Category Archives: Society

The castist Church!

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I know its been some time since I have ruffled some feathers. So here I go again.

It all started out because of this issue called “marriage”, and when it was determined that I like my peers had attained the marriageable age, the proposals have started pouring in putting me on the defensive.

These proposals have added a new word to my lingo, “caste” (I am a nadar if you must know) which has never been a part of the my conversational jargon, suddenly finds itself in preeminent position.

The fact of the matter is that there is a can of worms waiting to explode in the church in India, atleast the ones that the generational Christians belong to. It has always been a open secret that caste has always factored in the church inspite of no theological grounds for differentiation between people.

Some may argue that the denominational split in the Christian church gives some leeway for castism to be practiced within the church. Some other appeasers of castism use the example of the tribes of Israel, which cannot but be called asinine.

Before I get ahead of myself, for the uninformed the connection between my proposals and caste is that in India, its not just enough to have the same belief system (as in religion) but you need to be part of the same ‘caste’ or social system. Theoretically Christians and Muslims don’t have the caste system. Which has prompted various ‘lower caste’ people to convert to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.

The fun part of it is that the generational Christians have always been following the caste system specially when it comes to marriage and such. I can’t speak for Islam or Buddhism but the non-castist nature of Indian Christianity is a farce.

So why this sudden outburst from your’s truly? Because I just snapped, because I just want to make a stand, because I am crazy and most importantly because the God I know does not differentiate. And if he does not differentiate who am I to do so (Romans 14:4)?

I cannot stress enough the negative and demoralising effect of castism in general, but to have it as part of my creed just makes my blood boil. Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it … and the Indian Christians haven’t learnt anything from their western counterparts. I know it would be hard to wipe away, people being people, but looks like there is nobody ready to tackle the issue head on. What about me? me … I am nobody, I can’t even convince some of my own close relatives of the oxymoronic nature of a Christian caste system! So I do what I do best write about it and hope I can break down a few walls in the process.

I definitely have some earfuls coming my way for this post, but then again I got a thick skin and it is always funny to watch people defend something that is indefensible.

Those to whom arranged marriages seem incomprehensible, this additional castist corollary would only add to the mystery.

So here it is the gist of the whole post, castism has no place in Christianity … for that matter no place anywhere else.

This is a call to arms against dowry and castism. Somebody has to so its gonna start with me!

“I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.” – Mark Twain

“Ideas are fatal to caste” – E.M Forster

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The great equaliser – Football

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Put your football cleats on its World Cup time! The Football (soccer to Yankees) is probably my favorite sport in the whole entire world. Its charm probably is in its simplicity. Two sides, one ball and all you got to do is kill the ball with a small space. You don’t even have to buy a leather ball, paper rolled into the shape of a ball and held together with rubber band would do as well … also forget part of the cleats, just need your two feet!

I was watching the Argentina vs Ivory Coast match yesterday and I was given many more reasons to love this game. I watched as a opponent got fouled and then in amazement the culprit giving the victim a hand to get up … also saw a couple of opposing players patting each other after a particularly good dribble or shot. You would be hard pressed to see such scenes in any other professional team sports specially in America.

The sportsmanship was not the only thing that struck me, the fact that Ivory coast was observing a ceasefire for the duration of the world cup was a testament to the universal appeal of the game. If only it helped solved such situations permanently … I know that is wishful thinking.

I have been talking to a couple of friends of mine who think its a girlie game ’cause you don’t get t beatup on your opponent like in American football or Ice hockey and my only retort to it was that this was a poor man’s game. This can be played in slums unlike the other aforementioned games. Also the slums have produced the best players the world has ever seen. This is the only stage in the world that the countries at the bottom of the food chain can beat the ones at the top. I remember playing in my school against the evening schoolers(from the nearby slums), they would literally cream up in our Nike cleats with their bare foot.

I know lots of people would like to say that the Olympics would hold the honour of uniting the world. I know the Olympics has its place but football is special, for the only reason that there is only gold and there are more people (Almost a quarter of the world’s population) watching you kick the behind of the best countries in the world.

Its not without its fault. Racism in the European countries has been on the rise, and in a drastic measure, the captains of the teams read a massage against racism before each game. Its obviously caused by a fringe group of people.

The thing that irks me the most personally is the fact that the two countries with one third of the world’s population don’t have the capacity to qualify for this tournament while puny countries like Trinidad and Tobago could. I would easily like to put the blame on the system … but countries like Ivory coast don’t even have a system … and then I realise what a great leveler football is!

BTW : My football jersy number is 4 and Maradona was the best football player ever!!!
Check out tamilnole.blogspot.com

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