31 explains why Balram is not fat, creamy -skinned and smiling as what he should be
if his father was a sweet-maker. According to Prentice and Miller who described the most troubling for the
social identity perspective on status and power that “First, although increased status may in fact lead to enhanced in -group favouritism, it appears that power is
what makes discrimination possible in the first place” 111. Balram Halwai’s father loses the tea shop because some oth er castes use the power using the help of
police. In real condition, Balram Halwai’s father does not have anything to support him keeping the tea shop. Balram Halwai’s father does not have the
power to do it. Balram does not give the answer yet until the S tork asks him for the
second time. “Are you from a top caste or bottom caste, boy?” 54. Balram realizes that the Stork has been waiting for his answer that he does not find. “I
didn’t know what he wanted to say, so I flipped both answers —I could probably have made a good case either way —and then said, “Bottom, sir.” 54. Finally
Balram replies the Stork’s question. Balram says that his caste, Halwai, is a bottom caste.
C. Caste Discrimination in Freedom
Balram Halwai often drives his employer to the mal l. However, he never goes inside the mall. Balram and the other drivers wait their masters outside the
mall. “We were outside the mall. We —a dozen or so chauffeurs —were waiting for our masters to finish their shopping. We weren’t allowed inside the mall, o f
32 course—no one had to tell us these things” 103. Lamb explained, in a sweeping
declaration, the Indian Constitution of 1950 that “It also prohibited an inclusive list of specific discriminations: the denial of access to shops, public restaurants,
hotels, and places of public entertainment; denial of the use of wells, roads, religious bathing places, and “other places of public resort” Article 15” 146.
Although there is already a declaration towards discrimination, such as denial of access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, and places of public entertainment;
denial the use of wells, roads, religious bathing places, and “other places of public resort”, still drivers are not allowed to go inside the mall.
Balram and the other drivers know that they are not allowed to go inside the mall. Therefore, they are waiting outside. While they are waiting for their
masters, they are smoking, chatting, and sometimes reading newspapers. What was happening, Mr. Premier, was one of those incidents that were so
common in the early days of the shopping mall, and which were often reported in the daily newspapers under the title “Is There No Space for the
Poor in the Malls of New India?” The glass doors had opened, but the man who wanted to go into could not
do so. The guard at the door had stopped him. He pointed his stick at the man’s feet and shook his head —the man had sandals on his feet. All of us
drivers too had sandals on our feet. But everyone who was allowed into the mall had shoes on their feet.
Instead of backing off and going away —as nine in ten in his place would have done—the man in the sandals exploded, “Am I not a human being
too?” 125.
People from low castes are not allowed to go inside the malls. Hence, in newspapers it is often reported about the existence of space for the poor in the
malls. People who are allowed to go inside the malls are those who come from high castes, who have shoes on their feet. The man in sandals is angry as if he is
judged as not a human being too, just because he does not have shoes on his feet.
33 Furthermore, Lamb said “ They were forbidden to carry umbrellas, wear shoes,
milk cows, keep domestic animals, or use ornaments” 144. Low caste people not only cannot afford to buy shoes, but there is also restriction for them to wear
shoes. Balram feels curios about going inside the mall. Therefore, he buys a T -
shirt almost the same as what Mr. Ashok has and also a pair of shoes. He wants to go inside the mall. “No,” I kept saying to each shirt he showed me —until I found
one that was all white, with a small word in English in the centre. Then I went looking for the man selling black shoes ”127. After completing all Balram needs
to go inside the mall, he makes a plan to do that. “Next morning, as I drove Pinky Madam to the mall, I felt a small parcel of cotton pressing against my shoe -clad
feet. She left, slamming the door; waited for ten minutes. And then, inside the car, I changed” 128.
Balram already plans his goal to go inside the mall. He hides his T -shirt and a shoe from Pinky Madam’s sightseeing. However, Balram feels not sure that
he can go inside the mall without being rejected by the guards. I want to the gateway of the mall in my new T -shirt. But there, the
moment I saw the guard, I turned around —went back to the Honda City. I got into the car and punched the ogre three times. I touched the stickers of
the goddess Kali, with her long red tongue, for good luck. This time I went to the rear entrance.
I was sure the guard in front of the door would challenge me and say, No, you’re not allowed in,
even with a pair of black shoes and a T -shirt that is mostly white with just one English word on it. I was sure, until the last
moment that I would be caught, and called back, and slapped and humiliated there.
Even as I was walking inside the mall, I was sure someone would say, Hey That man is a paid driver What’s he doing in here?
There were guards in gray uniforms on every floor —all of them seemed to be
watching me. It was my first taste of the fugitive’s life 128.
34 Balram can finally go inside the mall, although he gets uncertainty. He knows that
he is not supposed to go inside the mall. He knows that the guard might catch him, slap and humiliate him there. Even if Balram succeeds of going inside the mall,
still he feels fear that he will be spell out since he knows that he does not belong to that kind of place.
Balram Halwai’s father is a rickshaw -puller. Balram respects his father because his father is not like the other rickshaw -pullers.
The rickshaw-pullers parked their vehicles in a line outside the tea shop, waiting for the bus to disgorge its passengers.
They were not allowed to sit on the plastic chairs put out for the customers; they had to crouch near the back, in that hunched -over,
squatting posture common to serva nts in every part of India. My father never crouched-I remember that. He preferred to stand, no matter how
uncomfortable it got for him. I would find him shirtless, usually alone, drinking tea and thinking 20.
The rickshaw-pullers are not allowed to sit on the plastic chairs put out for the customers, they had to crouch. Balram Halwai’s father does not do that, he prefers
to stand up and that is one of the reason that makes Balram respects his father. However, the restriction for the rickshaw -pullers is not only the restriction to sit
on the plastic. There is another thing as well. Rickshaw-pullers are not allowed inside the posh parts of Delhi, where
foreigners might see them and gape. Insist on going to Old Delhi, or Nizamuddin-there you’ll see the road full of them-thin, sticklike men,
leaning forward from the seat of a bicycle, as the pedal along a carriage bearing a pyramid of middle -class flesh-some fat man with his fat wife and
all their shopping bags and groceries. And when you see these stick -men, think of my father.
Rickshaw-puller he may have been -a human beast of burden -but my father was a man with a plan.
I was his plan 23.
35 Instead of the restriction of sitting on the plastic chair of their rickshaw, they are
not allowed to show themselves in Delhi, in front of the foreigners. They are seen as human beast of burden that somehow should not be seen by the foreigners. As
Lamb said about the restriction that low castes have, “Traditionally, they were not allowed to enter temples, pass through ce rtain streets, enter certain parts of the
villages, or drink water from the common village well used by other Hindus” 144.
When Balram works as a new driver in the Stork’s house, he has a senior driver that should be respected, Ram Persad. Balram and Ram Persad have
different activities in each day. However, there is an activity they have together. There was only one activity that servant number one and servant number
two had to do together. At least once a week, around six o’clock, Ram Persad and I left the house and went down the main road, until we got to a
store with a sign that said: “JACKPOT” ENGLISH LIQUOR SHOP
INDIAN-MADE FOREIGN LIQUOR SOLD HERE I should explain to you, Mr. Jiabao, that in this country we have two kinds
of men: “Indian” liquor men and “English” liquor men. “Indian” liquor was for village boys like me —toddy, arrack, country hooch. “English”
liquor, naturally, is for the rich. Rum, whiskey, beer, gin —anything the English left behind 62.
In India, there is also restriction on di et. As Lamb said that castes have elaborate restrictions on diet and on social intercourse, some castes will eat meat such as
mutton, goat, or chicken; others will eat fish but not meat. Some will not eat meat or fish but will eat eggs; others will not eve n eat eggs 138. Some castes are
allowed to drink liquor, and some are not. Balram Halwai, according to his caste, is not allowed to drink. “People chew that to hide the alcohol on their breath.
Have you been drinking?” “No, sir. My caste, we’re teetotall ers” 206. Different
36 from Balram who is a Halwai, some other castes like Rajputs are allowed to drink.
According to Hitchcock, Rajputs of north India may hunt game, eat meat, drink liquor, and eat opium 139. Hence, Hutton explained that Rajput is an ari stocratic
caste, widespread in western, northern, and central India, whose traditional functions are fighting and ruling. They represent the ancient Kshatriya varna, and
rank next to the Brahmans socially 293. Thus, Rajputs who come from Kshatriya are allowed to drink, while Halwai, although he is confectioner, he is
not allowed to drink because the caste system has ruled it. In here Rajputs, who are considered as one of Kshatriyas, may drink
liquor. Further, they can have English Liquor because they ha ve enough money to buy it considered as rich people. While people from low castes are not supposed
to have English Liquor because they do not have the money and they are also considered not deserve to have English Liquor since they are only boys from
village. People who are come from high caste are more capable in financial to buy the better liquor. While people from low caste are live in poverty that they could
not afford to buy the good one such as English Liquor. This different purchasing ability creates the division of Indian liquor men and English liquor men.
Balram then tells Mr. Jiabao about what he thinks about Rooster Coop in India. “The greatest thing to come out of this country in this ten thousand years of
its history is the Rooster Coop” 14 7. Further Balram Halwai explains what he means with the Rooster Coop.
Go to Old Delhi, behind the Jama Masjid, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured
roosters, stuffed tightly into wiremesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other , jostling just for breathing space; the whole
37 cave giving off a horrible stench —the stench of terrified, feathered flesh.
On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped -up chicken, still
oleaginous with a coating of dark blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them.
They know they’re next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop.
The very same thing is done with human beings in this country 147.
Balram describes what he means with Rooster Coop. The Rooster Coop that he means does not merely happen to the chickens in India b ut also to human beings
in India. “No. It’s because 99.9 percent of us are caught in the Rooster Coop just like those poor guys in the poultry market” 148. People who are trapped in the
Rooster Coop know exactly what will come to them. However, they do n ot try to get out of the coop; they do not have the freedom that enables them to get out of
the coop. As Ravi Nair, who heads the South Asian Human Rights Documentation
Centre in New Delhi and who is a veteran human rights activist, he calls Indias caste system racist.
Quite clearly, caste is a form of racist behaviour, because, like racism, this is an issue dominance by one group against another, argues Mr. Nair.
Secondly, if I was born into a Dalit community - irrespective of whatever vertical mobility that I had because of my class background - I would still
not be able to change my caste hierarchy in the social pecking order, and because of that, it definitely is racist behaviour in the terms of how one
community has dominance over another.
People who are caught in the Rooster Coop cannot easily get out of the coop. They are trapped in the Rooster Coop and cannot get out of it. The people
who are caught are the poor people; those who come from low castes and dominated by the high caste who contro ls the Rooster Coop. Hutton explained
about the disadvantage of caste system in economic and freedom.
38 Durkheim has suggested that the function of the division of labour is to
give the individual more freedom by substituting an organic for a rigidly mechanical economy, but the organic structure created by the caste system
would seem to have provided for the division of labour on a plan ingeniously calculated to avoid giving just that freedom; for occupation is
determined by status instead of contract 124.
Being connected to what Durkheim said, people who are caught in the Rooster Coop are already put inside, for their occupation is determined by their status.
People who are trapped inside Rooster Coop are those who are coming from low castes. People from low castes are trapped inside Rooster Coop by people from
high castes because in this case high caste people are the one who pay the salary of people from low castes. Here, people from low castes do not have the freedom
to get out of the coop in order to ma ke a better life. By living inside the coop, people from lower caste cannot have better life because their lives economical
life are ruled by the coop which is guard by people from high castes. Durkehim suggests that the function of the division labour i s to give the
individual more freedom. However, caste system creates a structure that avoids in giving that freedom, since occupation is determined by status. Therefore, people
who are inside the Rooster Coop cannot get out. The caste system creates a structure of labour division that unable people to get out of the Rooster Coop;
caste system does not give the freedom to do that.
39
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
