Visiting my country after five years in India created curiosity among family and friends. Due to the easy access of social media, people seem to be more knowledgeable about social and cultural issues in India now than when I first visited in 1988.

This time, the type of questions I was asked usually started with “Is it true that...?” “Are the people still...?” The Maltese were amazed and intrigued that certain practices are still very much in vogue and that others unfortunately are being lost.

But one of the hottest questions this time was: “Is the caste system still very much alive?” I tried to explain that a lot has changed since, say, Gandhi’s time but that there are still marriage announcements every Sunday in The Times of India seeking brides and grooms based on caste, religion, money earned and even shades of skin colour.

And there are some Catholic dioceses that, after more than four years, are still without a bishop because one caste would not accept a bishop from another caste.

Climbing the social ladder might be a little bit more accessible nowadays than, say, 70 years ago but, still, one will always be reminded of his or her own roots.

Shilpa Raj, a South Indian girl, featuring in the Netflix series Daughters of Destiny and who wrote her biography The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter, is a clinical psychologist PhD at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She comes from a Dalit class in Karnataka. (Dalits are the untouchables, the ones who are not even entitled to be part of the caste system.)

In one of the interviews she gave, she said that, even though she is reading a doctorate in the US, she will never be able to marry an Indian boy from a higher caste.

And, then again, which Dalit boy in his right frame of mind would think of marrying a PhD graduate?

Let’s face it, many Maltese are racists- Karmenu Duca

So, when people in Malta heard all this, they were shocked, their self-righteousness emerged and started criticising the Indian culture as being “so-backward”.

What the Maltese do not realise is that, nowadays, they are creating a new caste system.

Who is cleaning their streets? Black Africans. Who collects their trash bins? Black Africans. Who works in their construction sites? Syrian refugees. Who administers their medicines? Indians. Who takes care of their elderly parents? Filipinos. And who delivers their food at their door because they are too lazy to cook? Indians and Nepalis.

That Indians and Nepalis are the majority of food couriers is not a surprise. Malta is a country where practically everyone speaks English and where people drive on the same side of the road as India. And who can manage chaotic traffic on a scooter better than an Indian?

I was not even surprised that a few weeks ago these food couriers decided to strike because that is another thing that Indians are good at – strikes.

And when Indians strike, everything stops. I was not even surprised that some of the Maltese newspapers commented on the insensitiveness of some of the websites that even called these couriers “dirty drivers”.

Let’s face it, many Maltese are racists. 

It seems that the strike was a success and only a very few couriers delivered food that day.

But, unfortunately, one of these companies stated that it did not currently plan to change the earnings formula. Very sad situation. But even sadder when one Indian courier who did go on strike, and who for obvious reasons preferred to remain anonymous, expressed resignation to the news that earnings will not increase. “There is nothing to do but keep doing this job.”

And this is exactly the archetypal effect of a caste system. Resignation.

Karmenu Duca is a Missionary of Charity brother currently in Kolkata.