Hello, friends! Tea seller, Puncture repairer, Ragpicker, Bardancer and Waiter. These are some professions jobs that some people have. But in our country, these words are often used as insults. In today's short video, I'd like to talk about social evil. That's Classism. You heard that right,
not Casteism, Classism. Casteism is when a caste is discriminated against. Or treating people from different castes differently. And spreading hatred against them.
Classism is discriminating against people based on their social class. "If Narendra Modi wants to sell tea, we'll get a place for him." "Ask me what was Sonia Gandhi's job. She was a courtesan." "Poor people have this problem, we need to keep smiling. Have you ever seen a rude poor person?" There are many famous examples of this. In 2019, BJP leader Tejasvi Surya called the people protesting against CAA
as puncture repairers. In 2014, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had called Narendra Modi a tea seller, and said that a tea seller cannot be the Prime Minister. Recently, another case was seen on Twitter, involving the co-founder of Alt News
Mohammed Zubair.
Zubair highlighted an older tweet of Times Now anchor Sushant Sinha showing that he had another viewpoint earlier and has a completely different viewpoint now. Called him a chameleon and that he keeps changing colours all the time. In reply, Sushant Sinha called him a puncture-walah. Zubair's ancestors didn't repair punctures. But since Zubair is a Muslim, using the word 'puncture-walah' as an insult to Muslims is not only classist but has also become a religious stereotype in our country. Often, trolls spreading hate on social media in the name of religion, use such language against Muslims. Calling Christians as 'rice bags' and Muslims as 'puncture-walah.' Every Christian isn't a missionary trying to convert others. Nor is every Muslim's job repairing punctures. These are merely used to insult people and spread hatred in the name of religion. In our country, Muslims are involved in every type of profession, chefs in restaurants, soldiers, scientists, teachers, barbers, carpenters, journalists. Renowned actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Irfan Khan and Aamir Khan, Renowned singers like Mohammed Rafi, A.
R. Rahman, India's Antarctica Man Dr Syed Zahoor Qasim. He led the first expedition to Antarctica. Famous businessman and philanthropist
Asim Premji And obviously, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the Missile Man of India. Our former President. The same thing is in every religion. Creating useless stereotypes accomplishes nothing. But now, let's come to the topic of the video. Classism. Even if someone is a puncture repairer, what's wrong with it? Friends, I'd like to use another interesting example here. It happened a few weeks ago. Recently, the government launched a new train the Ramayan Express. It takes one to 15 places associated with the Ramayan. Like Ayodha. But hearing about this train launch, one sadhu (hermit) came forward to say that he wouldn't let this train run. That he would go and sit on the tracks to stop the train. What was the issue? He said that he wanted to protect the Hindu religion. How did the launch of the Ramayan Express threaten the Hindu religion? It's very interesting. The issue was that the waiters on the train had a saffron dress code.
And these hermits believed that such a dress code wasn't suitable for a waiter's job. That it was an insult to their religion. If the waiters wore the saffron outfit. What do waiters do? They serve food to the people. They don't steal someone's food. This shows a major classist attitude. These protectors of the religion
do not have a problem when Pragya Thakur, a terror accused, wears a saffron outfit. And calls herself a Hindu.
Their Hindu religion isn't threatened then. Literally, a politician who's a terror accused, does such things and they have no problem with it. But when a waiter, an honest waiter who is just doing his job, is working hard to earn a livelihood, when he does his work and is good at it that threatens their fragile religion. Why? Because society sees the job of the waiter at a low level. Ironically, religion is used to spread such a classist attitude. Had these protectors of the religion truly read up on their religion, they would've known what the religious scriptures truly say. In Bhagwat Gita, Krishna tells Arjun, the highest devotee, looks for equality among every living being. Swami Vivekanand talked about the concept of God being in all of us. But these people fail to understand it. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had famously said If you're interested in the biography of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, I'd like to recommend that you listen to the audiobook on him on KUKU FM.
It is an insightful audiobook. I think you've come to know about KUKU FM, it is an amazing audio learning platform on which you can find many such biographies. Normally, you get a 20% discount but for the first 1,000 subscribers to click on the link given in the description they'll get a 50% discount on the annual plan. It means that the annual cost of KUKU FM for you would be ₹199 only. Less than the price of a movie ticket. The link is in the description below. Do check it out. Coming back to the topic. In 2017, a Twitter handle run by Congress' volunteers posted a meme on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Showing the Prime Minister of the UK telling Modi "Stick to selling tea." Congress distanced itself from this. But the then Chief Minister of Gujarat from BJP, posted that it is a classist remark, and discriminates against poor people. It's absolutely correct. But some months later, the BJP leaders forget to check the classist mentality of their supporters. Some months later, trending on Twitter was #BarDancerSoniaGandhi. It's something that's used against Sonia Gandhi calling her a bar dancer.
First of all, Sonia Gandhi has never worked as a Bar Dancer. She was an Italian. And her name was Antonia Albina Maino. Her father was an Italian house builder. In 1965 she went to the UK for her studies, it was there that she worked in a restaurant. It's said that she did serve alcohol in that restaurant. Some people exaggerate it to say that because she served alcohol she worked in a bar. Exaggerating it further to say that she was a bar dancer. If someone works as a waiter, And she had this side job when she was a student. It's very common. But if someone is working as a waiter, What's wrong with it? Whether Narendra Modi sells chai
or Sonia Gandhi sells alcohol, or the waiters in the Ramayan Express serve food, to insult or humiliate anyone for it is Classism. This shows a classist attitude. How does this attitude affect society? It's much more important. Friends, we need to figure out first the amount of classist remarks that we use in everyday life. We use words like 'stoner', 'slave' or 'nomad' in jest.
When we want to make fun of someone's clothes, we say that the person is wearing clothes out of a slum. We call ragpickers as garbage-people. Parents admonish their children by saying that if they don't study well they'll become rag pickers. We love it when a security guard, maid, barber, air hostess, courier delivery guy, address us as Sir or Madam. But can you imagine addressing them as Sir or Madam? Doesn't it sound unimaginable? Many people don't even greet them.
While they say Hi or Hello,
on the other hand people simply ignore them. Because people consider them to be of a lower level. Of a lower section of society. Do you know what's unique in a classist society? The people living in this society will look at people inferior to them with disgust and ignore them. But in front of those that are superiors would become humble and servile. The hierarchy would be maintained. Superiority complex is seen when interacting with those below them, And in front of those above them, they get an inferiority complex. They fit themselves somewhere in the hierarchy. That their place is at a certain position, and the people below them should be treated miserably. And that they need to be servile in front of the people above them. There is a thought-provoking film on Netflix regarding it The Platform. Watch it when you get the time to. The progress of the country, the development in the country is terribly affected by such things.
Think about it. When a section of professions would be considered to be so low in the country, that no one would want to do it. No one would work well at it. These professions wouldn't get respect from society. They'd get lower salaries They'll be treated horribly. So they will work half-heartedly. If there is no proper urban planning in the cities of our country, No proper footpaths, No proper roads, No good sewage system, There's no proper cleanliness. Who should be blamed for it? Think about it. Thank you very much..
