HUMAN BEING a social animal, caste was created by people for betterment of society. The caste system is a hierarchal process. There were mainly four types of castes in society, namely, Brahmin, Khyatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. These four categories were formed on the basis of their work in the early days. Like priests who had the knowledge of Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagawats etc were considered Brahmins. Those who worked for the defence of the state and kingdom were known as Khyatriya. Those who served the people by way of business were categorised as Vaishya. And those who served all these three upper class/caste were called Sudras or the lower caste.
The caste system was adopted in a positive manner to divide the people to perform their duty in a better way and a healthy society was formed. But now the caste system has become a symbol of evil for society. Sudras were treated as untouchables from then to now. They are doing the same kind of work today also; nothing has changed for them. The superior people, the Brahmins, enjoyed a lot of facilities and after them came the Khyatriyas and then Vaishyas. But these opportunities were not applicable for Sudras.
Today this tradition has a negative impact on the people. A big fish created problems for other small fishes inside the pond/river. This is appropriate for the lower caste people. They are living under the upper caste people. The untouchables are not enjoying facilities like better education, medical treatment, social status etc.
One day I was giving some food to the municipality labourer who came to my home for cleaning our drain. My mother told me not to touch the person and I asked her why? She replied he was a Sudra which means an untouchable person. But I ignored her and touched that person while giving the food. Suddenly my mother shouted at me and told me to take a second bath because of that incident but I refused. Then she sprang some Ganga Water on me which means it was a "Shudhikaran". I was astonished at my mother’s attitude.
In another incident, my aunt (in Oriya Bada Maa) is a school teacher; she also behaved like my mother. If a teacher thinks in this way, then students will also behave in the same way. One day I had an argument with her and I told her that we are all human beings and the colour of blood for all was red. Nobody has a different colour of blood including animals and birds. So, why does untouchability prevail in our society? Can we change this system? She said ’No’, this has happened in the past, it is happening and now and will happen in the future. We can’t change our social system. If educated people think in this way, what will be the future of our society? Superiors will become more superior and will dominate inferior people.
No doubt the government had taken many steps for their betterment. But the percentage of success is very low. We have so many examples of lower caste people who made history but still we are unable to change ourselves. The great examples are Dr BR Ambedkar, he wrote our constitution, KR Narayanan, former president of India and many more.
Our society is polluted. For a healthy future we need to start the eradication in our family and only after that our future generations will breathe in fresh air. Then there will no caste system among us.
