The oppressed get oppressed more...

You put it so well..:( I cant add anything..lol

In which era are you living Bhanusb? Caste indeed!

Thanks vandana for supporting me. I can proudly say I'm a Buddhist. Buddhists were almost eliminated from India by the massacre which was committed under the leadership of Brahmins.

Kala, it depends upon which pockets of the country you are in. Khap exists. There is no denying. And remember there was my father's friend. They were brahmins. They were ok with wanting dad to marry their sister, but the last time she visited me, she asked me my caste, yeah...after 50 years of friendship, our caste became important. Being a pervert to an extent, I said I am a shudra...lol though we are choudharies, more specifically, we are kshatriyas. One of the days, I spent time searching for our ancestry on wikipedia, and other sites, and learnt that we are the survivors from Kalinga. During Ashoka's attack, pregnant women, and children of few of the senior people were sent away along with soldiers to protect them. They were sent in different directions, so that even if one group gets caught, another group survives to tell about their kingdom and keep the culture alive. This means, if religion was followed by our ancestors, I would be a buddhist! They adopted local religions as they had to blend. They even married the local folks. :) Anyway...what I wanted to say is...about five years ago, a friend of 50 years asked us about our caste. She was a graduate, uncle is a gold medalist. Ok? Just to let you know that it was an educated person who dwelt on the subject. @bhanusb..I kind of agree with you. Lower sections of people do need to get united instead of getting scared. :)

It is definitely bad Vandana! My personal experience is that in educated upper middle class families there is not a great 'looking down 'upon lower castes.My father himself was an example; he used to be friends with a tailor or some similar villager though he was an affluent person.It is painful to note what you have written; However, in some pockets of Tamil NAdu, there is a lot of unwanted animosity against BRahmins though the majority of them are not as badly behaved as those 'superior' people of yesteryears.

People who are weak in studies or other areas usually become bullies...because they cant shine in the expected route, and therefore, they prefer to be belligerant so that nobody dares to say anything against them.

Kala caste system exists out here. Take for example our BJP woman. She does not allow any maid or watchman or other worker to travel along with her in the lift. That is bad...dont you think?

How I agree with that statement...and it is not only wife, men in any relationship...they cant leave their favorite programs, and games. lol

Alberello - forgiveness in some situations I feel is a sin. When we forgive Nazis, it indicates our helplessness and inability rather than forgiveness. It encourages more people to be so. There is a limit to everybody's endurance, and "no" is not a bad word at all. If we let the bully get away with us, wont he be more confident of bullying another? And how do you know that this new victim is not worse off than you? Then is it not your duty to protect that helpless person? So notwithstanding whatever opinions people hold of me, I do defy bullies. It is my way of keeping myself safe from sin of torture that another person might have been subjected to.

I agree. Perhaps I have been guilty of it too at times..

I think to suffer is as much of sin as to be a tyrant. I mean, if you suffer continuously, you start getting some sort of pleasure that people pity you, and all you have to do is whine a wee bit, and other person would get condemned. Right? Your genuine effort to escape that situation is reduced considerably because of public support. Another reason suffering silently is wrong is, the oppressor may not know that he or she is being cruel. It might become a habit with him or her, and he might start oppressing others, in the process creating more chagrin and creating a greater chain of unhappiness? When the oppressor knows he or she is wrong and still does it, then we do need to take him or her to task, isn't it? This is the perverted individual. If he or she has to live in the society, he or she needs to conform to the society's rules.

Actually, she had loads of issues. Her husband was involved in gang wars, and even imprisoned for a while as a gangster and all that. She was possibly just nervous that anybody would raise the topic and she would cry or something. So she opted for this form of defense. Yeah Indian society is awful. If she'd not been belligerant, chances are that people would have teased her. Her belligerant nature scared others and whatever it was in their minds, they refrained from expressing, which kept her mind free. It is sensitivity on such issues that forces people I think. sid, the other day when the lady said shame you are not married at 55, I felt nothing...absolutely nothing...but I did retaliate...cause within that fraction of second, I recalled some of my former colleagues who'd cry at their misfortune. I kind of felt, hey, had they heard this, they would be jumping off roof. One of the girls lost both her parents. She'd brought up her sister and brother working hard, and managing to study enough to get a job. And finally, when the brother got married, he threw her out of his home. The younger sister she got her married at a very late stage..there are people that helpless sid. Such old fashioned opinions should not be thrust on them.