sonalisingh
New member
Hi Folks:
One thing that has always bothered me is how the Indian media always seems to single out Jats. For instance, we never hear of "Brahmin leader" Vajpayee, but you'd constantly read things like "Jat leader Devi Lal".
Recently, a Haryana Jat won Mr. India (??), and wherever I read the news it was made very obvious that this person was a Jat. Had the winner been from any other community you'd never hear that he was a Brahmin/Bania/ or whatever.
Just look at Sehwag for another recent example. Everytime I read articles that use phrases like "The Jat lad", "The Jat batsman" and so on.
These are a few of the obvious examples that I can recall. But Indian media seems littered with such examples. Since these can be found across a whole variety of publications, one can't even say that "so and so journalist" is a bigot. Such references are pervasive across publications.
My immediate reaction is very negative, that we are always singled out. In most cases the news reflects us in a negative light, though I guess that is not always the case (as is the case with Sehwag and Mr India). When it is used in a politcal context, it is invariable negative.
I was wondering what other Jats think about this. Do you think that this is blatant castiesm and reflects biases against us ? Or do you actually think that this is good ? Obviously the word Jat is well recognized amongst all Indians. Here in California, even people from the south are well aware of who Jats are (though very often the image is not positive). So in some ways the media is helping market us.
How do you folks see this ?
One thing that has always bothered me is how the Indian media always seems to single out Jats. For instance, we never hear of "Brahmin leader" Vajpayee, but you'd constantly read things like "Jat leader Devi Lal".
Recently, a Haryana Jat won Mr. India (??), and wherever I read the news it was made very obvious that this person was a Jat. Had the winner been from any other community you'd never hear that he was a Brahmin/Bania/ or whatever.
Just look at Sehwag for another recent example. Everytime I read articles that use phrases like "The Jat lad", "The Jat batsman" and so on.
These are a few of the obvious examples that I can recall. But Indian media seems littered with such examples. Since these can be found across a whole variety of publications, one can't even say that "so and so journalist" is a bigot. Such references are pervasive across publications.
My immediate reaction is very negative, that we are always singled out. In most cases the news reflects us in a negative light, though I guess that is not always the case (as is the case with Sehwag and Mr India). When it is used in a politcal context, it is invariable negative.
I was wondering what other Jats think about this. Do you think that this is blatant castiesm and reflects biases against us ? Or do you actually think that this is good ? Obviously the word Jat is well recognized amongst all Indians. Here in California, even people from the south are well aware of who Jats are (though very often the image is not positive). So in some ways the media is helping market us.
How do you folks see this ?