Virus of untouchability
Updated On: 23 March, 2020 04:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Ajaz Ashraf
COVID-19 should not become an argument to tacitly justify caste-based segregation and social distancing, as some are advocating
Listen to this article :
People wearing masks amid the Coronavirus pandemic seen at Bandra reclamation. Pic/Bipin Kokate
COVID-19, the illness caused by Coronavirus, has become a metaphor for the untouchability that we have practised in India for millennia. This metaphor has emerged in our public discourse because of the realisation that the surest way of slowing the community transmission of COVID-19 is to socially distance and segregate those whom the virus has infected.
Segregation and social distancing are also the defining features of the Indian caste system, which categorised certain social groups as untouchable and segregated them from the society. These were the people whose hereditary occupation was deemed polluting. Their touch, even their shadow, was thought to defile the others, particularly the upper castes. The untouchables could transgress the rule of social distancing at their own peril.
Read Next Story
Trending Stories
Latest Photos
Latest Videos
Latest Web Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
Mid-Day Fast
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT