I really need to be sent off for re-education

I really need to be packed off for re-education. I am finding myself to be quite unsuitable to live in ‘modern’ India. My education, a PhD in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (Oops!) has rendered me completely incapable of understanding what the hell is happening in this country. A very highly qualified woman scientist, Medha Khole (we routinely complain that there aren’t many women in STEM) working for the Meteorological Department in Pune had filed a police complaint against her domestic help for hiding her caste and her marital status. In her police complaint, she said she needed a Brahmin married woman, whose husband is alive, to cook food at her house for religious ceremonies. Wow. I mean really…Wow. I am not oblivious to India’s reality. I know discrimination on the basis of caste and gender is quite common in India even among the so called educated urban elite. Most Brahmins do not eat food prepared by dalits especially during religious ceremonies. I am also aware of the discrimination that exists on the basis of gender. Married women whose husbands are alive and have borne sons are on top of the social hierarchy. What went against her the cook was not only the fact that she was not a Brahmin but also that she had lost her husband. As an informed social scientist, I am aware of the low status of widows in India but what astonishes me is that she went a filed a police complaint! I mean, just what happened to the good old Indian hypocrisy? Such a blatant caste and gender discrimination! Hail our education system. One can actually become a scientist without knowing anything about the struggle against caste and gender discrimination and the Indian constitution. Just what kind of educated women is this system creating? 

The story doesn’t end there. Apparently there is an organization called the Akhil Bhartiya Brahmin Mahasabha which decides to support her. A certain Mr Dave from Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasabha, speaks in her favour and feels that she has every reason to feel cheated because her family tradition goes back to 80 years. He also insists it is the government which is keeping the caste system alive through reservations in government jobs. The solution according to him lies in getting rid of the reservation system. I mean really, just what weed are all these people smoking???

There really is no point in educating women if they have to grow up to be like Medha Khole. We also don’t need any more women in science who have an unscientific mindset. I am more ashamed to know that a widow had to lie about her caste and marital status to earn a livelihood. This is really a denial of the right to life. But then scientists like her who spent hours mugging theorems and formulae and conducting experiments inside laboratories are not as vella as us social scientists are. They really don’t care about India’s constitution anyway. They have better things to do. But Mr Dave is actually right. There should be no reservations in jobs. And here by jobs I mean, not only the government jobs which he and other upper caste snobs of his ilk aspire for, but also the kind of jobs that poor dalit widows apply for. There should be no reservation for jobs to clean, cook etc even in religious places and ceremonies.

Do I make sense? No? I definitely do need re-education. I want to know where Ms Khole and Mr Dave studied.