Before I go on to counter your comments, first let me educate you on some of the facts about India. India has 22 National languages. Mind you Hindi is just one of them and anyone who expects to treat Hindi differently (Oh, I cannot even say superiorly) is just a pseudo-liberal. I have been to different parts of the world and different cities of India and let me tell you nobody is more discriminative than Hindi speaking people of the North. You go to a city in the North and even the educated people don’t speak in English even when you let them know that I do not understand Hindi. What kind of a chauvinistic, narrow mentality is this from the North Indians (unfortunately, educated north Indians).

Now to counter your arguments: You go to any other state my dear friend and you will see that the names of the destinations are written in the local language. Be it Hindi or Bengali. In fact in some parts of India even the interstate buses are written in local languages (For ex: a TN bus which travels between Bangalore and TN, has all the names written in Tamil, while the rules require them to have the names in Kannada/Tamil).

I am not an expert in these matters. But I remember reading a brilliant exposition by Osho on the reasons for the hierarchial structure , it’s relevance then(largely spiritual growth) and it’s subsequent corruption by vested interests. I don’t exactly remember which talk of Osho it was from. But one of things Osho said was that one had to EARN the right to be a Brahmin(which was a passport to the spiritual practices), it was not by virtue of birth. It was quite akin to the Pythagorean School of the ancient Greeks, which was a mystical school, and one had to “qualify” and follow a set of rules to continue being a member. For example some of rules were: No personal possessions were allowed and the members were required to assume a mainly vegetarian diet.

Girish now you answer my questions since you seem to be a Brahmin. Why is casteism finding sanction in Hindu religion even to this day? Why did the Brahmins formed this so called hierarchial structure in the hindu society? Even many modern learned scholars seem to accept this as part of religion. If you read Gita and as quoted above people were to be defined based on quality and one of the worst tragedies of human history has been the formation of society based on basis of birth. Why do educated people still so vehemently defend their caste as something that gives them superiority. Do you also believe in the hierarchial structure of this hindu society?

I don’t think Manas made the case that “untouchability is rampant”. I think his point was that it has not gone away, even in urban middle-class India. I think that is a valid observation, though I pointed out that sometimes what may seem like an instance of untouchability may actually be a practice of ritual purity before worship.

The bottomline is that untouchability or some variant of it still exists – the extent may vary depending on rural vs. urban or region. And it needs to be eradicated. The politicians are not going to do it for us – our political system provides them incentives to solidify rather than get rid of caste distinctions. We ordinary citizens need to eradicate its remaining vestiges, through our actions and our words.

My only point here is the notion that untouchability is something associated with Hinduism. If Ajlaf castes have to find their solutions within Islam the Dalits have questioned the so called Brahmins about distortion of their religious scriptures as well. Infact movies like MatruBhumi by Manish Jha, Water by Deepa and many others have never failed to reflect the weakness in the Hindu strata and these directors are from the upper castes. Both these movies were set in backgrounds which do not exist. The hindu intellectuals have always welcomed such debates. Even the outbring of Gujurat riots were done by people like Rakesh Sharma and many key Hindu intellectuals. Mayawati a Dalit leader in UP has won by the votes of upper castes including Brahmins. Where I do not buy arguments of Manas is because he saw a lady referring Brahmin Bhoj or because of Tehelka story we conclude that untouchability is rampant. If you walk even in the suburbs of new york which is a highly educated modern society or a country which prides itself as a country of free and without any racism you can sometimes be discriminated by a white educated elite guy who may have best christian values.The Slave trade institutionalised and given religious sanction by Arab Muslims is also a shattering example. Muslim countries in Africa still don’t want to abolish it or are in the process of it.

With time untouchability is coming to an end more and more and Inshallah it will soon be gone.

Sorry for the ambiguity.

Again, I beg to disagree (this is becoming a habit)

While we are still in the throes of change in our society, the one thing Indians can be counted on is pragmatism. Even the BJP had to soften its stance and recognise that Muslims are part of India when the VHP generated hoopla died down. The most strident supporter was ashamed of the riots in Gujarat and how it represented India to the world. Religiously, the common man in India has always been pluralistic, it is a few who wave banners and attempt to create issues. Once faced with reality however, they find that they stand on shaky pedestals.

I was enormously pleased with the direction of the 11th five year plan. Unlike other social systems in the West, which are strongly focused on the individual, the Indian identity has always been linked to and stemmed from his feeling of community. Unlike the progress in other countries, which has been called free trade and has increased drastically the gap between poor and rich, I had always hoped that Indian capitalism would be tempered by fair trade. The proposed 11th plan which focuses not on GDP as an end but, as a means to an end, is a step in the right direction. As an idealistically realistic nationalist, I have great faith in our capacity to maintain our strengths while absorbing foreign ideas.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/From-India-to-Bharat-planning-a-paradigm-shift/237535/

Also After reading books from Osho on theological discourse or scholars like Annie Besant and other Indian Literature do believe that there has been a civilisation here in India which can never be born again or to whose equal I guess none other can get near to. The mysticism, peace and love in these books can not be surpassed. I was even surprised when many of my christian folks in the west agreed my view point. India has lost it and probably that loss has been a huge one for mankind. People of other religion and even hindus (unconsciously like the Gujurat episode or casteism ) attack it without knowing that this culture is so deep, innocent and inquisitive. This culture should be rebuilt and not by people in RSS. The uncultured north can never be ashoka’s India or the cultured south can never near Ramanuja.

Whol heartedly Agree and that was all my point.