Untouchability and our epic

Untouchability and caste divide continue to plague our nation even in the twenty first century. Reports on religious atrocities and caste problems are common place. We have a long way to go to achieve equality amongst all citizens of the society.

I have not read our epic Mahabharata thoroughly. But caste feelings are evident in this epic. Birth of Pandu and Dhritharashtra are examples of caste prejudice. Most of the off springs born of wedlock of people from different background in this epic were "kinky" characters and were looked down up on. Even Karna suffered discrimination and humiliation by Pandavas as he was the adopted child of a charioteer.

Most Indians have grown up listening to stories from Mahabharata. How are we going to get rid of the scourge of castism and untouchability which has been deeply ingrained in our psyche for generations ?

Comments

  1. prasadgcJune 19, 2009 at 7:53 PM

    Every time I think I would like to read something from Hindu literature, I am shocked and taken aback at the casteism in virtually every sentence. Descriptions of people and the way people address each other are always with respect to their caste. If we remove caste references from our scriptures, will there be anything left??

    That's why I like to say my bible is a science textbook :-).

    gcp

    ReplyDelete
  2. tolifetolifelachaimJune 28, 2009 at 7:17 AM

    Dear Subbu,

    I have read Mahabharatha, fully, Tamil version, would say seveal times, when I was young... Birth of Pandu and Dhritharashtra is not because of caste prejudice... if you want to know the details about how Dhritharashtra was born blind and Pandu had a white skin disease.. I can write to you in a separate mail.

    In my view, we cannot give examples of Mahabharatha or the Hindu sciptures for the problem that persists today....

    You will not believe, there exists even today the divide among christians too somewhere near Vellore, very recently I read an article in the BBC website...
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8090009.stm

    I also feel sad why such a thing exists in this 21st century. It might take may be another 100years before this disappears from India, one of the ways would be would be to drop the surnames, which I have done.....

    ReplyDelete

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