Dear Cecil, Most of us (this covers Goanet as well) personally have no caste feelings, and do not discriminate between people on basis of religion, caste, etc. Naturally, we are perplexed as to what everybody is going on about. This was once explained to me by a Sociology Prof. (no less!) as being a fallacy called Psychologism. We assume that social structures are the sum of individual 'feelings' and opinions, when in fact they have an entrenched reality of their own. Such is caste, even though a majority of the population may become 'anti-casteist', systemic discrimination against the depressed castes continues.
Apologies to antonio, but this is a general statment on caste and not an invasion of your sacred spaces -- incidentally, according to you, why is the general public barred from that debate? :-) On Wed, 2005-03-02 at 12:55 -0600, Cecil Pinto wrote: > So where exactly is this diabolical caste problem? Or am I just to > naive to > understand some deeper issues involved. What are they? Are we making > a > mountain of a molehill? Will someone point out to me what exactly the > caste > problem is? Where does one see it? Is it 'very real' or, as Teotonio > put > it, are all these current debates the "death throes of a dying > monster"? -- Question everything - Karl Marx
