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NEW BOOK: 'PATRIOTISM IN ACTION: Goans in Indias Defence Services'
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Prejudice by definition is a holier than thou judgment. Indeed, it is worse
than a judgment. It is a prejudgment based on a belief in the superiority of
one's own perceptions, anecdotal experiences and attitudes, or worse, based on
nothing more than the color of someone's skin, his/her ethnicity, his/her
religion or lack of it, food habits, dress patterns, etc. But it is a fairly
common human trait, and is very hard to eradicate. So to me the important thing
is to recognize it in oneself, and try not to let it intervene in finding
practical solutions to problems. The worst thing about prejudice in the current
context is the fact that rationales derived from it are being used to explain
away day to day problems in India such as corruption and filth.
Prejudice is therefore an excuse to do nothing about these problems. If your
prejudgment is that filth is an innate Indian trait or a uniquely integral part
of its age-old culture or its native religions, then there is no easy solution
to the problems. In the former case, you cannot change the genes. In the latter
case, you have to wipe out India's history and culture, denationalize its
people, and convert the entire Indian population to whatever religion, or lack
it, that you think is the best one. If your prejudice is that colonialism is
responsible for India's present day problems, then you have to invent a time
machine and kill Timoja, Albuquerque and Robert Clive.
Prejudicial attitude is a fundamentally fatalistic enterprise. This is very
evident in most of the posts in this and related threads on Goanet. All you
have to do is read the overblown rhetoric.
Cheers,
Santosh
P.S. BTW, I really would like to know what Charudatt meant by Hindu politics.
Charudatt Prabhudesai [email protected] wrote:
>
> Selma has been accused by some of
> being prejudiced against Indians for her views
> on the India's hygiene-habit. I feel that this prejudice is
> justified somehow, and I would
> side with it only if there is something to be done about
> the issue of national attitude to filth
> and not just point judgmental and holier than thou
> fingers.
>
> The fact is that there is more dirt around/ about people in
> India; Indians are blaze about
> squalidness and dirt. We may try to justify it by giving
> several reasons if we want to,
> but since that does not help, there is no point in doing
> so. ( We must also realize that this nation
> has suffered many a dictum like "brahma sttyam
> jaganmitthaa" = only Brahman is truth,
> all else that is manifest is false. Buddha and Shankara
> have done more harm to the vitality of this
> great nation than a Micky Potcheko can ever hope to!)
> I wonder if anything might actually work except by
> improvement in living
> conditions by eradication of poverty by effectively
> imposing a forked agenda of pragmatic,
> good and relevant education and control (for some years at
> least) of our national breeding
> habit. It was there in place during India Gandhi's rule,
> perhaps it is still there but there is no
> way of implementing it effectively and yet be a democracy!
> (remember nasbandi during 1975?)
> Also without the threat of going out of power. So it is
> catch 22. Besides, with a diversity like
> ours in a democratic set up only an impossible idealist can
> hope to get results, I guess.
> I am ashamed to admit that we Indians have acquired a
> degenerate sense of hygiene than the
> rest of the world and, perhaps because of the high world
> standard of hygiene and
> cleanliness, India's own is way, way below substandard. (We
> may feel proud of the fact
> that these conditions can/could produce a Mother Teresa!
> Indeed there are great minds who
> actually feel proud of this fact. Lapierre's romantic
> flattery in "city of love" perpetuate all this)
>
> I tend to agree with Selma regarding her reference to
> mindsets. That is so obvious from
> our general quality control standards. Take anything,
> from match sticks to machines, Indian quality
> is substandard. Why, is that a fact? I may agree that we
> are improving by and by, and perhaps
> that is because we are also becoming reasonably richer
> collectively.
> So I believe that since all those who have commented on
> this thread have cut close to the aching nerve,
> we are all aware of this situation(!) But rather than
> single one cause to blame I would try to understand
> India as a continuum, a civilization which is a palimpsest.
> To sort out its evils and eradicate them we need
> a couple of things: psychic Love for this wonderful nation
> ( no place for judgmental
> prejudice or prejudiced judgment there), and indefatigable
> patience with Indian people, who,
> fundamentally, are lovely people.
>
> My thoughts above are loosely arranged without any attempt
> at making it a valid, analytical thesis.
> So, PLEASE, do not ask silly questions like what I mean by
> "Hindu politics" and the like.
>
>
