When I
moved to the village, I thought it was 'so wrong' that Naidus lived in a
community, dalits in another hamlet, Irulas in the ST hamlet and so on.
I decided that the 'harijan hamlet' was 'outside' the main village, and
that this was 'casteism'.
So we moved into the harijan hamlet,
and made the small hut there our home. The village became home, and
life flowed in its beauty. Over many years I
realized that no one is 'outside' ... every community wishes to stay
with their people, and they have their own customs and structures ...
and the SCs do not wish to stay next door to Naidus, nor the other
way around.
I dicovered that 'caste the villian', is a very
limited viewpoint ... and actually no caste personally feels inferior. Each feels
very superior. The dalits make fun of the Naidus and their mannerisms,
and the other way around.
We only need to address the shattered
economies ... their society they are well capable to handling without
our bumbling efforts, often rooted in wrong notions.
The utter generosity of the poor humbles us. They give rice to every mendicant even when their rice is getting over. That is what they are defined by.
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