Kianni Keys

World Cultures Essay

The Minority takes the Majority
On May 16, 2014, Zahir Alam, a Muslim religious leader,
held an interview in New Delhi, India to talk about discrimination
against the Muslim community, being a Muslim religious leader himself.
Fear is a basic part of politics, he stated, and its actually how
politicians gain respect, but for us (Muslims) fear also comes from the
general public. The meaning of minority has never been clearer than it
is today (Harris 2014). What the fear from the minorities have been
shown strongly in from the general public, the fear usually met by
shunning and hatred against the minorities. Even though the fact of
discrimination is the downfall of modern Indian society, there are some
difference with different types of minority or the sense of outcasts
that lead society to force this cruel treatment upon them, creating the
question: Does discrimination against Muslims and other minority
religions have any tie with discrimination against lower social castes?
Discrimination against minorities has their differences, but there are
ties between discrimination against religious minorities (including
Muslim) and lower caste minorities.
Religious discrimination has been around for years, each
scenario of hatred getting worse and worse. In India there are a lot of
different religions. Two well-known religions (Hinduism and Buddhism)

emerged from India and they are still here today. Unfortunately, every
religion has had their downfall, but in modern India today,
discrimination is held against Muslims and minority religions.
Discrimination against Muslims is very common throughout the world,
especially India, most commonly a regular Muslim misinterpreted as a
member of the extremist group ISIS. For minority, native, or tribal
religions, discrimination is held against because of their foreign or
unusual forms of prayer, resulting in unneeded discrimination.
Though religious discrimination is illegal in India, the government is
doing very little about the outbreaks of violence and force police
violence on the peaceful protests or walk-ins. Unlike caste
discrimination, people or groups of other religions are not forbidden to
help people of Muslim or minority religions, though it still isnt seen as
socially acceptable. In India, clashes in the Muzaffarnagar district in
Uttar Pradesh between Hindu and Muslim communities between late
August and mid-September led to the deaths of 65 persons, 68 persons
injured, and an estimated 40,000-50,000 displaced. Broader communal
violence spread after a Muslim youth was killed by two Hindu youths
who accused the boy of sexually harassing a female family member.
The local police and the army reportedly allowed unlawful gatherings
by individuals carrying arms on September 7 and local administrators
allegedly did not respond to counter public calls by politicians and
community leaders for violence (International Religious Freedom

Report for 2013 2013). Unfortunately, thats not all. For example, for
an act of peace, Christians and Muslims made a peaceful march in a
town square in India, and was meet with brutal police violence, more
than half of the crowd killed or injured trying to create an integraded
environment.
Caste discrimination, like religious discrimination, has also been
around for years and still,[t] he caste system remains in place
throughout much of India, although it is not written into the
constitution and discrimination against those of lower castes is against
the law (Lodge 2014). This discrimination is true to India, for the each
most religions in India still believe in the caste system, even though it
is illegal to discriminate against it. More than 165 million people in
India more than 27 percent, continue to be subject to discrimination,
exploitation and violence simply because of their caste. In Indias
hidden apartheid, untouchability relegates Dalits throughout the
country to a lifetime of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions
continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment and general
social interactiondivisions that are reinforced through economic
boycotts and physical violence (caste discrimination in India n.d.).
The Dalits, or originally called the disrespectful name untouchables,
are the lowest of the caste system, theyre jobs including street
sweepers, cobblers, leather workers, and more. Discrimination against
Dalits comes from the fact that theyre to ritually polluted to connect

with any other cast hence the heinous name untouchables, [t]
raditional scholarship has described this more than 2,000-year-old
system within the context of the four principal varnas, or large caste
categories. In order of precedence these are the Brahmins (priests and
teachers), the Ksyatriyas (rulers and soldiers), the Vaisyas (merchants
and traders), and the Shudras (laborers and artisans). A fifth category
falls outside the varna system and consists of those known as
"untouchables" or Dalits; they are often assigned tasks too ritually
polluting to merit inclusion within the traditional varna system. Almost
identical structures are also visible in Nepal ('Untouchability' and
Segregation n.d.). Even with laws against discrimination, Indias hidden
apartheid is in action every day. People treating the Dalits like they
were back in ancient India, not letting them use the same utensils as
them, and ridiculous things that need to be fixed.
So what do religious discrimination and lower caste
discrimination have in common? Besides discrimination, both religious
discrimination and caste discrimination have ties to each other to
determine what level of hatred you get in reality. Indias politicians
and government officials have been promising a peaceful bond that will
prevent any more discrimination of any sort, but there have been so
many cases of discrimination. Not only by citizens but also by the
police, that that statement shows to be anything but true. Unlike the
large Muslim minority, Christians and Buddhists do not suffer high

levels of discrimination and are not specifically targeted as minorities.

Even within the broader Hindu tradition however, many groups have
suffered discrimination and persecution. A prime example of the
systematic discrimination to which a group may be subjected within
Hinduism is evident from the case of the Dalits. The term Dalit, which
means 'the oppressed', is an assertive term of self-identity, and as
noted above, referred to what in strict legal and constitutional terms
are known as the scheduled castes ('Untouchability' and Segregation
n.d.) So not only is there discrimination against minority religions and
class, there is the deciphered decision of treatment depending on
which mixture of class and religion you belong to.
All in all, discrimination is a terrible ritual that needs to be
stopped. The people, who are getting beaten, raped, and killed
everyday because of their caste and race deserve to have their rights
back. People need to be proud of who they are and they should be
treated that way, without shame. Indian minorities get the worst of the
treatment with castes and certain religions so they have the most to
work on. The government needs to step up and enforce the law not on
the discriminated, but the ones who discriminate against the
discriminated, and realize that violence isnt the answer, but
acceptance is.

Bibliography:

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