a situation when you were deprived of a necessity
Answers
Within the perspective and definition of culture, Indian society as a social group does not have one culture, because this society consists of several racial, ethnic, religious, and caste groups that have their own beliefs, customs, values, art, history, and folklore, and identify with their respective groups.[8] As one social group, therefore, Indian society has no cultural homogeneity contrary to what historians describe.
The concept of ‘Unity in Diversity,’ which means complete harmony, peace, and adjustment among different cultural elements arises from a view of accepting the textual position of the Hindu social system, and explaining as well as justifying the empirical social reality in terms of the Vedic scriptures,[9] based on a consensus model. The concept of ’Unity in Diversity’ gives rise to an erroneous understanding of India’s social reality.
Contrary to ‘Unity in Diversity’ there is ethnic diversity in the Indian society, leading to the formation of minority groups who differ from majority prototype not only in terms of numerical strength of their members, but also in their access to various resources. As the societies are governed by their members, it is obvious that the majority group will have the maximum say.[6] Therefore, there has been a dialectical interrelationship between majority social groups who have monopolized the scarce goods of power and prestige and minorities those who lack these resources. Deprivation plays an important role in the unfolding of human behavior in Indian society.[8] Ethnic minorities are most subjected to being at receiving end of social deprivation, particularly when religious scriptures and social sanctions permit the deprivations.[10]
Deprivation is the consequence of socioeconomic disparity due to the caste-system that is peculiarly fitted in the Indian society; to hand on cultural patterns and particular items of the culture. The traditional Hindu society that is compartmentalized into various caste-groups is a social institution dictating superior and lesser beings among its members. This system that places the untouchables at the bottom of the caste-pyramid is one of the obvious institutions of caste-inequality, a system of legalized inequality, a variant of an ascriptive system of stratification, wherein, the allocation of roles and status is governed by its own principles, determining the social, economic, political, and ritualistic structure of individuals in relation to each other.[11]
The essence of the caste is the arrangement of hereditary groups in a hierarchy, as a necessary corollary the caste confines the individual in the occupation handed down from father to the son and governed by precise rules regarding the acceptance or rejection of food or water from the members of the other caste.[12] Caste-system in India has had its impact on all aspects of life; on the past, present, and future, based on purity and pollution basis. Birth only determines the individual’s social status throughout his life[13] and also his access to various resources.
The deprived masses described compendiously as Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes in the constitution of India are in fact low castes and tribes in the Hindu social order, treated as ‘caste-less’, outcastes or untouchables and have been subjected to deprivation and discrimination for centuries.[14] Historically, they spring from the aboriginal inhabitants, conquered and enslaved by Aryan invaders.
For the first time in history, untouchables were accorded equal status to other citizens in the constitution of independent India. With the desire to bring them in step with the privileged ones, the policy of reservations was introduced, offering them the advantage of education and jobs.[15] The last 62 years of independence have witnessed a massive social mobility and transformation as well as the emergence of ’the educated’ among the deprived castes, generally looked down upon with contempt by the larger society for their mobility on the crutches of reservations.[16] Although untouchability is outlawed and the caste-system is not overtly practiced, at least in the bigger cities, there are other ways of isolating and segregating them similar to abolition of slavery in the USA, where injustice to African-Americans continued until the passing of the Civil Rights Act.[17] Emergence of the ’educated among the deprived’ and their journey from traditional defiling occupations to white-collared respectable office jobs has created an environment, exposing them to various psychological and physical vulnerabilities causing mental health strains.Deprivation, discrimination, human rights violation, and mental health of the deprived