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From Our Own Correspondent

Opting to go lower caste

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The human stories behind the headlines. In this edition, we hear from India, where protests deprived ten million Delhi residents of their water. Members of the Jat caste want to force the government to reclassify them as lower-caste, so they can get quotas for government jobs and study places. Used Field Marshall for sale - the things you find on eBay in Egypt, when locals take the president at his word. What happens when a Trump supporter meets a young Muslim refugee for brunch in Alabama? Our Moscow correspondent gets a distinctly chilly welcome in Siberia, and no, it's nothing to do with the weather. And arriving at the airport in Havana, it's an event in itself.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for downloading the latest edition of BBC radios from our own correspondent,

0:05.7

the best in news and current affairs storytelling.

0:08.8

It's introduced by Kate 80.

0:11.5

Hello. Today, why some high-cast Indians now want to be reclassified as low-cast.

0:18.0

A used field marshal for sale in Egypt, yours for 70,000 pounds, Egyptians take their autocratic president at his word and put him up on

0:27.7

eBay.

0:28.7

We're on the campaign trail in America, where Donald Trump has said he'd ban all Muslims from entering

0:34.8

the country.

0:35.8

So how did the encounter between the Trump supporter and the Muslim refugee go?

0:41.4

In Siberia there's a definite chill in the air as the BBC finds itself at the receiving

0:46.3

end of something less than a warm welcome, and shrieks of delight, balloons and banners

0:52.1

a few tears too.

0:53.7

Welcome to the Arrivals Hall at Havana Airport.

0:58.2

In India this week some two-thirds of the 16 million residents of Delhi found their water supply almost entirely cut off or reduced

1:06.0

to a trickle, not because of drought or some other natural disaster, but because of a violent

1:11.5

protest over affirmative action job quotas.

1:15.0

At least 18 people were killed and hundreds injured.

1:18.0

It was all because of caste, that ancient system of dividing Hindu society into a strict hierarchy

1:24.5

often based on occupation.

1:26.3

categories range from priests, warriors and farmers to laborers.

1:30.4

Those belonging to lower caste once had little chance of getting good jobs or a university education.

1:37.0

So quotas were set up for them, for work and study places,

...

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