Matrimonial sites and Internet is keeping caste system alive in educated India

Gandhi ji described India of his dream as ”India in which poorest shall feel it is their country…. an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people; ..There can be no room in such an India for the curse of Untouchability…”.India after independence did work, to make his dream a reality. Practice of Untouchability has been abolished by Article 17 of our constitution and Article 21 gives right to live with dignity to all Indians. India also introduced a system of reservation to empower these underprivileged people politically, economically, educationally and to bring about a social upliftment.  While these measures, along with changed outlook of the society have resulted in betterment of lives of this larger part of our people, even today they are harassed because they belong to a caste which has been historically treated as lower by the privileged caste people. Such cases have been reported even in high offices like Judiciary.

Why even after 65 years of independence we are not able to defeat caste system and give our people, right to live with dignity?  It’s because the ideology of caste system has been passed from one generation to other. Earlier this was done by parents who used to teach their children which caste they belong to, and which is higher and which is lower. Along with teachings like respect for elders and teachers, they were taught not to touch or even go near low caste people. Thus caste system was engraved in their permanent memory right from the childhood and it was made as sacred as God’s worship and mothers love. Similarly the low caste parents made it sure that their son does not go near high caste people and serve them from a distance; this was the education he used to get. In the name of Karma and Dharma, underprivileged castes were forced to keep a low profile and serve others. Thus the theory of caste system survived and prospered through ages.

But today things have changed due to rapid urbanization and spread of education. Parents don’t have time to teach caste ethics to their children and children are busy with their syllabus, Bollywood and cricket. Parents do not care about caste till their son/daughter reaches marriage age. Suddenly they are concerned about the caste; because they want to marry their son/daughter in their own community. And here begins the business of matrimonial sites. Caste takes the centre stage, new generation which never cared about caste, which used surname only to differentiate between two similar names, are reminded of the importance of caste and its legacies. Today the pattern has changed and the responsibility of keeping casteism alive is taken by matrimonial sites and internet.

   
Matrimonial sites introduce you to all the castes available in the country and thus creating a curiosity in knowing these different categories of people, you start thinking about the caste of your friends, co-workers and acquaintances on the basis of their surnames. Interestingly these sites in the name of helping their customer to find a soul mate act as a means for survival of caste system. They do not differentiate between Hindus/Muslims etc. they proudly display a drop down box where you have to declare your caste which would be boldly displayed on your profile as if it is your most important qualification or identity. They even ask sub caste, gotra etc , and make sure that you never forget the intricacies of caste system. In case of underprivileged castes, these sites often tend to write the name of caste profession which the ancestors practiced, which without a pinch of doubt is derogatory and infringes their dignity. While so called upper castes feel pride in reading Thakur/Brahmin, it becomes a matter of insult for the underprivileged castes who are branded as chamars,nais,dhobis,khatik etc. They may be doctors, engineers, scientists or even Judges, but they are looked down as if they are still doing those petty things, just because they belong to that caste and use that surname. These sites violate their fundamental right to live with dignity and equality. It promotes inferiority in SC/STs, underprivileged castes and superiority in upper caste people and shatters the dream of social equality.

 

Today when world is shattered by communalism, fundamentalism and secessionism, the concept of social equality and unity becomes much more important for our existence as a society and country.

Internet is full of caste information and descriptions, even sites like Wikipedia provides whole genesis, demographics distributions, professions, surnames of various castes and thus keep the caste practice alive. They never let people forget the existence of caste. For a common man, information available on internet is as true as Einstein theory of relativity! Our present generation which searches for all things on internet, are reading about castes and unknowingly imbibing such practices in their mind and this inhuman system of dividing people in high and low categories on the bases of their surname is kept alive.

The menace of caste system cannot be eradicated from the society till this branding of caste system continues on internet. Laws, commissions and punishments are useless if the free propagation of caste ideology is not stopped. All references to castes, profession, and their relationship with surnames should be removed from internet especially from matrimonial sites, so that this inhuman practice cannot penetrate in the mind of today’s educated generation; Like terrorist and Maoist literature, caste literature is equally eligible to be banned on internet because it is also preaches anti-social and anti-national ideology. Efforts of our forefathers will go in vain if we do not stop the propagation through these new and much more effective means.

Let’s help ourselves to forget such practice and accept the people who have lived in misery, dejection and indignity for ages. Gandhi Ji’s dream would come true on the day when an Indian has to search meaning of caste in dictionary.