Caste Discrimination in Education

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the writer divides the analysis into three main parts. The writer divides the analysis to make clearer the areas of caste discrimination in India through Balram Halwai’s life and make it easier to organize. They are caste discrimination in education, caste discrimination in occupation, and caste discrimination in freedom.

A. Caste Discrimination in Education

Education is one of the important aspects of life in every country. Balram Halwai, who lives in India, shares his story of schooling in India. Balram Halwai does not complete his school in his sc hool age. “In terms of formal education, I may be somewhat lacking. I never finished school, to put it bluntly. Who cares I haven’t read many books, but I’ve read all the ones that count” 4. It is clear that Balram does not have a good formal education; furthermore he said that he never finished school. Never finishing school, in fact, does not only happen to Balram Halwai. Me, and thousands of others in this country like me, are half -baked, because we were never allowed to complete our schooling. Open our skulls, look in with a penlight, and you’ll find an odd museum of ideas: sentences of history or mathematics remembered from school textbooks no boy remembers his schooling like one who was taken out of school, let me assure you, sentences about pol itics read in a newspaper while waiting for someone to come to an office… 8. 23 The condition which Balram experiences is almost the same as what stated by Human Rights Watch. It stated that “Such as high drop -out and lower literacy rates among lower caste populations have rather simplistically been characterized as the natural consequences of poverty and underdevelopment” 17. Not only Balram Halwai who does not finish his school, but also thousands of others in India. Balram and the other thousands come from low caste as they are only village boys. As Balram describes “ If the Indian village is a paradise, then the school is a paradise within a paradise” 28. Furthermore, Lamb said “By the end of the century, three out of four villages were still withou t schools, and only one - fifth of the boys and a still smaller percentage of the girls of primary -school age were in school” 180. Balram and the other thousands do not complete their school, but not those who come from high caste. Lamb said “When the Bri tish first came to India, their main contacts were with Brahmans, who, with a few other upper castes, were the first to profit by British education” 143. It shows that for people who come from low caste, it is very difficult for them to go to school, but it does not happen to those who come from the high caste. As they get good education from British education since the British came to India. Balram Halwai does not finish his school, but he has an experience of going to school. School is something that i s very special in his childhood time, yet it is not as good as people think. There was supposed to be free food at my school -a government program gave every boy three rotis, yellow daal, and pickles at lunchtime. But we never ever saw rotis, or yellow daal, or pickles, and everyone knew why: the school teacher had stolen our lunch money. 24 The teacher had a legitimate excuse to steal the money -he said he hadn’t been paid his salary in six months 28. Furthermore, it is not only free food which is missing in Balram Halwai’s school. There are also few other things which are missing such as dusters, chairs, and even uniforms. “There is no duster in this class; there are no chairs; there are no uniforms for the boys. How much money have you stolen from the sc hool funds …” 29. The school condition shows that corruption appears and it is done by those who are in higher caste the teacher. There are many things that are missing from the school, such as free food, duster, chair, and even uniforms when Balram in school. The condition is proven as Lamb described the problem of quality in India education as “First, there is what might be called the technical aspects. On the whole, although there are notable exceptions, the teaching is not good, and the textbooks and educational materials are inadequate in quality as well as quantity” 175. Thus, as Human Rights Watch said, Though these rates are partly attributable to the need for low -caste children to supplement their family wages through labour, more insidious and less well-documented is the discriminatory and abusive treatment faced by low-caste children who attempt to attend school, at the hands of their teachers and fellow students 17. It shows that low caste children who attempt to attend school are documented to have discriminatory and abusive treatment from teachers and fellow students. It is proven that the teachers stole the school funds that are supposed to be used for free food, chair, and uniform. Balram Halwai is a smart student at his school. T here is a time when the school inspector comes to Balram Halwai’s school and the teacher introduces 25 Balram as a smart student to be questioned. “Try Balram, sir,” the teacher said. “He’s the smartest of the lot. He reads well” 29. Giving good answer and being praised by the school inspector, Balram Halwai is given a name White Tiger and a scholarship. “Before he left, the inspector said, “I’ll write to Patna asking them to send you a scholarship. You need to go to a real school -somewhere far away from here. You need a real uniform and a real education” 30. Balram Halwai lives in Laxmangarh, a village in which school is a paradise within a paradise. “Now, being praised by the school inspector in front of my teacher and fellow students, being called a “ White Tiger”, being given a book, and being promised a scholarship; all this constituted good news, and the one infallible of life in the Darkness is that good news becomes bad news -and soon” 30. Balram realizes that there is a kind of impossibility to h ave such a good education or even good news in Laxmangarh that sooner or later will turn to be opposite. It means that it is impossible to have good news in Laxmangarh, because sooner or later the good news will change into the bad ones. Although Balram is told that he will get a scholarship, he knows that it will not happen. Balram Halwai’s cousin -sister is going to marry a boy in the next village. It is a tradition in India that the bride side should give the bride groom dowry for the wedding. Therefore, Balram Halwai’s cousin -sister gives the boy a new bicycle, and cash, and a silver bracelet, and arrange for a big wedding, which does not cost less money. “The family had taken a big loan from the Stork so they could have a lavish wedding and a lavish do wry for my cousin-sister. Now the Stork had called in his loan. He wanted all the members of the family working for 26 him and he had seen me in school, or his collector said. So they had to hand me over too” 31. Like what Balram Halwai thought before, that good news goes to bad. Balram Halwai is being promised a scholarship, but what actually happen is that he is out of school and works in a tea shop with his brother, Kishan. Hence, although Balram was praised, given a book, and promised a scholarship by school inspector, he has to leave his school. Balram’s family lends some money from the Stork, which makes Balram and all the members of the family working for the Stork. As Lamb said “ The peasants had no desire to have their children educated. Village chil dren were needed to tend cattle and do other work in the fields. If they spent a year or two in school, they later forgot what they have learned because they had no occasion to use it” 180. What Lamb said also happens to Balram. Balram has to leave schoo l for working, to pay the loan. Balram does not have any occasion to use his school learning because he has to pay his family’s loan.

B. Caste Discrimination in Occupation