The curse of casteism continues.

[youngindia]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080506/jsp/nation/story_9231504.jsp it thoroughly disgusts me that this sorry state of affairs continues! what is the PM doing about it? if anyone had a good sense of priorities, almost every PM since independence should have been proactive night and day to remove this curse. Gandhiji even during the independence struggle kept this issue in focus. how long is this apathy to cruelty goign to continue?

[CC1981]

I've noticed that casteism is particularly bad in the gangetic plains up to Bengal ( i dunno much about Deccan and southern Indian communities).I've gotten the distinct impression that from Bengal onwards the rest of the east is much more relaxed caste-wise than the UP-Bihar-Haryana area. I dunno why that is, but if i were to take a guess, it'd be due to communism being much more popular and prevalent in the east than in the gangetic areas (one of the few positives of communism is it is really anti-caste/anti-religion based nonsense). But overall, caste is a pretty big problem in India and it will only go away when the government stops focussing on caste- the whole idea of 'caste based reservations' is a self-defeating cycle because it causes the public to be AWARE of caste status and stuff rather than let go of such ancient and decrepit nonsense. ( Ie, if people are aware that certain % of jobs/educational posts will be caste determined, it will ALWAYS fuel interest in caste, give people reason to dislike other castes etc- for most people will hold a grudge against a certain caste if the caste is the reason they got beat-out on a job/university application etc). The pro-reservationists here may reflexively raise the very valid question of " well if caste is ignored completely by the government, then how shall the plight of the lower castes - who are much less educated, have much less opportunities etc. be heard ? how will it be working towards a level playing field if the unequal means of various castes arnt considered?'. My answer to that problem is simple : have ECONOMICS based reservations and aid, NOT caste based reservations. Make policies such as ' 20-30% of seats will be reserved for people making under 2500 rupees a month', not '20-30% seats are reserved for Dalits'. That way, caste is not in the picture anymore and people will get a bit of help from the government if they are poor,irrespective of castes.