Thread by @asuph

A 🧵 on #caste #privilege, mainly for those born/raised in the so-called "upper caste" communities (like me).

I was born a Brahmin, and having grown up on a steady diet of implicit/explicit casteism that took a couple of decades to even partially cleanse myself of means I know most of the arguments that UCs use regarding caste. I've used them in the past. I know how hollow they are. 1/

Yes, I've been guilty of casteism before, even while thinking that I was arguing about "merit". I seriously believe that it's extremely difficult for someone brought up in a typical savarna home to be entirely free of casteist beliefs/instincts. 2/

It's a long, slow process that never ends. The hardest part of it is acknowledging your (and of the people you respect/love) complicity, prejudices, and caste privilege. 3/

Especially the last, because to do that is to realize that what you have been calling merit with pride is largely an accumulated privilege (yes, even if you are a relatively "poor" brahmin from a very "humble" family). It means taking a humble pill. 4/

For sure, people are born with higher/lower intelligence -- including all aspects of intelligence, from analytical to artistic to empathetic. 5/

But in a country as starkly unequal, a culture that's as starkly regimented, a society that's so blatantly exclusivist, it's almost impossible to find a relative ordering of merit between individuals from vastly different caste/class(which closely tracks caste) backgrounds. 6/

The proof, then, is in the numbers -- of representation: especially when it comes to the positions of power and prestige -- the leadership roles, the judiciary, the teachers in premier institutes of learning, ... 7/

All those, "but it's been 70 years" arguments are us vs them arguments that most UC folks use to hide their caste supremacy. It sounds logical but isn't because 70 years is too small a time to address structural casteism in a largely regressive society with fractured politics. 8/

A structural problem that has been around for 2000+ years. "I've never got any benefits of being upper-caste" is another instinctive defense of someone who doesn't want to dig deep, because if they do, they'll find so many skeletons. 9/

"Why should I pay for what my ancestors did, when I don't believe in it", is another lazy retort of those who don't want to acknowledge that,

1. It's not a payment/punishment (more of this in the next twt)
2. They have been the beneficiaries of the structural inequities

10/

Affirmative action is NOT a punishment to UCs. It is only if you believe that you're somehow above the society. It's exactly the "us and them" thinking that destroys this country. We -- each and every UC person -- need to be committed to social equity.

11/

Because if we don't, we are making sure that a majority of Indians won't EVER get their fair share, their voices will never get platforms. There is enough proof of real diversity making organizations more efficient, and more resilient. The same is true of a country.

12/

But diversity without equity is group oppression. Each and every one of us loses when a majority is denied opportunities, representation, and power. I am tired of debating this with UC folks who come up with the same lame, and sometimes disingenuous arguments.

13/

I'm just going to appeal to them: read more of the literature on oppression and structural oppression (racism is a good start because there is so much written, but there is enough on caste, even in regional languages).

14/

You can read these:

1. Annihilation of Caste
2. Caste: the origin of our discontents (where Isabel Wilkerson draws parallels between caste and race)
3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Oluo, Ijeoma (about race, but most insights translate to caste)

++

15/

4. Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, ...
5. Memoirs by dalits writers are an excellent way to get a sense of what structural oppression is, and how it works. In Marathi itself, I can suggest a couple: Zombi, Uchalya.
6. Listen to @confusedvichar podcasts

16/

@confusedvichar Not an exhaustive list by any means, but I don't know what I can say that's not been said before by Ambedkar/Periyar. Point is, suspend your judgment and read if you really want to talk on the subject of caste as an upper-caste.

17/

@confusedvichar Interact with people from bahujan samaj without patronizing, without preaching. Again, I'm talking from experience. A few of us UC friends have, without much knowledge, "explained" caste to one Dalit friend. Putting our half-baked understanding above his lived experiences

18/

@confusedvichar I know the temptation. I've been there. But if you really want to claim that you're "above casteism", this is your agnipariksha. You won't come out unscathed, but you'll be a better person by far. That I guarantee. Peace.

END/

A counter-point to this approach of reading the literature on race as opposed to contemporary caste scholars/writers (@YashicaDutt / @surajyengde and so on). I respect the POV. Please go through the tweets in this QT thread.

https://twitter.com/jugglingwords/status/1530236776035516419?s=20&t=WSEVghG-EuMx-ESqb_8eUw