Cornel,
The upper castes all over India want to keep the divide alive for obvious
reasons.
India's illogical form of affirmative action(read reservations) has ensured
that the erstwhile lower castes have a reason to perpetuate this ugly
practice.
After all if you convert to religions that do not provide official sanction
for caste such as Buddhism or Christianity, you lose the right to benefits
via the reservation route. Regardless of the fact that your economic
situation remains the same.
Strangely there is another group of people (mostly on this forum) who seek
to keep the divide alive for no apparent reason. They are the kind who
introduce words like Bamon, Chardo, Kharvi, Gulfie and Shippie into every
debate. I think Selma and Carmo have a lifetime membership to this peculiar
society.
Best Regards
Sunith Velho
do "both sides" really try to keep the divide alive? This >>would be
contraray to most theoretical and practical >>work on opposition and
resistance to hegemony in >>relation to social and cultural power in given
>>societies.However, you
may well have something new for me to explore and I >>wait in
anticipation!