VEMAIAH BEESUPOGU

Casteism has become pervasive in the Indian society and also in Christian churches and organisations. It has entered into the marrow and bones of a sizeable number of people, irrespective of their socio-economic and educational status and religious affiliation. I. What is Casteism? Casteism means prejudice or discrimination based on caste. It is a loyalty to one’s caste. In general, it may be defined as a phenomenon by virtue of which persons belonging to a certain caste group are either discriminated against or shown favour regardless of their merits and demerits, just on the basis of their caste. Casteism exhibits a number of characteristics such as: Casteism signifies blind caste or sub-caste loyalty. It either ignores or does not care for the interests of other castes. For a casteist person “My caste man/woman and my caste only” is the principle. Casteism goes against the spirit of democracy. Casteism submits or subordinates one’s sense of justice, fair play and...

The God of Small Things is the story of three generations of a Kerala Christian family, the patriarch Pappachi (a wife-beater at home though work he is a recognised Entomologist) and his submissive but yet strong wife-Mammachi, their son Chacko with a divorced English wife Margaret and his daughter Sophie, their daughter Ammu "a divorced daughter from an inter-community marriage" (GOST 45) and who is now back to live with her parents along with her son Estha in whom silence and quietness:   sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles inching along the insides of his skull, hovering the knolls and dells of his memory, dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue. It stripped his thoughts of the words that described them and left them pared and naked. (GOST 12) and his 'dizygotic twin' Rahel "who didn't know how to be a girl"(GOST 17), Rahel 's grand-aunt Baby Kochamma, Kochu Maria etc. Past and present are aesthetically int...

The last two hundred years have seen the emergence of a new consciousness and a new identity among the 200 million people who have been considered “outcaste” or “untouchables”. Today they call themselves Dalits, a new name they have coined for themselves, and demand aggressively their share in the shaping of the destiny of the nation. It is not a mere name or title, in fact it has become an expression of hope and identity.   The term Dalit in Sanskrit is derived from the root dal which means to split, break, crack and so on. When used as an adjective, it means split, broken, burst, destroyed, crushed. It is said that Jotiba Phule(1827-1890), the founder of the Satyashodhak Samaj, a non Brahmin  movement in Maharastra, a social reformer and revolutionary, used this term to describe the outcastes and untouchables as the oppressed and broken victims of the Indian caste-ridden society. It is also believed that it was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who coined the word first.   Th...