Most of us, if not all of us, have said at some point that
caste system should end for the good of society. I don’t actually disagree with
that and until recently I am a strong supporter of that idea. But after some thinking
during recent weeks I started to have second thoughts about it.
Castes in the region I come from are mainly formed on the
basis of their profession. Like priests are Brahmins, Gold smiths are Kamsali,
Carpenters are Vadrangi and so on. This isn’t true for all castes but it can be
fairly generalised. And in the days they are formed these professions are
hereditary. So, this way of grouping similar profession people into a caste makes
a lot of sense and in fact is very beneficial in providing unity and provides a
platform to exchange new ideas and improve the professions. If the caste system
remained to just grouping people from similar professionals it would have never
gone into the troubled waters as it is now.
Caste system has become unpopular because of some obvious and
some not so obvious reasons. The fact that caste system was and sadly is used
for discriminating people is one of the very obvious reasons. Discrimination
among humans based on anything should be absolutely and strongly condemned. So,
in that respect caste system has no place to exist in the modern age. One of
the not so obvious bad effects of caste system is the fact that some of the
castes have got a rare gene disease because of lack of gene mutation which is a
result of intra caste marriage system.
Along with these two there are many other problems caused by
caste system which has no place in this age of globalisation.
Having mentioned the issues of caste system it is not all
bad after all. Caste system has its own benefits even today. There are caste level
organisations which provide services like free food, free education, subsidised
training and others. Also caste system brings in the unity that it was
initially intended for.
End of the day caste system is a kind of division system. If
division based on religion and region are accepted then so is the division
based on caste. If we are happy to fight for our region what is wrong by
fighting for a caste as long as the fights are for a good cause.
There are currently numerous division systems based on
religion, country, state, region, financial and social status and so on and so
forth. Just recently one of the regions in the state I was born in was fighting
with other and this is as bad as the discrimination in caste system. So as long
as there are divisions in the world irrespective of what they are based on
there will be trouble if they lose the ability to tolerate other divisions.
Caste system has the power to unite people from several
parts of world. If this power is used for good purposes then caste system can
have a very long future and it can turn out to be a good source of empowerment
to various individuals.
So, if people who believe in caste system can increase their
tolerance towards other castes and respect other castes then yes caste system
can be good for the society and can be used for better purposes.
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