South Africa’s Indian women seem refreshingly free, standing out as good examples for their sisters in the motherland, says Indian MP Udit Raj.
South Africa’s Indian women seem refreshingly free, standing out as examples for their sisters in the Motherland, says Indian MP Udit Raj. Speaking to POST Editor Krisendra Bisetty on the sidelines of the Gopio International Business Summit in Durban at t
Speaking to POST Editor Krisendra Bisetty on the sidelines of the Gopio International Business Summit in Durban at the weekend, Raj also lamented India’s caste system, saying it is worse than apartheid.
UDIT Raj was in Durban for only a short while when one thing struck home – the Indian women here, who were “mixing, dancing and singing”, seemed free.
It was obvious, the Indian MP said, that they have been influenced by the customs and traditions, not of their ancestral land, but their host country.
It was the same, he added, in Europe and the United States of America.
But in India, things are very different, especially in the rural areas.
“It so happens in India, even if gathering at one place, females get isolated – they form their group, men form their group.”
Raj, an MP in the Lok Sabha, representing the Northwest Delhi constituency, and an influential leader for the Bharatiya Janata Party, said in SA, the gender interaction was far greater. “That’s very good; they are human beings and why should there be separation and discrimination?” he said.
“In India you can’t even touch and most of the women in rural areas, particularly, they are confined in homes; they are not going out of homes. Their energy and talents are not being used in production and in economic activities, social activities. And they’re excluded from many, many activities, like they cannot participate in religious rituals and they can’t even go for the cremation of their family members, even their husband.
The gender separation, Raj said, is a symptom of a “repressed mentality”.
“Repression is there, a lot of repression. The males, they follow them (females), they chase them. Also, of course, a lot of rapes are happening and it is more precisely because you have separation, gender separation.
“If there will be less gender separation they will naturally mix up then such things will not happen.”
What will help, said Raj, is if local women are “more connected” to India.
Turning to India’s traditional caste system, Raj, known nationally as a social activist for the Dalits – the self-chosen political name of castes which are considered and treated as “untouchable” – said it is worse than apartheid and extremely difficult to get rid of.
“For instance Europeans and Americans they took them (Africans) to their countries and made them slaves and at one time they were traded, but yet they were touchable, they can be touched.
“But in India there are four categories of the social system, having lived in the same country for 4-5 000 years, yet the caste system prevails. There’s a lot of discrimination and still untouchability is a practice in many places.
“Colour is the same, not like Africa where colour is different, nationalities are different, culture is different and they were never together. But in our case colour is the same, nationalities the same, there is the same very old culture, yet there is discrimination, so it is very strange,” Raj said.
The Indian government, he said, was still very much in the hands of the upper caste although, with regulations and quotas, the untouchables are beginning to taste some power.
“The judiciary is completely controlled by upper class, art and film by upper class, export, import and of course private education is completely owned by upper class, also the stock market, higher education, manufacturing, the industry, the markets,” said Raj, who is also a prolific tweeter.
“And I say that unless India addresses two of its social issues – one is the caste issue, the other is the gender separation – it is not going to become a China and America.
“Social issues are very large issues in India but they’re not being debated. Social reform must take place but start from the top. But what happens is that those lower castes, they strive against the caste system, they revolt against the caste system, they struggle against discrimination, but the upper class don’t try. So unless the class upper class try it, as the lower class are trying, it can’t be eliminated, it can’t be annihilated; the caste system will remain.”
But there are other signs of some progress. In the past, physically touching members of the lower class was not allowed as the upper class feared they would become “impure”.
“Now it has reached to the mind level, the mental level,” said Raj. The different castes, to an extent, physically interact with one another socially, even dine together.
But in birth, marriage and death, in politics and the economy, the untouchables are still just that.