India is characterized by more ethnic and religious groups than most other countries of the world. Aside from the much noted 2000-odd castes, there are eight “major” religions, 15-odd languages spoken in various dialects in 22 states and nine union territories, and a substantial number of tribes and sects. (Article 3: Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in India) Racism has been one of the most topical topics in many countries like India, Pakistan, Middle – east, USA and many other nations because there has been a lot of conflicts in past in the name of caste and racism.
The subject for the research essay is Racism, the research focuses on discrimination based on caste and religion in India during different time intervals. There are different types of discrimination like discrimination on basis of color; some even discriminate on the basis of caste, and discrimination on the basis of religion. The research focuses on the three different contact zones of people on discrimination on the basis of caste and religion. Discrimination on the basis of caste means high class people like Brahmins and Kshatriyas have more rights and privileges than lower class people.
The Indian caste system has divided people in 4 different castes, i. e. Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudra, Brahmin being the top most caste followed by the other two, i. e. Kshatriyas (the warriors) and then Vaishyas. Shudras are counted as low castes and have been named as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes by the Indian Government. This caste system has been running on through centuries but still in the developing age people still believe on this caste system. People still hear much news about discrimination which creates a lot of hype among people.
There have been a lot of hic-ups between people on marriage matters between two different castes or religions which has many times turned violent. All the three topics are about discrimination in India. There have been massacres due to these discriminations in the past but still people do not want to change. These massacres does not need big reasons, people may also fight for even very small topics like marriages. Racism has always been one of the greatest issues in India, right from the ages of Mughals or even before that.
India has been fighting from ages in the name of caste and religion. Racism has always been a major part in Indian society and in every country, compare India, USA or any other diverse nation or any of the nations; you will find racism all over the place. Racism has been most diverse in India and is still going on through ages. The first article ‘Politics of Caste and Racism is written by R. Upadhyay. It focuses on the politics of caste and religion. Politicians use these sorts of issues on discrimination in order to gain the popularity or get more votes.
People give votes to the candidates of their own religion or caste so the winning candidates also do the stuffs for their people of own religion or caste after winning the elections. There have been many discussions that most of the riots or massacres have been taken place because of the politics in the country. The country was also divided into India and Pakistan after Independence due to politics. There is not a complete agreement on these allegations but there has been no denial as well on these allegations.
The research essay focuses on the history of racism as well which tells how the racism started in the country. Caste is not only one issue for the massacres; religion grows even bigger in basis of discrimination. The discrimination does not stops here, there is discrimination due to castes in Muslims as well, it’s between Shia and Shunni. Ages have passed fighting against racism but still in many rural parts of the country, there are still problems because of this discrimination.
Racism has vital role in society as it stops people from exchanging their views and thoughts and other affairs. There are a lot of movies like Aarakshan, Lagaan, Chakravyuh produced on racism in India showing its affects and disadvantages. These movies show how people discriminate between castes and religion. The second article on Caste: Racism in all but name? By Shobhan Saxena focuses on the topic that does racism is on the name. There is discrimination on the basis of name as people categorize other people on the basis of their surnames.
It also focuses on the Geneva’s ‘World Conference on Racism’ where the topic on caste based discrimination in India was not given a big issue to talk about. Everyone shares a different view about racism, someone is against racism, someone supports it and many do not say anything about it. It’s completely different in every context. Some people feel that racism and discrimination is good for the society as it unites people of same caste and religion. The third article is on Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in India by Varshney Ashutosh.
The article focuses on the ethnic and religious conflicts in different parts of India. It also focuses on the different conflicts between different castes and religions. It focuses on Sikh- Hindu conflict in 1980, it also focuses on the Hindu – Muslim conflict as well. The author points on the problems that were faced by people in Assam (a state in India) post Independence. There also Sikh riots after the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Mrs. Indra Gandhi by her own security personnel who was a Sikh.
In this modern world, people have started understanding the facts about racism but still there a lot of areas where people from all the religions are still fighting in the name of caste and religion, killing each other. As the time progresses people would probably start understanding more about all these matters. There many questions which can be raised on racism such as is racism still taking place and if yes then why or who are the main culprits for racism? Many questions are raised when we talk about racism but the main question is how can we stop it or what are the steps needed to stop racism?
