My nuanced perspective of class

My initial interaction with the concept of class was based upon my experiences of growing up in India where my family and I in some ways were surrounded by poverty. Due to this, I gained a lot of exposure to the class divide, its repercussions on society as a whole, and the individual.
As a child, whenever my family used to go on an international holiday, I used to become more aware of the disparity; and sometimes, on a much larger scale! I would become cognizant that I was from a “less-economically developed nation” and, a “third-world country”. But since my family has always been on the better end and have had sufficient access to resources, the dissimilitude has not directly affected us as much.
Despite this, the social division is in many ways engrained in India’s culture and heritage; from the recent past of the British Empire where a lot of decisions were based on the social hierarchy, to the extent that the bifurcation of Bharat into India and Pakistan (and later on, West Bengal) was made on similar grounds (to some extent, religious ones too). Along with this, the caste divide is entrenched (in my opinion/understanding) in India’s most prevalent faith, Hinduism. Despite belonging to this religion myself, I feel that the presence of the varna(s) (def: each of the four Hindu castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra – see image), which are clearly based on one’s social strata, create a direct class divide!

Overtime, I have become more conscious of reality and this has in part been due to the education I have received. Countless subjects re-iterated concepts of division and how we should try to eliminate it. These concepts were introduced to us in very unique ways; for example, linking bullying to the concept of class.
I feel the education that I currently receiving at Emory is further building upon my impression of this concept and helping me develop so that I can play my role in preventing the divide from existing.

A recent exemplar of my notion of class being refined is seen in this, my ENG 101 class. I do not think I had realized how this concept involves so many different aspects of our society and daily life. I feel I wasn’t adequately aware of how class cannot be put into a discrete category, it is constantly intersecting several different spheres. To name a few (besides those referred to above – religion, nationality), gender, sexuality, race, and disability.

I feel my idea of class has been further ameliorated since I read about the HBO Documentary, Class Divide. It is based on the conflicts that arise when classes mix (and clash). In this film, a public housing project and an exclusive private school share the same street. I perceive this non-fictional introduces and regurgitates concepts we are discussing in class (and society, at a macroscopic perspective) and hence I would request and encourage Professor Tennant to base a future assignment on it!