Glass houses and stones. Fallout from the Shilpa Vs. Jane incident.

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Glass houses and stones. Fallout from the Shilpa Vs. Jane incident.

By: Karthik :+: Under: Desi Please, It Happens Only in India, Opinion, Politics
On: ⋅ January 26, 2007 ⋅

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Not another Shilpa Vs. Jane post, I know. But bear with me for a few minutes.

Growing up in a relaxed Tam-Bram family where my parents dragged me to Prayer meetings and me attending Mass to skip class, I was always uncomfortable when I visited my grand parents. Rules that were alien to me were enforced and for the life of me I could never understand why.

The maid had to use the backdoor, Visitors who were not Brahmins had their own utensils and I cannot remember a time when someone besides a Brahmin ever ate a meal in my grand parents house. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have seen other people from my parentâ€™s generation who still act and practice things that freak me out. I was always under the assumption that they had never had the opportunity to meet and know people from varying cultures and this was merely a expected side effect. But there was this incident that stands out in my memory and made me believe otherwise.

A close friend of mine stopped eating his lunch midway because another classmate (from a different religion) decided to taste his food, this while he never had a problem with me digging in for seconds. Kids from my own generation were tainted, are tainted and will pass this on to the future generations and something needs to be done about this.

The problem of caste and religion exists in a variety of forms and shapes in modern India. Try renting a place if you are meat eater or if you are a Muslim and want to live in a place populated by Hindus. A very invisible veil of racism, religious intolerance and unfair practices engulfs the country.

When you take into account the existing class system, the plot only gets scarier. Besides the higher echelon of society soaring to unprecedented heights, the topography of today middle class family has changed from when I was growing up. All this while the lower class has pretty much stayed unchanged since Independence. The influx of money is making the gap between the classes very apparent. In a few decades, the already huge divide will only get deeper and scarier.

The entire Shilpa Vs Jane episode is something that a major chunk of Indians live through everyday. They might not be called a Poppadum to their face, but disparity exists, your religion, language and even skin tone can and will be used against you.

While our support for a fellow India is appreciated and required, we should draw inspiration to look inwards and fix issues inside of our borders. By not doing this, we are headed down a very dangerous path.

Discussion

5 comments for “Glass houses and stones. Fallout from the Shilpa Vs. Jane incident.”

1: Santosh | January 26, 2007, 2:58 pm | Direct Link

I agree with you 95%.
I’ve seen and experienced bigtime discrimination in the Indian society:
-My grandparents and other older family members were intolerant of other castes.
-I was a dark skinned (oh the horrors of it) “Madrasi” in Bombay.
-My brother was refused a job because he belonged to a higher caste. The interviewer told this to his face.
-Matrimonial quests by cousins for “fairer” spouses.
-the list goes on.

But that does not mean we should roll over and let someone else insult our people.

2: Karthik | January 26, 2007, 3:03 pm | Direct Link

But that does not mean we should roll over and let someone else insult our people.

I never said that we should roll over.

While our support for a fellow India is appreciated and required

3: amanaceo | February 9, 2007, 3:17 pm | Direct Link

not renting a place to meat eaters is a choice of the landlord for cleanliness reasons. if they do not rent the place to vegetarian non-Brahmins or vegetarian non-Hindus, then it is discrimination (bad).

4: Santosh | February 9, 2007, 4:11 pm | Direct Link

not renting a place to meat eaters is a choice of the landlord for cleanliness reasons. if they do not rent the place to vegetarian non-Brahmins or vegetarian non-Hindus, then it is discrimination (bad).

I agree with the statement that since the apartment is the landlord’s private property they have a right to choose or deny. Having said that, how would you feel if irrespective of whether you are veggie or non-veggie, if someone denied you an apartment because your cooking smells. That is a problem faced often by South Asian folks in Western countries and, yes, that is discrimination. By that same logic, as long as the tenant can clean the whole house spotless physically, they cannot be denied a home irrespective of if they are veggie or non-veg. That whole cleanliness things is a state of the mind.

5: amanaceo | February 9, 2007, 5:06 pm | Direct Link

I agree with the cooking smell complaint. It is legitimate, and don’t think that it is discrimination if a westener finds the smell offensive.

In fact, I would extend that logic to the ATL airport which has a 2 gates across a steakery which stinks up the place. I have always wanted to sue them because it causes nausea. I know I would lose because majority don’t find it offensive. It is a public place.

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