Is Movement Possible Between the Castes?

In Brave New World everyone is happy to be in their respective class and they do not feel any desire to be higher. They seem to have a distaste for the lower classes as is evidenced when Lenina continually makes comments about the fact that she is so glad to not be a Gamma or other lower caste. This is also very telling of the conditioning that very few people of the society think of wanting to be higher than their given class and that they look down upon the lower classes. Yet in Indian society the lower classes could physically move up to a higher class or become more accepted by changing their habits to be more like the higher castes. While it is certainly possible for an Untouchable or Dalit as they are also known, to move up and receive a higher position it is not easy at all for them. The most famous case of a Dalit gaining power was the Republic of India’s tenth President, Kocheril Raman Narayanan, who can be seen in the above picture. He was also the first Dalit to be ranked first in the University of Travancore class. Yet for an Untouchable to move from their class is a very hard and arduous journey. “There is a great deal of powerful anecdotal evidence to the effect that any rising prosperity of Untouchables is usually greeted with hostility from caste Hindus. Of course, social envy is scarcely an unusual emotion. What is significant about such feeling relative to Untouchables is that they remain a peculiarly vulnerable people and as such are more easily damaged and deterred from activities that promote their own welfare” (Mendelsohn 71). There is a lot of evidence to show that even when they attain a certain level of power and seem to finally be breaking free from their Untouchable status that an invisible hand drags them back. A present day example of this would be the treatment of Slumdog Millionaire character Rubina Ali who was paid a very low sum of money compared to what would be expected for her to be paid. If this was not bad enough it is reported that her father tried to sell her to an undercover newspaper reporter. This shows that even while she was a very important actor in a world acclaimed movie that she will never able to truly escape her roots as an Untouchable. This is truly saddening because everyone deserves the right to better themselves and the Untouchables are not even given this basic right.