this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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While construction workers should absolutely be respected, you definitely don't want to end up as a construction worker in India. Construction workers earn like 300-400 rupees (3.61 - 4.81 USD) per day of work in the part of India that I live in (which is a very industrious part btw). These people overwhelmingly belong to the lower castes. They don't have their own home, and live on site in temporarily constructed structures made from metal panels.
These people suffered the most when the COVID lockdowns happened. Their places of employment fired them. They thus lost their temporary home. These people, along with their kids tried to move back to the villages that they migrated to the cities from. However, for quite some time, they weren't allowed to return back. Thus, thousands of people were immediately made homeless, having to sleep on the streets. Of course, they were harassed by the police a lot. Finally, when special trains were organized for them, there were instances where the police sprayed water into these trains on these people "to clean them". Watch this documentary by Vice news if you want to learn more about them.
I swear there are so many systems that should have never existed let alone be perpetuated into the current era...
"It's ok to hate that person, they're ARBITRARY CLASS NAME." ...ughh
There are many methods that the upper socio economic classes used to suppress the lower classes. Casteism in India was one of the most successful methods that suppressed generations of these classes for over a thousand years. Casteism led to further disparity in the socio economic classes. When such is the case, why does mentioning it make me lose my credibility?
The caste that you're born with decides your life quite a lot unfortunately. Due to historical wrongs done against individuals belonging to the "lower castes", they are more likely to be born in poverty, thus making them more likely to have life that can be considered of "low quality". Humans do not have 100% agency in their actions (no matter what stories of "self made" successful individuals would make you believe). Society and culture has a huge influence on the lives of people for the better or for worse. Historical and current wrongs done by the caste system against individuals belonging to the "lower caste" are clearly unjust. This is what I was intending to showcase.
You are contradicting yourself when you say this. Isn't today's Indian culture "modern India"? Aren't the "conservatives" (who have absolute majority in both houses of the Parliament) modern India? Or is your definition of "modern India" that of a utopian India? Cuz lemme tell you mate... India is far for utopian right now.
I absolutely did have to call them "lower caste". You're right. The caste system makes 0 sense. It is a social construct. However, this doesn't mean that its effects aren't real. Caste affects, and has affected millions of innocent lives terribly for a thousand years. Using "another adjective" according to you, shifts the blame from the caste system onto something else. These aren't just "poor people". They're a large chunk of India who've been treated like slaves since a long long time, and are being treated like that today as well, all because of the caste system. I thus have no interest in using euphemisms like "disadvantaged group" or something stupid like that.
So basically you're telling me to pretend that the caste system doesn't exist. "Brahmin? What is that? Never heard of it! Dalit? Never heard of that word!". As I said before, while segregating people into castes is stupid (and evil), it doesn't mean that the effects of this segregation don't exist. Hence, when you have to point at these effects and explain their origin, you HAVE to invoke caste and all language associated with it. Let's use your language for a second here. These "disadvantaged people" are disadvantaged because of the caste system. They are disadvantaged BECAUSE they belong to the "lower castes". Why should I lie here?
Hey, sorry for the late reply! No worries mate, even Indians don't really understand the caste system. I wouldn't say that I'm an expert in it either. To better explain how being of a 'lower caste" is different than simply being poor, here are some examples:
Here's another way to think about it. Imagine if US civilization (post-genocide, not pre-genocide) was 1000 years old. In these 1000 years, black Americans were slaves in everything but name. Only in the last 100 years, did they lose their slave-ish status legally. However, they still face racism till this date. One very interesting difference between racism and casteism however is that racists can recognise their hated race by looking at the color of people's skin, while casteists can recognize their hated caste by looking at people's last names. In almost all cases (except people who have changed their last names), your last name determines your caste. So... yeah. Apply most of the stuff that you know about racism in the US to the caste system to understand the problems associated with it.
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