Reservation - Aarakshan

Just saw Aarakshan… not the whole movie but half of it and then couldn’t stop from blogging before watching the outcome of the movie… the topic about Aarakshan or reservation is a very debatable topic… different people will have different views on it … so here is something would like to talk on this topic

Do you know what “Chaturvarna System” is? The origin of this Chaturvarna System can be dated back to 1100 AD. It was actually formed by the people of the society for the welfare of the society… work was divided by the people according to their talent and skill… people were divided into 4 categories

1-    People who took up teaching of priestly functions.

2-    People who took up Safety and Security

3-    People who took interest in Commercial Activities.

4-    And people who maintained hygiene and sanitation.

Over the time the People who took up teaching and priestly functions came to be known as “Brahmins”.. People who took up safety and security came to be known as “Kashtruyas”… People who took up Commercial Activities came to be known as “Vaishya”….. And people who took up maintaining hygiene and sanitation came to known as “Shudra”.

Naturally, the Brahmins started feeling that as they do the teaching and look after the mandir’s they are superior to other people… similarly,  Kashtruyas  and Vaishya’s felt they are very important as well as they look after the security and commercial activities of the Society… as the Shudra’s mainly looked after the hygiene and sanitation and works like shoe – shiner, carpenter, barbers, etc.. the other 3groups started looking down at these people as they felt that the work they do doesn’t require any skill or special talent…

They then started grading themselves as higher and lower so as to save their social status… and soon Brahmins started fooling people on the pretext of god workship etc. vaishya’s started exploiting poor farmers … and then the wheels of caste system started rolling…

So basically the people who help us in our day to day life were treated as of low caste and thus all the cast grading strated… they were not given enough rights that time, no proper education, were exploited at every given opportunity, so much that there were times when they were even call untouchables…I mean really? Untouchables?? You use donkeys for transport and worship snakes but you call humans of particular caste untouchables???

This discrimination had started way back in the history…maybe they are trying to get their independence even before our actual independence.  They were not given the right to be equal to this so called higher caste people since ages and now when they are getting some kind of an reservation, we ask them to be equal and compete with us??? We have our lavish life, with good schools, college’s and coaching classes, best teachers, computers and internet to guide us, books to refer everything…but they don’t have all this… who knows what life they might be living… they do part time jobs support their families, go for night school…my mom is a teacher in a municipal school and I have seen these kids since my childhood and I realized just then that I was fortunate enough that I have all that I want… they used to wear hand me down robes.. and I used to get a new dress every month…I used to come home and sit in front of television while they went home and helped their mom sell flowers at the traffic signals or go home and fill water from the common tap far from the their house or should I call a hut…

My only point is that we just cant tell them to compete with us… our lifestyle and their’s is way different they don’t get McDonalds burger every other day or hangout at a mall and watch a movie every Friday… and we don’t live like them imagine washing our own dishes everyday or living without electicity.. oh forget that..just live without you cell phone, laptop and ipod for a day…

Social discrimination was not started by them, but by us.. by our ancestors… and now that they are getting some kind of a help to grow up socially and financially we oppose them? And tell them to do it on merit basis? Be equals? It was us who denied them the equality in the first place… there are still loads of people in India who don’t know English, cause they have never been to an English medium school, they had always gone to a government school…unlike us, we have grown up in an  English school, and honestly ask yourself are u very well versed with your own mother tongue like you are in English? As of me , I am not… ill make loads of spelling mistakes while writing Marathi but English ill do just fine.. so if someone now tells me write thesis in Marathi obviously I wont be able to do it.. and quite naturally ill go ask help from my mom or grandmom or my Marathi teacher or just ask the person who has given me the work to write the thesis to allow me to write in English, so what am I doing here? Asking for help? Or an excuse? Indirectly asking for RESERVATION!!!!

So why are we making such a fuss out of the whole reservation thing when schedule caste people ask for it? Ask yourself are we falling prey to the game these politicians are playing? And if we so are against the RESERVATION then ask people who are paying donations…why are donations so needed in every stream these days? Why are we not talking against that? Because, its for our own good.. if tom I score less I can pay a  bit of my parents bank balance and my career is set. But then what about the lower caste people where are they supposed to pay the donation from? When they are striving hard to just meet their 2meals per day… think about it..aren’t we just being selfish here?

I am sure your views shall differ, and people might even send me hate mails for this…but this is just what I feel… its my opinion… its my blog after all :D