Tuesday, September 05, 2006

India explained

Ever tried explaining the Indian caste and dowry system to a chinese ? That is exaclty what we did over dinner yest . A bunch of us i.e indian students trying to explain the implications of caste system in modern India to a my friend Yunli from China over dinner .

But how do you explain the deep implications that caste system has over our minds to a person who has never been exposed to a notion like this . Why have we after so many years of independence and education not been able to ward off this stigma of caste system from our minds .
She asked us all a very simple question .. How do you know a person's caste ..? If a person travels very far from his native places and changes his name ..no one will be able to know his caste then rite ? Seemed logical but how do we tell her that caste is something which we are born with ..we cannot just cut it of from us like the umbical cord ..it sticks to us until death ..

Even now educated youth in India believe in commanding hefty sums of dowry ..where does all our education go then ..

all our stories of our increasing gdp , outsourcing etc ..will be a sham until we cannot address all these basic issues that plague us ..

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