Sensitization: Why Indian Society doesn't stand a chance
If you consider the social variables that divide Indian society you'll see why breeding sensitization will remain a pipe dream. Sensitivity is called for when you engage with an 'other'. Engaging with care calls for understanding and empathy for the other. Such understanding and empathy is easy if the other is of 'your kind'. For example, its easier for gays to empathize with other gays because they share a similar lifestyle and sexual orientation. Conversely, heterosexuals will find it hard to connect to homosexuals precisely because the two part ways when it comes to the procreative act.
India's populace is wracked and divided as a society by innumerable social variables. People differ, one from another in their identities on caste, sub-caste, creed, ethnicity, religion, language, customs, practices, norms...the list is endless. This means for every group of 'similars' in India, there are many others packed with people who are 'dissimilars'. This in turn means sensitivity will have be forthcoming almost all the time, because if you're engaging with 'another' in India, bet he isn't like you at all.
What seals the deal away from sensitivity in India is I believe the regressive nature of Indian culture prompted largely by its ability to stratify society on variables that are caste and creed based. Such immoral social stratification automatically means we rear our citizenry with a belief that another isn't an equal. Its the lucky ones who arrive by birth at the top. There's not so much luck going for the masses that drop in at the bottom (read, born a dalit). If you don't believe me, ask the dalits in India and they'll tell you what its like to be at the bottom.
Now does all of this mean we have no hope in hell things will ever change?
Course not! Things will change. When, why, and how?
Continue watching this space!
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