A web of manipulation - The "Caste" Bogey in Modern India

How does a society heal from trauma? Acknowledging a malaise so one can treat it is valuable. In the case of Bharat, there was a social malaise of jati (caste) discrimination. It was acknowledged, and social reforms were made to course-correct, starting from pre-independence times through the creation of the Constitution.

Affirmative action (reservation system) has already provided> 50% of all academic and governmental institutional positions for several decades. The irony is that the system that was created to create equity instead produced a race to the bottom, with large swathes of the population clamoring to become deemed “backward” to qualify for governmental privileges and subsidies.

To continue to play the “caste” bogie after 75 years of affirmative action, one that saw an exodus of the general merit population out of India where they could is no way to heal. This has now become a compulsive auto-sadomasochism of society. This social wound keeps getting picked at to keep it from healing, and that helps only one group of people there - the political class.

That “caste” discrimination has been weaponized to be used against political opponents and foment divisions to create vote banks shouldn’t be a revelation to discerning minds. It is high time we put this to rest once and for all - Bharat should abolish reservations and instead focus on providing equity based on income levels.

And it’s time to stop denigrating Brahmins for every malaise in Indian society - without us, there would be no Bharatiya Sanskrit left. We were the last bastion that held off assault after assault on our civilization long after the warriors failed, the traders and artisans decided to comply and survive rather than starve to death, on the face of a 1000 years of civilizational assault from the west.