"The Land of Contrasts"

The common theme throughout all the presentations at orientation was that India is a land of contrasts. The moment you try to make a blanket statement about India, it will be contradicted. While I think I’ve always known this given how incredibly diverse this country is, this is my first trip to India where I’ve been trying to catalogue these contrasts in my head. I’ll describe a few.

Caste discrimination: While waiting to get into a supposed exclusive club in Delhi one Saturday night, the crowd outside the club started to get restless. Wanting everyone in line to chill, a guy behind me in line said something to the effect of, “I’m Brahmin, we’re peaceful people.” I was so irritated by the fact that he thought his caste was relevant to the situation. But before I could even complete my thought, the woman in front of me in line retorted something to the effect of “You’re a racist is what you are.” I smiled. I didn’t have to say a word. In my rural visit in Rajasthan, I met two teenage girls who were students there. As we introduced ourselves to each other, one asked me what my caste was. I asked her why she was asking me that question. She said it was just to get to know me. I told her I didn’t think it mattered what caste I was. Her friend standing next to her jumped in saying, “My grandmother says it doesn’t matter what caste anyone is; we’re all human first.” I smiled again. Again, I didn’t have to say a word.

Religious discrimination: At some point during my 16-hour train ride from Delhi to Ahmedabad, a young Muslim man in my compartment, laid out his mat and began to pray while surrounded by a Hindu family. The family had a little child who had been running around the compartment until then. But when this Muslim man started his prayers, the father of the little Hindu boy picked up his son and told him to not to bother the man because he’s praying. I smiled because such respect for an outward display of religion different from yours is not something you really see in the States. But then I reached the state of Gujarat, the site of the massacre of 2,000+ Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists 5 and half years ago, and I traveled through a section of the city informally called “Little Pakistan,” where many Muslims were displaced and segregated from the rest of the city, where no government hospitals or schools are found.