Comment: How hateful is caste?

Dear Mr.Ashok,

Since my comments to your blog crossed 4095 character, I decided to post the comment to your post as a separate post.

You are right that less than 1% difference in the genetic
composition between us makes us different.This less than 1% difference in the
genetic makeup has a considerable amount of impact on a individual's trait.I am
with you on not supporting the comparison of two individuals. You have to
understand that standardized tests like GRE,GMAT,SAT and even our school exams
have been developed because of the above reasons. Sometimes you might hear in
the news about normalizing and curving scores. The government or testing agency
based on certain criteria considers a section of people has underprivileged or
ill-fated and gives them certain incentive so that their scores can be compared
to regular class people. Comparisons are not made between two individuals.
Comparisons are made only on the ability of two individuals for completing a
task. The ability of an individual is assigned a numerical value called score.
Scores can be compared to identify the right candidate for a job.

Caste system originated in India right from the vedic times(
3000 years ago). I perceived caste in the vedic times as a rank for the
intellectual ability of the people. Scientists, educators and knowledgeable
persons form the top caste called as Brahmans. Business man form the vaisyas,
the next in hierarchy. Warriors and rulers form the Kshatriya caste. People who
weave cloth, mend shoes, farm or do any other job form the sudra caste at the
bottom of the hierarchy.

The caste system in ancient India is based on the amount of
knowledge a person gains. In initial period, the caste system is not a rigid
one. Anyone from sudra class who has attained highest knowledge can become a
brahman and the illiterate brahman would become a sudra. So, one can switch
from one caste to another depending upon the ability they possess. In later
times, certain selfish people of the upper sect made the system rigid by
propagating that a person gains a caste from his birth. A brahman's son become
a brahman irrespective of his educational qualification. The same goes with other
castes.

I patronize myself
the concept of any job which is done without the act of theft,begging and lies
is not inferior to any high profile job. The olden caste system assigns caste(
which is a rank in my understanding) based on academic achievements and skills.
Successive generations from upper caste have lost their caste in the very
ancient times not able to keep up their ancestor's academic skills. The
converse that is successive generations from lower castes have moved up on the
caste ladder with their persistence and perseverence for learning. The caste
system in ancient times was like the current salary system in United States.
The person working in reputed scientific or medical institution with superior
knowledge is going to earn a day the same amount of salary, a person working in
a supermarket makes for a month. Things can change. The scientist or his kids
can become incompetent and fetch the supermarket job. The converse can also
happen. The wards of the supermarket person can excel as the best student in
school and become a scientist at a reputed institution. Caste system in ancient
times was created in a good intent so that educated people go up in the ladder
and everybody else goes behind them. In the medieval period, some selfish, impotent
upper class people closed the doors for the natural conversion of one class to
another through merit.

They made arbitrary rules that people should follow their
ancestral occupation. They didnt let people belonging to lower caste community
into schools. Thus they scrapped their opportunity and thus started the worst
form of casteist society prevalent even today. These selfish people also
followed the policy of divide and rule. They never wanted people in the sudra
class following different occupation to live in unity. If these people in sudra
class follow unity, then they might question the authority of these upper class
people on controlling them. The selfish upper class people instilled in the
minds of sudra caste people that people following certain occupation are better
than certain others. For example, they made rules such that a dairy man is
better than a farmer who is better than a cobbler. This division which the tiny
upper class people created a sense of disharmony among the lower caste people who
no longer were united. Then onwards they followed the upper class people. That
is why you find that in today's world a huge number of subcastes in the sudra
community. There are only a handful of subcastes in the upper class.

So whose mistake was the caste system. In my understanding,
it is the mistake of few selfish upper class people in the medieval ages.

How hateful is caste today?

- Scientifically, it is interesting to note that Human DNA has 3 billion bases and more than 99% of those bases are the same in all people. WoW, it’s just 1% which brings the change in us; be it physical or mental. I hate when people start evaluating based on others. How can we compare A to B when they are actually 99% the same! We need to start comparing to animals and/or other extraterrestrial organisms (BTW, I believe they exist).

- So what is this comparison all about? How did it all originate? I am not an astrologer, but my mind perceives a simple logic behind all this. The answer is “Society”.  And the reason for all this is I would graciously blame it to our special power “6th sense”. Why doesn’t man take things simple? It makes us enjoy when we make things complicated right? That’s the sense we need to control. Can you imagine what happens if animals start comparing? By the way, I hate politics too!

- Darwin’s theory on “Survival of the fittest” comes to my mind. He stated in 1869 as a metaphor for "better adapted for immediate, local environment". The society concept is probably similar to his perception.  Where I was brought up, it’s pretty common to distinguish such patterns across the area, city, state and even nation. Even nowadays, we do know that there are lots of societies that exist around us. At my place we clearly classify them through castes. A Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of occupation, endogamy, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power (Wiki Definition). Yes, it’s difficult. I hate the concept of society itself, what am I going to curse about caste! All I can say is F! What is that each of them convey? It’s nothing but survival! Imagine a group of people trying to live up to the expectations of the society. When they are not able to endure, they….. . It’s all about someone! I don’t want to live for someone. I have had lots of learning’s till now, but survived probably not the worst, but definitely toughest challenges in personal and business world. I didn’t get eaten up, but I survived, all by myself and I am proud of it! End of the day it’s the courage, determination and will that lives and breathes within us. Kudos to our minds and hearts to do anything and everything that can be imaginable.

How valuable is an idea?

The most valuable thing in the world is idea. Ideas are valuable than all the valuables in the material form. All the valuables in material form if lost could be found easily than a idea lost after conceived. So, it is important to store ideas in text form. "Opportunity knocks the door once" is an old proverb. In the same lines, seldom an unpreserved idea never returns. Ideas and the knowledge created by a person need to be passed to the next generations.

History speaks volumes on the ideas lost due to unsecured methods of preservation of ideas. Ideas are not for keeping to oneself. They need to be shared with others. That is when, ideas grow through multiple inputs from others. Ideas kept to oneself dies along with the person. The ideas, the knowledge from them and the hardwork put up for the generation of those knowledge become fruitless if the ideas were not passed to the world. Governments around the globe use the patenting system for securing ideas of individuals thereby preventing ideas from dying along with the conceiver.

In ancient times, scholars with a broad mind wanted their knowledge to be immortal unlike them. They stored their knowledge in the best technique available to them at that time. Some of these techniques were carvings on clay, stone and rock. As time passed, dyes were used to write on palm leaves and paper. So, always it is good to carry an equipment where you can store your idea in text form. The equipment could be anything as simple as a pen and paper to hi-tech electronic notebook.