The Pernicious Persistence of Prejudice

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Prejudice doesn’t vanish with time. It reincarnates. Not in the mystical sense of souls migrating, but in the social sense of ideas reborn. What one generation whispers, the next repeats, and the third shouts. Biases, stereotypes, and values that harm society — greed, selfishness, exclusion — live on because we pass them on.

Caste: The Hidden Inheritance  
India abolished caste discrimination in law decades ago, yet it thrives in practice. Dalits are still barred from temples, denied equal relief in disasters, and treated as outsiders in schools and workplaces. Children don’t need lectures to learn this; they see who is excluded, who is demeaned, and they absorb it. Caste prejudice reincarnates not through scripture but through silence, through everyday normalization.

I remember when I had just graduated from business school and started working. I was seeing a girl, and my father — in what seemed like a casual remark — said, “Oh, she’s Iyengar.” Iyengars are another sub‑caste of Tamil Brahmins; we are Iyers. That single comment carried weight. It signaled to me that they weren’t too happy I was dating her, not because of who she was, but because of what she represented in the caste hierarchy. It was a moment when I realized how deeply these divisions live on, even in families that consider themselves educated and liberal.

Religion: Division Disguised as Tradition 
History offers moments of tolerance — Ashoka’s Dhamma, Akbar’s Sulh‑i‑Kul. Yet prejudice persists. The 1984 anti‑Sikh riots, the 2002 Gujarat riots, and countless smaller acts of exclusion show how religion can be weaponized. And often, it’s passed on in subtler ways. How many Hindu boys and girls have been told by parents — parents who thought they were being liberal — “You can marry anyone, any caste, as long as it’s not a Muslim.” That single sentence reincarnates suspicion, ensuring division survives another generation.

The Buddha’s Reincarnation Reimagined  
Perhaps this is what the Buddha meant by reincarnation. Not that the soul lives on in another body, but that our thoughts, our prejudices, our values — good or bad — live on in others. Every stereotype repeated, every bias reinforced, every prejudice left unchallenged is reborn. The wheel of samsara spins not only spiritually but socially, until someone chooses to break it.

Breaking the Cycle  
The challenge is not awareness alone, but courage. To ask: What am I passing on? Am I teaching dignity as universal, or conditional? Am I modeling compassion as strength, or selfishness as survival? Am I reinforcing caste hierarchies and religious suspicion, or dismantling them through example?

Prejudice persists because it feels invisible. But once seen, it cannot be unseen. The hope lies in ensuring the next generation does not merely inherit our biases, but learns to question them. To reincarnate not prejudice, but compassion.

A Message to Mentors
If you guide a younger person — as a parent, teacher, coach, or elder — pause. Every word, every gesture, every silence is instruction. Ask yourself: Am I unconsciously passing on prejudice? The values we hand down today will shape the society of tomorrow. Let us choose empathy over exclusion, fairness over bias, humility over greed. For in mentoring, we are not just shaping individuals — we are shaping the future. And perhaps, in doing so, we redefine reincarnation: not as the rebirth of prejudice, but as the rebirth of compassion.

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