The What and Why of Indian Apartheid
©2001, Lucio Mascarenhas.
Orthopapism II/Michaelinum | Index of Articles
Apartheid systems are systems in which two distict ethnic, social or descent-defined peoples live, not in harmony and as equals, but with one ruling as superiors and the other enslaved in some degree as inferiors.
Apartheid is nearly a universal phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is outstanding in some cases. The major cases in the contemporary world are the Japanese, Anglo-American, Rwanda-Burundian, and the Indian cases. There was also the South African, now, perhaps, thankfully ended.
Of these the oldest is the Indian. It came into being, when, according to their own histories, the Aryas, the self-styled "noble" people ingressed into India and overran the two pre-Aryan societies - the Dravidian in the West or Sindh river basin and the Naga in the East or the Gangetic-Bhramaputra rivers basins.
According to the Hindu religion which these Aryans brought in and developed, mankind is divided into five stratas - at the top, the Brahmins, under them the Kshatriyas, then the Vaisyas, then the Shudras and lastly the Mlenchhas or barbarians, all those who did not belong to the first four stratas, and therefore those Indians who had never been conquered and enslaved, such as the forest and hill tribals or Adivasis (Aborigines), those who abandoned the Hindu religion, such as the Jains, the Budhists, the Christians, the Muslims, the Sikhs, etc., or who lapsed by not following the rituals so that atleast one generation had passed without being initiated, and all foreingers.
In modern India, oppression under this system, which the "Aryas" style the Varna-asrama or the Color System, and which from Portuguese times came to be called the Caste (or Purity) System, has been outlawed; nevertheless, its adherents openly follow it and the oppression continues rampant.
The state of India has sought to remedy it by a temporary system of Affirmative Action, but it has been nothing but a colossal failure, besides alienating the general populace and thereby worsening the oppression.
In place of Affirmative Action, this author advocates Reparative Action, the meaning of which is made manifest in his articles, principally,
Contra-RSS 2.
©2001, Lucio Mascarenhas.
Orthopapism II/Michaelinum | Index of Articles