A Dust Over India

Post by known » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 4:41 PM UTC

geekam wrote: post #133

memset wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to nitpick slightly, if I may, albeit the point is not related to the general discussion of poverty in India. There is also some modern, relevant benefits to identifying someone's caste: it is an indicator that someone comes from a similar cultural or religious upbringing. That you speak similar dialects of Hindi. This is important when, say, marrying. This says nothing of the caste system as institutional dis…

Yes, caste system is embedded in the culture. It is not purely economic/political in nature. It is used by politicians because it is there, socially. This form is racism exists so deep in India. You can witness this: * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit * India Untouched - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1552060/ * India's broken people - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxJr0UlcNTA There is whole sect in India which is se…

Post by grandalf » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 5:11 PM UTC

delackner wrote: post #297

grandalf wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it depends on what you focus on. Yes the differences between the two countries are relative. But they are obviously different and so it's not a stretch to realize that. The noteworthy aspect, in my opinion, is the strong indignation felt by the author which is amplified in its absurdity by the existence of many of the very same problems in the US.

When a person has seen only a single sociopolitical system, it is easy to just shrug and say "it just is this way.". It is often only after seeing the totally different systems active in other societies first-hand that it becomes brilliantly clear that not only are the wrongs back home unacceptable, but that the other society you have found also possesses its own share of injustices that the locals are indifferent to…

Post by grandalf » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 5:50 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #301

grandalf wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok fair enough, but considering that gulags are known to us via old propaganda stories and prisons are part of the modern human rights (intellectual) blind spot that most affluent western people suffer from, it's not surprising that you consider them drastically different. In my opinion, the notion of almost certain rape and being locked into a cell with a violent individual in a system where violence is tolerated is…

Going to take a wild guess here, and speculate that you haven't read any Solzhenitsyn.

Post by swamy_g » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 8:55 PM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #95

People should be aware that this: He said Indians will rarely, if ever, resort to violence. As a foreigner, you never have to worry about being robbed, or having a knife pulled on you, or getting beaten up by a gang of thugs and having your kidney carved out of you. And this is true. Is not true. It would possibly be true if he changed it to read "As a foreign man .." A female friend of mine just returned from six we…

Post by lenkite » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 10:23 PM UTC

nivla wrote: post #171

grandalf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does one have to be literate to be politically active? Do you think that most US voters base their political decisions (or their decision whether or not to vote) on something they read?

You shouldn't have been downvoted to hell because you were right on some account. Literacy is only part of the problem. Even if you have 100% literacy it won't stop corruption. Case and point: Kerala -> The only state in India with about 94% literacy and yet there is still a good amount of corruption! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala