I come from a Brahmin family that hovered on the boundary between lower and lower middle classes when I was a kid. My early schooling was in my native village and I came to the city of Faizabad for the middle and high schooling. In the city, I used to feel perplexed by the social conversation between classmates from a proper middle class urban background and they sometimes did frown upon my ignorance in certain matters and also the dress sense or lack thereof in kids like me who happened to be studying in the same government schools as them. As an aside I may add that private schools in those days were few and looked down upon.
While I did find our economic status a little embarassinng, I have vivid memories of certain people who worked as domestic help, cleaner and washerman who seemed to be doing worse than us. I still clearly remember one Manohar who used to do the dishes. A male domestic help was called Maharaa and female ones were called Mahari. Manohar Mahara was a giant of a man. As a kid I found him scary. Apart from a meager salary, Manohar also used to get our left over food. He had a large tin box and used to keep the fresh food in it. Before keeping the fresh food, he used to take out the stale food from it and consume it. I seldom saw him eating the fresh food.
Though alcohol was a strict no-no, a bottle was kept in the house for the washerman who used to visit the house for washing our clothes and then taking them for ironing. He will arrive in the morning, will be given a cup or more of the intoxicant and get down to work.
Then there was the lady who used to service the dry latrine that was used by our large joint family. My father and uncle were first generation immigrants to a city. This lady used to speak Urdu laden Hindi in an accent that gave us a complex. Must have converted a genration ago.
My cousins and I now agree that our generation managed to creep up from lower class to middle class. I do not know what happened to the descendants of the persons I have described above. I am convinced that the difference between them and us was not so much of class as that of caste. It may have firmly pinned them down where they were. Yes, some of them did manage to escape this tyranny just as some in our clan remained stuck where we were a generation ago. Yet, now at this old age, I can see the disadvantage that the ones from lower castes suffered from.
I do sincerely hope that Hindu society will soon realize that caste is an anachronism today and must be firmly and decisively done away with if Hindu society is to survive, progress and thrive.
While I did find our economic status a little embarassinng, I have vivid memories of certain people who worked as domestic help, cleaner and washerman who seemed to be doing worse than us. I still clearly remember one Manohar who used to do the dishes. A male domestic help was called Maharaa and female ones were called Mahari. Manohar Mahara was a giant of a man. As a kid I found him scary. Apart from a meager salary, Manohar also used to get our left over food. He had a large tin box and used to keep the fresh food in it. Before keeping the fresh food, he used to take out the stale food from it and consume it. I seldom saw him eating the fresh food.
Though alcohol was a strict no-no, a bottle was kept in the house for the washerman who used to visit the house for washing our clothes and then taking them for ironing. He will arrive in the morning, will be given a cup or more of the intoxicant and get down to work.
Then there was the lady who used to service the dry latrine that was used by our large joint family. My father and uncle were first generation immigrants to a city. This lady used to speak Urdu laden Hindi in an accent that gave us a complex. Must have converted a genration ago.
My cousins and I now agree that our generation managed to creep up from lower class to middle class. I do not know what happened to the descendants of the persons I have described above. I am convinced that the difference between them and us was not so much of class as that of caste. It may have firmly pinned them down where they were. Yes, some of them did manage to escape this tyranny just as some in our clan remained stuck where we were a generation ago. Yet, now at this old age, I can see the disadvantage that the ones from lower castes suffered from.
I do sincerely hope that Hindu society will soon realize that caste is an anachronism today and must be firmly and decisively done away with if Hindu society is to survive, progress and thrive.
No comments:
Post a Comment