Do You Think Indian Society Needs to Change?

-Himanshu Kumar

If you don’t think so, you must be having a pretty comfortable life.
Those who are comfortable don’t want anything to change.
Why would someone from an upper caste want to change the caste system?
If you have a good job where you can earn so much while sitting in an office chair or on a cushioned seat that, even after paying for your house, car, shopping, beauty parlour visits and pizzas, you still have money left to save, why would you want to change the economic system?
But someone who cannot earn enough to pay for their children’s medical treatment, even after working hard all day, would certainly want to change the economic system.
Someone born into a caste whose members are hated simply because of their birth would certainly want to change the caste system.
If you belong to the majority religion and enjoy social dominance, you may not even feel that communalism is a problem.
But if you belong to a religious minority and face discrimination, you would certainly want to address the problem of communalism.
Similarly, if you are a man, you may assume that women are happy with the way they are treated.
But ask women: after being the first to wake up in the morning and the last to go to bed at night, do they have an equal share in the family’s house, property and inheritance? Or does everything belong to the men?
Women would certainly want to change this.
This is what is meant by your own politics.
What is your politics?
It is shaped by your own circumstances and position in society.
So, if your politics tells you that everything is fine and nothing needs to change, take a good look at yourself. Are you, perhaps, an affluent, urban, upper-caste man who is enjoying all the privileges life has to offer?
And could it be that your thinking is a product of this very comfortable position?
As the famous saying goes, “The personal is political.”
Your politics is shaped by your own social and economic position.
The privileged classes, comfortably settled in their lives, often resent demands for change.
So, when men with surnames like Sharma and Chopra abuse us for demanding freedom, equality and justice, we understand where they are coming from.
Instead of getting angry, we devote ourselves to our mission with even greater determination and energy.