The #blacklivesmatter movement might have started in the United States but today it is recognized as a global issue and rightly so. We are lucky to live in a time where freedom of speech gives us the liberty to fight for what is right. Whether it’s protesting on the street or simply debating on social media, people all over the world have been stepping up to revolt against the oppression of people of colour. The egregious justice system and police force have pushed people to no longer remain silent. In keeping with the global movement, #BLM found its way to India too. We saw many of our friends, family, and several celebrities stand up for the prevalent systematic oppression. But it also gave room to argue, where is this same ardour when it comes to the extremely prevalent casteism in one's own country?
Caste does not play a major role in the lives of the middle class to privileged Indian youth. I can say this, because I was one of them too, of course, I am aware of the system, but never about its consequences. We do not recognize our privilege, we say “I have never heard of this” “It doesn’t affect me” or “the caste system is more prevalent in the lower classes so we don’t have anything to do with this”, we have no idea how entitled these statements are.
We may think these issues only exist in rural India and maybe that is the reason why we haven’t heard too much about it, but the truth is, a colossal amount of casteism exists in urban areas, particularly in workplaces.
The Oxfam report “Who Tells Our Stories Matter: Representation of marginalised caste groups in Indian Newsrooms” tells us just this, “Spanning TV News (Hindi and English), newspapers (Hindi and English), digital media and magazines, the report brings forth startling data that demonstrates the severe underrepresentation of marginalised caste groups in the Indian media. Of the 121 newsroom leadership positions—editor-in-chief, managing editor, executive editor, bureau chief, input/output editor—across the newspapers, TV news channels, news websites, and magazines under study, 106 are occupied by journalists from the upper castes, and none by those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.” This was measured in 2019. It is a well-established fact that news which is released to the public is administered by people in decision making positions. How can a non-representative of the community speak for the oppressed community?
Times may have progressed, but they haven’t shown major positive results, Dr. Ambedkar’s “Annihilation of caste” (AoC) was published in 1936, over 80 years ago, and we are still dealing with the same problem at hand. Dr. Ambedkar breaks down every aspect of the Brahmanical system in such a rational and analytical way that it makes you question why this type of topic even requires a counter argument.
Why aren’t we angrier? Not only about hundreds of years of oppression but that an individual's worth in India is still defined by their caste. Does it also have anything to do with the fact that the younger generations can be slightly ignorant to the heritage that previous generations were raised with? This can be bittersweet. We may not recognize the caste system but we aren’t as well versed with our own history either. It then falls upon us as individuals to learn more about history without falling prey to the detrimental habits and ideology of our forefathers.
It would be simple if we could pinpoint who to blame, but we must look at our education systems as well (which is run by the older generations). We must look at it through a communal point of view, our schools, an institution where we are made to learn and grow, where things could change, but most fail to discourse the caste issue, most have waited until it dwindled as the country urbanised.
The worst injustice through all of this is how we privileged students, in the private education systems have completely ignored the prevalent casteism, if we aren’t aware nor exposed to them, we cannot stand by or for them.
There is no doubt that the education system needs a change, and even if we are in international schools, we should be aware of the country's issues, just like how we did with the global #BLM protest. But until then what can we do? We must educate ourselves, spread awareness. Let’s start by reading Dr. Ambedkar's AoC. Talk to your friends and family about it, have constructive conversations, share only the relevant information on social media, not just for the hype. Half the knowledge or wrong information is more dangerous than the truth so we must try to make sure that all our actions towards a cause are genuine and worthy of change for the better.
Perhaps it’s because we gain something from our caste privilege. But not anymore, not ever again, we must wake up and unite all those who have been oppressed by this system for decades, our youth holds massive power, we must use it for the betterment of everyone. It is time we made India the secular country we claim it to be.