ReadysetgosaveIndia

25 May 2011

Shira: Moving to our new hotel was possibly one of the best decisions we’ve made so far.  It feels safer, it’s quieter, it’s closer to our work AND it includes breakfast!  

Progress on the apartment front has been moving rather slowly although we have the awesome help of a fellow HRLN-er Nayantara who has been calling realtors and has offered to visit apartments with us.

Work has been full of meetings that are informative, interesting and long.  I get the sense that our work days will generally be informative, interesting, and long.  Upon our arrival, our boss set us up to work on independent and immediately important projects, which is great.  We’re already assigned to work on about 3 major projects (we've already begun work on two of them) and we’ve only been here three days!

People at the office are great and very helpful.  Already we’ve learned a lot, not just about Indian law, but the politics, the incredible cultural / social / linguistic / culinary / sartorial diversity that exists here. 

We’re definitely settling into life here in Mumbai.  Figuring out where to go, what (and how) to eat, starting to make friends, and all of this feels very good.

Jordan: One of the debates that occurred in the office in the last couple of days was over “reservations,” which in India is like affirmative action for peoples historically denied opportunities because of being in lower castes. Under this system, a certain number of positions in government, education and industry must be reserved for Dalits (formerly known as untouchables). The program has apparently been in place for a couple of generations, and because it operates as a quota system, it is receiving heavy criticism from the Brahmin (upper) caste, who feel it has been ineffective in equalizing the castes while unfairly prejudicing against them. On the other side, proponents of the system feel it has not been appropriately supplemented by a strong enough social safety net to make its intended gains realizable. Even though castes have been legally abolished for more than 50 years, people still identify by their caste in practice, and in an underhanded way it still very much controls Indian life and, especially, politics. Open the classifieds and there is a section for Brahmins seeking Brahmins. It’s bizarre.

Anyways, when one considers the 3000 year oppression of the Dahlits, which comprise maybe 70% (Shira’s note: this is a highly unofficial number [Jordan’s edit: it’s an approximation given by our Indian friends, I bet $1 it’s legit]) of the population, and the enormous wealth disparity between castes that persists today, it can come as shocking to Western ears to hear Brahmin people attacking these reservations as unfair. After all, the highest court has held that reservations cannot be held for more than 50% of the seats in a given field or operation, easily less than their share of the population. It is also easily comparable to Brahmins holding 100% reservations in each of these fields for millennia (Brahmins, the highest caste, comprise about 3% of the population).

Nevertheless, hearing Brahmin outcry against reservations gives a white American some sense of unease. We hear their sense of injustice at the tables being turned and think, well don’t they deserve it? Isn’t it about time, and to hell with fairness to them for a moment. But it is a short step from feeling that emotion to recognizing how it threatens our own white American privilege.

Now, don’t get me wrong, our struggles with race in the U.S. are not identical to India’s – the scope of injustice has been longer and the ruling class in India smaller. But it’s an eye-opening experience to hear privilege defend itself by the same arguments that have long animated our own debate stateside – and then to feel so repulsed by them. The Dahlits want reservations in industry and politics, combined with a stronger social safety net, so that their children can grow up with the kinds of advantages that enable stronger academic and professional credentials. It’s a lot to ask, on one hand, but seems richly deserved.  If it’s so easy for us to sympathize with the underdog when we see it in another culture, why is it so hard for us to recognize ourselves among the Brahmins?

Shira: At that same meeting we learned that a (predominant?) view of the U.S. is that it only has one religion.  Go figure.