Diversity

Published on 12th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Our textbooks teach us that Hindu society is divided into four groups: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, Shudras, consisting of priests, landed aristocrats, merchants and servants. This is the Vedic varna system. However, this is a highly simplistic division, which doesn’t take into account that there are over 5,000 communities (jati) in India, which can be classified in various ways across these four categories. This is best understood by studying the subdivisions of the Brahmin division. In Vedic times, Brahmins were classified as Hotrs who chanted Rig Vedic hymns, Udgatrs who sang Sama Vedic hymns, Adhvaryus who performed Yajur Vedic ..

Published on 12th February, 2022, in Times of India. Tall statues of men, using Indian money and Chinese technology, are being built across India to unite India. There is the Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, the Statue of Equality of Ramanuja-acharya built near Hyderabad, and soon there will be the Statue of Oneness of Shankara-acharya raised at Madhya Pradesh. Sardar Patel ensured the many princely states of India joined the Union of India, and accepted its secular Constitution. Ramanuja lived a thousand years ago, in the 11th century, and wove Vedanta philosophy with the concept of bhakti and temple rituals of adoration. ..

Published on 14th April, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. Many assert that the caste system (jati pratha) is essentially ‘division of labour’. However, this will never be said by those involved in manual scavenging, cleaning sewers without proper gear, being forced to take up this job because that is the only vocation made available to them. When we use the phrase ‘division of labour’, it means all forms of labour are respected equally and people can choose to be whatever they want to be. Manual scavenging is never a choice. Is it aspirational to be a doctor, or a janitor? Globally, labour is not treated equally. ..

Published on 30th June, 2018, on The Economic Times blog. Business is about efficiency. There is always a great push towards standardised manufacturing and business practices, and a yearning for homogenous markets. However, the reality is that the world is diverse—and so you have to continuously modify and adapt manufacturing, sales and marketing practices to meet the diverse market conditions you encounter in the world. In other words, diversity makes our lives inefficient. This is one idea that no one in the business world wants to admit. Take a look at the US dollar bill. The United States of America is built on the shoulders ..

Published on 11th February, 2018, in Mid-Day. A young girl from Mizoram was told by her father to return home immediately after he learned that she was in love with a boy in Delhi. My friend said, "But isn't your boyfriend also from Mizoram?" The girl nodded yes. "But isn't the boy also Christian?" The girl nodded yes. "Then what is the problem?" my friend asked. The girl said her father disapproved as the boy did not belong to her tribe! While people decry the lower rate of inter-caste marriages in India, they don't decry the low rates of inter-tribe marriages in India. The former ..

Published on 21st January, 2018, in Mumbai Mirror. What is the goal of Hinduism? If someone replies, ‘Moksha, liberation, from the cycle of birth and death,’ you witness the impact of British and American ideas on Hinduism. A more appropriate response would have been: Hinduism has no concept of goal. That’s an Abrahamic concept, like the Promised Land, or Heaven, something to be reached eventually. Hinduism is all about many lives, many births, each lifetime a unique product of karma, each with different needs and different capabilities. There cannot be a goal. Instead, Hinduism offers human life (purusha) meaning (artha), with four spices to be ..

Published on 19th January, 2018, in India Today. Hindus are at odds with the world in terms of its underlying mythic structure. By contrast, Hindutva is very much aligned to the dominant global discourse. We realise this if we meditate on two myths: the myth of equality and the myth of the wound. Myth here does not mean fantasy, a 19th century misunderstanding that continues among those who prefer binary thought and cannot handle nuance. It means the subjective truth of a community shaped by inherited stories, symbols and rituals. Myth of Equality. In nature, there is diversity. There is also equality in the sense ..

Published on 21st November, 2016, on scroll.in. Modern liberalism believes in equality as well as diversity. And that is the problem, for equality is the very opposite of diversity. When Indian, British and American voters are choosing Narendra Modi, Brexit and Donald Trump, many commentators feel the voters are rejecting the virtue of equality that informs the Idea of India, the European Union and the US Constitution and are seeking to return to old inequalities. But what the voters are simply rejecting is homogeneity, the dark side of equality. The same is true when the Arab Spring fails. For the doctrine of equality in the ..