Greed

I met a social equality activist, in a train journey. He is a retired Tamil professor who is fighting the caste system through awareness speeches and he is a follower of EVR Periyar. These details are of not much importance for the point I’m coming to.

He is among people who go around convincing the discriminators not to discriminate against people on the basis of caste. He organizes demonstrations and activities that include barging into temples by the outcast. I asked him, “Why do you have to convince these people to accept the people of "weaker" castes and be so aggressive about it. Why don’t the victims of discrimination just ignore the perpetrators and live a life exclusive of them – the method that has been used by Sri Narayanaguru in Kerala”.

“Well, verify the success of this method. Even Gandhiji fought the same evil by convincing people to give up caste discrimination through his method of ahimsa. But what is the point. Even today caste system is prevalent in most parts of the country, including Kerala.” He said.

“But unlike here, countries like America have successfully reined in the vices of discrimination”

“Let’s not discuss America.” He said with a sarcastic smile.

“I want to know the reason for that”.

“Let’s discuss the root cause of social inequality first. What do you think is the basic reason of social discrimination?”

“The long lasting caste system is one, rich poor divide, infrastructure etc..”

“These are all symptoms… the reason is very basic… the instinct for human beings to be greedy. Greed is the basic reason”, he said. “Initially each man yearns for stability and wants to be in control of his own life. For this he finds a means of sustenance in the form of employment – self or otherwise. Once this is accomplished he wants to ensure that his family’s life is secured. This makes him to work harder, earn and save for his lifetime. After he is confident that he can achieve this target, he sets out to protect his earnings by firewalling it. Slowly greed sets in. He garners as much money as possible and once a threshold has been crossed, no one questions the means – not that they do not want to, but because they can’t afford to. This makes it suitable for him to use all means to get money. Now, corruption sets in” he paused as if to let me take in what he said.

“With the stability he has achieved so far, he commands a particular status in the society. Now he wants this status to be available to all his protégés. So he institutionalizes the status, and makes an arrangement that shall ensure that everyone else accepts his formula for peaceful co-existence, with his family as the leader. This is how inequality sets in.”

“I can relate the whole thing to India. Why did you smile at the mention of America? There so much corruption is not prevalent.”

“Do you mean to say that no one is greedy in America?” he asked. “Nor corrupt?”

“Not like that… at least it is not so deep rooted as in India. Maybe Indians are greedier.”

“You should look at this from another point of view that ‘rules are for the dumbest’. Those who follow rules are not necessarily good people. It is mostly dumb guys who accept the supremacy of another person and will follow rules meticulously. You’d have heard many guys say, ‘I live by my own rules’. There is a ring to this statement. These are statements by rebels who are smart enough to believe in themselves.”

“But even the smart Indians who go there follow rules?” I said questioningly.

“The reason for that is the formula which I told earlier. It is not that they accept all that happens there, they just can’t afford to fight back. So they feign ignorance.”

“I do not accept this. Ok. So, if all these are problems, what is the solution? And how are you sure that with your method of fighting against the social evil you would be victorious?”

“Who said anything about winning in my lifetime? Man has not come up with any method so far to win over greed.”

“So, why waste time fighting?”

“The effort is to keep the conscience aware of the vice. I am fighting to at least keep the guys who discriminate subtly aware that they are wrong. I am fighting hoping that some day some one will find a method to win over man’s greed. I am fighting with a hope that some day people would see sense in living together equally. I am fighting to keep this flame going.”