What is
India
By Justice
Markandey Katju,
Chairman,
Press Council of India
(Extracts of a speech
delivered to N.R.I.s in California
We are all Indians, but do we know
what is India
(i) India
is broadly a country of immigrants, like North America . Over 92% people living in India are not the original inhabitants of India North West
(ii) Because India
is a country of immigrants like North America there is tremendous diversity in India
(iii) Despite the tremendous diversity in
India, by the interaction and intermingling of these immigrants who came into
India a common culture emerged in India which can broadly be called the
Sanskrit-Urdu culture.
(iv)
Because of the tremendous diversity in India
(v) India Europe . Only after going through that fire, in which
there were wars, revolutions, turmoil, intellectual ferment, chaos, social
churning, etc., modern society emerged in Europe .
India
(1) India is broadly a country of
immigrants, like North America . The difference between North America and
India is that North America is a country of new immigrants, where people came
mainly from Europe over the last four to five hundred years, India is a country
of old immigrants where people have been
coming in for 10 thousand years or so.
Why have people been coming into India India , except on two occasions namely (i) in the
19th century when under British rule Indian poor peasants were sent
to Fiji , Mauritius , West Indies ,
etc. as plantation labourers and (ii)
the Diaspora in the last 30-40 years or
so of highly qualified engineers, scientists, doctors, etc. Apart from this, nobody left India , everybody came into India
The reason is obvious. People migrate from uncomfortable areas to
comfortable areas, obviously, because everybody wants comfort. Before the Industrial Revolution which
started in Western Europe from the 18th century and then
spread all over the world there were agricultural societies everywhere. Agriculture
requires level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation, etc. All this was in abundance in the Indian sub
continent from Rawalpindi to Bangladesh India
to, say, Afghanistan India was really
paradise, hence everybody kept rolling into India ,
mainly from the North West
Who
were the original inhabitants of India Western Pakistan even today by about three million
people. The original inhabitants of
India, as it is believed now, were the pre-Dravidians tribals, who are called
adivasis or Scheduled Tribes in India
e.g. the Bhils, the Santhals, the Gonds, the Todas, etc., that is, the speakers
of the Austric, pre Dravidian languages e.g. Munda, Gondvi, etc. They are hardly seven or eight percent of the
Indian population today. They were
pushed into the forests by the immigrants and treated very badly. Except for them all of us are descendents of
immigrants who came mainly from the North West
of India Kalidas Ghalib Academy
(2)
Because India
is a country of immigrants there is tremendous diversity in India India
with China China China China
(3) Is India India India over the last 10
thousand years or so, by their interaction and intermingling created a common
culture which can broadly be called the Sanskrit- Urdu culture which is broadly
the culture of India
Now
this has to be explained. How are Tamilians part of Sanskrit Urdu culture, what
have the people of Nagaland got to do with Sanskrit and Urdu, etc.
The
answer is that we must first understand what is Sanskrit and what is Urdu? The reader may see in this connection my articles `What is Urdu’, `Great injusticeto Urdu in India’,
and `Sanskrit as a Language of Science’.
Both of these languages have been misunderstood. People think that Sanskrit is a language of
chanting mantras in temples or in religious ceremonies. However, that is only 5% of Sanskrit
literature. 95% of Sanskrit literature
has nothing to do with religion. It
deals with a whole range of subjects like philosophy, law, science (including
mathematics, medicine and astronomy) grammar, phonetics and literature. So we can not compare Bengali and Tamil with
Sanskrit. Bengali and Tamil have only
stories, novels and moral literature (like Thirukkural) but they do not have
any discussion on mathematics, law, medicine, etc. Sanskrit was the language of
people with an enquiring mind, who enquired about everything, and therefore
there is a whole range of subjects which have been discussed in Sanskrit. In the paper on the website kgfindia.com `Sanskrit
as a Language of Science’ all this has been discussed in detail, therefore, I
am not going into it here. I may,
however, just mention two things: one is the contribution of Panini and the
other is the contribution of the Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy.
What
we call Sanskrit today, and what is taught in schools and colleges is really
Panini’s Sanskrit, which is called classical Sanskrit or Laukik Sanskrit. But there were earlier Sanskrits. The earliest Sanskrit book is the Rigveda
which was composed anytime between 2000 or 1500 B.C (it was subsequently passed
on orally). Now language changes with
the passage of time. For instance if we
pick up a play of Shakespeare we will not be able to understand it without a
good commentary because the English language has changed over these 4½
centuries since the time of Shakespeare.
Many of the words and expressions which were in vogue in Shakespeare’s
time in English are not in vogue today. Similarly, Sanskrit language kept
changing for about 1500 years, from 2000
B.C. to the 5th century B.C.,
until Panini who, was the perhaps
greatest grammarian the world has ever seen, in his book ‘Ashtadhyayi’ fixed
the rules of Sanskrit in the 5th century B.C. Thereafter no further changes in Sanskrit
were permitted, except some slight
changes made by two other grammarians, one was a man called Katyayana who wrote
his book “Vartika’ written about 100-200 years after Panini, and another was
Patanjali who wrote his book ‘Mahabhashya’ about 200 years after
Katyayana. Except for these slight
changes, what is taught in schools and colleges is really Panini’s
Sanskrit.
What
Panini did was that he studied the crude Sanskrit prevailing in his time and he
rationalized it and meticulously systemized it, so as to make it a powerful
vehicle of expressing profound and abstract ideas.
Science
requires precision. Panini made
Sanskrit a powerful vehicle in which
scientific ideas could be expressed with
great precision and with great clarity
and it was made uniform all over India, so
that thinkers in one part of the sub-continent could interact with
thinkers of another part easily. That
was his great contribution.
I
may give one small illustration, since a discussion on Astadhyayi will take too much time. Take for example the alphabets in the English
language, from A to Z. Now they have all
been arranged in a haphazard manner. Why
is B followed by C, why is D followed by E.
There is no reason why F comes after E, why P is followed by Q or Q is
followed by R.
In
Sanskrit, on the other hand what Panini did was that he arranged the alphabets
in a very scientific manner. For
example, take the consonants. There is a
sequence ka, kha, ga, gha, nga (called
the `ka varga’). Now all these sounds
come from the throat. Also the
second and the fourth consonants in this sequence are what are known as
aspirants. An aspirants means a
consonant in which ‘ha’ is added. For
instance, ‘ka’ + ‘ha’ is ‘kha’, ‘ga’ +
‘ha’ is ‘gha’, etc. Similarly, the
second and fourth consonants in every sequence (of 5 consonants) is an
aspirant.
The
sounds in the second sequence of 5 consonants (the `cha varga’) ch, cha, ja, jha, yan all come from the
middle of the tongue. The sounds in the
`ta varga’ Ta, tha, da, dha, nda come from the
roof of the mouth, the sounds in the sequence ta, tha, da, dha, na come
from the tip of the tongue, the sounds in the sequence pa, pha, ba, bha, ma
come from the lips. We can see how
scientifically these consonants are arranged. Thus even in such a simple thing as
the arrangement of alphabets a careful and scientific study was done.
The
second contribution of Sanskrit to the development of rational and scientific
thinking was the Nyaya Vaisheshik
philosophy. There are six classical
systems of Indian philosophy, Nyaya, Vaisheshik,
Sankya, Yoga, Purva Mimansa and Uttar Mimansa, and three non-classical systems,
Buddhism, Jainism and Charvak. Out of
these nine systems eight of them are atheistic as there is no place for God in
them. Only the ninth one, that is Uttar
Mimansa, which is also called Vedanta, has a place for God in it. One of the classical systems is called the
Nyaya system. The Nyaya system says that
nothing is acceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience,
which is precisely the scientific approach.
Vaisheshik was the physics of
ancient times (the atomic or parmanu theory).
Physics is part of science, and hence at one time Vaisheshik was part of
Nyaya philosophy. However, since physics
is the most fundamental of all sciences
subsequently Vaisheshik was separated from Nyaya and made into a
separate philosophy altogether.
It was the Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy
which provided the scientific background and gave great encouragement to our
scientists to propound their scientific theories. People in our country were not persecuted
for being scientists, unlike in Europe where
scientists were burnt on the stake like Bruno for propounding their scientific
theories. Galileo was almost burnt on
the stake, and he narrowly escaped by recanting his views. As recent as in 1925 in America a teacher John Scopes was criminally
prosecuted in the famous (or infamous) monkey trial for teaching Darwin
Before discussing the scientific
achievements of our ancestors it may be said that a lot of people talk
non-sense that in ancient India India India America India
Now it is true that in the Ramayana there
is mention of PushpakViman. But what is
the Ramayana? It is an epic poem. A poet has what is called poetic
licence. That means that he has a right
to exaggerate. So we should not take
words in a poem literally. If there were
aeroplanes in ancient India
The real great achievements of our
ancestors are not known to most people and instead they talk such nonsense.
At one time we were leading the whole
world in science and technology. I may
give you a few illustrations. The
ancient Romans who built a very great civilization, the civilization of Ceasar
and Augustus, and were the cultural ancestors of the Europeans, felt very
uncomfortable with numbers above one thousand.
This is because they expressed their numbers in alphabets. One was I, five was V, ten was X, fifty was
L, hundred was 100, five hundred was D and 1000 was M. ‘M’ stands for millennium or one
thousand. There was nothing above ‘M’. So if the ancient Romans wanted to write 2000
they had to write MM, if they wanted to write 3000 they wrote MMM, etc.
To write one million they would have to write M one thousand times, as
that was the only way they could express one million. On the other hand, our ancestors had invented
the concept of zero.
You see these numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 do
not really exist, what exists is one table, two chairs, three men, etc. These have existence in the objective
universe. One, two, three, four has no
existence in the objective universe, they are pure abstractions. And the concept of zero required a further
flight of imagination which Europeans could never achieve. The Arabs borrowed it from us and the
Europeans borrowed it from the Arabs. So
we could express numbers in astronomical terms.
For example, one thousand requires 1 with three zeros, add two more
zeros it becomes one Lakh, add two more zeros it becomes 1 Crore, two more
zeros one Arab, two more zeros one Kharab, two more zeros one Padma, two more
zeros one Neel, two more zeros one Shankh, two more zeros one Mahashankh,
etc. Each one of these large numbers
have names.
At
one time the numbers in the decimal system were called Arabic numerals by the Europeans,
but the Arabs called them Hindu numerals.
Are they Arab or Hindu numerals?
Now these languages Arabic, Persian and Urdu are written from right to
left, but if you ask any writer of these languages to write any number randomly,
say 253 or 1045, he will write it from left to right. What does it indicate? It indicates that these numbers were taken
from a language which was written from left to right, and now it is accepted
that the decimal system was invented by Indians who could conceive very high
numbers unlike the Romans.
For
example, it is believed that Kaliyug in which we are living, has 4,32,000
years according to the Vishnu
Puran. The yug (age) before Kaliyug was
Dwapar yug, in which Lord Krishna lived.
That is twice as long as Kaliyug, therefore it is of 8,64,000
years. Before that there was Treta yug
in which Lord Ram lived. It was thrice
as long as Kaliyug. And before that
there was Satyug which is four times as
long as Kaliyug. One Kaliyug + one Dawapar Yug + one Treta Yug + one Satyug is known as one
Chaturyugi, and one Chaturyugi is hence ten times as long as one Kaliyug (1+2+3+4=10). That means one Chaturygi
is 43,20,000 years long. 72 Chaturyugis
make one Manwantra. Fourteen Manwantras make one Kalp, and 12 Kalps make one
day of Brahma. Brahma is said to have lived
for trillions of years.
When
our traditional Hindus do their sankalp everyday they have to mention the
particular day, the yug, the chaturyugi, the Manvantara and the kalp, and the
date changes daily. For instance, it is
believed that we are living in the Vaivaswsat Manwantar. It is believed that out of the 72 Chaturyugis
half have passed and we are in the second half of the Vaivaswsat
Manvantar.
We
may not believe all this but look at the flight of imagination of our ancestors. Similarly in various fields of science e.g.
in Medicine we made great advances. Sushruta invented plastic surgery 2000
years ago, but Westerners invented it only 200 years back. Thus, Indians were far ahead of Westerners in
medicine. In astronomy, the calculations
which were made 2000 years ago are still the basis of predicting with great
accuracy the day and time of a Surya Grahan (Solar Eclipse) or Chandra Grahan
(lunar eclipse) by reading a ‘patra’.
These calculations were made 2000 years ago by our ancestors who did not
have telescopes and modern instruments but by sheer observation by the naked
eye and the power of intellect they predicted what is going to happen 2000
years in the future. This was the
scientific level which we had reached in the past, we were far in advance of
Westerners in science and technology at that time. Today we are far behind them, so what
happened? Why did we not have an
Industrial Revolution? Why did we lag
behind? This is known as Needham ’s question or Needham ’s
Grand Question, first posed by Prof. Joseph Needham, a brilliant Professor in
micro-biology in Cambridge
University India and China
As
I was saying, Sanskrit was the language of people with an enquiring minds, of
people who enquired into every aspect of life and hence in that sense it is the
language of everybody who has a rational approach, because the emphasis in
Sanskrit is on reason.
Coming
now to Urdu, in my opinion the best poetry in modern India
About
Urdu there is a misconception that it is the language of Muslims and of
foreigners, which is a totally false propaganda made against Urdu after 1947.
Before
1947, all educated people in large parts of India India
Unlike
Arabic and Persian which are foreign language, Urdu is an indigenous language,
and is loved by the people of India
Urdu
has a dual nature, it is a combination of two languages i.e. Hindustani and
Persian, that is why it was at one time called Rekhta, which means hybrid. Since it is a combination of two languages,
Hindustani and Persian, the question arises:
is it a special kind of Persian or a special kind of Hindustani? The answer is that it is a special kind of
Hindustani, not a special kind of Persian.
Why? Because the verbs in Urdu
are all in Hindustani. The language to
which a sentence belongs is determined by the verbs used in it not the nouns or
adjectives. In Urdu all the verbs are
in simple Hindi (which is called Hindustani or Khadi Boli). For example Ghalib says; -
“dekho mujhe jo deeda-e-ibrat_nigaah ho
meree suno jo gosh-e-naseehat_niyosh hai”
The verbs ‘dekho’, ‘suno’,’ hai’ are all simple Hindi, though the nouns or adjectives may be Persian or Arabian.
Urdu has a dual nature, because it is a combination of Hindustani and Persian. Hindustani is the language of the common man, while Persian is the language of aristocrats.
Where did Persian come from? Persian is the language of Persia, how did it land up in India India and Pakistan Europe upto the end of the 19th century the European aristocrats often spoke to each other in French, though they would speak to their servants in the native language. French was the language of the elite in large parts of Europe for many centuries.
The elite wants to distinguish itself from the common people. In India Persia it later spread to much of South Asia . This was because Persian writers like Hafiz, Firdausi, Sadi, Rumi, Omar Khayyam, etc. developed Persian as a language of sophistication, culture, etiquette and dignity and that was adopted by large parts of South Asia including India India
Urdu is the combination of Hindustani and Persian, and that is why it has a dual nature. It is the common man’s language, ‘awaam ki zubaan’, because one part of it is Hindustani, the common man’s language. It is also the aristocrats’ language because another part of it is Persian which was the aristocrat’s language. The content of Urdu, i.e. the feelings, emotions etc. in it are of the common man. But the form, the style, the andaaz-e-bayaan is that of an aristocrat. That is what gives Urdu such great power.
Urdu places more reliance on emotion and Sanskrit more on reason. We require both for our country’s progress. In Europe they had two very great thinkers, Voltaire and Rousseau, Voltaire emphasizing reason and Rousseau emphasizing emotion. These two thinkers played a major role in the creation of modern Europe . Similarly Urdu and Sanskrit complement each other, and in fact, Sanskrit is the grand mother of Urdu because 70% of the words in Urdu are from Sanskrit.
4. Since there is so much diversity in India India
Two people can be said to be the creators of modern India Pakistan India a Hindu State India will not be a Hindu State but will be a Secular State
In this connection I wish to tell you that the initial Muslim invaders who came into India India India Krishna Rao. Tipu Sultan sent 30 respectful letters with grants to the Shankaracharya of Shringeri (see online ‘History in the Service of Imperialism’ which is a speech given by Prof. B. N. Pandey in the Upper House of the Indian Parliament in 1977).
Now the first part, that the Muslim invaders broke temples, has been mentioned in our history books, but the second part, which is of ten times longer duration, that the descendents of these invaders, who were local rulers used to foster communal harmony, they used to give land grants for building Hindu temples, they celebrated and organized Hindu festivals, etc. has been deliberately suppressed by the British from our history books, the whole game being divide and rule. Hindus and Muslims must be made to fight each other. If you go on line and read the speech ‘History in the Service of Imperialism’ by Professor B. N. Pandey, you will read how the British policy was to make Hindus and Muslims inimical to each other. For instance, Dr. Pandey has mentioned that in 1928 when he was a Professor of History in Allahabad University some students came to him with a book written by one Professor Harprasad Shastri, Professor of Sanskrit of Calcutta University in which it was mentioned that Tipu Sultan told 3000 Brahmins to convert to Islam otherwise they will be killed, and those 3000 Brahmins committed suicide rather than becoming Muslims. On reading this Professor B. N. Pandey wrote to Professor Harprasad Shastri asking him the source of his information? Prof. Shastri wrote back that the source of information is the Mysore
Now, just imagine what mischief has been done. Deliberately our history books have been falsified so that the mind of a child at an impressionable age is poisoned so that he should start hating Muslims in India and in Pakistan
It is time we re-write our History books and show that in fact upto 1857 there was no communal problem at all in India India
In 1857 the great Mutiny took place. Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the British. After suppressing that Mutiny it was decided by the British rulers that the only way to control this country to divide and rule. In other words, Hindus and Muslims must be made to fight each other. All communal riots start after 1857. The English Collector would secretly call the Hindu Pandit and give him money to speak against Muslims, and similarly he would secretly call the Maulvi and give him some money to speak against Hindus. A beautiful racket was started in this way, and this resulted ultimately in the partition of 1947.
Now the time has come when we must see through this game. How long are we going to be taken for a ride? Are we fools that anybody can come and make fools out of us and make us fight each other?
About two months back I read in the newspapers that there was some violence in Aligarh Muslim University Delhi
In Maharashtra some people have proclaimed a bhumiputra theory (son of the soil theory). They say that only Maharashtrians should be allowed to live in Mahrashtra. South Indians, UPites, and Biharis should get out of Maharashtra . Such people do not realize that in that case they will also have to leave Mahrashta because they also are not bhumi putras. Bhumi putra are hardly 7 or 8 % of the people living in Maharashtra e.g. the Bheels and other adivasis (tribals). This is a country of immigrants.
5. India is passing through transitional period, transition from feudal agricultural society to modern industrial society. We are presently neither totally feudal nor totally modern. We are somewhere in between.
The transition period is a very painful and agonizing period in history. In my opinion the duty of all patriotic people is to help in shortening this transitional period, in reducing this pain, although we cannot totally eliminate it because there is going to be turmoil in this period since the vested interests in the old feudal order will not give up their vested interests without a fierce struggle. We have to spread rational and scientific ideas in this period and combat casteism communalism and superstitions, in order to get over the transition period faster and with less pain.
Here is where the role of the Judiciary becomes very important. In Northern India in some States e.g. western U.P, Haryana, Rajasthan etc. (also in Pakistan India
But a Judge is not dependent on any one’s votes, and that makes him very strong, in fact, it makes him more democratic than the so called democratic bodies because he is not bothered about votes. The Supreme Court therefore passed the order that those who do honour killing will be given mandatory death sentence and the District Magistrate and Superintendent of that area must be immediately placed under suspension. This was a very strong judgment after which ‘honour killing’ has considerably declined. This could not have been done by the politicians because they are dependent on the votes of these people. So, here is where the Judiciary becomes very important, by the very fact it is undemocratic.
It is true that in India
However, Judges are not Gods, who can solve all problems. Ultimately it is the people themselves who have to solve their problems.
I will conclude by one couplet of Faiz Ahmed Faiz whose centenary we are celebrating this year. The greatest Urdu poet ever was of course Ghalib but in the 20th century the greatest poet in my opinion was Faiz and I would like to quote from his famous poem;-
“Gulon mein rang bhare baad-e-naubahaar chale
Chale bhi aao ke gulshan ka kaarobaar chale”
What does this mean? Urdu poetry often has an outer, superficial meaning and an inner, real meaning. The outer, superficial and literal meaning of the above couplet is:
“In the flowers the colourful breeze of the new spring is blowing come forward, so that the garden can function”
However the inner real meaning of the couplet is that the objective situation in the country is ripe which invites the patriotic people now to come forward to serve the country. The word ‘gulshan’ literally means ‘garden’ but here it means the country. So it is a call to the people of the country to come forward since our country is in difficulties and you are required now to help it.
Question answer
Q Tell me what went wrong in the Aurangzeb era where million of Hindus were converted into Muslims? How it changed the entire picture, what was going on?
A. In the article ‘History in the Service
of Imperialism’ (available online) it is mentioned that Professor B.N. Pandey,
former Professor of History of Allahabad University and former Governor of
Orissa delivered a speech in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, in
which he said that when he was Professor of History some people brought some
documents showing that Aurangzeb had given grants to Hindu Temples, he gave
grants to the Someshwar Mahadev Temple in Allahabad, he gave grants to the
Mahakal Temple in Ujjain, one of the biggest Shiva temples, he gave grants to
the Chitrakut Temple where Lord Ram spent 12 years of His exile. He thought these must be forgeries because
Aurangzeb was said to be the destroyer of Hindu temples. He took these documents to Sir Tej Bahadur
Sapru, who was a top lawyer in Allahabad
I
went to Bikaner about 10 years back and I went
to the palace of the Maharaja of Bikaner Bikaner
Now,
this was a different Aurangzeb. What I
am trying to say is that more research on Aurangzeb is required because he has
been demonized totally. As I said, in
our history books the demonization of Muslim rulers has been done very
systematically by the British, so as to generate Hindu-Muslim hatred. But the fact that Muslim rulers used to
promote communal harmony, they used to organize Hindu festivals like Ramleela
and so on, they used to give grants to Hindu temples, this will not be found in
any history books. It has been very
conveniently suppressed. So about
Aurangzeb also I would request you please read that speech ‘History in the
Service of Imperialism’, it is online, and more research is required. I would request that about Aurangzeb please
keep an open mind.
Q.
I just want to understand your
opinion on the Constitution that we created after Independence
A. Regarding this question of uniform Civil
Code, my opinion is that this is for Parliament to decide, not for the
judiciary to decide, because making law is the job of the Legislature not of
the Judiciary. It is for the Parliament
to make one common Civil Code or not to make it. Judges cannot legislate, legislation is the
task of the legislature. It is not
proper for Judges to interfere in it. It
is a highly sensitive matter, as you know some people have been trying to
promote communal hatred in our subcontinent.
Please let us not give them further ammunition for that.
Q. The example you gave in Ireland
A. Listen you must realize one thing: in
our country we must cater to aspirations of different people, in fact that is
why we have federalism. Federalism means
catering to regional aspirations. Thus,
in Nagaland, there is a State Legislature for Nagaland and in this way the Naga
people are happy, there is also a Central Government which looks after
everybody. Similarly, in the State of Tamil Nadu territory
of India Punjab or
anywhere. The UP Government cannot say
we will not allow entry of goods from Tamil Nadu. Article 301 ensures the
economic unity of India
Q. I have one comment and one question, the
comment is that not many people have migrated but 180,000 Roman people
(gypsies) migrated out of India Rumania and Bulgaria , they are all from India
A. They are not from India Europe you had to go on foot in those
days, there were no aeroplanes and trains.
You would have to go via Afghanistan
to Russia and then to Europe . Why should
a large number of people do that?
Everybody wants comfort, why should you leave India
and go to such an uncomfortable place like Afghanistan Afghanistan and Russia
to reach Europe . Will you leave such a comfortable country
like India and go to Afghanistan which is cold and rocky, you will
have to travel through Afghanistan
Q. Firstly, thank you very much, it is a
real honour to have a word with you. I
have a very simple question, there is a huge august gathering here of the
Indian Diaspora. You said that the time
has come for people to actually contribute and help India
A. First of all, in the transitional
period, it is absolutely essential to explain to people what is India India India
Q. My question is why people in India
A.
No, as I told you we are passing
through a transitional period between feudal agricultural society and modern
industrial society, we are somewhere in between. So a large section of our people are still
not modern, they do not follow rules.
For example, just take a simple thing, when I come to America, I stay
with my daughter Vandana, my job which Vandana has given me, is everyday to
take the garbage from the house and take it outside and put it in a huge
garbage bin. In India
In
London the whole Thames
river upto the 19th century was full of sewage, people used to just
dump the sewage there, today it is clean.
So it will come when we will become totally modern, that will take time.
Q. My question is going back to the ancient
times in India India and why does it still linger on and why is
it still so powerful in India
A. Caste system originated from a racial
basis, that is, a white race, the Aryans came to India and conquered a dark
coloured race, and the proof of this is that even now India is a racial
society, we prefer white colour When we advertise in newspapers we say
“wanted fair colour bride”, when a child is born if the colour is fair, the
grand mother is very happy. But, having
originated from a racial basis caste later on developed into the feudal
occupational division of labour in society.
That means that every vocation became a caste, like for instance,
carpenter ‘badhai’ became a caste,
‘lohar’, blacksmith became a caste, potter, ‘kumhar’ became a caste etc.
This happened in Europe also, it is nothing
unique in India
So
caste system was in Europe also, it was on
vocation basis, every vocation became a caste.
Today, the situation is totally changed. For instance if a person of the
badhai (carpenter) caste comes from a village to a city he becomes a motor mechanic
or electrician or clerk, he does not now do the job of carpenter which was his
caste. So now people are not following their father’s profession on a very
large scale. Many of you are here, are
you following your father’s profession?
Many of your fathers were lawyers, but now you are entrepreneurs. When this happens on large scale the very
basis of caste has been smashed because of the advance of technology. Now the caste system is being propped up by
certain politicians for their vote banks.
But when the foundation of a building has been smashed by the advance of
technology how long can that building be artificially propped up? In my opinion caste will last only for
another 10 or 20 years. Now people are
not bothered about what is your caste. If
you go for a job in some place nobody asks what is your caste, they will see
your resume, your CV, your technical achievements.
