A romance novelist posted on Instagram something about how Reservations were bad. Later, when people got angry and responded to him, he said he was getting "hate". This is about that.

If you think people leaving angry comments on your casteism online is "hate", then it's very clear what the problem here is. You don't know what "hate" means. It's a problem that someone who writes about love shouldn't have.

Hate is treating human beings as less than human for millennia and giving generations nothing but pain and humiliation as a legacy. Hate is hogging most of society's power and resources by claiming to be meritorious simply because of your caste and religion.

Hate is discriminating against people because of their second name and then saying discrimination doesn't exist and no reparations are owed to them. Hate is denial of systems like caste while enjoying the benefits of it as you sit on top of the pile of cultural privilege.

These aren't things that should have to be explained to grown men and women. But in addition to caste, we also have a system of denial and defence set in upper caste homes that takes effect from a young age - complaining against Reservations, making "jokes" about SC-ST folks etc.

It's a way of infantilising an entire generation, keeping it blind to its privilege, making it think that those who have nothing are stealing from them. These same people will applaud when they see YouTube video speeches called "Does Britain owe reparations?" and they will happily lap up anti-racism talking points coming from (upper-caste) NRI quarters. But when it comes to acknowledging their own privilege and the idea that reparations are owed to those that their ancestors oppressed, they'll turn clueless.

All this talk of Reservations being bad is just the Liberal version of "Hindu khatre mein". And it's not going to end until people in balconies with upside-down newspapers acknowledge what "hate" really means. Perhaps then, they'll actually become capable of love, in addition to just writing about it.