As the clock struck 4, I put down my paintbrush and sat upon the dirt for a moment of reflection.
It had been a long, hot day working under the sweltering Indian sun, and I was still trying to process all that I had seen and done.
I was there with a student group, helping to paint a school located in the slums of Chennai and hoping to raise awareness for the students inside. It was a Dalit school and therefore served to educate the lowest and most oppressed class in all of India.
They have been deemed “Untouchables” by society, destined to take the lowliest tasks of the people, with virtually no hope for social mobility.
The Indian government and even the educated classes commonly adhere to the mantra that such a caste system no longer exists, but the inescapable condition of these people portrays a far darker reality.
The truth of the matter is that the caste system is still extremely pervasive in Indian society, despite what many of the elite would prefer you to believe.
That day, I had the opportunity to meet many of the students who went to the school. Each one had this wonderful verve and attitude toward life that stood in such stark contrast to the situation they were in. But while it was enjoyable to meet all of them, it was hard to look at all of their smiling faces and at the same time know what their future held ““ inevitable tragedy.
The current system holds them down like slaves, forcing them to live in the most heinous destitution and squalor.
And it is not simply a small problem reserved to an overlooked minority of the population. The Dalit people make up one-fifth of India’s population. That is 200 million people, or roughly three-fourths of the U.S. population. This is not just a case of neglected rights, but of conscious oppression.
What I witnessed in Chennai is just a tiny microcosm of the Indian system as a whole ““ convoluted, oppressive and unresponsive to the true needs of the people. In reality, the world’s “largest democracy” is really anything but. It is, in fact, a frightening example of a nation at odds with itself.
Institutional barriers, whether they are the issue of social mobility or just the ability to buy decent-quality paint, have conspired to prevent any lasting and significant progress from being made. Such is the tragic poetry that is life in the Indian caste system ““ all give but no take.
Looking back across the walls, I examined the work we’d done. All that we had painted was slowly drying, and I was happy to think that we might have made a small difference.
However, as it dried, the paint faded away and left only what had previously been ““ a dirty and tattered surface, abused and neglected by the society around it.
All that work we had done ““ all the time and sweat we had invested ““ was vanishing, a transient contribution soon to be retired to faint recollection.
Justin Wedell is a second-year undeclared student.