Nietzsche
The recent killing of Afro American, George Floyd in U.S.A. created spontaneous protests and agitations not only in the various places in USA but ignited worldwide protests in various countries. The Blacks have been subject to racial discrimination since the 17th century from the dawn of American independence and even before that during the British colonial rule. Basically the racial discrimination prevailing in US is birth based. Another birth based discrimination has been prevailing in India as caste discrimination for more than 3000 years.
The discrimination in USA is explicit and visible and the discrimination is not backed by any religious dogmas, whereas the caste discrimination in India is religion oriented with the support of vedic, epic and puranic scriptures and the discriminating law code, Manusmiriti. The discrimination in USA is created by man and practised as such. So the aggrieved are historically coming forward to protest against the racial discrimination and there are systematic progress in it. In India, the caste discrimination is also man-made but advocated as if it was created by ‘god’ himself. If anybody comes forward to fight against such ‘divine’ discrimination, it is considered and exposed as if it is against the so called supreme god, and the violators of the divine dictum are liable for punishment not only in mundane but in the ‘imaginative world’ too after death. The god fear psychosis has been perpetuated in the minds of the discriminated masses. The protest against the caste discrimination is projected as the one against the god himself.
In racial discrimination against the Blacks, there is no dogmatic denial of vital basic rights of humans like getting educated and deployed in the preferred employment but was offered in segregation. At present the ’segregation’ is eliminated in law. But the caste oriented discrimination denies completely the right of getting education to major sections of the toiling masses viz. Sudras. The Sudras were ordained to get occupied only with caste based jobs of what a father did his son has to continue. The trend has started to change due to the societal contributions of the revolutionaries Mahatma Jothiba Phule, Thanthai Periyar, Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Only a little has changed and much significant continues as per the religious dogmas in the name of culture and tradition.
The Blacks are aware of their social slavery and they have been revolting against it in every successive generation. The Sudras are also aware of their slavery and their mind set has been tuned to the extent of glorifying their slavery as ‘divine’. So eradicating the caste based discrimination in India is comparatively arduous than the racial discrimination against the Blacks. In caste discrimination the Self Respect of the enslaved has been in jeopardy. The naming of the slaves as Sudra is derogatory with its meaning, as son of a prostitute. The liberation from the social slavery in India is associated with realising the Self Respect of the enslaved. In the protest against racial discrimination the Black Lives Matter has its justification. In India the Self Respect of Sudras is important and to be realised and hence Self Respect Lives Matter. More than the racial discrimination the caste discrimination has to capture the attention worldwide to arouse Voices and Protests to restore Self Dignity of the ‘divinely enslaved’ by realising their Self Respect. In that way Self Respect Lives Matter too and more!
