Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Everybody Loves Inequality

"If our civilization is destroyed, it will not be by barbarians from below. Our barbarians come from above." ---Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847-1903)

Inequality- is it designed by god or manmade or a result of evolution?

Inequality is universal whether you like it or hate it. Everybody will be subjected to certain type and degree of inequality in his/her lifetime. Inequality may be of social, racial, political, income, gender or other type.

One can find inequality in temples also where only the rich and so called higher caste’ people are allowed nearer to the deity. This is a common phenomenon even in some famous temples of India- the largest democratic country whose constitution provides all types of equality and non-discrimination of any form – on paper. It is heartening to find some ‘highly educated’ people supporting these practices by saying that the poor will steal high value diamonds and gold ornaments, if allowed near the deity.

Leave apart the society. One can find inequality in family’s also. Siblings trying to dominate over one another and feeling of superiority is a common phenomenon.

This inequality which is universal is not by default; it may be by design. This design may be to maintain balance among different species in an ecosystem. Also, we can find imbalances within any species resulting into the domination of stronger over weaker and thus surviving. This is explained by the famous concept of Survival of the fittest.

Inequality also starts with nature in terms of differences in the availability of resources among different regions. These differences in availability of natural resources translate into other types of inequalities. One can easily find the answer by comparing a dry region with one having good rainfall or water resources.

Inequality can be explained in terms of hierarchy-of-order. A country trying to dominate over others and maintain inequality; a state trying to dominate over others within a country; a region trying to dominate over others within a state which finally ends up in the domination of one individual over others in a family.

It’s better not to speak of income inequality which is increasing with globalization and economic growth. Rural-urban divide is also rising in all fronts with rapid urbanization and globalization. It has become fashion for policy makers and also corporates to talk of rural problems without any concrete efforts to solve them.

I feel this inequality is the design of god which human being has loved and nurtured with the help of nature. It has become universal only with the support of human being. It seems that human being loves to maintain inequality with the purpose of having higher status or superiority over his/her fellow beings.


"Nature still obstinately refuses to co-operate by making the rich people innately superior to the poor people." --Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1923)

6 comments:

Mythreya said...

you talked about a lot of inequalities but you missed out the major one -
the inequality in education.
the reservation on the basis of caste and not on the basis of merit.

and most inequalities are not natural they are human-made. we created the differences.

Unknown said...

At Matty,
Yes, many inequalities are manmade...thats why the title of the post is'everybody loves inequality'.

The objectives of various forms of reservations are to reduce inequalities...inequality in education is the result of many other factors.

Sukanya said...

i for one believe that God or nature made men unequal.. nobody is equal.. if anybody wants a share out of the pie.. they have to work for it..

bt the points of caste and rural-urban divide are very correct..

the caste and religion practices are archaic.. and need to be completely abandoned.
All the talks of infrasructure development are urban centric..flyovers, metro etc.. nt that i don't want a metro but there has be equal development everywhere..

bt u missed the rural-urban continuum.. urban areas (read slums) merge into the rural areas.. and that is bosted about as development..

Unknown said...

At SSNAB
Your point is very valid.
To keep the article as short as possible i did not mention it explicitly....but it's implicit in it.

Anonymous said...

Sudarshan,
Inequality should/shall/will always be there. This fact was even pointed out by one famous writer (I forgot his name) in his book titled as "Animal Farm". He says that, "While all animals are equal, some are more equal than others." Even statistics proves this. In fact, the concept of probability and variation have came into existence because there is an inequality. If euality rules, then how we will maintain the balance? Because of inequality we can differentiate between good and bad, hell and heaven, man and woman, etc. So in any model, inequality rather than equality is the rule rather than an exception.

Shikha said...

Very true Sudarshan..and whatever our position in life, we keep facing inequality in some form or the other..and either we get bogged down by it or learn to fight it or adjust with it..in whichever aspect possible, we can try to eliminate or reduce inequality..even tho' i am not sure, if ever all forms of inequality will be removed, but we should keep trying..and God made diversity, and not exactly inequality..each person and everything is different..so that we have to be interdependent and learn to value others..so enjoy the differences but reduce or eliminate inequality :)