The Caste system extended
Several years back in Chicago I met an engineer working for an American MNC. He had recently immigrated to USA from Poland. During conversation he mentioned the Indian caste system. I told him I was surprised he knew of it. He explained that it was a part of their social studies text in school. It was one of the only two specific things he knew about India. The other was the Taj Mahal. In retrospect, I should not have been surprised at all. The Indian (or Hindu) caste system is a uniquely Indian tragedy, and considering the size of the Indian population it is a huge tragedy. It is unique and large enough to have found its way into a textbook in Poland.
Now as if our historical sins were not enough, we often extend this caste system to other spheres of life. I will cite some examples from working life.
• In India, nursing is regarded as a very low end profession. The social distance between a doctor and a nurse is huge, and a nurse can rarely break out of this “caste” and be accepted a social equal to doctors. In fact a few months back, following a controversy in the salary fixed by the Pay-commission for doctors and nurses in the Armed forces , some top brass of the Army made a rather stupid statement. In effect in order to defend a higher salary for army doctors, he insulted the army nurses. See the link below for more details (copy and paste to your browser window)
http://www.outlookindia.com/rantsmag.asp?fodname=20081027&fname=Army+chiefs+letters+(F)&sid=1
• The same “class” distinction applies in the areas of technical professions. After school (10+2) one can get into an engineering college and get a B Tech/ B E degree in 4 years. Or after 10th standard one can get into a polytechnic and get a Diploma in engineering in 3 years. Now these diploma holders, no matter how hard they work and how smart they are, forever remain second class citizens. The Indian work environment will RARELY lets them forget their origins.
• And here is one many of you will identify with. You are in an elevator that is going up (or down). It stops at a floor that is not your destination. The door opens and you see one or more housekeeping staff wanting to get in. Chances are they won’t get in and wait for the next one. There is no policy that housekeeping staff should not enter the elevator when regular employees are inside, but dig deeper and you will find that someone (usually their supervisor) has told them that that is what is expected of them.
• Once in a while we hear that so-and-so working in USA/ Australia rose from an office secretary’s position to the Chief Executive. But we never hear this in India. In fact we never hear this even from UK , because the UK has it own very strong “class’ system.
As the caste system has been around for 2000 years in India, none of this is surprising. Old habits die hard, and ancient ones even harder. Only in the last 20 years or so, have wee seen any kind of serious assault, by the government on the caste system. But this has been mostly limited to reservations in jobs and education. It has also generated a certain amount of ill-will among many upper-caste hindus. I think there is also a need for a communications campaign.
Several years back in Chicago I met an engineer working for an American MNC. He had recently immigrated to USA from Poland. During conversation he mentioned the Indian caste system. I told him I was surprised he knew of it. He explained that it was a part of their social studies text in school. It was one of the only two specific things he knew about India. The other was the Taj Mahal. In retrospect, I should not have been surprised at all. The Indian (or Hindu) caste system is a uniquely Indian tragedy, and considering the size of the Indian population it is a huge tragedy. It is unique and large enough to have found its way into a textbook in Poland.
Now as if our historical sins were not enough, we often extend this caste system to other spheres of life. I will cite some examples from working life.
• In India, nursing is regarded as a very low end profession. The social distance between a doctor and a nurse is huge, and a nurse can rarely break out of this “caste” and be accepted a social equal to doctors. In fact a few months back, following a controversy in the salary fixed by the Pay-commission for doctors and nurses in the Armed forces , some top brass of the Army made a rather stupid statement. In effect in order to defend a higher salary for army doctors, he insulted the army nurses. See the link below for more details (copy and paste to your browser window)
http://www.outlookindia.com/rantsmag.asp?fodname=20081027&fname=Army+chiefs+letters+(F)&sid=1
• The same “class” distinction applies in the areas of technical professions. After school (10+2) one can get into an engineering college and get a B Tech/ B E degree in 4 years. Or after 10th standard one can get into a polytechnic and get a Diploma in engineering in 3 years. Now these diploma holders, no matter how hard they work and how smart they are, forever remain second class citizens. The Indian work environment will RARELY lets them forget their origins.
• And here is one many of you will identify with. You are in an elevator that is going up (or down). It stops at a floor that is not your destination. The door opens and you see one or more housekeeping staff wanting to get in. Chances are they won’t get in and wait for the next one. There is no policy that housekeeping staff should not enter the elevator when regular employees are inside, but dig deeper and you will find that someone (usually their supervisor) has told them that that is what is expected of them.
• Once in a while we hear that so-and-so working in USA/ Australia rose from an office secretary’s position to the Chief Executive. But we never hear this in India. In fact we never hear this even from UK , because the UK has it own very strong “class’ system.
As the caste system has been around for 2000 years in India, none of this is surprising. Old habits die hard, and ancient ones even harder. Only in the last 20 years or so, have wee seen any kind of serious assault, by the government on the caste system. But this has been mostly limited to reservations in jobs and education. It has also generated a certain amount of ill-will among many upper-caste hindus. I think there is also a need for a communications campaign.
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