Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as http://parallelspirals.blogspot.com/. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on Ocober 16, 2006 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.
I read in a newspaper article yesterday that Buddha was the only ‘God’ who was born (or reborn) on this Earth as an ‘untouchable’. This was in commemoration of the mass conversion of dalits from Hinduism to Buddhism lead by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar about 50 years ago.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was one of the architects of the Indian constitution and is quoted to have said:”I was born a Hindu, but I will not die a Hindu” against the caste system prevalent (even today) in a Hindu society.
What I’m asking is, is this because God was too high a being to be born into an ‘untouchable’ family? If that is so, it goes against the teachings in several religions which states (besides the several Constitutions):
“Man/Woman is created equal”. Another possibility is that ‘the guardians of religion’ felt that this would give too much room for untouchables to rise up against the priest class and had them deliberately deleted.
Knowing very little of human beings, I would say people would be more likely to accept that such accounts existed and were deliberately deleted. They might even offer to re-instate some of the stories into the religious texts. Truth be said, having stories in books doesn’t do much good for the reality. Even if you didn’t change these texts, would you be ready to offer these people access into places of worship?
The same idea can even be applied to stories of women. They may also have been deleted considering that women were only supposed to sit at home and cook and such stories would only cause them to demand for their rights. If every man/woman is created equal why do we need laws to ban untouchability and other such practises? Shouldn’t it be embedded in the human DNA?
Well, that’s too much to ask too. Old habits die hard. But, it’s not that wrong to hope in youthful idealism, is it?
I have only stated my point of view. If I hurt your innermost sentiments I would like to apologise, but please consider it for a moment even if you don’t state it publically.
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listening to:
Original of the Species – U2
Rebel Heart – The Corrs
Fix you – Coldplay
Parallel Spirals 