Perils of Caste System on Kashmir

Caste System is rotting the soul of Kashmiri society. Today or tomorrow, the Kashmiri society will have to undergo a serious change or chemotherapy and we all have to pass through sever pain in knowing the demons of caste system. It is well observed by sane voices that Kashmiri society can never achieve its noble objectives and become developed with these caste discriminations or caste existence. It is to be noted that this menace of the caste system exists in countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and other few nations.

In kashmir although caste system does not necessarily manifest itself into brutal violence like many other parts of world   but has serious unfavorable consequences  on the intellectual development of the Kashmiri society as it leaves people divided into water tight compartments. In Kashmir, we have had the tradition of calling some castes such as Quershis, Makhdoomis, Qadris, Andrabis etc as the so called higher castes while a number of castes are termed as the so called lower castes which is totally against the spirit of our great religion Islam.

We have also developed a shameful lexicography in this regard”. We even as a matter of great concern tend to break relations if a so called upper caste family enters into relation with the other family which is deemed low caste by our backward society.

Without a doubt the dark realities of caste system demand that every young Kashmiri should seriously commit to fight against the casteist mentality and irrational social norms which suffocated human aspirations and dreams. We need to launch a serious reform and revolution to end this menace.