Which is the c-word that controls every discussion and each debate in India? Mind you, it is not only the free-for-all field of politics that it dominates. In fact, it controls poetics even more! If the dying-in-the-AI-era Humanities Studies suddenly seek the survival mode, rest assured, it is due to the c-word.
This c-word haunts humans in a fashion more tenacious than Hamlet's ghost! 'Re-arrange', it insists constantly, forgetting in the heat, sound n fury that the "varna" system was coerced in to "jati" due to the colonisers' tricks!
Come to think of it, if a person does solid good work, hardly is her/his caste quoted. Want some proof? Look at Ahilyabai Holkar, for instance. Recently was celebrated her death anniversary.
She is a mighty example of how a good ruler, be it as the queen or the regent, can be an efficient administrator. Her womanhood never stood in the way! She revived the Hindu sensibility, too. Be it ghat's, math's, temples, she (re-)built countless.
What I admire her for is the fact that in those days, she cared for girls' education. Why, she even catered to the self-respect of the common (wo)man by initiating the handloom industry, which continues to flourish even today!
Nobody, the rabid ideologues excluded, ever remembers her as a Dhangar product! Her father was the 'patil', the chieftain, of that area. Honestly, she was one of my 'heroines' during the childhood days, and our parents encouraged us to think of all human(e)ly. In brief, cast your net(work) thus that no worries regarding to caste or not to caste which is never the real question! 'Class' is, but more about it some other time!
Pratima@ Her birth anniversary falls on May 31, which is my brother's birthday, too. A day conserved for the conscientious, I suppose!
Quote of the day: "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." Agreed, Marcus Aurelius!
Word of the day: conscientious A conscientious person is highly considerate, and always acts correctly and well for the good of the most.
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