'Today's youth is more biased about caste'

Ramta

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Human rights activist and documentary film-maker, Stalin K, became intensely involved with untouchability when he made his first documentary film, Lesser Humans, on manual scavenging nearly a decade back. Now, in his latest documentary, Indian Untouched: Stories of a People Apart, he exposes the continued oppression of Dalits and the widespread existence of caste system across Sikhism, Islam and Christianity. Caste, he tells Meenakshi Kumar, is as much a part of modern India, as it was in the past:

What was the idea behind the film?
The fact that everybody denied the existence of untouchability. The film is an attempt to wake up people from this denial and make them realise that it exists, naturally and sublimely. The point is made so clear when a child in the film says that he knows he is a Dalit but he does not know who told him so.

You travelled across different states to shoot the film. What was the most amazing discovery during the making of the film? What were the shocking ones?
The children. Their inability to figure out who told them about their caste but at the same time their complete awareness of the whole issue was simply mind-boggling. On the other hand, what really was a sad experience was to find that untouchability exists in Sikhism, a religion which was founded as an answer against the caste divisions of Hinduism. In Amritsar, we found a Gurudwara which had two separate doors, one was meant for the Mazhabi Sikhs and the other for the Jat Sikhs. There have been cases where Mazhabi Sikhs have tried to take offerings from the other door and were beaten up. One was aware of untouchability in islam and Christianity but to discover it in communist Kerala was shocking. They even have separate cemeteries for the untouchables there. Even worse is its existence among different sub-castes in Dalits. Again, there are instances where a Harijan boy has refused to drink water from a Valmiki boy.

Is the youth more aware and untouched by untouchability?
On the contrary, the youth is more biased today. They feel that if we talk about untouchability and caste system, we will perpetuate it. This mindset is much more common among the urban youth. And they take such a stand because they have not been given a platform to discuss and debate. Even in a prestigious institution like JNU in Delhi, it is a revelation to see caste system work.

How can a film like yours address this serious issue?
At least the discussion on reservations will go one step further. Right now, the discussion is, where is caste? Hopefully, the film will help in stopping us from denying its existence. This can help in moving discussions to real grounds.

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Read the purpled part in the above interview.

Don't talk to me of any casteless society in India -- where even Muslims and Christians demand reservations for their OBCs. One of the greatest modern Sikh leaders, Master Tara Singh, petitioned the GoI to provide special benefits to Harijan Sikhs! He was also one of the founding members of the VHP! Why didn't anyone challenge Tara Singh's demand vis-a-vis Harijan Sikhs? What's a Khatri, Jat, Shimbae, Ramgarhia, Kumiar...? What's written in scriptures, isn't what Indian society follows...

Every one knows that Sikh have not ceased practicing caste-system. Sikhs marry with Hindus of the same caste, while they still avoid marriage with Sikhs of different castes. Likewise, Sikh politics is largely divided along caste lines, e.g. the Akali movement is one of Jat Sikhs, shunned by low-caste Sikhs (who are called Mazhabi Sikhs, that is, Sikhs by religion alone, e.g. former Congress minister Buta Singh) and by the higher Khatri and Arora and Bedi castes to which the Gurus belonged.

What pains me is no Sikh organisation -- SGPC, Akal-Takht, Saccha Sauda, etc. -- is ever heard or seen organising demonstrations or movements to educate the masses against this social evil and also educate them about the great rennaisance of Indian society that took place under the guidance of the Guru's. All their time and energy is spent issuing diktats regarding Kesh-Pagg-Sikh-are-not-Hindu diplomacy.

It's a pity but thats precisely what happens once people like Nanak or Buddha leave. What they tauight also disappears from the earth because the intellectuals immediately grab it and they start making beautiful ideologies out of it — neat and clean, logical. In that very effort they destroy its beauty. They create philosophies, and religion disappears. The granthi, the pundit, the scholar, the theologian, is the enemy of religion. Belive me.

Thanks

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pps309

Prime VIP
Sahi gal aa.............Je Sikh akhounde aa ta Jaat-Paat ta koi role nahi hona chaeeda jindagi ch.


Somehow i feel Sikhism is bigger than a religion. It is not a religion it is a way of life.

Koi galti hove ta maaf kar deyo.......
 
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