Curse of Caste
I
They came on bullock-carts
loaded with gods
Indra
Agni
Varuna
Rudra
traversed sinuous mountain ranges
rivers
gurgling outlandish tongues
their children caged as poultry
their priests chanting weird mantras
spells
charms
curses
hymns
drank the soma juice
choking with the sacrificial bleating
of rams
II
Agreed, all societies structure themselves
Out of scant need to function sans bother
Just as individuals must come together
In order better to protect themselves
All men are born equal, so say the Wise
But the Elders do not know how to stem
Rishis who would seek to mock them
By claiming they were twice-born to rise
Above all mankind for wasn't it the decreed omen
For the Primaeval Being that the self-chosen few
Should forever speak for the Brahman in lieu
Of Purusha's helpless eyes, brain, heart and abdomen
The only difference between the Brahmin
And the rest of the menial human race
Is that they were born with Brahma's grace
So that they could spurn the rest as vermin
Yet India's underside boasts of invisible millions
Who have no place in sacred Hymns of Man
They weren't created by Rig-Veda: only as Harijan
May they hang out in limbo as Gandhi's minions.
Resources
Roughly, the Hindu caste system is broadly divided into four sacrosanct strata; yet there are literally tens of sub-castes in each category:
1. Brahmin (the priesthood caste, supposedly on top of the social hierarchy) , followed by 2. Kshatriya (the princely hereditary and/or ruling warrior caste):
3. Vashya (the commercial trading, professional and land-owning agricultural castes):
4. Sudra (the menial serving and peasant castes) ,
followed by the Out-caste:
5. The Untouchable or scavenging caste (which has not found authority in the above Vedic hymn.)
« brahmano ‘sya mukham asid,
bahu rajaniah krtah;
uru tad asya yad vaisya;
padbhyam sudro ajayata. »
Rigveda, X,90,12 (sans signes diacritiques)
'His mouth was the Brahman, his two arms were made the warrior,
his two thighs the Vaisya; from his two feet the Sudra was born.'
Transl. & translit. by Arthur A. MacDonnell (1854 - 1930) ,1917
(© T. Wignesan - Paris,1998 - from the sequence/collection: 'Words for a Lost Sub-Continent',1999.)
poem by T. Wignesan
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Related quotes
It Is Needless To Ask Of A Saint
It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs;
For the priest, the warrior. the tradesman, and all the
thirty-six castes, alike are seeking for God.
It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be;
The barber has sought God, the washerwoman, and the carpenter-
Even Raidas was a seeker after God.
The Rishi Swapacha was a tanner by caste.
Hindus and Moslems alike have achieved that End, where remains no mark of distinction.
Caste is Hindus’ root
The high caste beggar is proud of his caste.
The low caste doctor is conscious of his caste.
No amount of education and wealth
Could eradicate the caste consciousness.
20.11.2011
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Desecration of Idols of the Past Leaders
The idols of the past national leaders
are dumped into the sacks of their castes.
The boys fed with the dirt of castes
go in vans as pilgrims to worship the statues
with oodles of choppers, daggers and rods.
The cops stand in day and night to protect
the people of one caste from the the other.
At times they face the onslaughts of the mob
which takes law unto their hands
even to kill the guardians of law and order
and fill the land with fear and angst.
If they go on pilgrimage with kin and children
to offer their prayers to their idols,
not only on their days of birth and death
but also on all the days of the year
with goats and cocks to slit, cook and eat,
these idols will become gods in future
and all the castes will worship with piety.
Newly sprung-up leaders whip the boys up
to harm the people of weak castes and the cops
and smear the faces of the idols with filth
and garland with worn-out slippers.
Who roused these unruly gangs to set on fire
the huts of the suppressed classes
and rob the valuables they earned in a decade
by toiling in the boiling sun or guarding our borders?
The youths of the insecure castes
should not misuse the special ‘Acts'
to blockmail the teachers and leaders
and kidnap the girls of other castes to rape
and then set them against their own parents.
poem by Rajendran Muthiah
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Many characters in the novel are representative of types that exist in India. He represents the caste system in India with an air of superiority, the caste system in India and the people thinking that western things are better.
quote by Anita Desai
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Lord Is His Devotees' Slave
Whatever is a devotee's
caste, clan, family, or name,
Rama's love for him is the same.
Beggar and king
are one to him.
Say, of what caste could be
Brahma or Shiva?
Rama will never abide
in the egotistic man's heart
therefore his slave, Suradasa,
has abandoned pride.
Rama was born in the Raghu clan
Krishna found his home in Gokula.
Words fail to tell of
the Lord's love
universal, all-embracing;
Dhruva was a Kshatriya,
Prahlada a demon and Vidura the son of a maid:
yet the Lord gave them his supreme love,
Krishna washed the devotees' feet
at the Rajasuya.
The Lord is the slave
of his devotees
age after age.
The tongue can't relate
his countless deeds.
Says Suradasa, the Puranas and Vedas
are witness to these.
poem by Sant Surdas
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The Caste Wars
The violence by some wild castes rock
and give the insecure a rude shock.
Ban the names of caste.
Mankind alone should last.
Save the poor by the secular bulwark.
poem by Rajendran Muthiah
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Growing for good or for worse
i was born free
without a guile and prejudice in me
growing i realised for the world i am just a name
oh god, i am not free but am my name
what was this growing for, for the good or for the worse in me
being a natural i continued to have an annual growth
and gradually the idea of religion and caste was put forth
now i realise my name comes with a bonus pack of religion and caste
my original god was now god of the past
the question still lingers on
what was growing in me, pride or shame, for better or for worse
growing and graduated and still accumulating knowledge
another fact of life system made me acknowledge
with name religion and caste i have a nationality
there i see all the attemps of acquiring freedom tending towards futility
what was growing in me, love or hate for better or for worse
i am afraid what i may further grow into
so i invoke the god of my caste and my past and thus pray
please don't let me grow any furhter for i was better an ignorant child than a knowldgeble man
for if YOU exist in any form and are the divinity, if YOU really want to bring some sanity
please, please, please my lord take everything away from this world except humanity
In India's Dreamy Land
In India's land one listens aghast
To the people who scream and bawl;
For each caste yells at a lower caste,
And the Britisher yells at them all.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Nife bite
Nife to
Nife...
Bite...
War started
The village...
With caste waR...
Nife to nife
Bite...
Many human
Simply given
Blood for fre
with earth...
No no...
For caste...
Caste is no
Bar for
Human value life...
poem by Otteri Selvakumar
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Is Caste As Bad?
Is caste as bad to destroy?
Don’t we guard endangered species?
Isn’t caste, like species, preserves
Characters and skills in its beings?
27.06.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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To mortgage for an identity
He was taken as the national leader.
The people of his caste projected him more.
And stood as watch dog for his image.
They succeeded to make him a caste leader.
16.05.2012
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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We Have To Retrieve That
During my college days, I watched a movie named
‘Women against rape’. But, now I know someone,
Bhanwari Devi from Rajasthan,
A rape victim, still fighting…
She was gang raped by Gurjar* men
(In presence of her husband, tied up)
When she tried to prevent them
From marrying off a baby girl
Who was just nine months old… Fifteen years passed …
How can an upper caste man Rape a lower caste woman? ,
A District Judge asked in 1995!
'LUST HAS NO CASTE, Mr.JUSTICE'!
Her medical examination happened after 52 long hours
And the Police seized her ‘’LEHANGA’ - long skirt,
As the only evidence late in that night! … Head down,
She walked away, wearing her husbands long Turban…
Her fight for Women empowerment continues and
The Supreme Court issued guidelines that broadly
Defined sexual harassment at the workplace and made it
Mandatory for Corporations and business establishments…
To have committees against sexual harassment.
Child marriage rates reduced drastically in Rajasthan
Police more vigilant in attending cases against rape now..
Imagine, just a single woman could make all these,
She deserves nationwide respect…
But…
Her family is ostracized everywhere…Her son is
Continuously bullied by upper caste crooks…
She has no income from her barren lands…
Her only income source is a buffalo!
O! God, please protect that animal
From being poisoned by some ‘caste fanatic’…
She is Bharat...
She is mother Earth…
Her ‘LEHANGA’ is our tainted nature…
We have to………………..
Gurjar* A caste in rajasthan
poem by Premji Premji
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An Educated Dalit
educated dalit, working in office elite,
his journey from rags to riches,
hardly matters for high caste there,
safeguarded through religious care,
see the dalit with crucifying glare,
wonder how could a dalit dare,
to overcome his sordid tale,
of breaking away his caste jail,
for them its not his education,
but simply unearned reservation,
well, they prefer to stay ignorant,
rather than be observant and agree,
to their sly ancestors religious vagary,
of keeping majority of population,
religiously away from education,
widely making negative propagation,
low caste deserve condemnation,
now in era of globalization,
they provide legal justification,
by granting on paper certain reservation,
but see the anarchy of socialization,
majority of dalit population,
struggling for handful reservation,
while minority ruling population
gets the rest as gratification,
the educated dalit wonder,
there are many like him who thunder,
for the dalit rights to be consider,
and its time to learn from past blunder,
individuals fight and meek surrender,
unless someone like dr. ambedkar,
been true dalit caretaker,
gather the courage again,
to teach the dalits how to gain,
social rights lost in vain,
perceiving false political fame.
rAHUL...
poem by Rahul Gade
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Voice Of A Dalit Women
now hear the unheard cries
of dalit women plight
upper caste takes pride
humanity here despise
seeing the cruelty dies
of high caste females crucify
mercilessly their own gender
in the name of caste blunder
mutely supporting the plunder
of dalit women, who wonder
the silence of own gender
on the sight of feminity
in the board day light
paraded naked in their own vicinity
raped, ravished and trampled
no doubt upper caste feminity
is skin deep only
else they would have fought
for their feminine right
to live life free of fright
alas! they are caste blind
to see their mutual bind
feminists too are not so kind
to raise voice against the crime
however will burn candles
and raise issue nation wide
on death of upper caste women
died enjoying night party
such feminists who glee
in distributing pink panty
for women’s right to party
awfully ignores humiliating death
suffered by dalit women daily
story of dalit women is grim
suffers discrimination all time
as a female and a lower caste being
though struggling through adversities
if succeed to come out of the rim
aristocrat high caste vultures deem
her hopes nothing but dream
ever preying on her virtuosity
that dominates their caste superiority
arising dalit women suffers subtly
high caste people discriminating policy
based on caste as well gender inferiority
where majority prays and swears by female deity
but treat dalit women mere commodity
nation egotist in its democracy
fails to notice caste discrepancy
dalit women should now be their own saviors
pursue the legacy of Savitribai Phule and Dr. Ambedkar
be educated, be united and agitate
…raHUL
poem by Rahul Gade
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Love Insightful
Providential wish
None could aside brush
He vishoned not her; just heard
Simply he his love declared
Said she yes though feared
Chasing caste phobia parental
Made them bear a child premarital
Essayed their love the visionless
Forbade them the parents heartless
Conjoined they in a temple caste regardless
A true love story of two visionless
In love while in their classes
Years two later they declared
No law or parents guarded
Merely threatened and tortured
Eloped, struggled and starved
Sold comb and soap, themselves upgraded
Turned more blessed
Begotten kids born vision powered
Impaired not love; paired per divine command
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Failed Love-war
When their steadfast love
Waged war against the world
They never asked their religion
He never asked her
To change her religion
To change her name
At the culmination
Of the love- war against all
The universe
The Gods
He asked her
To wipe out the vermilion dot
On her fore-head
To break her bangles
To suit to his religion!
She stood with him
To wage war against
Her religion
Her beliefs
Her village diktat
Yet for a sublime love
Untained with religion
The caste or beliefs!
He commanded her
To immerse
In his religion, belief
And caste customs
And customs of the clan
The love converted her
To his religion, belief
And clan to keep
The nuptial knot intact!
He lost nothing for the love
But she lost everything for it
It was he who emboldened
Her to accept the Christ,
The prophet and Jahoa
With no discrimination
As the fundamentals took sword!
As the black shadows
Of disbelief crept in
She as defeated warrior
As the failed crusader
Abandoned and hood -winked
Asked him on parting:
Can you not love me
With no identity
But with the identity as women
Whom you found at first sight!
poem by Vadakkumpurath Ramesan
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Two Systems
For the permanent settlement
of exploitation oh, my dear,
they made caste system in
the name of religion, inhuman,
notorious esotericism, one is born
from the mouth and other is from
the legs, a blot on humanism, class
system is not less scum of the earth,
not a thin chain, both are strong
tentacles, good enough to suck blood
the two Greek bugs fate and luck
you know you are sick, cut the chain,
spray the insecticide I know they, too,
suffer from diseases one is irrational
other is unscientific, I have for them
two doses of medicine, the first one
is love the second one is severe beating..
poem by Abdul Wahab
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The Fate Of Love
The sky is limitless dome,
All the planets are jewells,
The night looks pretty home,
There is beauty where love dwells,
But, eagle always hunts the dove,
The beauty is free but not love.
God's made men but not caste,
They've themselves erected walls,
In the courtyard of human, that would be vast,
So, poor love strives flying but falls,
The society's made among us destinition,
The caste is the obstacle in love's destination.
I know not what the pain,
Or what to say that I feel,
All my efforts may go in vain,
If my compulsion doesn't let me reveal,
My love and intention to the mother of hers,
In her separation, I only compose my song verse.
poem by Mohammad Muzzammil
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Sex Is A Dirty Devil Of Mind Which Always Troubles The Mind
Sex is a dirty devil of mind which always troubles the mind
A sexy man or woman suffers in life not to control the sex,
Such man or woman makes the life-hell in an unkind bind,
Nothing they find in life due to their worset sexual nature,
Wife and husband, parents and children may divide in life,
For example if a boy or a girl can be married in other caste,
Then a war begins among kith and kin and also other caste,
Lovers die in their blind love not to think of their family,
Great leaders and officers are often disturbed by sexual life,
They lost jobs or seats and led their families for distruction,
Those who control the sex are forever happy in life with safe,
Sex can not let for any risk but it can be let for construction,
If wife is suffering from any disease but husband must control,
Likewise both should control sex otherwise sex becomes petrol.
poem by INDIA Mazid S Kazi
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I am born to win
I am born to be the President
of my village where my caste dominates.
I have men to plan ahead and delete
the names of dissidents from the voters’ list.
If the people of minor castes seem to vote for me,
their names will be found in the corrected list
or else they will vanish. Thanks to the VAO.
Some hamlets denying votes to me will be added
to the Voters’ list of the nearby Panchayat.
I am fit to be an MLA
for I have loyal workers
to throw stones on the processions,
of my rivals in politics
and bribe the reporters to write
that people chased away my rival everywhere.
My hooligans will hack the volunteers
of my opponent who dare to defy me.
They will set ablaze the huts
which refuse to hang my photo on the wall.
Polling will end well with the grace of God
with a few hundred bogus votes
which my minions arrange to cast.
There will not be poor voter turn out,
for my men will press the button again and again
to swell the votes in the ballot unit.
Sometimes a massive wave helps me
to be an MLA with folded hands,
when a popular leader dies.
Sometimes I will cause ripples of sympathy
by sacrificing my honest worker.
Before the election, money slips out
of my micro inner pocket
and my cheap chappals get worn out.
But in the aftermath of the election
bags and suitcases in full
walk into my house before I wake up.
People’s boundless love baffles me!
Vendors of vegetables, fish and mutton
send their usual quota which knock
even on the doors of my neighbours.
How much can I put into this liquor –filled belly!
I’ m very friendly with my neighbours
for they will save me when my enemies
hunt me down with choppers and swords.
In daylight the learned men throng my house
but in the dark, seek my help the VIPS whom
people call rowdies and anti-socials.
My duty is to serve all the people!
I am born to win but my opponents are to lose!
--------------
poem by Rajendran Muthiah
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