Oppression

So books 30 and 31 were Princess by Jean P. Sasson and Resistance by Anita Shreve.
Both deal with some form of oppression (obviously! Why else would it be my topic this time?).
I don’t know how many of you have read Princess. I read its sequel Daughters of Arabia about a year ago. Both books are about the plight of women in Saudi Arabia. If these books are really based on fact, as the author claims, Saudi Arabia is really no better than Afghanistan was under the Taliban. It amazes me that I didn’t know much, actually anything about the lives of my Arab classmates in Dubai. Of course, the U. A. E. is a pretty tolerant place where girls can be educated in co-ed institutes and don’t have to wear the hijab and abbaya once they ‘become women’. It seems Saudi women can’t study abroad, can’t travel without a male relative (if they must travel alone they need ‘permission’ from the male head of the family) and cannot marry someone who is a non-believer (if the woman is Muslim. I don’t know if the same restrictions are imposed on other religions as well). And I crib about the sexism in Goa! Women are married off as soon as they hit puberty because they cannot control their sexual desires. Goodness! Are we really so licentious?

Resistance was about the Belgian Maquis i.e. resistance, in World War II. People were oppressed in their own country by the Germans. You were either a member of the underground resistance or a collabos (collaborator). I cannot imagine what it must be like to have your land, your crop, your livestock, your spouse, everything you love and have worked hard for wrested away from you.

We needn’t go far from home to find instances of oppression. I was reading a magazine today that stated the following:
Every hour, 2 Dalits are assaulted
2 Dalits are murdered
2 Dalit houses are burnt
3 Dalit women are molested.
While I have no way to verify these statements, I do know that the plight of the ‘Untouchables’ in our country is pretty damn dismal. People, HUMAN BEINGS are forced to consume excreta! How disgusting is that?
I was not a proponent of reservations until I read this ‘…you say there should be no special policy to help them [Dalits and Tribals]. It is like asking the blind, lame old and young to run in the same race.’ Maybe they need a leg-up. Maybe reservations would be the right thing. However, I don’t think reservations should be permanent. Maybe the policy of reservation should be revised in another, oh I don’t know, 40 years. Hopefully there will no longer be any Scheduled Castes by that time.
Can you believe we celebrate 60 years of Independence next year? The elders of midnight earned it with ‘ blood, sweat and tears’. Will we, grand- and great grand-children of those fine men and women deserve to be Independent? Oh Lord, I’m sermonizing! Forgive me, I’m just very, very concerned about the state of our State (and country).