CASTE AND THE OUTCASTE ON THE EVE OF THE BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
It is not good enough to state that devotion to God purifies the lowly-born and the outcaste but their living conditions must be such that such statements become irrelevant. Why should the chandala have been so debased that he had to be a dog-eater? Was it not incumbent upon society to provide him with food that was the staple for the higher castes and, thus, not stigmatise him as a dog-eater? Where was the affirmation of the divinity of each and every sentient being that the Vedanta expounds when it came to denigrating the outcaste and passing patronising remarks about his possible absolution from such a fallen state through devotion to God? Was he not always the highest God who had forgotten his real Self or had been cast into such abysmal living conditions -- or, shall we say, dying conditions -- that he was forced unto such Self-oblivion?
Today we see lots of talk going on praising the Dalit and their mentor, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. But is it out of love for these fellow human beings who had been reduced to subhuman status for ages and continue to be oppressed so even today as so many instances of Dalit oppression amply exemplify, or is it merely to secure their votes to win elections, for the Dalit forms the majority of the Indian population? These are points to ponder on the eve of the birth anniversary of the one whose heart bled for these hapless creatures who have been discarded by God and devastated by man and have no place to go to but to death's door unless we as a nation awake to help build their self-respect and awareness as to their abilities and inherent divinity which no society in a patronising manner need give them, for it is their nascent, natural state, entirely entwined with their inner existence to which they have become alienated through the enforcement of circumstance which may be labelled as no better than inhuman.
Written by Sugata Bose
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