Discrimination. Religion. Caste.

Last week, I watched a documentary titled The Indian Miracle which was aired some time back in the Dispatches TV Series. Dispatches is a series of television documentaries running on Britain's Channel 4 and predominantly deals with Britain's society and some amount of international affairs. Getting back to the series that I watched online, The Indian Miracle. This documentary started off showcasing the sudden surge in the Indian economy and how India was poised to become the next economic superpower. The rest of the documentary focused on two main issues as I saw it: 1. Discrimination based on religion 2. Discrimination based on caste I was more distubred by the first case, in which they interviewed a Muslim man and asked him whether he faced discrimination in this country. Without any hesitation his answer was yes. This came across as a little disturbing fact to me and of course it is shameful on us as a country. "Why do you say so?", asked the narrator cum interviewer. The man replied that he was a commerce graduate and yet was unable to find a job. And this was not in the hinterlands of India. This was a man standing in the city of Mumbai. Armed with a degree in India's financial capital, he was unable to find a job solely because he was a Muslim. Was this true? I spoke to one of my Muslim colleagues, who is a very close friend of mine, and he was immediate in his answer - "No, never ever faced any discrimination of any sort". He further explained that people who don't work hard enough to make opportunities for themselves, end up playing the religion based discrimination card. However, I had another Muslim colleague in my previous company, who was a wonderful cricket player and a very good friend of mine. We used to accompany each other in the long bus journeys back home from office. He had recently moved to Bangalore and had joined my office. After about 3 weeks or so, he told me that he was unable to find a flat or a house anywhere. I offered him the names of some real estate consultants but eventually nothing worked out. Reason? "Everytime I go and check out the place and everything seems fine. We also agree on the price. Then the time comes to make the agreement deed and when they know my full name, the owners go back on the offer. They just plain refuse to rent out the house to a Muslim." My friend had a neutral first name (which means that it could pass off as a Hindu or a Muslim name) and had a last name which conveyed his religion. That was the first time I got a rude shock of how this attitude is prevalent even in the so called urban areas of the country. Why do people fail to realize that at the end of the day, everyone is just that - people? Why is religion such a big deal when it is meant to provide you a comforting hand? Also, read this blog post by annie of Known Turf. I too watched the movie Aamir over the weekend gone by and it was very disturbing. The fact that such a deep divide exists amidst people's minds poses a grave danger to us as a country. What do we do? Where do we go from here? Will the divide get bridged? Or are these futile questions?