Mumbai: Actor Abhay Deol feels people in India should raise their voice against the caste system in the country. The actor also stressed that Black Lives Matter movement is all for equality, not preference.
“All life is supposed to have equal value, but we have seen enough evidence time and time again, that that is not always the case with black lives. 400yrs of slavery has left their communities with little opportunity,” Abhay wrote in his post, through which he tried to explain the “problem with #AllLivesMatter”.
“The @blklivesmatter movement is all for equality, not preference! The repercussions of slavery have to be undone and that may take decades. It’s the same with the caste system in our country, which has existed for over a 1000 years. It is much harder for the poor and disenfranchised to achieve the goals they want because of the poverty and prejudice they live and grow up in,” he added.
The actor then explained why he used the hashtag, #poorlivesmatter, #migrantlivesmatter, #minoritylivesmatter in one of his earlier Instagram posts.
“Hence I used the hashtag for migrants/minorities/poor in an earlier post, so that I could make BLM relatable to us. It would be counterproductive if we take the title of the movement, and replace the word “black” with who we see as the underprivileged in our, or any other country,” he said.
Abhay continued: “To join hands authentically would be to find a peaceful way to bring about change in our own society, to headline our own movement. The 1st step we must take in order to do that is in recognising who is most vulnerable in our culture, why are they so, and what can be done about it. #blacklivesmatter #caste #casteinindia.”
In an earlier post, Abhay slammed Bollywood celebrities for not voicing problems in their own country, and coming out to support the enraged Black Lives Matter movement in the US.
He said it is time to “create your own actions, your own movement, relevant to your own country”.
“Maybe it’s time for these now? Now that “woke” indian celebrities and the middle class stand in solidarity with fighting systemic racism in America, perhaps they’d see how it manifests in their own backyard? America has exported violence to the world, they have made it a more dangerous place, it was but inevitable that it would come back karmically,” Abhay said.
He continued: “I’m not saying they deserve it, I’m saying look at the picture in it’s totality. I’m saying support them by calling out the systemic problems in your own country, because they turn out to be one and the same thing. I’m saying follow their lead but not their actions. Create your own actions, your own movement, relevant to your own country. That is what the #blacklivesmatter movement is all about! In the larger picture, there is no “us” and “them”. There is not a country that’s real. But a planet in peril. #migrantlivesmatter #minoritylivesmatter #poorlivesmatter #blacklivesmatter”.
Over the past few days, celebrities including Karan Johar, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Disha Patani and Ishaan Khatter, have extended support to the movement, which has been raging in the US following the brutal death of an unarmed African-American man named George Floyd.
