Caste System right in your face - Regionalism right on your plate - nationalism around your place.

How many people know about dinner table etiquette around conversation?  I would think people normally have, over the years, learned certain things not to do at the dinner table.  I would think one of the etiquette is probably to not get into arguments while enjoying food or celebrating some one's birthday.  Ah..but I don't get those artificial constructs.  My policy is to listen but make your point.  Never let a jerk leave proudly in their ignorance.  Ignorance might be a bliss for them but it is misery for others.

I have, over the years, heard that caste-ism doesn't exist in India - at least in modern India.  I, for one, don't practise it.  I know many of my Indian friends in India who don't practise it.  I know Sardars who don't practise it but at the same time, I feel the ignorance around caste system, jati, regionalism, nationalism exist in India and among Indians.  Humans tend to live with many identities.  The live like ven diagrams - some identities exist outside and while other intersects.  For example, I might be male and ethnically Indian but then my nationality will intersect with female, ethnically white but an American.

I have two children and they are both born here in US.  I immigrated to US from India with my parents. I have become naturalized Citizen when I was still in College getting my bachelors.  My wife immigrated to US when she married and she became naturalized US citizen as soon she was eligible.  Since then she has voted in all the elections.  I have probably missed one election.  Being here for most of my life, I do think of my self as an American but to most people here in US (understandable) I am seen as Indian who is an American.  I probably think that is true myself.  However, my kids, I don't want anyone (including their teacher) telling them that they are Indians who are Americans.  They are Americans who happen to have Indian ethnicity and race.  So to Trump, I hope he sees people for there race but still sees them as Americans if they are citizen of this country.  I didn't vote for him but he will be our President for the next four years at least.  I am alright with it.

Now getting to my real point around this blog.  If an Indian approaches me, from India, and asks what am I?  From that question, I usually understand that they are asking me which part of India I am from?  My response is always, I am Punjabi.  I am Punjabi because my grandparents and my mother's and father's grand parents are from Punjab.  More precisely, they are from Pasroor & Sailkot.  Those place are now part of Pakistan.  My paternal grand mother and my maternal grand father grew up in villages next to each others.  I had only heard them to talk to me in Punjabi.  They both didn't know how to write in Gurmukhi because they were from the part of Punjab that later went to Pakistan. They never thought of themselves anything other than Punjabi and belonging to the land where there ancestors lived.  They amazingly were able to stay as a Hindu when many probably converted under the Muslim persecution around Mughal period. I am very proud, as I read history, that many of the people who stayed Hindu even when they were treated as second class citizens.  Sikhs obviously protected the dharmic traditions but I also feel proud of Hindus who didn't convert even with constant pressure, probably, to do so.

The other important part of this personal history, my family has a surname that is probably from the varna - vashiya.  Vashiyas are the trading class - the business class that brought wealth in the society.  They probably didn't create wealth but did provide proper role in the society.  Vashiyas and Banias are used interchangeably and in most place in the north have been used as an insult.  Insult in a sense that you are cheap or you will sell anything for the money.  From my personal experience and knowledge of history, I feel the group is much maligned with out any basis.  For one, like I mentioned previously, vashiyas should have been the one to convert first right?  I see many Muslims with last name Chaudhry, Rana, Bhatt but I have yet to run into a Muslim with last name Mahajan or Gupta.  So seems like they are not to sell themselves and brave enough to not convert.  So if anyone who should be ashamed, it should be the Khatris for not being able to perform their duty.  I don't mean that but if I ever hear a Khatri make a bania joke, they will surely hear from me.  For that matter a brahmin.  I don't tell sardar jokes because I know how much they have contributed to the nation.  They are Sardars (leaders) for a reason.

So why am I talking about this?  At the dinner conversation a friend jokingly said that Guptas are not truly Punjabis.  I have known him for a while and I know that he was just teasing. It was annoying a bit but it was kind of like..a joke that I would have probably let go.  But then I heard, from another person at the table, I have never heard of Punjabi Guptas.  That was annoying to me the most.  I barely know this person.  I am not sure if she is saying this as a joke or just being a jerk.  I felt with her body language that it was not a joke.  She interested herself in a conversation that a normal person would have stayed out of  I couldn't let it go.  I am sure the reason my grand parents had to move to the Indian side of the Punjab was someone telling them they don't belong.  It is like my kids hearing at school that they are not Americans but Indians.  Those things will annoy me because no one can tell me what I am.  Or how I or my kid should identify themselves.  We carry many identities because humans like to be in groups.  They try to belong to many groups and some like to stay in limited group.  I like to, if I can, belong in many groups.   I also don't go around telling people they are not christian, Sikhs, Californians, American, European or anything else.  I don't even tell Pakistani anymore that ethnically they are the same as Indians.  They have chosen their identity.  Their identity might be a state of mind and who am I to tell them they are something other than the true believer - for them I am a Kuffar.  But what I will never let anyone tell me is, where I belong.  I belong where I am.  My kids belong where they are.  We immigrated legally.  I talk to many people here in US.  The whites, who are labeled racist many times, are not the only one who act bigotted against another group.  This groupism exist in every race and every ethnicity.  But I can truly say that though I do run into my share of bigots that happen to be white, I also run into bigots who happen to be non-white.  The world is like that.  I am, I will say, bigot against a bigoted religion that teaches to divide humanity into believers and non-believers.  I feel we all see ourselves belonging to a group.  I am not sure why someone telling me which group I belong or don't belong to irritated me the most.  I think the idea someone challenging you where you belong or what your identity is what annoyed me.

To the person who called Guptas are not truly Punjabi - are you proud of your ignorance. You are the type who probably calls Trump a clown and a bigot but then feel your ignorance is justified.  Like the frog in the well who believes he has seen the world because his world is just that well.  To this jerk..you are the one who disgusts me.  If you are a "just" Punjabi - I will rather see you as a moron who happens to be a Punjabi.

Indians lack unity and that is not because of the diversity

On September 18^th, 2016, Pakistani backed Jihadis crossed Indian-Pakistan border to cause mayhem on Indian side of Kashmir.  Their target was not civilians this time but the target was Indian Army in their barracks – brazen act.  I will say act is almost a call of war – war that Pakistan is trying to impose. 

Pakistan was created around the same time India got its independence from the British.  British are seen as heroes in the west for being on the right side during the world war II.  I won’t digress but the wealth that Britain has stolen from India and the deaths it has caused in India should be seen as crime against humanity.  The British had a poll done recently and the majority of the British don't see themselves as villains and most likely carry no guilty consciousness.  The British are proud of their contribution to the world – including their retarded language that I also speak and write in.  Getting back to Pakistan, Pakistan is also a creation from the mind of the civilized British savages but it couldn't happen without having a seed of the need for separate land of the pure in the holy book of Islam –Korn-wait Koran.  Dar Al Islam. 

Koran is very clear on its objective.  Islam itself is submission to will of Allah – at least that is what I hear.  Islam is a religion created by Muhammed – a warmonger.  One of the main duty of a muslim is to wage Jihad.  Jihad is a holy war on Kaffirs.  Kaffirs are described in Koran as non-believers.  Most of these Pakistanis (present day) were kaffirs at one time but are now the rabid faithful.  The duty of these jihadis born and bred in Pakistan is to wage war on the kaffirs next door. 

What should be India’s response to these rabid believers?  Should they respond to the blood thirsty, heaven bound, religious nuts with actual war?  Yes, it is a duty of the ruling class to protect its citizens.  It is also the duty of the ruling class to be war capable.  What about Pakistan’s nuclear capability?  Shouldn’t India be afraid?  If India doesn’t want a conventional war with Pakistan, then figure out a covert war that can be fought on their land. 

Now what should be citizen’s response?  Citizen of India, what can they do to fight these Pakistani forced war on India.  I find it amazing that Indians are not only callous to the plight of their fellow Indians, when it comes to having a unified response to Pakistani they can’t even agree if they are at war with Pakistan.  When someone asks me to go a business that is Pakistani owned, my response is generally no thanks.  The reason is not that I am a racist bigot.  Pakistani, after all, ethnically are same as Indians.  The reason is that I don’t want my money, even a dime, going toward some Jihadi mission.  Not to mention, the Pakistanis of Muslim background truly hate Kaffirs.  As I am part of the group labeled as Kaffir, I feel no obligation to play above the bigotry of tribalism.  I feel nothing for Pakistanis.  I feel for individuals I meet but not for the tribe that sees me as subhuman because I don’t believe in Koran and my ancestors somehow got away from getting forcefully converted. 

So what should be Indian citizen’s response ?  It will be too much to ask India’s pretend secular of Bollywood to stop getting Pakistani artists to perform in Indian movies when this jihadi war is in full swing, because they believe only petty people will ask them to stop bringing Pakistani artists over to India.  Does India have shortage of people to act in movies?  Is Pakistan producing artist in the caliber of Iran? No to both of those questions.  The only reason the Bollywood is bringing Pakistani artists to India is because they see Pakistan as a market to exploit for monetary gains.  Pakistani will accept their believers in the Urdu movies produced in Bollywood but they will most likely have allergic reaction to Kaffir Hindu being a lead.  Most of the Khans – the pint khans are popular in Pakistan.  Pakistanis see these Khans as their own.  These Khans also return the favor by defending the people of Pakistan and its artist after every demand by nuts on India side for banning of Pakistani artist after every terrorist attack sponsored by Pakistanis. 

Least Indians can do is boycott the movies that has Pakistani artists.  Avoid Pakistani businesses.  And demand that Indian government take some action against Pakistan.  The Indians who can’t do this are basically just selfish assholes because their taste buds are above their love for the nation.  No sacrifice will be made by them.  My response to those Indians (meat eating humanist) – start reading history books and just be aware of your status among the believers.  Tweet