India may be booming, but not for those who occupy the lowest rung of society. The Dalits, once known as untouchables, continue to live in grinding poverty and suffer discrimination in education, jobs and health care. For them, status and often occupation are still predetermined in the womb.

印度也許經濟欣欣向榮，但那些在社會最底層的賤民，仍過著一窮二白的生活，同時在教育、工作和健康照護上都備受歧視。對他們，地位，甚至往往連工作，都打從娘胎就注定。

While some Indians had been hopeful that urbanization and growth would crumble ideas about caste, observers say tradition and prejudice have ultimately prevailed.

雖然有些印度人希望，都市化和經濟成長可以擊垮種姓制度的觀念，但觀察家說，傳統和偏見終將占上風。

"There's talk of a modern India. But the truth is India can't truly move ahead with caste in place," said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit writer and expert on India's caste system. "In all ways, it's worse than the Jim Crow laws were in the American South because it's completely sanctioned by religion. Despite so many reforms, the idea of untouchability is still very much a part of Indian life."

「常有人提起現代化的印度，真相是印度只要種姓制度一日不除就不能真正進步，」賤民作家兼印度種姓制度專家普拉沙德說。「不管從任何角度看，它都比美國南方過去歧視黑人的種族隔離法律還不堪，因為種姓制度完全得到宗教認可。儘管推動無數改革，賤民的觀念仍深植印度人的生活中。」

As India's economy surges, one of the country's most serious and stubborn challenges is how to combat entrenched caste prejudice. Dalits, along with other "backward" castes, make up the majority of India's 1.1 billion people, and social scientists here worry that these groups are being left behind.

隨著印度經濟火速成長，這個國家最嚴重、最根深柢固的挑戰，仍是如何對抗牢不可破的種姓階級偏見。賤民和其他「低下」階級，占印度11億人口的絕大多數，印度社會學家擔心，這些階層的人被遠遠拋在後面。

By virtue of birth, some castes inherit wealth; the Dalits inherit debt.

由於出生不同，有些種姓繼承財富；賤民則揹負一身債。

Caste often determines Indians' spouses, friends, residence and, most important, occupation -- part of a Hindu belief that people inherit their stations in life based on the sins and good deeds of past lives.

種姓制度往往也決定印度人的配偶、朋友、居所，及最重要的職業，這也是印度人相信，人會因前幾世的罪孽和善行，而繼承他們生命地位的一環。

Some Indians believe that the spread of capitalism in urban areas has in some ways dissolved caste by creating new occupations and eliminating obsolete ones.

有些印度人原以為，隨著資本主義在都會區散播，就某方面看，可望藉創造新職業和消除過時的工作，而在無形中消弭種姓制度。

In booming evening bazaars in Mumbai and New Delhi, lower castes sell cellphones, leather tennis shoes and grooming kits from small shops alongside higher castes, with everyone "in a capitalist rush to make money," said Prasad, the writer. "A lower-caste businessman may even enjoy an evening cigarette with a higher caste, completely taboo even 50 years ago."

在孟買和新德里生意強強滾的夜市，低下階層和較高階層一起賣手機、真皮網球鞋及來自小店家的成套美容用品組，作家普拉沙德說，人人「搶搭資本主義熱潮，想大賺一票。低階商人甚至可以和上流階層一起抽根菸，這在50年前根本是禁忌。」

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently compared India's caste system to apartheid in South Africa, calling it not just prejudice but "a blot on humanity."

印度總理辛哈最近把印度的種姓制度和南非種族隔離政策相提並論，指它不只是偏見，更是「人性的汙點」。

Critics say that such statements are simply meant to garner votes from lower castes and that any gains made by Dalits have been marginal.

論者指這類陳述，只是為了向下層階級拉選票，賤民根本得不到什麼好處。

"India is not a true democracy," said Anup Srivastava, a researcher on human rights in India. "The country is independent. But the people aren't. How can there be a democracy when there are still people known as untouchables who face daily discrimination"

「印度並非真正的民主國家，」研究印度人權的施利瓦斯塔瓦說。「印度已經獨立，但人民並未獨立，一個民主國家怎麼容許賤民的存在，而且每天遭到歧視？」

Experts say more and more Hindus are rejecting their religion because it sanctions caste. Last month in Mumbai, thousands of Dalits converted to Buddhism, which in posters and newspaper ads describes itself as a "caste-free faith."

專家說，愈來愈多印度人正在背離他們的宗教信仰，因為它認可種姓制度。上個月，孟買有數以千計賤民歸依佛教，因為佛教在海報和報紙廣告上都標榜是個「沒有種姓階級的宗教信仰。」

Meanwhile, the Dalits have made political gains. Last month, a Dalit woman, Mayawati Kumari, was elected to the top post in Uttar Pradesh in a landslide victory in which she was able to garner support across castes, including from high-caste Brahmins. Her election was as significant to the Dalits as John F. Kennedy's presidency was to America's Irish Catholics, many caste experts here say.

同時賤民在政治上也有斬獲，上個月，賤民女子瑪雅娃蒂．庫馬里，因贏得跨越階級，包括第一種姓的婆羅門的支持，而以壓倒性多數勝利膺選北方邦的最高職位。很多印度種姓專家說，她當選對賤民的意義，一如約翰．甘迺迪當選對愛爾蘭裔天主教徒的意義。

The resistance to dissolving caste comes from a deep-rooted fear among the elite that economic power will be taken from them and given to the poor.

抗拒解散種姓制度，源於精英階層根深柢固的恐懼，他們擔心，經濟力會被奪走，交給窮人。

For nearly 60 years, affirmative action programs have offered limited help to Dalits and other low castes. Those programs have long been highly controversial, and tainted by politics.

有近60年之久，矯正歧視措施只提供賤民有限的協助，這些措施一直有高度爭議，又被政治力介入汙染。

Experts also say that American-style materialism and even the hiring practices of American and multinational companies are actually hardening class, color and caste distinctions. Young, higher-caste urban professionals, who have better access to good schools than their lower-caste compatriots, are being hired by the IT and call center operations.

專家並指出，美式物質主義，甚至連美國及多國企業的用人作法，事實上更強化階級意識、膚色和種姓不同等級的區分。年輕高層的都市專家人士，比低下階層的同胞有更多機會上好學校，也因此會被資訊科技及客服中心雇用。

The other problem is that India's elite do not fight oppression or push for working-class egalitarian ideas. "It's not trendy or a Bollywood star's cause celebre to say you care about the working-man untouchable," S Anand, who runs the independent Navayana Publishing house, which focuses on books about caste, said.

另一個問題是印度精英階層無意對抗高壓統治或推動工作階級平等概念。「這不合潮流，寶萊塢名流也不願挺身而出，表明他們關心勞工賤民，」專門出種姓制度書籍的獨立新乘出版社老闆阿南德說。

"They abuse us as they always do," cried out Rajender, a 40-year-old Dalit trash collector. "We hear India is booming. But India is becoming powerful with our blood and our labor. And we still cannot fish here or touch this land or that. We still live half lives."

「他們像過去那樣踐踏我們，」40歲的賤民清潔工拉金德吶喊。「我們聽說印度經濟起飛，印度因我們的血汗和勞力而壯大，但我們至今還不能捕魚或碰觸這塊土地等等。我們仍過著枯燥貧賤的生活。」


《詞解》
Dalits, untouchables　賤民
rung 階級
grinding poverty 一窮二白
crumble 粉碎
caste 種姓制度
prevailed占上風
Jim Crow laws 種族隔離法律
sanctioned 認可，背書
entrenched 根深柢固
apartheid 南非種族隔離政策
blot汙點
garner votes 拉選票
Brahmins第一種姓婆羅門
landslide壓倒性多數
affirmative action 矯正歧視措施
egalitarian 平等
Bollywood寶萊塢
Navayana 新乘
 half life 半衰期，枯燥貧賤的生活