Last week's Economist had a long article on the caste system in India – Hinduism's original sin. I read this with the sustainable development goals in mind, although the author(s) did not mention them. You can read the article here.
As it's an Economist article, there are facts and figures galore. Most of them thoroughly depressing showing that the upper tiers of the system (the priestly / warrior / merchant classes) who account for ~20% of the 1.3bn population still have the best jobs and überbest life chances. Here's a sample:
Of the 89 highest ranked civil servants in central government 85 come from the upper tiers. Of the 121 people in senior newspaper jobs, 106 were from the upper tiers, and none were from the 220m people in the bottom Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) tier. Zero out of 220 million. Quite a statistic.
My point in this recitation, is that India gets very little UK media scrutiny about all this. Compare it with how the USA is examined almost on a daily basis for its own original sin of slavery. And yet far more people suffer miserable lives and early deaths.
Why is this do you think?
Respond