Can We Ever Erase Caste and Religion from Our Hearts?
If we simply remove the words related to religion and caste from
dictionaries—both print and digital—we would save a few pages, spare a few
trees, and free up some cloud storage. That part is easy. But erasing those
words from people's minds and hearts is a profoundly difficult challenge. The
effort began thousands of years ago, and yet we are still far from success. The
real power—and responsibility—lies with those who have been victims of caste
and religion. It is they who must finally choose to disown these divisions.
Until we pass on a religion-free and caste-free life to the next
generation, the cycle will continue. Politicians will exploit these divides for
votes, weapon manufacturers will profit from the conflicts they fuel, and
so-called religious and caste leaders will feast on the spoils of a fractured
society.
There is perhaps no more inhuman
act than handing down religion and caste to our children. When we do that, we
are not sharing tradition—we are quietly making our own offspring vulnerable to
dying in religious wars and caste riots. So go ahead, if you must—continue down
this path. But know that if we do not change, we may well march forward until
the very last human being perishes, still clutching identities that were never
meant to survive.
M.L. Narendra Kumar
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