Urbanisation ends caste-order

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Urbanisation ends caste-order

Sunday, 16 March 2014 | CHANDRA BHAN PRASAD

Dalits living in cities do much better than their village counterparts. Shifting to an urban setting will dissolve all understandings of caste divisions

According to the census of 1901, 11.5 per cent Indians lived in cities those days. By 2011, the number grew to 31.16 per cent. According to an estimate by the United Nations, by 2030, over 40 per cent Indians would be residing in cities; India’s urbanisation is now a phenomenon.

BR Ambedkar had urged Dalits to quit living in villages and move over to cities. He described that process of migration as “new life movement” for Dalits. Ambedkar’s famous quote on villages when he had reasoned, “The love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite, if not pathetic…What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism”, is valid even today .

Ask any Dalit today about the difference between life in a village and that in a city, all will prefer cities to villages, even those who have not read Ambedkar. In cities and towns, power of the caste order declines significantly. We all know it well that Dalits are least likely to succeed in a village setup. Dalits succeed in cities and escape discrimination to a large extent. Since the caste order was designed for a society that was agrarian in nature, the institution loses relevance in cities. Not that cities are free of caste-constructs but it is difficult to practice caste brutality in an urban set up.

Desegregation begins in an urban set up. Dalits buy flats in apartments and houses in localities that are inhabited by all kinds of castes. In a village setup, different caste groups live in different areas and Dalits’ hamlets are settled outside the villages. Not only can they live along with the upper castes, they can also open restaurants and shops in the cities. Cities thus minimise the segregation of Dalits. In that sense, cities hurt the caste system the most.

The question however is, who creates the cities and townsIJ There are legends referring to kings who set up towns or cities. That is true, many towns and cities were set up by kings, princes and princesses. While many were indeed set up by them, all such cities and towns don’t turn into Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad or Calcutta!

Birth and evolution of cities have certain characteristics that apply universally. Most cities evolve along rivers and oceans. Much before bullock carts, trains and aeroplanes came into being, rivers/oceans were the prime tracks of transportation.

Transportation!

Be it the time frame between when lord Buddha was born some five hundred years before Jesus Christ came in and this day, transportation meant moving goods and people from one place to the other. That meant trade.

Sure enough, towns/cities were triggered by trade opportunities. Manufacturing sets foots where trading flourishes.

A universal truth, cities are produced by businesses and the State contributes with its administrative roles. Be it Tokyo, Mumbai, New York, they have been produced by businesses. If we agree that businesses are at the core in creating cities and towns, then we must also agree upon another fact that cities and towns are created by business persons. Since we already know that cities and towns are good for Dalits and that the caste order weakens there, we then agree on another fact that business persons have fought against the caste order without being conscious of it.

We also know that cities and towns produce cultures that are far superior to the cultures villages possess. Since caste system evolved in village setups, its culture also developed with caste flavours.

More so, cities and towns produce a kind of society that is much progressed than the societies villages hold. Since cities and towns trigger mobility, city based citizens develop national-level attitudes and outlooks that are far more evolved and liberal than the attitudes and outlooks village societies have.

Above all, inventions take place in cities and towns, centres of learning and researches occur in cities and towns,  manufacturing occurs in cities and towns and they have greater medical facilities as well. It is very difficult to set up top class medical facilities in villages.

If business persons play such a great role, why do some sets of people describe wealth and city makers as vampires busy in sucking the blood of their own workersIJ Is it because these vampires hurt the caste order the most! Next week, let’s examine how vampires shadow Dalits and save them from the caste order.

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