The JNU row, apart from all the other things that it might have enthused, has certainly also brought about a sudden pressure on mass and especially youths to identify themselves with a “modern caste system” which easily attempts to group and tag people within a scale of “left or Right”.
Whereas as modern Indian youth are uncompromisingly trying to get over the age old caste and religion based segregation, there’s a “modern caste system” that we are all falling for and taking a lot of pride on.
So everybody has suddenly got into this deep “attentive” exercise to decide where they really fit into this scale. At the same time, everybody is also extremely keen to know where others fit in.
So when they meet you they would be likely asking “What’s your ideology- are you a leftist, radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, reactionaryIJ” Which is almost like asking one his/her caste, “are you a Brahmin, Rajput, Baniya,Adivasi or DalitIJ”
And yes, it is extremely important to fit in yourself somewhere, for god forbid, if you are still among the lot struggling to discover which of the “slots” in the “left or right” scale you belong to, then within no time it would be concluded that you completely lack a viewpoint and have no “intellect”.
So tagging oneself and also others into this “modern caste system” has become a truly “in” thing today. While asking one’s caste would be considered by many as “oh so conservative”, asking ones ideological “caste” in the “left or right” scale has become “oh so intellectual”.
When I moved to Ganjam, Kandhamal and Kalahandi district, I realized that my caste was asked because it made convenient for others to decide how much they should be entertaining me-whether I should be made to sit on a chair or on the floor; if I should be served water or tea (if at all). Which utensils should be used to serve water/food to meIJ It also defined how they should be communicating with me, from what distance and what amount of respect I was worthy of. In short, it helped them set the level of “discrimination” I deserved!
Now coming to this “modern caste system”, not much of a difference do I see and this really scares me. In this whole process of identifying oneself with one or the other ideological group in the “left or right” scale”, we have completely given up on the fact that everybody is also an “individual”. We are giving up on our individual thinking and are in a rush to line up ourselves with this ideology group or that. And as we associate ourselves with a particular group, we are becoming rigid in our thoughts, and intolerant to the thoughts of others. We feel superior of our viewpoint, and inferior of others. We are becoming discriminatory. This “modern caste system” is making me as uncomfortable as the age old caste system.
let “you be you” and let “me be me”, let’s not fit ourselves into “brands” and “categories”; for we are humans, not objects, and this is a diverse world and not a “supermarket”.