Research Gateway

Abstract

Scanning through the slew of articles written in the aftermath of any election in India or any official Government of India appointment be it a new District Commissioner, a Chief Minister, even the President of India,or a court judgment like the recent 3G spectrum scam or even a traffic challan, one can’t help but see how nearly every socio-political event in this country is seen from the prism of caste. Don’t you wonder at times that if on the one hand caste is a ‘bad thing’ that has kept India from transforming into the world leader that it has the potential for, then how come most so-called senior journalists or editors try to fit (or retrofit) the caste angle into just about everything? Of course, they try to make this appear as an effort to decipher the complexities of the Indian society but this often comes at the cost of true equality, the very thing that the founding fathers of a newly independent India aimed for in 1947. Intriguingly enough, the passion with which some intra-religious complexities such as caste are explored in the name of fighting for equality is hardly at play when it comes to a triple talaq verdict or the call for a Uniform Civil Code.