio off upper castes (Brahmins. Vysyas – Baniyas and Khatriyas) are explicitly excluded from all kinds of physical labour, while being given the monopoly over education, commerce and governance for millennia, which has made the "twice born" trio the ruling elite of the Indian governing establishment. The Indian working masses wholly consist of the backward castes and scheduled castes, who are divided by the caste system of the Hindu religion despite being members of a common working class. Backward castes and scheduled castes were traditionally excluded and banned from education, governance and acquisition of wealth, which started changing slowly only after the advent of British rule and the dawn of the independent India, while the core of the ruling elite still comprises of Brahmins, Baniyas (Vysyas) and Kshatriyas under the religious and ideological leadership of Brahmins.

Even a wealthy “Shudra” still remains only a “Shudra” in the Hindu caste system – as codified and governed by the bigoted Hindu scriptures. According to the bigotry of the Hindu caste system, a wealthy Shudra is still deemed and doomed to be a “Shudra” (“slave of the Brahmin”) who should use his wealth to serve the Brahmin and the latter’s bigoted agenda while wallowing in his inferiorized “Shudra” status in the caste system. Thus acquiring wealth does not abolish the inferiorized and degraded “Shudra” (slave) caste status and the allied caste identity of a person nor does it grant him a social status on par with Brahmins and “twice born” trio of supremacist upper castes (Brahmins, Baniya-Vysyas and Kshatriyas) in the caste system. A famous example of this was the refusal of Brahmins to coronate the Maratha warrior and leader Shivaji as “King” because he was born into a caste deemed to be “Shudra” by the Brahmins. Thus, even a wealthy person cannot escape his “Shudra” status and the allied inferiorized caste identity which are determined by birth and not by wealth. The same applies to the wealthy amongst those belonging to various castes stigmatised and segregated as “untouchables” by the Hindu religion – since acquiring wealth does not abolish the inferiorized and stigmatised “untouchable” caste identity of a person. This is why true advocates of social justice want affirmative action to be awarded to backward castes (Shudras) and scheduled castes (Dalits) irrespective of their economic status.