I am sorry I cannot do anything about the fact that the respondent below continues to engage in rhetoric and insults.
I am interested in knowing how the constitutional notion of Scheduled Castes and tribes came into being in Indian history. In response to the said respondent's prior rhetorical question, Prof. Borges provided factual information and links to two debates of the Constituent Assembly. I provided facts reported by three genuinely well-informed professionals of different backgrounds, based on their own independent research - the first a Jesuit priest, scholar and professor (Fr. Izzo), the second a human rights activist (Madhu Chandra) and the third a journalist (Sunil Dasgupta). From the standpoint of an objective rational person all this information would be much more trustworthy and reliable compared to the long-winded interpretations, speculations, insinuations and rhetorical questions contained in the respondent's latest post appended below, especially, given the fact that the claims in his earlier posts in this thread were shown to be false. Therefore, in order to properly stack up his credibility against that of Fr. Izzo, Chandra and Dasgupta, I would kindly request him to provide historical evidence to support his own prior and current speculations. Now as far as my own task and interest are concerned I have accessed information that answers the following questions: 1. Were Dalits belonging to Christian and other religious minorities ever included in the Scheduled Castes list at any time before the Presidential Order of 1950, as the respondent seems to imply? 2. Did the Christian members of the Constituent Assembly petition, lobby, ask or insist that Dalit Christians be included in the Scheduled Castes list drawn up in the Presidential Order of 1950? (Did they object to, or recognize as unfair, the fact that Dalit Christians were not included in the Scheduled Castes list at any time before or after the Presidential Order was issued?) The answer to each of these questions is NO. Here is the evidence. 1. Scheduled castes were always recognized to include only Hindu Dalits even before 1950, and expressly exclude Christian Dalits. Please see this Scheduled Castes order of 1936: http://www.anagrasarkalyan.gov.in/compendium/part-1_page9-24.pdf Here is a quote: QUOTE 3. Notwithstanding anything in the last preceding paragraph— (a) No Indian Christian shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste; UNQUOTE 2. Scheduled Castes were defined as "a section of the Hindu community" in the first Minority Rights Report in 1947, and accepted as an amendment in the assembly. Here is a quote regarding this in one of the assembly debates: QUOTE 1-A. The section of the Hindu community referred to as Scheduled Castes as defined in Schedule I to the Government of India Act, 1935, shall have the same rights and benefits which are herein provided for minorities specified in the Schedule to para. 1 UNQUOTE ......K. M. Munshi Please see: http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8b.htm 3. The fact that Scheduled Castes were recognized and accepted as distinct from Christians and other religious minorities by the members of the Constituent Assembly, including the Christian members is clear from the following quote of H. C. Mookherjee, the lead Christian representative, in one of the debate links provided by Prof. Borges: QUOTE ...let me point out once again that the Scheduled Castes have been given reservation not on grounds of religion at all; they form part and parcel of the Hindu Community, and they have given reservation apparently and clearly on grounds of their economic, social educational backwardness. UNQUOTE ......H. C. Mookherjee Please see: http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/790979/ Cheers, Santosh ----- Original Message ----- From: Marshall Mendonza <[email protected]> > Response: > While ignoring the usual bird brained and juvenile opening remarks which we > have now got accustomed to, I will focus on the more substantive issues. > > I found the rest of the below post quite interesting. However, there do not > address the statement made by Prof Borges. and there are several gaps which > need to be filled. > > 1 The below post scores high on verbosity and rhetoric but low on > substance. All the quotations attributed to Fr Jerome in the below post > have all come from third parties or hearsay. If Fr Jerome did state all > these words attributed to him, surely there would be some original > documents available to corroborate and verify just like the documents > posted by Prof Borges. Is it possible for Santosh to post records > (weblinks) of the actual debate when these so-called quotations were > uttered. These would be far more reliable. Otherwise, they appear to be an > outcome of a game called Chinese Whispers which we used to play as > children. ( for those not familiar with the game or its meaning, please > refer to the foll weblink): >
