I don't know if anyone noticed the irony in these two seemingly unconnected statements possibly made in jest:
On Thursday 20 Nov 2008 12:34:23 pm Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > Why do they need to sneak into india for this? We already have our own > crop of homegrown hindu terrorists to worry about as well .. no shortage of > them. On Thursday 20 Nov 2008 2:07:33 pm Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > What, no reservation quotas then? Sarcasm about "reservation quotas" typically comes from the class of people who do not benefit from reservation - who are the "forward castes" It is the same "forward castes" who are being blamed for "homegrown Hindu terror" In India two classes of people are blamed for its ills 1) The violent Muslims 2) The bigoted forward castes While there are some people among the "violent Muslims" who blame the forward castes, and some among the "bigoted forward castes" who blame Muslims, there is a vast group of Indians who benefit from blaming both Muslims and forward caste people. Indians who are neither "forward caste" nor "Muslim" have the most to gain from blaming both Muslims and forward castes for Indians problems and their own ills. These people gain from increasing reservation from themselves AND by opposing reservation for Mulsims. But there are two classes of people who are neither Muslim nor forward caste, and these are the SC/STs and the "Other Backward Castes" (OBCs), While both groups benefit from putting all the blame on Forward Castes and Muslims, there are areas of friction between the OBCs and SC/STs SC/STs already have reservation but in some instances the OBCs are the "new opressors" - the "New Brahmins". By trying to hog a bigger and bigger pecentage of the "reservation: cake the OBCs are gradually putting pressure on the SCs and STs for the same reserved seats and jobs. The new self confident (arrogant?) Hindu is no longer the much hated "forward caste" Hindu who continues to take the blame for bigotry and intolerance, but the newly empowered middle caste (OBC) whose clout in India is increasing. These people probably represent the new face of Hinduism that minorities will have to come to terms with. And there is absolutely no guaratnee that these people represent "tolerance", "secularism" and non violence. Mayawati's alliance between SC/STs and forward castes is an early reaction to this emerging situation in India. It is possible that there could be an alliance between "forward castes" and Muslims contrary to what people imagine. Such an alliance is considered improbable because of ideological differences, but most of this "ideology" is what observerd smear on forward caste people and Muslims. But in India forward caste people and Mulsim are felling the brunt of exactly the same types of discrinmination. They are being excluded from educatoion and jobs and the bar is set higher for both groups because non Muslim, non forward caste groups find this convenient. Just my ramble.. shiv
