Will we ever leave caste, religion and gender?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine and she was excited at Meera Kumar being elected as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. She had shown me the same excitement when Prathiba Patel was elected as the President of India. She had hailed it as victory day for Indian women. I had then asked her “whom would you choose between a visionary leader and women leader? She was sane enough to reply that she would choose visionary leader.

I don't mean to sound like an anti-feminist but the question arises will we ever come out of the clutches of caste, religion and gender? The political fraternity is hailing the election of Meera Kumari as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. After all she is the first Dalit and first Women to have reached the post. The question is not limited to that of women being elevated to highest post in the temple of Indian Democracy but why are we promoting this divide even in the 21st Century?.

A Dalit, a Woman or a Muslim being made the President of India is made to look out as a certificate to the pluralism of Indian democracy. But the fact remains these are mere tokenism which have done more harm to the nation than good. Many might hail such tokenism a testament to the Indian pluralism but the truth is they always remind us of our harsh divide.

Among the Fundamental Rights that the Constitution of India grants 'Right to Equality' stands tall but isn't this abused in the name of pluralism. Why are reservations still given on the name of cast, religion and language? Why isn't a Muslim women entitled to maintenance after divorce just like her Hindu counterpart? Why are certain section sections of the society exempted from the income tax in the name of bringing them to forefront? Aren't we all equal under the purview of the Indian Constitution?

All this has meant that we have championed the cause of identity politics. The upper cast have always felt their rights are given to the backward casts and other religions in the name of social upliftment. This meant the upper castes always hated the lower castes and the lower castes in return looked at the upper caste with suspicion. The seeds of caste and religion based politics were sown here.

We can't even think of an India where a Hindu is the Minority Affairs Minister or a upper caste Brahmin a Minister of Tribal Affairs. We can't believe in 'Best Men For The Job' idea and are happy to see one among our won lead us to shambles as long as he prays to the same god and speaks the same language. We will never learn from the examples of how an Albania lady by the name of Mother Teresa did more humanitarian work in India than any other Indian. Had it been in the hands of our political class this wouldn't have been allowed. How can a foreign national understand the pain of common Indians?

It's high time we grow up as a nation and not sing praises for mere political tokenism and feel proud about our great democratic values. Let reform, development and progress be the word in place of caste, religion and gender.