When life gets 145;barberic146;

The bride and groom were all aglow. The groom8217;s party had arrived in full regalia and was accorded royal treatment. The guests were tre...

The bride and groom were all aglow. The groom8217;s party had arrived in full regalia and was accorded royal treatment. The guests were treated like gods and sumptuous food placed before them. Finally, the poor barber was called in to wash their feet! Haven8217;t heard of this practice? Well, in some regions of Orissa this practice has been a part of marriage rituals for ages.

But something unusual happened the other day in a region comprising ten districts of Puri. The barbers here finally decided to put their foot down. The message they sent out was simply this: 8220;This is a barbaric custom and has nothing to do with 8216;barberic8217; responsibilities!8221; No longer will they wash the feet of the upper caste people of the village during marriage ceremonies.

Their stance evoked immediate indignation and led to a war of attrition. A social boycott against the barbers was ordered by the upper castes for having dared to refuse to perform an age-old ritual that was part of the marriage ceremony. More than 50 barber families in the region were ostracised. They were not allowed to draw water from the village well, cut their paddy crop, or even use the same road! Some were thrown out of their houses, too.

It8217;s difficult to remember that this is the 21st century8212; that more than half a century has lapsed since Mahatma Gandhi had fought to wipe out casteism in the country. Neither the police nor the district administration was able to do a thing against the upper castes who had ganged up in this manner or help protect the interests of the barbers.

And what did the barbers say? They were willing to cut hair but not wash feet. This they rightly found very demeaning 8212; a bit like scheduled caste folk being forced to carry nightsoil. The controversy reminded one that there are many even more horrendous and humiliating practices still being observed in India today in the name of ritual.

Hounded out of their villages for not acceding to something so overtly degrading, the barbers turn to the administrators for help. Yet even these powerful bureaucrats were helpless against the might of the entire upper caste community.

Could there be anything more ridiculous and unfortunate than this? By the same token, if some upper caste villagers got together to murder someone, should the police not intervene and register a case against them?

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Our Constitution grants equality, its preamble talks about social justice and fair play, Gandhiji fought against casteism all his life and today we are as barbaric as ever. This is primarily because our politicians and officers still make a distinction between the high and the low, the mighty and the powerless.

So how long will Puri8217;s barbers hold out against their tormentors? It8217;s anybody8217;s guess in this land we term 8220;Mera Bharat Mahaan8221;.