Inequality: A neccessary Evil?

Hi All,

Inequality has been a phenomenon that has been plaguing mankind time immemorial. It has crystallized into violent revolutions in the past and is threatening civil society in many countries today. India seems to be no exception to this trend. Our politicians seem to be hell bent on abolishing inequality, at least on paper. Great thinkers rue the fact that it still exist in our society and keep warning us on the continuance of inequality in civil society.

Though i couldnt agree more with the above mentioned people for the need of eliminating inequality, i ponder what a “inequality-less” society will be like. Why would our house maids work for us if they had the same amount of resources, opportunities as us. Why would we be working for our present employers if we have what they already possess. As you probably would agree with me, it is the inequality,in a perverse way, that keeps society ticking.

Combine that with human desire for continual improvement, we have a human populace that works for each other makes us all interdependent and paving the way for a more unified society. All well and good unless you are at the receiving end of the inequality you would say. Again i couldnt agree more.

But what if even at the receiving end, people had reasonable access to education, employment, affordable housing and nutrition. Would that kind of inequality be such a bad thing after all? So what if a small minority among us are filthily rich and probably having earnings multiple times as the rest of the population as long as the majority can survive and sustain better modest lifestyles.

Instead of viewing inequality as an evil, we should probably have fresher perspectives on this issue.

Religion

Hi all,

Religion has been an issue that has evoked eternal debate and it is this issue that i wish to talk about. There have numerous discussions on religious extremism, communalism etc in this space and elsewhere. But what i wish to discuss is something different and distanced from the above mentioned.

Something about religion has irked me quite a bit. It is our brazen display of our religious affiliations that leave me perturbed. Be it the kumkum on Hindu women or the white cap on Muslim men or the turbans of Sikhs, we seem to have no qualms about wearing our religion up our sleeves and other hand we seem to be proud of displaying these religious articles.

Before you pounce on me and accuse me of being an atheist, i must say that i am in fact far from one. It is just that, i feel, displaying our affiliations in the open doesn't augur well for a harmonious society. We keep harping that religion should not pervade our society but keep doing the exact opposite. Why cant we just restrict our religious practices to the confines of our four walls? Is it necessary to openly display our religious faith to be counted among the faithful? Even if there is a minuscule chance that stopping these practices would in fact augment our chances of a more harmonious society, wouldn't it be worth a try?