pejudice is pre-disposition to believe something about an individual or a group of people which is not warranted by reason and which is not borne out by facts. Although degree of prejudice differs from person to person, hardly anybody is completely free from it. Every body has his Pet prejudices. Frequently one's experience militates against one's prejudice, but one is so much attached to one's prejudice that it is almost impossible to give it up. It has been rightly said that it is easier to give up one's money or comforts than one's prejudice. Prejudices are not in-born.
These are learned from home, school and environment. small children play freely among themselves without regard to the colour or religion of their play-mates. I remember when I was small and living in a village, many of my play-mates were from other communities. But as I grew up I was told by my mother that Jaggu belongs to the untouchable sweeper community and I must not play with him otherwise I may not be given food without taking a bath.
Since my elder brothers and sisters were not associating with boys of that community, I also did not quest' on the propriety of my mother's directions and stopped playing with Jaggu. Now when I look back at the incident, I find it was a sheer prejudice to give up Jaggu's company. He has grown up to bean agreeable young man and talented player who plays Cricket for his College and has a wide circle of friends from all communities.
His eldest brother is the Deputy Superintendent of Police of our District and quite a few persons of so called higher castes work as his assistants and even orderlies at his residence. Even though untouchability has been declared a crime, most of the older members of my family and many of my relations practice it in one form or the other.
They would not rent a house which has a man of a lower community as a neighbour even though that house is more spacious, cheaper and in a better locality. Another pet prejudice of some members of my family is that servants are generally thieves. An inconvenient outcome of this belief is that whenever we leave our house
