DECIPHERING THE STEREOTYPICAL SOCIETY
Q1.
What is a ‘Stereotype?’
·
The word ‘stereotype’ comes
from a Greek word. ‘Stereos’ means ‘solid’ and
‘typos’ means ‘figure’, ‘image’, ‘form’,’
kind’.
·
The word ‘stereotype’ can be defined
as ‘ to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular
characteristic are the same’
·
Stereotyping occurs because we see
common patterns in certain categories of people.
·
A good basic definition is: an idea or
image about an entire group of people.
·
Although the stereotype may be true
for a few members of the group, it is assumed to be true for all members.
Q2.
What Is Prejudice?
·
The word ‘prejudice’ comes from
a Latin word. ‘prae’ means ‘before’ and ‘iudicium’ means
‘judgement’.
·
Thus, prejudice literally means
‘prejudgment’.
·
Prejudice is a kind of prejudgment or
assumption about somebody before having sufficient knowledge to judge with
accuracy.
·
Prejudice can be defined as an adverse
opinion formed without sufficient knowledge.
·
Prejudice is an attitude about another
person based on his or her perceived membership in a group.
·
So people use the perceived group
membership of another person to provide a ready-made attitude about the person.
·
The research that have been conducted
on prejudice show that much of prejudice is based on negative feelings towards
people belonging to other groups but showing favour towards people belonging to
one’s groups. This is possibly developed not due to hatred though but due to
admiration and trust in one’s groups.
Q3.
What is the difference between Stereotype and Prejudice?
·
Stereotypes are standardized beliefs
about people based on some prior assumptions.
·
Prejudice is a kind of prejudgment or
assumption about somebody before having sufficient knowledge to judge with
accuracy.
·
Prejudice is based on negative
feelings towards people belonging to other groups but showing favor towards
people belonging to one’s groups whereas in Stereotypes this characteristic
cannot be seen.
Q4.
How to Overcome Prejudice?
·
DON'T pre-judge people. Get to know
them as individuals before you decide whether or not you like them.
·
TREAT people the way you want them to
treat you.
·
STAND UP for people who are being
treated with prejudice. Don't go along with the crowd when people are being
unfair to someone.
·
LEARN about other
cultures, countries, and peoples.
Q5.
What Is Discrimination?
·
The word ‘discriminate’ comes
from a Latin word. ‘discriminatus’ means to ‘divide ’ or to ‘separate’
·
Discrimination can be defined as the
practice of unfairly treating a person or a group of people differently from
other people or other groups.
·
Discrimination is
behaviour based on stereotypes and prejudices. If a person has negative beliefs
and attitudes about a perceived group, he or she might act on those beliefs and
attitudes in situations.
Q6.
Write a short note on Mahatma Gandhi
·
Mahatma Gandhi resided in South Africa
from 1893 to 1914.
·
Indians as well as blacks in South
Africa were treated inferior to the South Africans due to their dark
complexion.
·
He had undergone the humiliation while
travelling in train, he was thrown out of the first class coach even though he
had a first class and was asked to travel in the third class coach. As he was
dark in complexion he didn’t deserve to be in the first class coach and was
treated inferiorly and was discriminated on the basis on his colour.
·
He fought against this discrimination
in South Africa with other political leaders.
·
He also tried to
eradicate the practice of untouchability in India.
Q7.
What is a Constitution?
It is a
body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a
state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed.
The Constitution
of India is the supreme law of India. It is a living document, an instrument
which makes the government system work. It lays down the framework defining
fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers
and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights,
directive principles and the duties of citizens.
It is the longest
written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 448
articles in 25 parts, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 98 amendments (out of 120
Constitution Amendment Bills). Besides the English version, there is an
official Hindi translation.
Dr.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is widely regarded as the architect of the Indian Constitution.
Q8. What do you understand by the
Right to Equality?
Ans. The
Constitution of India provides Fundamental rights to all the citizens which are
every individual’s basic right.
Under that
we have the Right to Equality that states the following:
-
Equality before law: The
State shall not deny to any person equality before the
law or the
equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.
-
Prohibition of discrimination on
grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth:
(1) The
State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race,
caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them.
(2) No
citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or
any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition
with regard to-
(a) access
to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment;
or
(b) the
use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained
wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general
public.
- Equality of opportunity in matters of
public employment:
(1) There
shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment
or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No
citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of
birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in
respect of, any employment or office under the State.
-
Abolition of Untouchability :
"Untouchability"
is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any
disability rising out of "Untouchability" shall be an offence punishable
in accordance with law.
Q9.
What is Untouchability?
Ans. Untouchability
in simple terms can be understood as a practice whereby a particular class or
caste of persons are discriminated on the ground of their being born in that
particular caste or on the ground of their being members of those social groups
involved in menial jobs. The discrimination can be in the form of physical or
social boycott from the society. For instance: the members of so-called higher
castes such as Brahmin, Kshatriyas etc would not dine or sit with a person of Bhangi
class.
It was
believed that people of higher castes could become impure even if a shadow of
an untouchable person touches him and to re-gain his purity he had to take a
dip into holy waters of the Ganga.
Q10.
Who Are Untouchables?
According
to traditional Hindu ‘Varna System’, a person is born into one of the four castes
based on karma and ‘purity’. Those born as Brahmans are priests and teachers;
Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers; Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras
are laborers.
Untouchables
are literally outcastes. They do not directly figure into any of the traditional
‘Varna System’ of Hindus.
However,
historically persons born in lowest castes and classes of persons doing menial
jobs, criminals, persons suffering from contagious diseases and tribals living outside
the so-called civilized world were considered as untouchables.
