2009/7/17 Thaths <[email protected]> > > 1. The feeling that Hindus are in some ways second class citizens who > have > > had their way of life changed (land reforms which overnight left many > high > > caste Hindus in Kerala penniless overnight is one example) significantly, > > but Muslims still retain their privileges and rights (polygamy, > > madrassas, etc.). > > Has there any research been conducted on the average household income > of people by religion and how it has changed over the last 60 years?
Can't find any research done, but this might give some indication - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nair. Quote below: "During post-colonial years, the Land reforms of 1950's led to massive loss of land-ownership by Nair feudal lords and some Nair gentry were relegated to poverty overnight." > 2. The reservations given to Muslims in Kerala. It would have been OK if > it > > was the poorer and disadvantaged students who took advantage of this, but > > more often than not it was those who already had a few relatives in the > > Gulf, were reasonably well off, and could have easily afforded > > private/payment seats. Basically the entire "creamy layer" argument. On > the > > other hand, many Hindus don't make the cut, and are forced to study in > other > > states where the fees are 20-100X (my entire fees was around Rs. 8K for 4 > > years) and then there were only 7 engg colleges in the whole state. > > Coming from a state with the highest levels of reservation in the > country (even more than what the Mandal commission recommended) I did > not see a disproportionately large percentage of muslims in my college > classroom. In fact, it was the opposite. There were a > disproportionately low percentage of muslims in my class both > accounting for reservation and not. You didn't mention which state you are from, but 25% of Kerala's population are Muslims. Maybe that explains why there were a high number of them in my college (as well as other engg colleges in Kerala). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala#Demographics > Before the debate starts, let me state that there is really no point to > > establishing whether these are right or wrong. The point is that they > work > > in practice because it somehow resonates with Hindu youth, even those who > > have had a decent education and come from educated families. > > I find is fascinating that an argument can be made that a segment that > accounts for 82.4%[1] of the population is under threat. Well, what about the argument that the top agenda of a national party is to wipe out or disadvantage or relegate to a lower status 140 million of its citizens (just the Muslims, not including other religions which the Hindutva brigade is against) depending on which extreme paranoia laden nonsense you believe. Also, I was not sure that reservations played such a big part of the > Hindutva > plank. Does the BJP (or Shiv Sena) election manifesto talk about how > they are going to address any reservation imbalances? They talk about it extensively (at least they did then) in Kerala where it is a touchy subject. I too don't want to debate the rights or wrongs of these arguments. I > am curious as to how these arguments (right or wrong) presented to/by > Hindus could be addressed without brushing them off. Don't you agree > that the first step is to dispassionately assess whether there is any > merit to these arguments? > > Thaths > [1] > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India#Religious_demographics Thats the problem. They are loosely or sometimes very strongly based on facts. Most rational, liberal thinkers who is doing well economically would just brush these off as something that happened in the past, and dwelling on it is not worthwhile. Some might just see it as an inevitable part of democracy, i.e. the appeasement of minorities/creating of vote banks. Bot not all Hindus are in such a position to or will think along those lines. Thankfully, most of my friends who were in the ABVP are beneficiaries of the economic boom thanks to the B.Tech degree, live in one of the metros, and I rarely hear them voicing such opinions (though most of them still vote for the BJP). But imagine what they would have become if they were jobless and still under the influence of the RSS and go to shakas. Now transplant this scenario to other states where both education and jobs are lacking. Kiran
