Blog 16: Research 1

The first article I’ve read is titled “Caste Discrimination and Minority Rights: The Case of India’s Dalits.” This article deals with how Dalits (formerly “Untouchables”), are still discriminated against in our society. Although there are strict laws against any kind of minority discrimination that are applied universally, some loopholes have been found. The Dalits are not officially recognized as a minority in their country, partly because the lowest caste makes up one sixth of the population of India, turning out to be approximately 167 million people. Even more specific laws have been made to eliminate caste discrimination, but it still plays a monumental role in society. The Dalits are much like the Troglytes in the Star Trek episode I am looking at; although there is no official policy in favor of discrimination against Dalits, in fact there are strong laws against any caste discrimination, it is still a huge social power where they live. The Troglytes are entitled to live in the city of Stratos by all means, but everyone knows that the way things actually are, not the way the law says it should be, is that Troglytes are miners and that Stratos city dwellers are intellectuals. It is just the same in the case of some parts of India, although there are laws against it, there is a idea shared by many people that the castes are not quite equal. I am very interested to see how more connections emerge between the episode of Star Trek and discrimination that goes on in our world.

Matthew