Abdul.. the biases about other castes are mutual, or non-violent in indian caste system.. we can live with them.. but what about the systemic biases in the semitic religions.. In christianity, its mentioned in the bible that only jesus is the true god, and all other gods are false, and satan.. the world is divided in believers and infidels and the duty of every christian is to convert the infidels to christianity.. This biased propoganda is spread even today in many churches, which i have lot of proof..

Why is such biases never considered for discussion? Is it because of fear? I am raising this because, it is the caste that has always been bombarded when any discussion about bias happens just because there would be no retaliation..

Coming to other biases, i would like to mention about the inherent biases that the urbanites have over the rural people?

If you mean personalising as in the form a narrative, perhaps yes.

These are social issues and will remain as such and you cannot separate individual or the person from the social/the society. Radical feminists have gone as far as to insist that the ‘personal is the political.’ So, you can see how the equation between personal, social and political have all got intertwined. Try as you might in this day and age, this merger of spheres as it were is a reality.

A lot of children-speak is what is overheard or borrowed from parents, elders, employees in the household and finally the peer group. If the parent is conscious of what prejudice about others he is enabling his child to unwittingly or deliberately too at times consume, then we can bring down the level of problems in society.

Some very good people as persons/individuals have sad and deep rooted biases about other castes and communities and you wonder how such a nice person can think such nonsense. The source of this begins with the parents, a kind of familial indoctrination into safeguarding a way of life so that the child does not get too close to other social groups.

Great effort.

I gues we need to be bold enough to recognise the walls and bring them down. Uncannily children put up their own walls too, some provided by the society, and some a result of their upbringing!

I say beautiful particularly because of what you observe about your daughter’s relation with her peer group. Those close bonds with her friends of diverse ethnicities are great and so are her ‘affinities’ with “Indian” children. There is no issue with either is the import of my post.

I wondered if you have heard of an interesting Mira Nair movie ‘Mississippi Masala’ that comes to mind. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Masala).

Like yourself, my anxiety is where does the loss of innocence begin? Children are often innocent in these matters and its adults who corrupt. Any act of bias or insult perceived in the public sphere can lead to loss of self-esteem on cultural grounds and dent the cosmopolitan attitudes.

The last paragraph of your comment is poignant with the dilemma that every well-meaning parent and global citizen faces in HOW they should inculcate “virtue” in the child. Virtue may sound a big term but is that not what cosmopolitanism is all about?

The main emphasis that my post struggles to convey is where in society/socialization children lose their ‘innocence?’ I cannot emphasize this enough that we need to identify these factors that cause this loss to enable people to live cosmopolitan lives.

Two things came to my mind as I read your post and following comments. I agree that we should not give up on our individuality and the uniqueness that our birth affords us to becoming universally similar and perhaps bland. Strengths that our uniqueness brings makes the sum greater than the parts.

The real interest to me in this topic is to understand when do we as individuals start building biases and walls around people who are ethnically, culturally, racially and linguistically different from us.

As I observe my eight year old daughter, she is very much aware of the differences between her and her friends, in terms of skin color, accent, facial structure etc. But these just do not seem to influence her behavior towards them. In fact, in her 2nd grade, she developed this close bond with an African American kid almost instantaneously. But I do see an inclination for the “Indian” kids to hang out together. This could be because they meet outside in social setting more often and have sleep overs etc. So, how much does this lead to a bias/affinity to people of her own culture remains to be seen. And I do wonder what I as a parent can do avoid any kind of anti-bias against people who are “different” from her.

On one side, should I not overtly talk about the differences and not make a big deal about it? Will this emphasize to her the fact that these differences are nothing to even think about and that we are all the “same”. Or should I talk about the differences, explain it and celebrate it and chide her when she develops some kind of bias? It is a tough balance, but I see myself leaning towards the latter more.