User:Mosh24/sandbox

User:Mosh24/sandbox/

Background Information
I Have Become The Tide, written by Githa Hariharan discusses the caste issues that are prevalent in post-independence India. Caste is not an Indian word, but is a Portuguese term, that connotes race or breed. Yet "popular understanding of caste in India is influenced by the way caste has been written in the West… because Brahmins tightly controlled the production of knowledge through most of India’s history, [and] there is little sociological examination of caste from pre-colonial times." Caste in India is known as verna, and divides the social structure into four distinctive classes known as, the Brahmins (the priestly castes), the Kshatriyas (the warrior/fighting caste), the Vaishyas (the business/trading castes), and the Shudras (the working class: artisans, agriculturists food gatherers, hunters, fisherfolk and the like). The Shudras are the lowest caste, known as untouchables. The untouchables are stripped of their basic human rights such as drinking water from local ponds and wells, walking on public roads, freedom to choose their occupation, and instead are forced to do jobs that include cleaning and dealing with refuse, toilets, and animal and human carcasses. The untouchables are considered impure and are required to sit outside the caste system, hence are considered the outcastes. Despite the legal act that passed in 1950 by the Indian Constitution to abolish untouchability, the government assigned untouchables as the STs (the Scheduled tribes) and SCs (the Scheduled class). In the book, Asha, Ravi, and Satya belong to the SCs. As Untouchables are poor, they were assigned a “fixed percentage of openings in government-based educational institutions and state employment only to disadvantaged groups" in hopes to better their living conditions. Regardless, untouchables still face restrictions in accessing their scholarships or being promoted over the upper-castes. After the Independence of India, Mahatma Gandhi wanted to appoint the name Harijan to the untouchables, which connotes people of God . In contrast, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, chose to address them as Dalits--a term the untouchable caste prefer to self-identify themselves as. The term Dalit came into being after young Marathi activists created a group called the Dalit Panthers. They wanted to show their support to the Black Panthers, who were engaged in their own fight for rights for the African Americans in the USA. Though both Gandhi and Ambedkar fought for untouchables' rights, they often had different views because Ambedkar belonged to the Mahar caste, another untouchable caste, while Gandhi belonged to the Vaishyas class. Therefore, Ambedkar argues that the "origin of untouchability lies buried in a dead past which nobody knows". Hence, the past can only be revived by him and other activists by criticizing how the "Indian government has always managed to successfully oppose the terming of caste-based discrimination as racism." In the present time, leading Indian newspapers describe the every day violence faced by untouchables such as: ""Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits"". There has been a rise in Dalit activists who are bringing awareness to their struggles against the discrimination of caste inequality. Dalit activists, trade unions, and other NGOS want to "peacefully demand their rights, higher wages, and more equitable land distribution" and be considered part of the Indian landscape.