As Indians, there is one aspect in our daily lives, which we face everyday, and which we bear silently in pain. Caste based reservations.
Pain. It is pain. Because through it, millions suffer lost opportunities due to no fault of their own. Why? Because they despite being poor don't get any help because they belong to a higher caste. On the other hand, in many cases, people with a comparatively richer background get all the opportunities they want as they are from the depressed classes.
Something is gravely wrong .
The division of caste in India was actually a division of labour, "varnashram" as it was called, profession being passed on from father to son through the ages. Over the period of time, it got mutilated into a system of society division, a tool for the powerful and influential for their vested interests. And this got deteriorated into a permanent divisive force in the Hindu society which continues till today.
The magnitude of the suffering the religion and the country bore because of this cannot be measured by anyone. This paved the way for various evils to set in, of the society being divided in the face of attack from invaders, of people being lost and in turn them joining the enemy forces, and ultimately ensuring that a very large section of the Hindu society does not remain Hindu even while being included in it.
One cannot deny the fact that resentment towards the Hindu fold has been growing in Dalits for centuries. The advantage of this was taken to the fullest by the missionary religions. A very huge part of people that were lost due to conversions were from the dalit fold. In case of any external aggression, this was amongst the first bastions to fall. Kerala , for example is less than 50% hindu, and things will only get much worse in other states as well.
It is atleast a matter of pride that every great leader who emerged in this country strived his best for this evil to go away. The society unfortunately never heeded to it. It is a sad fact that no effort was made by the upper castes at any point of time to stop the monotheistic religions from pulling dalits into their fold. On the contrary, they had the attitude of "good riddance".In modern India , very stellar efforts were made from the likes of Sri Narayana Guru and later Jyotirao Phule for the upliftment of the depressed classes, as the never supported the idea that the benefit of the dalits lies in distancing themselves from the Hindus.
But all that changed in the twentieth century, with the emergence of the Dr B.R Ambedkar, who made his conclusion that the root of the problem lies in Hinduism itself and Dalits can never be human being s if they continue in its fold. He became the most revered figure for the depressed classes and has been criticized by various sections, the reasons being his hatred of Hinduism (his hatred was much more for the monotheistic faiths, a fact that has been cleverly covered up by the secular brigade and today's Dalit leaders), his non participation in the freedom movement and his insistence to his followers to do the same( as he thought that unless social justice is achieved, political freedom is useless) and his hostility to the mainstream Indian leaders at that time.
To give him due credit, India has to be grateful to him eternally, for not choosing any semetic /monotheistic religion for converting himself ad his followers, but instead choosing to revive a religion which had been wiped out India seven centuries ago. Otherwise India would have paid a far far heavier price.
The Constitution of India, which was drafted by a committee headed by him, has made provisions to promote equality, e.g.
In fundamental rights it includes:-
Prohibition of discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth (Article 15)
Abolition of untouchability (Article17)
Part 16 of the constitution which deals with special provisions relating to certain classes includes:-
Reservation of SC/ST in house of people (Article 330)
Reservation of SC/ST in Legislative Assemblies (Article 332)
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