Being born in a typical Bengali Brahmin family, I’ve always come across certain hypocritic rules since childhood. The first chapter of being a Brahmin taught to me was, “Do not touch the feet of any person, other than Brahmins”, “we are next to God. We secure the superior position in society.” A question that always lingered in my mind was, how can I be superior without even doing a single work of goodwill?
The so-called upper-caste Brahmin section has been preaching illogical cultural values and norms since time immemorial. One practice that greatly surprises me is, that any person, other than a Brahmin, is not allowed to cook ‘prasad’ or ‘bhoga’ that we offer to God in temples. I mean, does it make any sense? Will the God not accept the offerings made by a non-Brahmin?
Even if a Brahmin guy commits horrible atrocities against society, will he still be regarded superior?
We proudly sing that we are in the 21st century, but the truth is, our society still dwells in the 18th century. Recently, an incident made me roll in laughter. I lit up a decorating star on my terrace for Christmas celebration. One of my neighbourhood aunties, sarcastically commented, “The Bhattacharjees have decorated their house with the Christian star.” Does the star only belong to the Christians? Or being a Brahmin, I cannot even light a star? How can a source of light take away my religion? Horrible!
If my parents find out that I have been dating a non-Brahmin boy for years, they will probably throw me out of the house, or adopt all possible means to break my connection with him. There couldn’t be any greater sin than marrying a non-Brahmin!
Why can’t a person be judged based on their character, behaviour, values, and not on caste? Swami Vivekananda, an inspiration to millions, was also a non-Brahmin. But the contributions he made towards the society is worth knowing. There are many non-Brahmin social reformers who have done commendable work for the society. So, if they can be given a higher position, why not the entire non-Brahmin section of the society?
The discrimination started with the fact that only the Brahmin men could read the Vedas. But, its high time, that we raise our voice and empower the responsible children of our society to revolt back against such intolerances and illogical norms of our people. Let the war between castes end!