An Alarm to Change!

 "I can't breathe, my neck is hurting!"

These, are the words of George Floyd which he said to the officers, before dying.

On 25th of May, 2020 this incident took place which triggered people to rise against racism and discrimination. Not only in the US but every other country in the world. People protested, came out on streets, with placards written Black Lives Matter on it. This was also seen on social media platforms. Many people including big celebrities supported this movement. Even in the NBA, we got to see players and staff supporting this movement. People were angry, outraged and infuriated.

But I want to ask something.

Did we change?

Did we stop discriminating?

Did we start giving the same respect to people who are discriminated on the grounds of race, colour, religion, even body shape and disability?

The answer is NO!

We live in a country where we worship more than 33 million gods, and we have many of them with a dark complexion. Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Lord Rama are some of the most worshipped gods whose complexion is dark, but that doesn't matter much to the people, because they are Gods. People don't discriminate gods based on their colour, but they do discriminate other people on that basis. WHY?

Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela are some of the black people who created history. They proved that complexion doesn't matter if you have the zeal to achieve greatness. But still, some dark-complexioned people are the victims of racism and discrimination.

But wait a minute, from where all this started? 

For the answer, we have to go back in history. Between 1525 and 1866, around 12.5 million people were kidnapped from Africa and sent to America through the transatlantic slave trade and this gave birth to racism. White people had black people as their slaves and they were discriminated and humiliated. This was continued by the Britishers when they colonised many African and Asian countries. They used to treat people like they are inferior to them. 

Not only Americans or Britishers but in India too, racism started a long time ago. According to Vedas, in Ancient India, the caste system was divided into four parts- The Brahmins(priests, scholars and teachers), the Kshatriyas(rulers, warriors and administrators), the Vaishyas(agriculturalists and merchants) and the Shudras(labourers and service providers). During the Later Vedic Period, the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas were given a superior position and the Vaishyas and Shudras were at an inferior position. The Brahmins and Kshatriyas were given special positions in rituals and distinguished from both, the Vaishyas and Shudras. The Vaishyas were "oppressed at will" and the Shudras were "beaten at will."

So basically, if we look back at history, we would see that Indians were the one who started casteism and racism. It all started when the Aryans came to India in 1500 BC and divided the society according to the caste system.

In modern India, one can easily divide society into different categories, General caste, Scheduled caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The General caste people enjoy many benefits in India, so to protect the interests of other castes, the Government follows the policy of positive discrimination, i.e., there are reservations for the people belonging to these castes in schools, government jobs, colleges, etc. But is this enough?

In some villages of India, the Scheduled caste or the Dalits are considered as untouchables. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked".

Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls. India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. The main problem in India is the lack of enforcement, not laws. We have several laws to prevent crimes against lower caste people, but it's not enforced properly.

There is a proverb which says, first look inside yourselves and then blame others. We all discriminate people! If not on the basis of their race or caste, we discriminate and humiliate people on the basis of their appearance. Their colour, body shape, disability, etc. Just think for a minute, its human nature, we make fun of people based on their outward form, physical appearance. We body shame people who are too healthy or too thin, we crack jokes on people's complexion or disability. It's very easy to blame other people for their acts, but did we ourselves correct our mistakes?

By raising our voice against such injustice and correcting our own mistakes, we have the ability to make this world a better place, a place with equal opportunities and a world to live with peace. These issues are serious threats to humanity. It's never too late. Let's take a small step everyday and eventually we will get there!