Change All, Change Nought

"I did not quite get what you meant by working within the other person's view of the world. You know, when you were talking about convincing people," I said.

"That was the only thing you did not get? You surprise me," he said.

I should have known. Open my mouth and they find a way to shove something up the other end.

"Well," he continued condescendingly. "Take this issue of Caste-ism, for example. We are all agreed that it is an evil that needs to be done away with, right?"

"Yes," I said. I should have been saying it assertively but for the fact that these conversations seldom head where I think they are heading...and invariably end up shafting me.

"That is to say, we guys are. But Society at large seems not so convinced and we need to convince them about the evils of it. True?"

I nodded my head, not daring to open my mouth.

"And there are those guys who claim that Caste-ism is not actually a part of the Indian culture. It was a Varna system and the British converted it into a Caste system. Not so?"

"Yes," I said, my enthusiasm getting the better of my caution. "I mean, really, those people just cannot accept that anything was wrong in our culture."

His lips curled in a sneer and my heart quailed. Now what had I said wrong?

"That Varna system they talk of. Was it not saying that the social divisions were meant to be based on aptitude and character, not based on birth? That way, it's supposed to be the social equivalent of the corporate woyrld's classification of people as managers, executives etc? By qualifications, ability and attitude rather than by birth?"

"Yesss...but, really, who can believe..."

"Does it matter? I mean, what are YOU arguing for when you argue against caste? Is it not for people to be valued for what they ARE rather than where they are born?"

I nodded.

"AND they claim that THAT was the way it was in Hindu culture. THAT this 'by birth' thing was a distortion introduced by foreigners. So why are you fighting them on whether it was or it was not? Why don't you co-opt them and say that it is now time to restore the glories of our own culture by eliminating this 'by-birth' treatment of people? Time to throw off the colonial shackles imposed by the British? Instead of opposing them?"

"But..."

"But, nothing. IF your intention is only to eliminate Caste-ism why are you losing the support of people who can help because you also want to oppose Hinduism? OR because you want to prove them wrong and yourself right? THIS is what I mean, convince people on things from THEIR perspective rather than yours. YOU may be an atheist but that does not mean that you need to push atheism in order to eliminate Caste-ism. If you try to change ALL attitudes in one go, you'll end up changing NOTHING."

"But, I only want to establish the truth..."

"Truth? I thought you wanted a more egalitarian society today. But you want to establish the truth about the past?" he snickered cynically. "Nowadays you cannot even conclusively prove the truth of what exactly happened at your street corner today. And you want to prove the truth of what happened centuries back? Good luck."

These guys, I tell you!