My thoughts on India - dirt, caste system

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Every animal has a built-in sense of self-preservation. Our bodies have automatic responses such as immediate withdrawal from a hot stove, not eating something that smells bad or looks bad, and avoidance of dirt and disease.

In northern India, the level of dirt that people can live in is beyond anything I could possibly imagine. Apparently, on average, 1440 persons share a toilet in Dharavi (of Slumdog fame). However, I believe that one can be poor but one does not have to live in filth. That sense of avoiding dirt and disease for self-preservation seems to be absent among the poorest in the north. When I was in Kerala, on the other hand, I was so surprised to find slums where not a single piece of garbage was lying on the ground (maybe I happened to be there on cleanup day). Even though shelters were made from the cheapest materials including twigs and branches, they were well-maintained. As I mentioned before, Kerala has a 94% literacy rate, so does literacy have anything to do with the level of dirt one is willing to live in?? (Does anyone want to do research on this? maybe it’s already been done? let me know.)

I wonder if the Untouchables came to be classified as such because of the natural response other people had of avoiding dirt and disease? When I came close to the slums, my self-preservation system was flashing red: *danger*danger*. The level of filth was one of the scariest phenomenon I’ve ever experienced in my life. Or perhaps the reverse happened. Perhaps the designation of “Untouchables” came first and after thousands of years of being treated as such, their sense of dirt changed? How does it feel to be labelled as such by others and continuously for thousands of years?

The other thing that boggled me was the caste system. How did it become acceptable to treat people differently in such derogatory ways? I don’t understand the people who were degraded as lower castes: how did they come to accept such debasement from others as normal? I tried to imagine being a woman of low caste in India. I was just completely boggled by how much crap people can put up with and how much negative energy is created by such a caste system. I guess the caste system probably came after. It was the attitude people had toward each other that eventually produced the caste system. Thank god there are not many places on earth that has a caste system and what a relief it appears to be on it’s way out worldwide.

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