Illustration: Prathap Ravishankar/ The Hindu |
It was a usual Facebook browsing
in the evening when I came across a post that read, ‘Baksa Village is Northeast’s First Smart Village’. The description
of the village seemed strikingly similar to the one I was born in and thus
curiosity stroked me hard. And indeed it was; I was up for a pleasant surprise
that the remote village near the Bhutan border where I was born is now the
first smart village in the entire region.
The smart village Barsimlaguri,
which is about 18kms north of Nalbari town, happens to be one of the most remote
villages in the country. The location is so remote that an evening stroll
around the paddy fields can actually give you a view of flickering lights from
the villages in Bhutan.
So, a village as remote as
Barimlaguri is today smart. It’s a little overwhelming for me to see my distant
cousins and residents of the village, who until sometime back had no idea about
internet, sending me friend requests.
India is getting smart. As I
write this, somewhere in Delhi they are deciding upon the list of first set of
smart cities in India. Google has already released the list of railway stations
that will have access to high speed WiFi. So, the bottom line is, India is
getting smart or at least we can assume that we are on track.
I, however, have a question here.
Is smartness just determined by accessibility of free internet or better
infrastructure? Or let’s put it like this, our cities and villages have become
smart, but are we smart?
All of us aware of the suicide or
rather, the institutional murder of Rohit Vemula, the PhD Scholar from
Hyderabad Central University. This unfortunate incident refreshed the old
wounds of ‘casteism’ that have been
existent in the Indian society since time immemorial. Our society as a whole
has been dealing with a lot of issues with caste being one of them. It’s like
the body is facing multiple organ failure while caste is the cancer that’s
killing you fast.
To be really honest, I wasn’t
someone who has ever been involved in any political as well as social movement.
Actually I never cared about any of it. I knew the caste system was or rather
still is the greatest cancer which the Indian society is fighting against. But
I knew this only as a general knowledge. See the irony; the issue of caste
atrocity in India is general knowledge for some. Must we be ashamed of ourselves?
The reason why I was least
bothered about caste based identity politics was because no one ever bothered
me with the issue. Until I reached college. Well, some people might call me privileged
enough as I was not exposed to caste based atrocities or sentiments while
millions in India face this cancer almost every day of their lives. But it’s
not actually a matter of being privileged or not. It’s about your upbringing
and your surroundings.
As I mentioned earlier, I was
born in one of the remotest of villages in Assam and the upbringing which at least
I had there, wasn’t at least casteist. Nowhere here am I trying to assert that
I was born in an ideal society which had no issues. Every society has issues;
but what I am trying to imply is that there wasn’t a conscious effort within my
family or in the surrounding that focused on caste at large. Yes, hierarchies
did exist and I used to question as to why we had to call someone else to
perform rituals in our temple. But I do not recollect anyone complaining of
caste as an issue.
It was only when I reached high
school I realized that I wasn’t a Brahmin. It happened when my best friend had his
sacred thread ceremony. It was only then that debate started rolling within
my friend circle in school that some of them were Brahmins while some aren’t.
It’s imperative for me to mention here that I moved out of my village and was
enrolled in one of the top schools of Guwahati.
As the educational journey
reached a higher stage I became more familiar with this entire system of
casteism in India. Until school, things were fine, but once we crossed the
higher secondary level and had to fill in application forms for competitive exams,
the line of caste became a topic of serious discussion amongst my peer groups.
You know that box of ‘General’ and ‘OBC’ in the application form, that box I
feel ignites the first difference of attitude within students of different
castes. The usual debates of caste turned into taunts when one realized that his
friend might get admission into a university easily because he belonged to a certain
group of the society.
The point of this post isn’t
about defending or fighting the reservation system. But the point which I am
trying to make is that our education system is also one of the components that contributes
largely into this discourse of caste based politics or discrimination. The more
you scale the ladder of education, the more you get exposed to this caste
system.
As I continued my higher
education, I realized more and more how much caste is involved in our lives.
Today, I study in an institute where it’s a little difficult for me to do away
with the caste base identity which we have and this is the reason why I am
writing this. Though out my undergraduate days, no one asked me which caste I
belonged to. And here, within the first few days of college I was asked about
my social marker as some wanted to learn what political affiliation I had.
I am not necessarily complaining
about this entire structure. I am just amused with the fact of how this caste cancer
runs into our society. As you reach the higher strata of education, you get
exposed to more caste based politics. And I thought education made you smarter.
Rohith’s death is unfortunate. But
what is even more unfortunate is the politics that’s happening after his death.
The way the government and its affiliates have reacted again proves that your
social identity plays the most important identity in India. A bright student
committed suicide, but no, in India it has to be ‘a dalit’ student committed
suicide. India won’t be smart enough, unless you identify a student by his
merit level and not by caste identity.
The intention of the post wasn’t
to hurt anybody. In fact, I declare that my intellectual level isn’t that great
that I can actually comment on such a serious topic. And I repeat, never have I
ever participated in any discourse that involved social issues like caste. But
what propelled me to write this post is the sheer fact that today we have smart
cities and villages but not a smart surrounding to live in.
If a remote village can nurture
someone to be not casteist, I would rather stay there than a smart casteist
city.
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