Equality

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 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 ..

Published on 22nd October, 2016, in Hindustan Times. Fact is everybody’s truth. Fiction is nobody’s truth. Myth is somebody’s truth. It’s a cultural truth, a religious truth, a nation’s truth, one that binds a community together by giving them a common worldview to function within. Science can tell you how the world functions, but only myth can tell you why it functions the way it does. The idea of God, for example, is a cultural truth: it is not part of Buddhism, Jainism, or secularism. Likewise, the idea of prophets makes no sense in the Hindu worldview. The idea of hero, villain and victim is ..

Published on 1st May, 2016, in Mid-Day. Is there equality in nature or not? The answer is complex. Nature has no favourites and every plant and every animal has to fend for itself to survive. In that sense, there is equality in nature. But, no two plants and no two animals are the same. Each has its own strength and weakness, with exposure to its own set of opportunities and threats. In that sense, there is no equality in nature. Every human being, like every plant and animal, is unique, with its own set of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Every human being also has imagination: ..