Minority affairs
When I was an eight year old, our family resided in Salem. I had a very close friend named Mukundan. His family and mine were very close. We still remember the days when we were ROFL while we were watching ‘Annamalai’ movie - ‘paambu…’ comedy. He used to be the topper in my class every time and I would always be the second. During a midterm test, our ranks got reversed. He felt very sad and refused to eat his lunch and he was crying all the way when we left our school. I consoled him and I promised him that I will not be a topper next time. Though this is not relevant to the topic, I wrote to establish that as children, we are naturally compassionate. It is the adulthood or its influence that instils venom named hate into our souls and prevents us from being compassionate.
We, as adults, fail to empathize with others in our day to day life. Our disregard for linguistic minorities can be cited as an example. Verbal abuse against linguistic minorities is quite a common scene in public transits. I could recall one instance in which a bus conductor berated a North Indian worker for not understanding Tamil. I have heard similar stories of discrimination in North India and also among South Indians. The facts such as our buses being monolingual (except those in metros) and imposition of Hindi by the centre and subsequent imposition of languages by the state governments are testimonies to our “compassion” for linguistic minorities.
Even during my college days, students of same tongues chose to form a group among themselves. I tried to avoid it but, sometimes, I too was carried away by that tendency. At times, I have served as a link to all the groups. I enjoyed knowing about their culture and learnt a few “meaningful” words in their languages. Sometimes, I would argue against my North Indian friends when they say Tamils must learn Hindi as it is widely spoken across India. I used to point out that a language must be learnt at free will, not by imposition. Ironically, it was the same time when the Tamil Nadu government enacted a law making Tamil mandatory in primary schooling. No such laws have been enacted in every non-Hindi speaking state.
Caste minorities are even more discriminated. We must be ashamed about how our ancestors treated our own people for centuries. Keezhvenmani Dalit massacre and the more recent Dharmapuri love story is definitely a shame on Tamil Nadu which boasts of successfully removing caste-based surnames from names of its people. I believe reservation is not something to be proud about but needful positive discrimination which should be confined to socially oppressed groups such as SCs/STs and OBCs to alleviate their continuing under-representation and discrimination. It is true that other under-represented groups such as women, gender minorities, and Muslims (only 4% of our MPs are Muslims) need to be dealt with using horizontal reservations. Those groups along with OBC/SC/STs must be uplifted by enacting social responsibility standards for the corporates. Companies violating such standards could be taxed heavily (It could be called social justice tax).
Here, I would like to point out irony in some people protesting against reservations. How come there are no protests against 35% reservation in colleges for economically privileged students called management quota in private colleges?
Another controversial minority group is religious minorities. During my childhood, I used to empathize with people who do not celebrate Deepavali. I believed that it was unfortunate that underprivileged Hindus and Christians and Muslims do not have many festivals to celebrate together. I believed they do not get many new clothes; they do not share sweets; and could not help their mothers drawing ‘kolams’. Instead, they only have festivals in which they have to fast for a month or beat up themselves in their chests until they bled. I had always thought there could be way in which we don’t isolate our minority friends during festivals.
I believe societies are changing in this front. It is true that Americans meted out the worst discrimination to their racial minorities. But they have evolved positively later. In a formal context, it is inappropriate in the west to wish someone, “Merry Christmas”. It should rather be “Happy Holidays”. Reason for it is that it might isolate a person who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. Like you, I found it ridiculous initially. True, they promote cultural assimilation. But, imposition is a strict no-no. I thought I have found a new thing and wished my friends “Happy Holidays” during our festivals but I found that a Tamil channel has already adopted the norm. The West also approaches the under-representation of minorities in an ethical way. For eg. Canadian Government strongly and successfully encourages its companies to recruit visible minorities (peoples other Caucasians), differently-abled, first nations etc.
When a country is judged by the way it treats its minority, an individual too is judged by his actions that reflect empathy. Before we do or speak anything to someone, we should put ourselves in his/her shoes and find out how we would feel if it were done or spoken to ourselves. I believe that by withering out ego and feeling empathetic to your listeners greatly reduces misunderstandings and develops much-needed career skills such as leadership, teamwork and other interpersonal skills.