Racism, castes and shame

These days, UK is commemorating the bicentenary of the 1807 Abolition of Slave Trade Act. Newspapers coverage of Blair's message to Ghana highlighted his (implicit) refusal to apologise for Britain's role in slavery since he had only expressed "deep sorrow and regret" for the suffering of the people. Later this was followed by a protester interrupting the church service attended by the Queen to demand an apology.

However, what made an impact on me, was viewing a documentary, "Racism - A History" on BBC 4 on March 28. Here is BBC press office's description

"Filmed in Australia, the United States, India and Southern Africa, A History Of Racism turns its attention to the development of eugenic theories and explores the historical connections between the colonial genocides of the 19th century and one of the pivotal events of the 20th: the Holocaust.

The programme begins by examining the violence perpetrated on native races by the early European settlers in Tasmania. These atrocities were given legitimacy in the middle of the 18th century with the development of "Social Darwinism". This new theory applied the principle of "the survival of the fittest" – previously used to account for natural selection in the animal world – to human society. It was hard to ignore the fact that, as Europe's Empire-builders spread across the globe, the pre-existing populations of the countries they colonised had a tendency to perish.

Social Darwinism presented the extinction of these "weaker" human races as an inevitable and entirely "natural" consequence of their racial inferiority. The theory provided a pretext for the domination, exploitation and even extermination of the so-called "darker races" in the Pacific, South East Asia and Southern Africa for years to come."

The documentary turned out to be thought- provoking and deeply disturbing. So much so, that at the end, my wife made a comment, "I am ashamed of the 'white' blood that I carry." But I remained silent.

Silent because of a phrase used in describing the mindset of the Social Darwinians and Eugenicists - ".... a hierarchy of races ..."

Silent because then it had struck me that our glorious Indian Caste System was same in essence. Not that this was absolutely new knowledge. Thrust of an intellectual fencer would be that originally castes were based on occupation and not on birth. I know that, too. Two years ago, I gave a presentation on the subject to a bunch of 12-14 year olds at Lycee Francaise in London; and I took great pains to explain the origins of the 'Varna' system. Pity that then no kid asked me the question which I asked myself now ... Forget the origins; what is the reality in the here and now? Isn't is a form of racism? And I was forced to admit to myself, the answer is, "Yes, casteism is a form of racism."

Silent because suddenly I was ashamed. It just wasn't enough that I can claim to personally not have discriminated against anyone on basis of caste. Ashamed that I hadn't done enough; ashamed that whenever a non- Indian had commented on the evils of the present day caste- system, I had made the issue sound smaller than what it is, either by pointing to the origins or to highlight the progress made in the past few decades.

Perhaps, it was because of the pride I take in Indian and Hindu heritage; may be I was motivated by a desire to 'protect' India and Hindu culture and society. Now I think that pride/ nationalism was misplaced. Truer pride lies in acknowledging and righting the wrongs.