Discrimination and prejudices are facts of life but no one wants to accept that it exists. All of us discriminate at one level or the other and get discriminated too. When we get discriminated in some way, we feel hurt. Though the Americans have chosen a black man as their President, that did not stop an American cop from arresting a high profile black American professor mistaking him for a burglar, when he was actually entering his own house in a predominantly wealthy area. The cop arrested him without knowing his credentials and though the professor showed his ID he did not spare him. The professor is known to the president and when the matter was brought to the knowledge of the President, it is said, he dismissed the matter saying that the cop was stupid. Does the black President have to call a white cop, a stupid cop? Is he not hurting the sentiments of a lot of whites, who feel that the cop was innocent and did not do anything out of racial feelings but why does the President not see it in the same spirit and call him a stupid cop? Discussions, allegations and counter allegation will fly for many days!!

 

In India too we discriminate on many counts. Apart from colour, we have religions, casts and creeds, professions, gender, class, language and region etc to discriminate and divide people. Following the Vedas, Upanishads etc, the Hindu thought is the most egalitarian and universal of religions of the world but extreme types of discriminations were practiced by the Hindu Society, some of which are prevalent even today! Over a period of many years Hindus have discarded many of these prejudices and a majority of people who profess to be Hindus do not even know that many such prejudices existed till some 30 or 40 years ago. Discarding prejudices are part of growing and progress, transcending from a lower state of consciousness to higher. Well that is a different topic altogether!

 

Take for example the recent experience of a film personality of the “minority” community! He could not get an apartment in Mumbai in a building of his choice because he happens to be a Muslim! The entire media see it as a terrible case of discrimination. It is a rejection of the man’s fundamental rights as written down in the Indian Constitution. Wow!! But is it something new? This unwritten rule, denying membership in Housing Societies for some communities, is in existence in Mumbai from time immemorial. So the man has gone to the court to demand his rights by the constitution. Well, well! Is that something everyone would do? Is it uncommon for birds of the same feather to flock together and not allow other birds to cohabit in the same nest? If forty-nine out of fifty members in a society do not want you to be living in their midsts, why the hell do you want to live with them? I lived in Mumbai for 40 years and there were no Muslims in our building. Next to our building there was one where no Hindus lived. Whether it was due to some pressure or due to free choice, I never enquired and we used to intermingle without restraint. In fact, during the communal riots of 1992 in Mumbai the Hindu residents of our building went out of their way to protect the Muslims living in the adjacent building. There never seemed to be any problem for any one. Now there is the question of the rights of one man as against the rights of so many others. Are there no Societies where Hindus are not allowed? There are of course societies where Non-vegetarians are not allowed. Is that also aimed at bashing the minorities?

 

All over the world minority groups live together for various reasons, including safety. In Trivandrum where I grew up, there are three or four localities where only Brahmins live. No one from other communities would be allowed to live there. Their life styles and food habits are all different from the others and therefore they prefer to stick together, neither any one from other communities would want to be in their midst!! I do not know why anyone would want to go and live there asserting his right to be there? A Christian friend of mine put in all his savings and some borrowed funds to buy a flat in a Mumbai Suburb and moved in with much celebration. Within about 5 years he found that most of the flats in the building were occupied by Muslims from various backgrounds and soon he found it difficult to live in the building because their ways were different and he could not take it. He had no other alternative but leave the building which he did eventually. In this case can any one blame others just because he is denied his choice?

 

Discrimination per se is not bad, it depends on how one does it.