[Reader-list] Who is a Bairagi?

[Shivam Vij]

And who is a Chak?

I know Dhobi, but who is a Ghosi?

I can perhaps understand Teli, but who is a Teli-Malik?

Perhaps I can understand Luhar, but who is a Saifi?

Who is a Kalwar and who is a Khatgune?

Bhatiara and Idrishi, Merasi and Ramgarhia, Patwa and Prade - who on
earth are these people?

Have I met them?

Have you met them?

Does anyone know what these names mean?

Concentrated in ghettos or man on the street?

Are they castes or sub-castes, are they 'communities' or 'classes'?

Are they 'powerful' or 'powerless', do they like being called not just
backward but other backward classes?

Other, as in the other, which must always be made into a monolith,
talked about but not talked to, debated but not understood.

And those are just from the national capital:
http://ncbc.nic.in/backward-classes/delhi.html

We've had such an overdose of three letters - O, B, C - one would have
thought we would by now have known the O, B, Cs.

TV cameras should by now have entered the houses of the O, B, Cs and
asked them, like they do when the man of the house dies, aapko kaisa
lag rahan hain?

best
s

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http://www.shivamvij.com