Ever wondered why people of the same caste, religion or ethnic group tend to cluster in their dwelling ?.Like the Nadars of Washermanpet, the Bramins of Mylapore, the Muslims of Royapettah and Muni-reddi-palya.
Some obvious reasons. Similar people have similar needs and are easily catered to when living together. Similar people tend to share the same ancestry that might have originated in some location and continued to exist through generations. But I suspect a more serious reason behind this. Safety in numbers. But what the hell ? we are not animals, are we ?.
Let's look at some history.
Rwanda :This was not centuries ago, to dismiss as "barbaric past".It happened as recent as 1994 when the majority Hutus decimated about a million minority Tutsis, in a carnage that lasted about three months. The Tutsis though a minority were supposed to have a higher socio-economically status than the majority Hutus. The movie "Hotel Rwanda" was based on this. Jared Diamond,in "collapse" says that poverty and scarcity of resources were the underlying drivers of this genocide.
Nazi:We don't need to go into the depths of this, we all know it. This happened at the backdrop of the great depression of the 1930s. Jobless and desperate, the Germans were swiftly driven towards hatred by Hitler.Eventually setting up the most popular pogrom ever. Exterminating millions of minority Jews. Who even during the great depression were supposed to be economically much better off than the rest.
Ceylon & Pakistan: We all know how Prabhakaran took to arms after the Tamil genocide. And also how the Hindu population in Pakistan mysteriously decreased from 15% during independence to less than 2% now.
Japan: Unlike the above this was not genocide. After the Japanese economy started declining in the 80s there was a small rise in the crime rate. The Japanese were quick to blame the immigrant Chinese minority for this.
These are just a few samples, I'm sure every country has it's own story.
Yeah, but this is elsewhere, what does it have to do with me ?.
Hang on. Our backyard is no better.
Maybe we should ask the Muslims of Gujarat, the north Indians in Mumbai,the Hindus in Kashmir Valley or the Sikhs affected by the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. Even celebrities like the Bachchans have not been spared from the Thackeray intimidation.
These are still far away for me.
Hmm, how about the "IT people" of Bangalore ?.
The word "IT people" is used synonymously with "outside people" in Bangalore.
"Outside people" who stole jobs that rightfully belonged to the locals.
"Outside people" who transformed Bangalore to Bang"hell"ore with traffic snarls and over population.
OK, OK. So what's the moral of the story ?
As history and the present suggest, the majority has always asserted it's right over the minority. Clever leaders will incite hatred for their own benefit. "Innocent" "sons of soil" following their wily leaders will go to any extent to "earn" their spoils.
So should we run away ?
It's your choice. And it's not that all minorities have met with tragedy. We've had many leaders and stars from the minority. But it's important that we be cognizant of history. As they say, "those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
Fine, I've decided to go back to my home town, am I safe now ?
Maybe not. We humans are notorious for creating differences, even when they don't naturally exist. As we've seen how same language speaking, genetically similar, nadars and thevars belonging to same religion have been fighting pitched battles down South. We recently saw the grisly video of Chennai law college students lynching each other in what was called "caste based violence".
This reminds me of what Carl Sagan says in "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors". Aggression, dominance/submission and violence are part of our nature. Part of the tendencies we've inherited from our "animal" ancestors. We are them, and so we seek safety in numbers.
