Diary of Mahesh-03: Two extremities of boundaries by Swapnil Saundarya
SWAPNIL SAUNDARYA e-zine
Vol- 09, Year - 2021, SPECIAL ISSUE
Presents
Diary of Mahesh S Magi-03
'Two extremities of boundaries'
Published by
Aten Publishing House
'The Bold Brigade’, a collective to celebrate the Inclusive Power of Arts.
Two extremities of boundaries
ಇವನಾರವ ಇವನಾರವ ಇವನಾರವನೆಂದು ಎನಿಸದಿರಯ್ಯ.
ಇವ ನಮ್ಮವ ಇವ ನಮ್ಮವ, ಇವ ನಮ್ಮವನೆಂದು ಎನಿಸಯ್ಯ.
ಕೂಡಲ ಸಂಗಮದೇವಾ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಮಗನೆಂದು ಎನಿಸಯ್ಯ.
Don’t make (me) think, “Whose is this man ? Whose is this man ? Whose is this man ?”
Make (me) think, “This is our man. This is our man. This is our man.”
Oh the Deity of kUDala saMgama, make (me) think that “I am a son of Your house.”
- Basavanna
ಕುಲ ಕುಲ ಕುಲವೆಂದು ಹೊಡೆದಾ ಡದಿರಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ
ಕುಲದ ನೆಲೆಯನೆನಾದರೂ ಬಲ್ಲಿರಾ ಬಲ್ಲಿರ IIಪII
Kula kula kulavendu hodedaadadiri
nimma kulada neleyanenaadaru ballira || pa ||
-Kanakadas
These are two renowned social reformers from Karnataka, who stood against casteism in 12th and 15th century.
Basavanna was born into an orthodox Brahmin family at Basavana Bagewadi in today's Bijapura district of Karnataka in 12th century. He was a highly respected minister at the court of King Bijjala of Kalyani Chalukyas who ruled most parts of north Karnataka. He revolted against the caste system in the Hinduism and even coined a new religion called “Lingayats" (not gained religion status officially) to create a casteless society. He brought up all the castes which are socially exploited by other castes (Varna). He brought up all the castes under one umbrella and gave strong social status to everyone and even promoted inter caste marriages.
In same way in 15th century one more person from shepherd community named Kanakadasa wrote many poems on casteism to eradicate the discrimination based on one's caste.
Unfortunately, their efforts doesn’t made much difference in society, maybe because human beings are born with superego called supremacy. They just wanted to be superior among all in nature/in same race. That is continued for long period in post India’s independence. Lawmakers came up with constitutional rights to give equality status to all the socially exploited and excluded communities by providing reservations in many areas like Education, jobs, farming etc. A large number of schemes have been provided then and now to uplift the status and make the vulnerable communities socially strong. But once you see the overall
efforts from 12th to 21st century, the result is like not even close to the point what those social reformers intended to achieve.
In the era of social media, casteism is spreading like wild fire. Social Media like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter etc. have one group of various castes/communities and they speak disgusting about others, degrade the people who belongs to other castes/communities and spread hatred with fake posts and rumours. Sometimes I feel, human race can reach anywhere in this universe with their forward thinking but they can't get rid of the pathetic mindset that is filled with the venom of social evils like casteism and discrimination.
Despite achieving a high standard and degrees, most of the people are very curious to know about the caste of others. for this, they will ask so many personal questions, especially their surname...then they will try to ask about relatives or some one they know..... sometimes they feel no hesitation to ask directly about anyone's caste. I don’t understand the need and intentions behind such ridiculously worthless questions. In our society, the elderly people are more prone to such activities. They are excessively curious to get all the personal details by hook or by crook. This needs to be changed. We should learn to accept any individual as a 'human being' irrespective of his/her caste and religion. The things we all should consider and appreciate are individual's personality, behaviour, character, thoughts and actions along with their talent.
Here, at this point I want to give some real incidents which happened to my dear and near ones.
Friend of mine who worked in the US over years and when he planned to settle back in India, he purchased agricultural land in nearby village to one of the metropolitan city. He wasn’t aware of what sort of people he is interacting with in that village. The deal has finalised but it came up with some serious arguments with his neighbor farmer over the farm border issue. At the end of this argument, the other farmer got settled for money as he took advantage of his caste and intimidated my friend to extreme level. It was like you’re paying a fine for the mistake of others.
One more real incident that happened at my village was like a work of fiction but ironically, its a bitter truth.
Again its about a fight between two farmers over road, which was privately owned by first farmer. The second farmer was using that road on the courtesy of first farmer. The second farmer wanted to make road by passing the agricultural land of the other farmer illegally by producing fake permission documents from local authorities. When the first farmer objected over that and went to police station for the illegal action conducted by the latter, the second farmer urged for some time to repair the damage done by him. In the meantime, the second farmer subcontracted this work to someone else. When the first farmer has asked about all that, the latter imposed everything on subcontractor. A disgusting argument has started immediately over the work with subcontractor who belonged to a "reserved" caste. The second farmer took advantage of this and asked the subcontractor to file a fake complaint about the racial and caste abuse which was not happened.
The points that I want to highligh with the above situations are:
In first case, both farmers had an argument and their argument has ended itself. But someone from the village brainwashed the other farmer and instigated to take advantage of his caste.
The second situation is more like the first one, but here, the subcontractor was true to himself and he didn’t listened to anybody.
So, he didn't file a fake complaint.
With these two incidents, a question that raises in my mind is:
Does superiority, caste or the 'privileges' that we are getting because of our castes (be it upper or lower caste) make us blind to the social circumstances of others?
People leaves no stone unturned to exploit others for their selfish motives and for this, they can stoop to any level with their Superiority and vulnerability. These kind of incidents are happening everywhere.
Everyone wants to talk about it, not to address the issue but to use such sensitive issues to fulfill their desires and continue their factory of producing "INHUMANITY".
It's like- 'No one can make a single joke about my caste but ridiculing every other caste is totally cool.'
It's Harsh.... But It's Reality.
It's hypocrisy and irony that still exist within our country 'Bharat'.
Truly yours,
Mahesh S Magi
Mahesh S Magi is working in IT Industry from last 10 years in Bengaluru. He has graduated in Engineering from VTU Belgaum and earned Executive MBA degree from IIM-Bangalore (Indian Institute of Management). He is an avid reader and has a flair for literature, cooking, farming and listening music. He is currently researching on the new methods and techniques to promote organic farming in rural areas of south India.
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