Actually this is the propaganda of the Communists to lure young people. But it is not supported by facts. It is likely that excesses are done towards the economically weaker but it is not due to the caste factor. The weak do get exploited by the strong, not always and not in a way that can be generalized. But one has to understand the real reasons rather than rush to political solutions. If you look at the condition of people in Capitalist versus Communist countries, where does one find it better overall? Try to find out what happened and still happens to communist countries such as North Korea, China where individual liberties have no meaning. What do you think is the cause? Isn’t it the animal nature of man, the rakshasic pravratti to kill, exploit, plunder, loot? Who were the British, the Moslems who plundered, looted and raped this country?
Indian thought saw it through the binary of dharma and adharma and not the inadequate lens of political ideologies. Politics can exchange systems of governance but it cannot change man into a better human being. And so long as man remains what he is we will continue to see these inequalities everywhere and not just in India.
Your friend can try it and learn by experience the falsehood that communism is. I have known it by first hand experience at 15. He can try for himself and know the facts. Or perhaps watch the film ‘Buddha in the traffic jam. ‘
This is of course a hurried note. Basically it means that the problem of humanity is not fundamentally a political or socio-economic problem (as the Western world makes us believe due to their vision of man as nothing more than an animal who lives for hunger and whose goals are physical preservation, food, sex and a den to live. Indian thought goes deeper and sees the problem essentially as a spiritual problem. Man does what he does because his inner evolution is not yet complete. Unless we change man we will only replace one system, ideology, government with another but the problem of inequality, disunity, ignorance, suffering, the seeking after pleasure with its attendant consequences will remain. Only its outer manifestation will change.
Dharma, spirituality, Yoga are means to change man. Dharma of course has nothing to do with rituals or formal organised religion. It is about how man should govern his inner and outer life so that he himself as well as the society can evolve towards a better humanity. And towards this end, it is only the Sanatan Dharma that provides a most comprehensive framework allowing for a wide and supple approach and taking into consideration the differences between human beings due to their different inner constitution and stages of evolution. In other words dharma is not a standard formula given by God to one person for all to follow but the law of human evolution towards higher human possibilities. It admits the role of hunger in human life but bids us to go further, to look deeper, to master the various hungers for food, lust, money, and instead of making hunger the goal, make love and oneness and Light and Beauty and Delight and inner freedom the goal for the individual and the mankind. Food can be a starting point for physical life, money is needed for basic needs but to make these as goals, to teach and encourage violence to snatch, to agitate and dominate and force one ideology and way of life upon others under all kinds of false premises, propaganda and irrational justifications may appeal to the animal instincts and the rakshasa in man but to turn it into a national and human goal is to degrade humanity to its lowest abysses.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
