Inequality is the disease that plagues human society. The cost of inequality is much higher than its benefits. Largely, in the more equal society, the members in such society will have less stress and improved wellbeing. This fact is attested by the societies in the countries like Sweden. When one looks at the unequal societies like India, one cannot fail to notice that India is a stressful country. The people can be left alone to follow their individual callings and to a great extent develop their potential the way they like it. Unequal societies, in general, create bonded human beings to the st, in general,t the unequal society creates.

The psychological cost of the unequal society, for example, the caste-based society is huge and takes toll of human lives. The material cost of inequality can be easily calculated in terms of loss of potential that is wasted by confining the people to the whims and fancies of the graded social structures.

In the psychological term the psychological fall out is “status anxiety”, in which every member wants to maintain their status, but in the highly graded caste-based societies, the status gets linked to one’s groups. This type of status anxiety is doubly harmful to the society as the members try to maintain their status as an individual with the group and out of it. As such, status is a relative term, just like inequality is a relative term (in case of India, the caste inequality is absolutized), but the inequality has a far-reaching consequence on the people who claim that that they better than others.

In the society divided on the basis of material aspect, it is possible to change the configuration of the society through schemes and policies that give benefits to the majority. But how to deal with a society that divided on the basis of caste to change is a larger question and this division is sanctioned by the religion. How long will it take for Indians to realize that the ideas of Hindu religion are not only sickening, but they destroy the very idea of India itself?

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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