Villager Anuj Tomar 🐉

Why do we have such a hard time accepting that casteism still exists in our society? The truth is, many people still don't view lower caste people as equals, or even as human beings. You know what the worst part is? It's so deep-rooted that even many SC/ST people have accepted that they aren't equal to upper caste people. I still remember a personal incident from when I was barely 10 years old. I was serving food to an SC lady, and she told me, "Don't touch your spoon to my plate." That moment has been stuck with me forever. It's not even a debate about a paper cup or a glass. They have suffered so much that they probably deny the glass themselves, just like that lady insisted that my spoon shouldn't touch her plate. And this is where we fail as human beings. From your food habits to your style, older people can find caste in literally anything you do. When I got three ear piercings, someone asked me, "पेरणी है?" Whenever you do something they think is low-class, even simple things like dipping khari in tea, or just having a slightly darker skin tone they will casually ask, 'चूहड़ा-चमार hai?' They don't even realize that these words are terrible casteist slurs. And I often wonder, how did someone's caste end up becoming a slur? Why did this happen? What all did they have to suffer through history for their identity to be turned into an insult? When someone called me पेरणी, I didn't feel bad. But how do they feel when people use these words against them? Will I ever really be able to understand that? Maybe never. I never went through anything which they suffered. This privilege is weirdly painful to never being able feel someone else's pain in this scenario. What's so wrong with being like a hippy woman? Don't they have more freedom than those upper caste women who can't even lift their ghunghat up? Upper caste women only saw the streets, people, trees, and sky with a blurred vision. They never got to sing, dress how they wanted, or get the piercings they might have wished for. A hippy woman can sing, travel, look at the pink skies without any blurry vision and wear a backless blouse without caring about men staring at her. Women in these communities have more freedom within their own circles than upper caste women, even if society doesn't give them that freedom outside. How can anyone treat a person differently just because they didn't have the natural privilege of being born into an upper caste home?