Watching an early episode of a talent show, and seeing a contestant and her pop, and a judge too, in tears about how school children taunt one amongst them - about the father doing what they consider "beneath"! as if children shoukd have any such concepts - brought, this time, an onrush of thoughts, puzzled and protesting.
We went to the US style community schools that were designated by locality, and while we knew some of us had pops who had ranks higher than others, as evident by the number of rooms in the house allotted by the government (this being probably leftist style), our equations at school were far more about who gets along with who, and even academic prowess played a far smaller part than any other considerations.
That children so young, not even teens yet, should have such contempt for honest work, is abominable. And yet this happens precisely at the expensive schools that are supposed to be often run by institutions, such as church, that profess equality, should tell the whole story.
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For too long has India been subjected to values that are, not only not of India, but completely false. One such issue, related to work, has far reaching roots and threads, to do with culture and history and traditions of India, and the false whipping of India indulged in by various powers that sought to break up India for not merely sadistic pleasure taken in such pursuits by such powers, but - of course - for all the benefits they expect, once India is broken.
For it hasn't been easy, no matter what false propaganda of centuries used to tame the subjects into slavery. Other cultures took much less being wiped out by the dominance of Rome or by the onslaught of the conversionist powers, and they were the ancient cultures India knew in antiquity. Egypt, Persia, .... wiped out in less than a century except in name, and here still remains India - not merely in existence but alive and vibrant. And her own self. Despite the conversionists attempting to shame India with lies, false theories, propaganda. Despite every Macaulay. Despite every other culture imposed on her.
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One such aspect, a major one, has been about work, position, and prestige accrued thereby, usually mistaken for honour or lack thereof. And this has far reaching connections every which way one looks.
India has always had a caste system based on categories of work, but they always were categories separated by the character of the vocation - intellectual work, physical power related work, trade and consequently wealth, and crafts. The higher castes, as a rule, were not richer, but quite the opposite. And the top two were not allowed to charge for work, or to refose services if someone could not offer much, or anything at all for that matter.
It's the colonial regimes that brought their own caste systems and in addition created new ones that together were used by the said regimes in order to establish and entrench the said rule, and they formed the vicious castes, fraudulently labelled class, that stayed on, while Indian styke caste system gets whipped every possibke opportunity.
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Hence the disrespect meted out to someone who is respected world wide, but constantly reminded by political opposition in India that he used to be a tea vendor as a young boy.
Hence the tears of a judge at a music talent show because her sister was taunted - at an elite school she went to, where her pop sold snacks outside the school, and couldn't move much further because it was a small town. Not that a few miles would change the mindset that did this taunting.
For, such mindset is based on the premise that, short of being a British royal, being as high as possible on the rungs of various ladders towards that peak is the prestigious thing, while any honest work including not only trade but also professions such as medicine or science, are low, unless they are mere hobbies, or bring in tons of money without need to actually work.
Feudal landlords therefore are high in this as are those titled by the British, but a chef is only goid if holding a certificate , preferably from West somewhere. The alternate rung of prestige is, of course, the administration - and since this is vestige of the era when as part of the administrative services one woukd be on the side of rukers, not subjects, that explains the obsession for "jobs" with very angry disdain for entrepreneurial opportunities created by a new government that has cut through every possible red tape.
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I recall a classmate who, last time we saw one another, was still not out of primary school, but was helping his pop deliver coal, which we rarely used but were having it that one time, don't remember why. I was startled to see him, and began to realise much.
Of all the classmates I recall - and one was always there until we both finished our college, as she reminded once - him I remember with a pinch at heart.
I wouldn't have taunted. Would never have occurred. But then, nor would have any other schoolmates, I would think. Such a behaviour would have brought eyebrows raised at the very least, and a disdainful clamour one could bet safely - "who does that one think they are?"
And that, in short, would be giving it a short shrift.
.......................................................................But then, ours wasn't an expensive school sponsored by foreign values and teaching them.
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