This Morning I received an email from my friend which had a YouTube link for one of the Swami Vivekananda's speeches delivered in Chicago in 1893. For those who don't know about Swami Vivekananda , I would suggest that you google it or go to Wikipedia and read about him. Just in a nutshell, he was one of the most progressive thinkers of his times ( late 18th century) and could be considered as one of the early Hindu missionary to the west. He was a great thinker and worked really hard in his times to help India rise beyond caste ism and other petty differences among humans.
The main reason why i mentioned him is because I want to draw people's attention towards atrocities done on people based on religion,cast,race and so many other physical dimensions of which one has no human control. I am Hindu because I was born Hindu, I am an Indian because I was born in India . Point I am trying to make is that I could have been an American or British had i been born here or in UK. I could have been a Black,White or Latino had i been born in the any of those respective family.
One cannot control where they are born or who there parents are ,its not a choice we make . We could have been anybody , so why discriminate people based on color,religion,or any other dimension? Killing people in the name of religion is just not right , don't do it . Life should be all about hope and happiness , not about killing or hatred or discrimination.
Even in my society(Indian) there is lot of double standards.On one hand , we are trying everyday to make it a developed nation and on the other hand,there are still families who don't let go racism and casteism. They will talk about racism in America but they would not talk about casteism in India. To me , that's hypocrisy. We need to clean up our house, before we go on pointing fingers at others . I know people feel more comfortable with their own kind, but isn't it about time that we break the jinx and come out of the cocoon and be more acceptable w.r.t other culture,race and casts .
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Good article Jha, I am very sure there are many out there that we think and definitely we feel like this in any country of the world because if we think clearly, this doesnt happen only in America or Europe, for example, it happens daily in every country of the globe, and very sadly...
ReplyDeleteI born Mexican, where many speak high and all the time about discrimination, color, size, look and levels (casts?), money, but they dont realize themselves in that country (Mexico), they do the same each other. Although, now times where everyone should have a wide understanding
mind and an open heart among human race, there is always those whom everyday act and behave with the same ridiculous prejudice or
irrational attitude to others.
Of course is about time to really change and not judge and be judged about a name, country origin, cast, or how we look, if not "Ourselves".