The recent article I read, titled ‘If one genuinely wants to dismantle caste, symbols of superiority must be challenged,’ resonates deeply with a truth I have observed for decades. It’s not merely about India's traditional caste system, but about the insidious ways societies worldwide construct, maintain, and sometimes even celebrate perceived superiority. This challenge isn't just a philosophical debate; it's a practical, often painful, necessity for true human dignity.
The Visible Marks of Division
I recall a piece in Wikipedia's collection of unusual articles that mentioned the historical "Breast tax" as an "unusual tax meant to enforce the caste system in an indirect way" Wikipedia: Unusual articles - Wikipedia. This is a stark, almost unbelievable example of how physical attributes or markers were once—and in some forms, still are—leveraged to enforce social hierarchies. Such a tax literally made a woman's body a public declaration of her subjugated status.
This grotesque historical fact instantly reminds me of a thought I shared years ago in my blog, “Bankruptcy of Imagination? or a Conspiracy?”. I highlighted the alarming practice in India where police recruits were marked on their chests with initials like SC, ST, or O to denote their caste categories for selection purposes. At the time, I questioned whether this was a "bankruptcy of imagination" or a "conspiracy" to humiliate. I pointed out that in an era of "Software Super-power" with GPS, RFID, and QR codes, such dehumanizing physical markers were completely unnecessary. It struck me then, and it strikes me now, how this act of physically branding individuals, much like the archaic breast tax, serves as a brutal, unmistakable symbol of inherent inferiority. My earlier call for humane, technological alternatives wasn't just about efficiency; it was about preserving the fundamental human right to dignity, free from visible marks of societal judgment.
Rhetorical Chains and Systemic Walls
Beyond these overt physical markings, societies employ more subtle, yet equally potent, symbols of superiority. An academic text, “Plots of Opportunity: Representing Conspiracy in Victorian England,” reveals how rhetoric itself can be a powerful tool of subjugation. In Victorian England, accusations of belonging to "secret societies" or engaging in "conspiracies" were weaponized to discredit groups seeking greater equality—be it the working class, Catholics, or colonized Indians. This wasn't merely about actual plots; it was a strategic deployment of rhetorical symbols to cast them as "un-English" or inherently inferior, thus justifying their exclusion from full citizenship and perpetuating an elite "guardianship democracy." It was a way for those in power to control narratives, to paint challengers as dangerous outsiders, and to maintain the existing order by defining who was worthy and who was not.
Looking at modern examples, the issue of “Racism in Japan” illustrates how systemic discrimination functions today. Policies of forced cultural assimilation against indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan peoples, the perpetuation of "Yamato master race theory," the use of discriminatory terms like "Gaijin" (outsider), racial profiling by police, and blatant housing discrimination all act as deeply entrenched symbols of perceived ethnic or racial superiority. The very absence of laws prohibiting racial discrimination in Japan, as the article notes, is itself a silent, yet deafening, symbol of a societal stance. This echoes the "ugly laws" mentioned in the "unusual articles" — absurd on the surface, but deeply discriminatory in practice, effectively policing who belongs in public space and who is deemed "undesirable."
The Imperative of Transparency
The common thread weaving through these historical and contemporary examples is the reliance on opacity and the deliberate creation of distance between the perceived superior and the perceived inferior. Whether it’s the physical marking of caste, the rhetorical labeling of dissenters as conspirators, or the systemic denial of rights based on ethnicity, these "symbols of superiority" thrive in shadows.
This brings me back to another proposal I've championed for years in my blog, particularly in “Who watches the Watchmen?”. My argument for a robust and transparent surveillance framework, where individuals are notified when they are under scrutiny and can access their surveillance history, directly relates to this broader societal imperative. If we demand transparency from government surveillance, we must demand it even more vehemently from the subtle and overt mechanisms that enforce social hierarchies. The "poison" of discrimination, as I metaphorically connected in my “10,000 B C (Ancient Legend)” blog, can only be countered by the "Amrut" of open knowledge and collective awareness. Only when these symbols are dragged into the light, their underlying assumptions exposed, and their mechanisms of enforcement dismantled, can we truly move towards a society where every individual is recognized for their inherent worth, unburdened by archaic notions of superiority or inferiority.
Regards, Hemen Parekh
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