Indian Emblem
The emblem of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, preserved in the Sarnath Museum. In the original Sarnath capital(which is currently situated in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) there are four Asiatic lions standing back to back – symbolizing power, courage, pride and confidence – mounted on a circular abacus. The abacus is girded with a frieze of sculptures in high relief of an elephant (of the east), a horse (of the south), a bull (of the west), and a lion (of the north), separated by intervening wheels, over a lotus in full bloom, exemplifying the fountainhead of life and crea ive inspiration. Carved out of a single block of polished sandstone, the capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma Chakra). In the emblem adopted by the government in 1950 only three lions are visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus, with a bull on the right and a galloping horse on the left, and outlines of Dharma Chakras on the extreme right and left. The bell-shaped lotus beneath the abacus has been omitted.
Emperor Ashoka the Great erected the capital to mark the spot where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma and where the Buddhist Sangha was founded. Forming an integral part of the emblem is the motto inscribed below the abacus in Devanagari script: Satyameva Jayate: Truth Alone Triumphs. This is a quote from Mundaka Upanishad, the concluding part of the sacred Hindu Vedas. This National Emblem was adopted on 26 January 1950, the day that India became a republic.
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How Lofty the ideals and great the dream for such a civilization that this emblem symbolizes. And how unfortunate that it is just that, a distant dream. I am sure it did represent such a glorious nation when it was erected in 3rd century BC by Emperor Asoka when all of India was a Buddhist nation. However today’s Hindu India bears the dubious distinction of a Hundred and Fifty million Dalits/Untouchables, living with no human rights, another hundred million tribes, left in the forests and quarantined from civilization, half a billion Indians marked as Backward castes (Sudras), robbed of dignity and also another 150 million Muslims, about hundred and fifty million, who are branded as enemy number one and fare no better or are worse off than the untouchables (Condition of Poor Muslims Worse than Dalits). Conclusion therefore can’t be anything else but accepting the fact that the emblem stands in stark contrast to the society that it represents and bears witness to mockery that goes on under the name of “World’s Largest Democracy”.
I write this post in light of a recent episode of a talk show of the same name ‘Satyameva Jayate‘ hosted by Bollywood star Aamir Khan. He uses this show to bring to the forefront social and moral issues that the country is facing and gives his guests and audience to express the views on the same. This particular episode is really interesting because he opens up the topic of Untouchability which has never been given any such platform or weight-age by Main stream media. The show itself is in Hindi but for someone who is aware of the issue, following the visual narrative should be easy.
This show helps me answer a question that some of you have asked:
Most of you after reading my blog or attending my talks have exclaimed – “If this really is that big of an issue and affects this many millions how has it been possible to keep it under the wraps”. Pretty much what you are saying is that you believe the underlying concept of caste system, its workings and different ways it manifests but you still have a doubt if I am giving you facts as they are or if I was exaggerating!
The answer is very simple, upper castes own the media, they only show and tell what is most favorable to them. So this post is not to elaborate on that answer but this post is to show how this topic did come out, and how it got visibility at a national level and how it shows that Indians themselves are not privy to the existence of Untouchability and Caste discrimination in their own backyard!
So, without further ado here is a quick synopsis of the show,
Guest-1 : The show starts with a Dalit professor Dr. Kaushal Pawar, who in spite of enduring all the hardships as an untouchable rose to prominent intellectual and professional status. It is a heart wrenching story that brings tears as she speaks of the struggles she faced throughout her life and still does!
Guest-2: 20 minute mark. Dalit officer Balwant Singh of Indian Administrative Services. Who explains how his theory that Untouchability would be a phenomenon seen only in rural, uneducated society came crashing down when he himself endured such discrimination in his own office from his peers, subordinates and even the peons! Got the whole nine yards of separate glass and mockery when clients came to visit him and hesitated to speak or respect him cause he was a ‘Chamar’. He concludes the clip by saying that his hardwork, success and position could only be a tool for his livelihood but not a means to earn self respect and dignity. He promptly resigned! What a tragedy!
Host Aamir khan definitely brings a nice spin and makes it current when he mentions that it has been 5 decades since resignation of Balwant Singh and takes the viewers and the audience on a journey to discover today’s India and to see if we have been able to come far from the dark ages of mid 20th century!Guest-3: 24 minute mark. Parliamentarian Mr. B. L. Puniya. Who was an IAS officer and now is the Chairman of ‘National Commission For Scheduled Castes’. In June 2011, he was introduced to the fate of an O! So Common issue of temple entry by Dalits. Where three Dalit girls had entered the Kali temple to seek blessings and based on that digression Dalits of the village were under a social and economic boycott. It is also mentioned how the temple has a board that says that Dalits are restricted from entering the temple. Anyways the story ends with Parliamentarian and Chairman of NCST taking the Dalits of the village on a march to the temple and enters it but only till the open area, cause the priests had locked the inner house of the temple and hence denied them the opportunity to view the Goddess. And this after media brought nation wide attention to this mishap. The reason the priests did what they did is because they are bound by religion and religious tenets, Any other law was secondary to them.
Moving on, A whole slew of Indians are questioned if Caste based division is still present in Indian and in their own fashion every single one of the vouched that it is a thing of the past, not even to be seen in the villages and something for which the younger generation has no time or appreciation! If you had ever heard a more vociferous supporters of equality these were them! Irony!Guest-4: 27 minute mark. Stalin Padma, Producer and Director of the movie India Untouched, which I so often refer to in my blogs, and which does great justice in highlighting rampant Untouchability in India. THis section of the show goes on with snippets from his video which he uses to answer questions from Aamir Khan around existence of Untouchability, its manifestation in Rural and Urban India, its percolation into different religions, religious background that this practice has, and the interconnection between Arranged marriages and maintenance of Caste System. This might be an easy follow for non Hindi speaking audience cause the clips from India Untouched have English Sub-Titles. He ends his session by condemning the biased mainstream media for turning a blind eye to this issue for 65 long years and as a smack on the host’s face, congratulates him (Aamir) for having brought this topic to light!
Guest-5 & 6: Dalit, Rampal Suwasiya braving the odds and going against the norm and living for dignity and questioning the age old tradition of not letting a horse led procession of the Groom into the village. With help from an honest, liberated police officer Manvender Singh, he was able to break an age old barrier.
Later guests moved onto more philosophical and social work oriented chat. So I will skip them
With this show we have a few advantages and then some shortcomings:Advantages:
1. Of course the obvious is that this issue has been brought to the forefront and presented to a national audience even if it is for just an hour.
2. It brought out the grave issue of Indians not realizing the cancer that their body and minds are riddled with.
3. Advocates for Human Rights like me and others outside the country can use this as a means to show to sympathizers the reality and seriousness of the issue.
Shortcomings:
1. But for a fleeting glance of Dr. Ambedkar no mention was made of him or the struggle he had undergone to uplift the Dalits and achieve Social Democracy in India
2. Deeper focus on the religious cause was not explored, nor were people prodded to soul search and find the conflicts a Hindu society presents when trying to realize Human Rights and equality for all its members
Hope this helped in further bringing the issue of Untouchability and Caste Bias to light and acknowledging that the issue, just at its face value, is as grave as I present it in my blog!
Jai Bhim! (A rally call used by followers of Dr. Ambedkar)
Whenever someone’s ask you about your caste then your answer should be to them is:
I am a Brahmin in knowledge
I am kshatriya in valor
I am vaishya in business
I m shudra in service
In the end I am just sanatam dharmi hindu and nothing else..Then say you proud to be a hindu..
Many a time, man has taken birth in high caste and low caste; but this does not make him great or lowHaving been born in high caste man thinks himself to be great and being born in low caste thinks himself to be low and pitiable; both of these states of mind are wrong because many times man has been born in high and low castes. Hence, one should not be proud of having been born in high caste and not feel low if born in low caste family.
Greatness has nothing to do with high caste. Man becomes great because of his noble work, exemplary character and becomes loathsome because of his immorality and evil conduct. Thus, it is his conduct only that decides his greatness or lowliness. Who does not know that high family born Ravana, Kansa, Duryodhana and others are censurable; whereas Metarya muni, Harikeshi muni and others, though born in low family, are venerable.Then, what is the importance of high or low caste?
We always talk about religion and castesim but in reality there is no any caste and religion. We all are same our blood are same.then why we believe in discrimination. God never created any caste they made simple human being.. Mentally sick people take the path of fundamentalism and spread casteism and communism. They suffer from inferiority complex and divide the society into “we” and “they”. They (belonging either to higher or lower ranked caste) have a fear in their heart that if they do not get a higher place for themselves in society, “other” people are going to exploit them and going to put them down.They don’t have believe on themselves and their own work. They have doubt own their capability. People with negative mindset suffer from inferiority complex and divide society into compartments like higher castes or lower castes.and can’t tolerate “others” progress or well-being. They cannot work hard and cannot tolerate anybody else’s achievements. These are the people with negative mindset who believe in ranking some belonging to higher castes and/or some to lower castes. They are coward and they are unable to protect themselves…
All human-beings are equal in the eyes of God.The human-beings have only created the caste system.There are good and bad people in both high caste as well as low caste.
Ultimately,what matters to God is, whether one is a good person or striving to become one, or not.
One who thinks himself to be of a high caste is actually low. While one who thinks himself/herself to be of low caste is said to be high caste.As per the scriptures, people are known by their nature and the quality of work they perform..
Inter caste marriage should be encourage..bcoz if people take this step then castesim and religion based discrimination should be stop itself..we all are human being..God never created any caste and religion..even God dnt has any caste and religion…did you know that God belong to which caste and religion..then keep shut your mouth about this stupid varan system and caste system okh.. In ancient times, caste system had the seeds of liberalism. It provided the right and opportunity to get to the top from the humblest origin and earn the respect of the whole society. For example, Vashishtha, the principal of the conservative school of Brahmanism, was the son of Uravshi, a prostitute. Vishwamitra, the maker of the very Gayatri Mantra, the quintessence of the Vedic Brahmanism, was a Kshatriya. Aitreya, after whom the sacramental part of Rig-Veda is named as Aitreya Brahamana, was the son from a non-Aryan wife of a Brahman sage. Vyasa of Mahabharata fame was the son of a fish-woman and he was not ashamed of his origin. Balmiki, an untouchable according to present standards, the original author of Ramayana, is highly respected all over India..And only you can make it good or bad this inter caste marriage. Depends upon how much importance u give to these meaningless and stupid values. And how much importance u give to other people who value these meaningless things. U have to see how much u urself r attached to other people opinions. And since u r asking for opinion, it means u r attached to these meaningless things.
What steps can be taken to convince the people to accept the inter-caste marriages trend?
It is the responsibility of the younger generation to make their elders realize that the rigid caste system is morbid and has a dark future ahead. The youngsters can take various steps on their part to demolish this system:
• The girl or boy should be introduced as a friend to the family and be allowed to earn their love and respect
• The qualities of the person you love should be highlighted in front of the family members
• Try and learn the customs of each other’s caste. This will enable you to earn the love of the family members
• Try and show your family members how this kind of systems are obstructing the progress of the nation….
Gone are the days when marriages were executed by parents; The times when a Punjabi marrying a Punjabi or a Bengali marrying a Bengali was the norm. Welcome to 2013 where inter-caste marriages are quickly becoming the season’s flavors and why shouldn’t they? Everyone knows that India is a diverse land that boasts of being a mother to different cultures. But what’s the point of having so many different cultures when people snarl at the very thought of their integration?
There is something new to learn in different cultures and we, as Indians should feel proud of having such a strong and traditional backbone with us.
But when some of these people get offended at the thought of their son/daughter marrying into a different caste, a sense of anger sweeps me.
What is the problem in a South Indian marrying a Punjabi or vice-versa? Why do educated people talk like uneducated pigs when their family member steps out of his/her caste for marriage? Why do people have to be such haters?
In my opinion, an inter caste marriage should be applauded by one and all as the amalgamation of different cultures will put an end to mindless racism and discrimination on the basis of caste in our exotic land. Wouldn’t you want your next generation to be more peace loving and more socially acceptable to different kinds of people in the world? So, are you ready to take the plunge and applaud inter-caste marriages?
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Be a nice human being is important not to have a good or high religion and caste.We need to work towards uniting the nation instead of splitting it. Work towards a society in which there will be no lower castes and no upper castes. We need to respect the way people live instead of looking at where they were born.
All Hindu communities in the country follow the varnashram system of Aryans and have divided the society in four castes – Kshatryas, Brahmins, Vaishyas and Shudras. Sindhis do not have such division in their society. They never followed a rigid caste system. That is why Sindhis are considered to be only businessmen. All members of the society inter-mingle with one another without any consideration of four castes of Aryans. There are no untouchables in Sindhis…..These religion and caste set up by mad and stupid people to control others not by god…who are still mentally sick they are following this castesim blindly..i must say be like all sindhi..leave these castesim and make only one hindu religion like sindhi religion dont create any caste,community and class…bcs its only give you tension and create problems for your own self..
who divided society into caste line……only stupid and mentally sick hindu..first change your thinking that all people as a human being so the system ll be change itself understood..be like sindhi religion, make one religion and killed the bloody varan system n caste system…you ll b more happiest person in this world if you all mad hindu change ur narrow minded thinking about these caste n class…Because “I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being–neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there’s no question of integration or intermarriage. It’s just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.”
My this comment to katar hindu and coward brahmin who haven’t gut to fight for their own love but strange thing is they easily fell in love with other caste girls but dont have got for fight back..
What you are doing now is not fair.You are not giving any importance to your gal’s feelings.How can you avoid a gal whom you loved for past 4 years at this stage of your life where you need to take serious decisions?If you lack the courage to introduce the matter before your parents,then i can say you are a coward.If you are that much concerned about your parents,you could have think it earlier before you started your love.At least that gal is saved from you.But you gave her all hope,she loved you sincerly as her man and now you want your parents only.
I am not making you sad.I know that parents are important and they are like God.But this is not at a good solution.You are keeping things hidden from everyone.You are the only son of your parents – that means their only asset for future.So cant they understand your feelings towards that gal?Initially they may be against.But you can convince them slowly.How can you close your true affair even without a single try?Go man,get ready to take some risk for your loved one.Pls dont ignore her.Its like killing her.She made her family ready for you,its your turn now.I hope things will be fine at last.
Whenever someone’s ask you about your caste then your answer should be to them is:I am a Brahmin in knowledge,I am kshatriya in valor,I am vaishya in business,I m shudra in service.
In the end I am just sanatam dharmi hindu and nothing else..Then say you proud to be a hindu……..can u tell me onething kya knowledge sirf brahmino ke paas hi hoti hai kshritya,vaishya,shudra or other religion duffer hote hai..or valor kya kshtriya hi hote hai jb log danger mein hote hai toh kya brahmin vaishya,shudra or other religion apni raksha nhi kr skta..or business sirf vaishya hi kr sakte hai kya brahmin kshtriya shudra business nhi kr skte..or shurda hi servant or labour kyun kre jb work ki zarurat hoti hai toh kya brahmin kshtriya vaishya servant ban jayenge toh unko muath aa jayegyi or other religion ko kaam ki zarurat hoti hai toh har chota bada kaam kr lete hai family ko palne ke liye…or who the hell we r yeh category banane wale…kisi ko uske religion caste se judge krne wale…or forcibly kisi ko work thopne wale…insaan wohi kaam krega jis mein uska interest ho or jo kaam krne ki capabilty uss mein ho….we r the one idiot katar hindu…killed the castesim before it killed u all..
Always remember one thing in ur life when u abuse any lower caste by saying dalit n chamaar then u abusing yourself n ur own religion..bcoz if u accepted that hindu religion is one n hindu religion devided into four community like:brahmin,kshatriya,vaishya,shudra…shudra means pure (pure from soul n heart)..then let me remind u fourth community also come under hindu religion they are also hindu to whom u abuse as dalit n chamaar…so you are not abusing them but abusing yourself n your own religion too..
You cannot put people in high and low rank the basis of religious belief and caste. But those people do this who has a problem in their mind.
God doesn’t need Brahmin priest, god isn’t so narrow minded. god accept everyone. actually Brahmin priest needs god to make money.
The brahmin community has been one of the dirty communities which has planned strategically to fool people in the name of god by generating the highest donations in the temple, doing business to fool and loot money in the name of puja, death, marriage, new home… For any occasion, there’s one puja. They charge very high prices and take away all the items after the puja. They have created prostitution in the name of devadasis. They suppress jobs and employment and welfare and equality are destroyed. they have destroyed the Indian medical system. They have killed Indian medical science like siddha vaidhyam and created ayurveda and carnatic music by destroying dravidian music. Even today they have the temples under their control. They say they don’t like untouchables, but they have always been sexually harassing low caste women.
Hindu (body) four community: brahmin (head) kshatriya (arm) vaishya (belly) shudra (feet) All these four community called as hindu. We all are parts of one body. Without each part our body is not complete. If we lost one part of our body then we become handicap. The human body is the entire structure of a human being. Human Body is considered so loving that God even wants to have it. Spiritual Yogis have found that after going through the 84 millions species this souls get the most dignified human body. So it is the last step to explore the God or to get the view of almighty father god. We know that the soul never dies it takes birth again and again just like as we take new clothes to wear the soul as it takes new body and it is an infinite process. But the body what we get in next birth depend on our karma that thas been cited in Gita by Lord Krishna to Arjuna. We all here to perform our duties. Our action makes our destiny and nothing else. The result is in the hand of supreme power. Karma is the seed of plant and if the seed is genuine it must be fruitful.
Whole world think that India has many castes which are main reason of discrimination of people but its very very big misconception of caste system spread around the world to defame culture of India because it was the biggest systematically designed system for people from thousands of years. Now let me tell you what is meaning of varna and caste system in India and how its was started. In Ancient India there were two great saints, one was saint Bhrigu and other was saint Bhardwaj. They met to discuss how to structure a stable society for human being to live proper life, First they recognized the four sources which are:
1. Knowledge 2. Weapons 3. Wealth 4. Land
They decided to make system where nobody has more than one of that. These should not be in one hand, not even two should be in one hand. So those who has knowledge will not have wealth, will not have weapons and will not have lands. Those who will have weapons will rule the country but they will not make policy. They need to go to people having knowledge to seek their permission and advice. Those who are having wealth, their social status will be decided by the how much philanthropy they do not by their wealth. Those who has lands have to produce for the society. In fact none of these four category or “varna” was based on by birth.
But your assumption that if one has ‘a source’ they should not have the other is false. Brahmins can, and have the right to own all four sources and more. So effectively, they can be socially, financially and resourcefully mobile, but other castes can’t. Other castes, including Kshatriyas for example can never become priests. And also the whole system is flawed because the individual has no choice in assessing his own ability as to whether he is good with knowledge, weapons, wealth or land. They can’t pick and choose. They are assigned. And it is absurd that if you have one you can’t have the other, SO should we strip the Harvard grads of any and all wealth that they have because they have knowledge. Should we not allow farmers’ kids entry into schools and deny knowledge because they have land holdings. And what about military folks, since they have the means to hold weapons, should we not let them buy any land. Varna system per your occupation is fine, but what causes the issue is that, it transformed into caste and the occupation and the status that followed it got tied up with birth.