Casteism and Patriarchy - Ideologies which kill

She was working in the fields along with her brother and mother. She was at a distance from the others and four to five men from supposedly upper-caste gagged her and dragged her to rape and throw her along the fields. It took the administration 4-5 days to take her to the hospital and then after her death the police, in the abode of darkness cremated her body while holding the victims family house arrested and cordoning off the entire area. 

India has seen 87 declared rapes a day in the last one year. Like this girl, most of it against the women from the lower caste. These cannot be treated off as incidents but rather should be looked at as structural crimes. What are those structures which keep perpetuating such crimes? Structures should have ideological backings! Then what are those ideological backings which conserve such practices? 

Patriarchy, that the man is higher than the woman in the ladder of social structure is one of the major ideologies backing such crimes. Casteism, that there are people born in this vile world who are beneath you and your dignity of life is the other. 

Do you ascribe to one of these? Did you and your coterie in the name of marriage adhere to the ideology called caste? Did you say, any caste but Dalit? Are you part of the group which looked for caste in your partner, yet think you are not casteist?  Yes, you, who hide your caste feelings in the garb of culture! 

Then those who subscribe to patriarchy. All of you who think that the man is the better half in a partnership! Those of you who believe that women should be in the kitchens of the world. Did you say that such things happen, coz women dress badly? Do you ascribe to violence against women behind the veils of marriage? 

Every one of you is responsible for such a crime, for you cohere to an idealogy on whose backbone the structural crimes of rape and murder of Dalit women happen. 

Every time I have used the word 'you', my computer hark back and ask me, what about you? It is time we look deep within; Look at the mirror; Ask yourself the question. Do you ascribe to casteism and patriarchy in some small form? Then you are as much a part of the murder, as those bloody rapists are! 

Till such ideologies exist, the structures backing such incidents cannot be broken! And ideologies should die in the bottom most pits of our hearts. 

The original Indian reformer!

My favourite professor was taking the class. I was still getting to terms with everything that was happening around the hallowed lanes of the Institute of Development Studies(IDS), considered among the leading institutes in the world. Prof. M was doing his third class. I was literally floored by the man in his first two classes; It almost felt like a dream to be sitting there. Suddenly the professor's face became bright. He started talking about his time as a young man learning from, who he considered among the greatest brains in the world! Dr.Manmohan Singh! 

Yesterday I was playfully chiding a colleague about me being a part of 'gen z' and not 'gen y'. Well, I hardly care about the alphabets attributed to generations. But I'm truly happy that I belonged to the generation which enjoyed the fruits of Dr.Manmohan. 

Till the early 90s, India was called the land of poverty and filth. The land of snake charmers. The closed country of intrigue and mystery. We had closed our economies to the outside world. The government was mandated to provide everything. Private capital was seen as a dirty word. We waited for years to get a telephone connection. Maruti was the only car available, and that, only for the rich. My dad said he waited for a few years after he ordered chetak scooter. Only the government-provided education and only an abysmally low number could be accommodated. Government jobs were the norm; There was a middle class waiting to explode.

The year was 1991 when Dr.Manmohan did what is now called the dream budget. He removed import controls, and let the world look at the Indian market. He cut customs and excise duties. Exports were promoted. In the sectors which did not warrant government intervention, he opened out the markets Suddenly the IT boom and the manufacturing sector looked at an Indian middle class. India which was growing at around 1-2% GDP, started seeing double-digit growths. A generation of middle-class Indians including me lived the dream. His dream!

As I entered the hallowed lanes of LSE, there was his picture, right there on the walls along with those of the other great economists of our generation. The great Cambridge university has a chair in his name. 

In times, when mediocrity and noise are being celebrated, Dr.Manmohan Singh may be an outlier. But history truly will treat him kinder. For a real light can never be hidden! 

Happy Birthday, Dr.Manmohan Singh! You are the original Indian reformer. And I'm truly thankful as one of the beneficiaries.