I was raised with love by a loving pair of parents and I had two sets of grandparents. Of course, there was what people would call a "twist of fate" in mid-2008, when I lost my mother, but that's all behind me now. The very reason why people are attracted to me is because I do things with passion and with love. I have much more of the latter these days, because I pray really hard for everything to be done in the love of the Lord. That way, I know I can't go wrong unless I make some blunder of my own undoing.
But if descent really had its way, if caste really had its way, I wouldn't only be the least among my peers in a figurative sense. I'd also be the least among them in a literal sense.
To tell you point blank... I was told, in a spiteful remark (now the person who told me claimed to speak the truth ; I'm taking it for what it is), that my mother's ancestors were of the lowest caste.
But do I even care ?
Whilst Encyclopedia Britannica actually mentions that these people have long been oppressed as the outcastes of India, almost never in my life was I treated as an outcast. I felt the love of the Lord God in me through my friends, through the things I did, through the way I was raised by my parents (at least for the most part). I was never an outcast, from the way I saw things, from the way people saw me. The only people who really did oppress me were the people from my mother's family. Also, if I really did have traces of that group of people, they can't assume that I'm from them because I act very differently from their purported characteristics, and I believe I can say the same for every person in that group.
The one person who slapped this fact onto me (I don't know how far it rings true, but I'm assuming it does) is close to home. Very close. I'm in her proximity like, everyday. Sometimes when I think of it, my heart aches. It pines, because imperfect as I am, I did my best to give her my love.
The love of the Lord has allowed me not to feel resentment towards the people who oppressed me by making such statements. That same love has allowed me to listen to my family and friends. That same love has allowed me to be easily approached by my friends whenever they want to share something with me.
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The caste system is definitely not divine creation. It's human. Now I'm aware that my mother's ancestors followed the Jati closely. It was only somewhere along the line that they converted to Christianity. Even my mother's parents kept to that system. My late mother informed me about the caste system, and it was then that it dawned upon me : it's a system that shouldn't remain.
Where divinity seeks to unify, humanity only seeks to divide. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Segregation based on caste, like racism, sexism and whatever other -isms that we can list which fall into the category, has been passed on from generation to generation because of the hateful statements of the parents, elders in the family or people around them. It only gets worse when one group of people with similar hateful thoughts gang up together and form... well, part of the administration. Where politicians play the racial (or even caste) card, the people would begin to consider the administration as Public Enemy #1, even if they remain silent.
The whole talk on the caste system has largely died down in Malaysia, where the issue of main concern is racialism (I shall not go into that for now ; expect a discours about that in future). We have the three major ethnicities battling for unity in a relatively peaceful nation with absolute values and battered politics. Even this has somewhat died down with the recent introduction of the 1Malaysia concept, which promotes unity among all the ethnicities in Malaysia, equal opportunities for all, where the people are put first (to put it blankly, quite a large number of people question this policy, what with the subtle segregation that has happened in the past). However, the talk about caste has been disseminated behind closed doors, among family members and elders. Anyone would agree with me that children are colour-blind ; they only want to be among friends, regardless of who their friends are, what their colour is. But when I look at it, whilst I walk this already blighted path with my friends (note : thorns and sharp rocks ahead), the elders in our family choose to succumb to the evil of segregation and disseminate a piece of information which we do not already need !
People are said to group with other people for a sense of self-belonging and for power - getting over everybody else. As much as we love to compete with other human beings, as much as we love to get at the top, I don't understand why people choose to segregate. I don't understand why people chose to cling onto their groups. The same rings true for people who believe, like me, that the Lord's love is unconditional and reaches out to all men. I don't understand why people don't want to get out of their comfort zones and extend their loving hands to others, particularly people who struggle in society. Take it from me : it never is nice to always remain at the top. I never understood these unloving human tendencies, and I never will.
The Lord made us in different colours because if he made us all the same, it'd be just plain boring. There's no need to further segregate us into subgroups because at the end of the day, we all belong to the human race - an embattled race indeed. It's already heartbreaking when we are forced to deal with life's injustices. We don't need another case of injustice to top the already unsightly pile. À bas the caste system !
As I said some time back, I only want to be identified as a Malaysian, and identified by my beliefs. I do not need the extra tag of race to come into play. And don't even think caste will ever come into question.
The author has forgiven the person who had thrown that remark at her some time ago.
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