Documents of ADATS - Book 5
Caste as a Factor (October 2024)
This is an attempt to make sense of the current paradox in society through non-academic observations and experiential learning.
It is a very personal chronicle primarily meant for myself. I am a healthy, active and involved septuagenarian, intimately connected with the same Caste-class of underprivileged people in this same semi-arid region for the past five and a half decades. Along with them, I too desperately need to make sense of what is happening in today's world.
History isn't the study of the past; it is the study of change. History teaches us what remains the same, what changes, and how things change. I found it necessary to go back to the very beginnings and discern the bearing those past events and happenings have in shaping today's society. I have chosen Caste as the prism because it is the Apple in the parable.
I have refused to look up any literature or even my own earlier writings. This recounting is based on scattered remembrances of what I have read, heard, felt, shared and experienced.
Over the years, I have let it all soak into my subconscious to become intuitive impressions, opinions and responses in everyday life. I have let it all speak to me once again in these pages. In order to get a proper flow and not let loose a ramble, I have spent more time in ordering and reordering points and paragraphs than in recounting and recording.
I have no formal education and do not belong to academia. This is not a thesis on every topic commented upon. Neither does it attempt to be a complete elaboration. It does not provide any definition of concepts. They are reflections on nuances that strike me as relevant to understanding today's world. Impressions I have formed that gradually led to convictions.
This has not turned out to be a crisp and catchy piece of work. When composing, I have struggled to use the correct words and phrases to convey exactly what I mean. The odd metaphors are from my incensed imagination. I realise it has become a tad bit tedious and a little long. I have refused, and indeed cannot, make an executive summary. Should poring through these pages provoke in the reader's mind her own recollections and reflections, and if that helps make sense of the current paradox in society, that would be great!