04-05-2008, 09:58 PM
Understanding Caste System
A Survey of Popular Writings on Caste Violence
by Dunkin Jalki
The Confusions Caused by Stereotypes
It is these kinds of statements which S. N Balagangadhara calls stereotypes. A property that stereotypes share is that they are unquantified claims. They do not specify whether they are talking about all or some of the objects they are referring to. Some of the examples of the stereotypes are these kinds of statements: Blacks are lazy, Indians are immoral, Germans are industrious etc. Since, these statements do not specify how many Black people/Indians/Germans they are talking about, they fail to make any sense. As such, they are neither true nor false. Here is a list1 of the dominant stereotypes that I found in the articles and reports referred in this essay.
Dalits suffer all kinds of deprivations (they are attacked, their homes are looted and burned, their land is encroached)
Dalits are prohibited from having education (they are the least educated people in India)
Caste problem is in practice from the ancient times (the status of the Dalits has not changed for ages)
Dalit women are more marginalized
Dalits are poor (they are the low-paid workers)
Caste is a an occupation based problem
Dalits do all sorts of unclean work (scavenging, cleaning toilets, rag picking etc.)
Policy making, and politics operates along caste line
Dalits are denied basic human dignity
Dalits cannot wear nice clothes or jewelry and must take off their sandals
Dalits have to eat and drink from separate vessels in hotels
Dalits are lower in the social hierarchy
Since these statements do not specify the quantity their value as arguments gets reduced considerably. It is not clear whether these statements pick out the impression of the report writer, or refer to the data produced through the survey conducted in some specific places, say, Andhra Pradesh, or a theoretical generalization about whole of India or even Andhra Pradesh.
A Survey of Popular Writings on Caste Violence
by Dunkin Jalki
The Confusions Caused by Stereotypes
It is these kinds of statements which S. N Balagangadhara calls stereotypes. A property that stereotypes share is that they are unquantified claims. They do not specify whether they are talking about all or some of the objects they are referring to. Some of the examples of the stereotypes are these kinds of statements: Blacks are lazy, Indians are immoral, Germans are industrious etc. Since, these statements do not specify how many Black people/Indians/Germans they are talking about, they fail to make any sense. As such, they are neither true nor false. Here is a list1 of the dominant stereotypes that I found in the articles and reports referred in this essay.
Dalits suffer all kinds of deprivations (they are attacked, their homes are looted and burned, their land is encroached)
Dalits are prohibited from having education (they are the least educated people in India)
Caste problem is in practice from the ancient times (the status of the Dalits has not changed for ages)
Dalit women are more marginalized
Dalits are poor (they are the low-paid workers)
Caste is a an occupation based problem
Dalits do all sorts of unclean work (scavenging, cleaning toilets, rag picking etc.)
Policy making, and politics operates along caste line
Dalits are denied basic human dignity
Dalits cannot wear nice clothes or jewelry and must take off their sandals
Dalits have to eat and drink from separate vessels in hotels
Dalits are lower in the social hierarchy
Since these statements do not specify the quantity their value as arguments gets reduced considerably. It is not clear whether these statements pick out the impression of the report writer, or refer to the data produced through the survey conducted in some specific places, say, Andhra Pradesh, or a theoretical generalization about whole of India or even Andhra Pradesh.