Ugly Truth About India
“In India you can piss in public but can’t kiss in public”- Shashi Tharoor.
Blood shouldn’t matter, the heart should. People act as if it’s the end of the world when you marry someone from another caste or another religion. Why does all of that even matter? It’s all so superficial. We’re all equal at the end of the day right? That’s what schools and the constitution preaches, but when it comes to actual practice, those values just disappear. All these divisions based on caste and religion, the different holy books- they may have different values but they all have the same conclusion and same end goal- attaining nirvana, reaching heaven. So, why does all the rest matter? We’re all humans, we all walk on the same ground.
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Someone in my family waited for over a decade to marry because their mother wouldn’t allow her to marry someone from outside her caste. Only until her mother got a serious life threatening disease, was when she realised she wanted to see her daughter get married before she died. It took her mother DEATH to realise this, this made me realise that India is still such a backwards country. There was this other instance where a woman announced she was getting married and when her father and uncles heard about it they said they wouldn’t attend the wedding becuase she was not marrying within her caste. This woman is 28 years old, she has the right to do whatever she wants to, and yet these orthodox elders just cannot accept the changing new realities .It’s not just elders, its kids my age as well. When I heard about two people getting married, from completely opposite castes, I was repulsed. I had to stop and think why I felt that way. People around me always thought this way so it was natural i continued like that right? If we want to see a change it must start from us.
It’s not all about marraiage alliances, even the clothes you wear. A 16 year old girl like me wearing something that shows the slightest skin is such a big problem. Men staring on the road, women too. How can you live in such a society? Being judged for everything you do, the things you say, the things you wear, the things you believe in . In some parts on India, girls have it so much worse, girls get raped for wearing JEANS, and village elders blame the girl, apparently because men can’t control themselves. You would expect only men to say that, but women too? That’s a new low.
We complain so much about the backwardness of India, how we would have been the richest, smartest, greatest country in the world, blaming the British for our misfortunes, but we never look deeper, deep enough to realize that India’s backwardness remains due to the Indians itself. It’s a crass statement with holes in it but in a twisted way, true. Of course, India being a slave country for over 200 years has a major part in our current status but don’t you think if her soil, her dust, her clay, India herself — evolved a bit, we would be in a much much different situation.
We can’t blame our elders….but they are the ones to blame. India is a country which has the maximum work force under 30, yet listens to the old and outdated values of elders who are over 75.
