Tuesday 9 February 2021

REPLACE CASTE-RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY BY GEO-CULTURAL DIVERSITY

 Muslim refugees from Syria, instead of going to the adjacent countries, such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, reached New Zealand (nine times far away) or European countries such as Germany, Italy, etc. with hidden consent of 56 Islamic countries. They could have been given shelter there. But the purpose was to establish Islam all over the world — first to enter as a lowly refugee and then further pursue their global propagation programme. The attempt to enter the Rohingya Muslims in India was also a follow-up to this resolution.

Think now! The Muslims' resolve to spread Islam all over the world is so strong that they do not leave any opportunity off to take the message anywhere in the world ignoring their household, their fraternity, their properties and their country. Can the idolatrous Hindu psyche in the fascination of caste domination, rituals, joint familie and multiple deities could have so much wisdom? The Hindu has been assuming that his country is the most pleasant, the best, the holiest in the world, devbhoomi, the land of god. Don't go anywhere else. Because of this psyche India is the only country left for Hindus, that too the India reduced down in size from Buddha-Ashokan era to 40 % at present. The 'Vasudhav Kutumbakam' (the earth is our home) was always neglected. The nationality and nationalism which look very attractive apparently, are actually the resolve of Hindutva suicide.

Hindus also know how to sacrifice or renounce, but sacrifice or renunciation has been made here a profession of sannyasis. The work of the householders has been to protect the narrowisms on the pretext of obligations. If position remains so, Hindutva cannot survive for more than thirty years in spite of lakhs of claims and advocacies.

Today, the world is facing fierce rivalry of Christianity and Islam. India also cannot remain untouched by this catastrophe.

Hindutva is already in existence before since Christianity and Islam. But half the world became Christian and 56 countries became Muslims, while Hindus were reduced to India. There has been a something messy that we have been embroiled in nationalist parochialisms by neglecting 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' (the whole earth is our home) and 'Swadesho Bhuvantraya' (all the three spheres are our own country) since the downfall of the Guptan-Era. Even today, we are repeating the same great historical blunders. Today, the world is in the fierce rivalry of Christianity and Islam. Bharat also cannot remain untouched by this destruction. But soon all will be right, we are optimistic.

If Hindutva is to survive, it has to learn to walk without the crutches of castes. The caste distinction has to be abolished. The attachment to label has to be thrown away under the flag of human dharma—the same human religion which Yogeshwar Srikrishna called Bhagwat Dharma. At that time, humanity was not divided into Hindus, Christians, Islam, Buddhists, Jain, Sikhs, etc. So there was a call for upgradation of the entire human race towards the level of God. The same Bhagwat Dharma is the ' human religion ' for today's divided humanity. Religions and faiths have been accepted with an intention that they provide diversity, interest and plurality. But it has been observed that they have brought more bloodshed and destruction than diversity, interest and plurality, in addition to racial and caste discriminations all over the world for centuries.

What is wrong if Aryans came from outside India, or even Muslims and Christians did so! The more cultural blending leads to more experience and diversity. It is not good if somebody claims that since the primitive period of civilization, for thousands and lakhs of years, they have been residents of only one place, just as the frogs in the well. It is not a problem If religious beliefs would have been oriented towards cultural blending and sharing & growth of experience and knowledge, then there is no issue. But at the core of these religious beliefs, there has been some problem that each of these different religious beliefs are not able to accept the existence of anyone other than themselves in the ego of their superiority and perfection, and with the support of fundamentalists, fanatics and obscurantists the conflicts and clashes among civilizations have been increasing.

Therefore, it is advisable to give importance, recognition and access to natural and geo-cultural differences in order to maintain diversity and pluralism, in place of artificial divisions of caste, race and sects; while the religious identities need to be eliminated by forcibly sub -merging them into geo-cultural identities. The Samaj movement of PROUT focuses on giving importance, support and recognition to these natural and geo-cultural identities, instead of imposition of artificial and forced identities.

The biggest weakness of Hindutva is the caste system, which has side effects of casteism, caste discrimination and caste conflict. Reservation is a way of compensation from the ill effects of the caste discrimination. As many thinkers believe, caste should be there, but not caste conflicts, rather there should be ethnic harmony. Deendayal Upadhyaya ji writes:

“Here too, there were castes, but we had never accepted conflict between one caste and another as a fundamental concept underlying it. The four castes, according to our conception, are thought of as analogous to the different limbs of the Virat-Purusha.”. (Integral Humanism, Deendayal Research Institute. April, 2002, p. 29)

Such thinkers consider caste to be a vital element of hindutva existence and identity. The varna is also made an indirect means of maintaining the vested selfish caste identities. Such people consider the elimination of caste-system unnecessary and impossible.

The supporters of caste domination exhort for removal of reservation, while the supporters of caste based reservation call for 'first remove caste then reservation '. The caste system has been the cause of India's centuries of slavery and weakness, but in today's age of science and technology, eradication of caste system is not difficult. Firm Resolve and right tactics have to be adopted.

Uday Kumar Sahu, a lawyer and practitioner of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur, and associated with Proutist Bagheli Samaj, offers clear, bold, effective and interesting suggestions as,

"There is casteism and reservation

until caste marriage is in practice.

Start inter-communal marriages,

and help the country to get rid of Communalism.

The 'caste marriage practice' is a hindrance to the goal of the Constitution, especially in achieving the goal of fundamental rights, socialism, freedom, economic freedom and national unity. Therefore, the caste marriage practice is straight violation of article 13 of the Indian Constitution.

 There is no need to go to the courts to make this practice void.

The root cause of all caste or communal disputes is the practice of within caste marriage removal of which has not been committed by governments even in spite of it being anti-Constitution.

 In the interest of the nation, the Government should add a new section 494A to the Indian Penal Code under which 10 years imprisonment and fine of Rs. 50,000/-should be added to the indian penal code for within caste marriage.

 A provision for denial and removal of government job to those who marry within caste should be made in the Service Law.

 In defining the castes, general, OBC, SC, ST, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, etc., should be treated as different castes so that a OBC marriage is not with other OBC but in any other one; so that a Muslim marriage does not happen with another Muslim & so on. "

I think, Sahu ji's aforesaid suggestions will prove to be a pointed remedy towards resolving the clashes of civilizations not only within this country but also all over the world. So, they have to be implemented at all costs. Such drastic revolutionary avenues will be effective, not the lacklustre ways.

By implementing these strong and pointed suggestions, the the fabric of India's caste and communalism can be completely demolished in a very short time, 4 or 5 years. But it will have to be adjusted to some exigencies of circumstances. For example, the rule will not apply in case of marriage between two foreigners within India, but if any partner is a foreign national of Indian origin, it will remain in force.

Some people oppose such punitive measures on the ground that positive measures should be adopted in such socio-religious issues. But for a long time, the social reformers have tried to positively extricate the Indian society from casteism and communalism, but the situation has be become even more complicated. Thus, the firm use of aforementioned prohibitive and repressive measures for at least twenty years despite all opposition will result in sustainable results.

Is removal of name titles a solution?

Even if some people have been removing titles from their names, the caste system remains intact. In fact, it can be effective only after the aforesaid legal measure are implemented. In the next phase, it will also be necessary to prohibit the use of titles related to caste.

If removal of title was a solution, Shri Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar could have done so. Subhas Chandra Bose, Jyotiba Phule, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, Arvind Ghosh, Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sardar Patel, etc., are many famous names who would have easily removed their titles and solved the issue. Then, there is no title attached to the names of Maharana Pratap, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Chatrasal, Raja Suheldev, but could their caste-identity be destroyed? The removal of title may make some (not all) names overtly bleak but it will not work only without first applying the drastic measures suggested above. The use of all titles should first be made constitutionally/legally inter-caste and international and later, caste titles can be legally prohibited. Of course, caste and communal organizations already have to be banned even if they are organized in the name of reform of caste or community, so that the caste-sect politics of vote can be directly attacked.

Prof. R.P. Singh,

Department of Commerce,

 Gorakhpur University

E-mail: rp_singh20@rediffmail.com

                                                  Contact : 9935541965


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