cow better than a human being

The Kukke Subramanya temple in the sound kannadiga district of the state of Karnataka is very famous or better to say so notorious for the over 400 year old tradition of the practice of a ritual called ‘made snana’. What does it mean?

It is a custom or a ritual of people rolling over (urulu seve) the leftover of the food eaten by the Brahmins. Even the food is served differently and the upper caste people never sit along with the other caste people ('pankti bhedha' (discrimination based on caste/religion/gender)). What is the problem if it is a ritual and something to do with the faith? The problem is only when the low caste people are made to roll over the food eaten by the upper caste people.

In India you find million reasons to divide people. And the most popular and accepted way of dividing people and holding one’s head high is of diving people into high and low castes. People are proud of establishing that the other is a low caste in comparison to oneself. So in this practice what happens is just that the high caste Brahmins are establishing and confirming themselves over the other people condemned to be in the low caste that they are superior to them.

In this world where the inhuman traditions and customs are being abolished and man try their best to consider everyone equal over the divisions of caste, religion, creed, race, language etc., and the government is endorsing such a division in the Kukke Subramanyan Temple. The courts do not use their power to stop this abject injustice.  So where is the equality of human beings here? Where is the basic human dignity? What is the respect for the fellow human beings? These practices are sometimes more than the apartheid practiced in South Africa.

In a country where through social reformation the practice of untouchability, child marriage, sati (widow jumping into the pyre of the dead husband) etc. were abolished, these practices continue now or get reinvented in this 21^st century where the right wing Hindu nationalist parties are widening their interests through politics based on castes and religion.

It is not a problem of one religion. All the world religions have a different version in India. Muslims divide themselves on the basis of Sunni, Shia, Alavites, mohammadiya, high and low castes and on so many other minor divisional categories. Christians divide themselves on the basis of denominations, rites, newly converted and traditional, adivasi Catholics and dalit Catholics and many others. Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists and all find their own different ways of dividing people and setting each one as high and low.

The religions have become a cause to divide the humanity in a very abject and crude manner, killing each other and protecting against caste mixing. The ‘holy cows’ yearn more respect than the human beings in India. To all those who believe in rebirth, please do pray to be born as a cow in India in the next birth.

Weird reactions

Actually my new year was not so enthusiastic since I was reading a lot about the reactions and responses with regard to the gang rape issue. She had to be flown out of India because of the inconsistency in her health and she remained critical and then succumbed to death. she breathed her last in the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Millions of Indians are protesting and the reactions to the protests from the politicians were not fitting. Sushil Kumar Shinde, the home Minister of India, appealed to the protesters to calm down because their protests have brought shame on the country.

Actually this incident of gang rape and the rape tradition of Indians bring more shame than the protests. He is worried about the reputation of India being slashed since the protests of millions in all the cities brought the international attention.

Abhijeet Mukherjee, the son of President Pranab Mukherjee and a Congress MP from Jangipur in West Bengal, said on a TV channel on Christmas: "Those who claim to be students - I can see many beautiful women among them, they were highly dented-painted - they're giving interviews on TV, they've brought their children to show them the scenes."

After calling this gang rape as a minor incident, Botsa Satyanarayana, the congress party leader from the state of Andhra said to the shock of the reporters at the press,  "Just because India achieved freedom at midnight does not mean that women can venture out after dark. They should ensure that they do not board buses with few passengers".

These comments and reactions reveal the real color of the politicians and the attitude towards women. It is a country where women are treated in public and in literature as Goddesses and in the dark treat them as objects for sexual pleasure. When will India learn to respect women as equals to men?

January 2013

Years fly away and people are becoming rich in experience. Usually I did make a lot of new resolutions every year only to break them one by one. Yes, I am not good at maintaining a change constantly. But certain things did change and it was mostly related to society and people. This year I made such a decision for my life.

My colleague went to India and I did arrange a well packed travel plan for him. But at the last moment as he is there right now, I had to inform him of the change of plans one after another. The catholic church with all other christen denominations planned a Christmas celebration with a theme ‘Green Christmas’ on 29^th of December and at the last moment they changed it pledging unity with the protest going on against the gang rape that happened in Delhi.

For all those who has not read about that internationally discussed matter I add here some details. A young woman of 23 years old was brutally raped by 6 persons in a public transport bus at 21.30 and then when she protested then beat her up and inserted an iron rod through her vagina till stomach damaging the whole intestine and the genitals. Seriously bleeding and with bruises all over the body, she was thrown out of the moving bus. now she succumbed to death at last. shameful India.

A rape is not a wonder in India as every 40 minutes one woman is getting raped as per the statistics and recently the numbers have grown high. When you travel in India just ask the ladies sitting nearby in the bus or in a park or a Café, and I am sure all will have a story of sexual harassment to narrate. It is said that it is better not to be born as a woman in India.

If India is the masters of software and mathematics, and if Indians are the champions of secularism and democracy, and if Indians are proud of being the second fastest growing nation in the world after China, the national entertainment has become sexual harassment against women and children.

From the same tongue of mine which said hundred times a day ‘proud to be an Indian’, I had to feel shameful to be an Indian male. In order to bring back those words ‘proud to be an Indian’, I decided with millions of other men in India to safeguard, respect and protect the dignity of women all through my life. This is the only resolution I make to practice from 2013.