‘Interlok’, whatever that means, will go down as one of the most controversial books ever published in Malaysia. The question is do we need such a controversial book to be dished out to Form 5 students especially at this time when the question of race and religion seem to be so sensitive.

The book touches on caste, which in itself is a sensitive and controversial topic even among Indians. Let me briefly highlight some historical facts.

The caste system was brought by the Aryan invaders as form of subjugation of the Dravidian peoples of India. It basically based on the Sanskrit word ‘varna’ (warna in Malay, varnam in Tamil) which means colour. Yes, it is based skin colour as the Aryan invaders were fair skinned and Dravidians, dark skinned. The Brahmins, who are fair skinned, are the priests. The priestly caste is the highest caste, followed by the other castes like Khastriyas (warriors), sudras (traders) and the dalits (pariyyars in Tamil) who are the low caste people.

The caste system was created to promote specialisation of duties and jobs, and that is why you had a person doing the caste-based the job that he does. However a person from a lower caste can also improve himself by acquiring skills and education to climb up the caste hierarchy.

You have hundreds of sub-castes within the Indian racial groups currently between the north Indians and south Indians. The lowest caste is the dalits a.k.a. parriyar (pariah is derived from this Tamil word). Mahatma Gandhi called these people by the euphemism harijan which means ‘children of god’. He had fought against the caste system tooth and nail and aimed to make India casteless.

However caste continues to be a controversial subject in India and there are a lot movements against it as the practice causes discrimination in employment and education. In Malaysia the British exploited the caste system to its own benefit by imposing the divide-and-rule policy in the plantations, i.e. by placing high-caste supervisors of Indian origin in charge of the lower-caste plantation workers.

I am not an expert in this area. I am writing based on the information that I acquired by reading books on this issue and conversations with some elderly people in the Indian community. Suffice to say that the caste system is complex and complicated, and it can be considered as a human failing.

Coming back to the book, I do not know whether the author of this book knows the history and intricacies involved in the caste system. To just bring up the caste issue without going into its intricacies and its failings is unfair. To write a book with scant understanding of the subject is dangerous not only to the writer but to the readers of the book as well, as they will be misinformed. This is especially so if the book is made compulsory reading for the consumption of schoolchildren!

I can’t understand why the writer chose to dwell on this issue especially when issues like this are capable of being manipulated by certain quarters. We have seen how racial issues are flared up by politicians and by some individuals.

Do we need another sensitive issue to be exploited by these people? I understand that the book is about national integration in line with 1Malaysia but clearly here, the ends do not justify the means.

Jeyaseelen Anthony is a lawyer who trains widely on basic constitutional rights, human rights and police powers.