This is truly sad. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Response Jim C: This does indeed break my heart. I lived in Kerala during part of the 1980s in a little village of about 150 people; the village was half Hindu, half Syrian Orthodox Christian, it was half Congress-I and half CPM in political orientation, and it was one of the few places in India where sectarian violence was unknown. Kerala was one of the few States of India where you could literally find Jews (many in Cochin), Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Communists, Jains and many other groups living side-by-side without the sectarian violence. Of course there were organizations like RSS, Shiv Sena, Arya Sammagayam (I met one of the leaders of RSS once by accident) but they confined themselves mostly to polemics and covert organizing with none of the violence common in the north. There were also survivors of the Naxalites who had been targeted for extermination by the central government but they mostly stayed underground and in some cases went on to other forms of political action on the inside. I still have friends in Kerala and I'll be asking about this from those on the ground there now. Jim C.
