Indian Exceptionalism: Colonial Stereotypes and Postcolonial Realities

Re: # 30

saminasha,

sorry .... i will leave this board to the intellectuals so that they can discuss this important issues, but before i leave i have to ask you one thing:

....why do these hifalutin discussions always take place on cspan in a tiny conference room with two dozen tired looking men and women in worn out tweed jackets and bad hairdos sitting on hard chairs that are not properly lined up?........ why is the panel always shuffling papers and why do they always speak in a monotone? .... why do they drink coffee out of paper cups and why don't they have donuts on the table in the corner? ....

Alas, hamdim2 sahib, you are as bigoted and behind the curve as I am. Blame grandfather gopinath for our anti-intellectualism - our inability to keep pace with every-day scientific advancements proving rohit right. :(

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Neembu's # 25, agreed. That's what US-Israel-India alliance against good things means.

That is one exceptionalism rohit might not mind acknowledging - the exceptionalism of US-Israel-India evil/colonialism/injustice etc.

Re: # 28

hamid unkil,

thanks for attempting to turn this board into another anti intellectual forum for your stand up. it's so respectful of the labor and focus of academics who serve an important purpose in our societies.

later.

Re: # 18 One way of west elites to keep down people of color is to take tests which are biased against people of dark and brown color. When tests produce results as wanted ( balcks, asians, dark, brown and china race gets lesser marks in these prejudiced tests.) Real master or very matured person will never take test, why he /she should subject to recist tests. Tests are just designed to keep people down like indian, pakistanis, blacks and latin americans. Actually all people who are oppressed from america should just boycott recist exams which at one stroke decide some group of people are underclass are recist and should be abolished. All people should have freedom to study whatever they want. That is reason Indian and pakistani people are suffering and going hungry and angry in England and ameria etc.Now all black brown people are very poor generally so they suffer in every way. IF same income level people of all reces tasted all will have same results. Also black and brown people have suffered lot by slavery and they are not given intelligent work for hundreds of years so they slowly get their DNA count number down naturally. Just like now if you take very uneducated landless woman from Sindhi bad rural areas she can not match urban and universal and well travelled person or well fed, well educated and brought up as potential leader like B.Bhutto, there is no comparison. What people should strive not for equal opportunity but "EQUAL OUTCOME" that is need of time. Then america will be defeated and all worlds people will come up and go to USA etc. Why national boundaries just protect elites from world poor masses. Soon time will come when hundreds of millions of Chines, Indians , Muslims and arabs will flood usa if this artificial barrers pulled dowm. As free markets need free workers movement. Just as white people came to Des and dark loands of africa and asia they did not ask permission. Similarly all arab oil is used by elites and arab instead of gratitude get big western shaft and nothing. People of color should just move to west and and remould oppressive lands in to lands of brotherhood, and lands of plenty.

Re: # 26

kaal,

... i was completely turned off by the first sentence ... i thought, "here we go again, another rant against the evils of colonialism; now all we need is masadi and a sandwich and we should be able to have a picinic"

... but as i read on, i found out that this was even worse than that - this man is in total denial of the fact that all men were not not born equal and when people with similar genetic traits band together to form a society, the society is exceptional ........ for example, who can deny that:

- blacks are exceptional basketball and football players... i know, i know, poor jimmy the greek was fired for suggesting it, but it is the truth

- jews are exceptionlly pushy and loud ..... i can pick out a jewish family at kennedy airport by the decibel level and the whiny tone of the princess harassing her poor hen-pecked husband ......

- punjabis are exceptionally boorish (and loud) .... as soon as they walk into a gathering the noise level goes up and the level of conversation plunges into the gutter ....

- pathans are ... well, pathans

......... and i could go on .... i am sure you will say this is sterotyping, but i say, "if the sterotype fits, wear it!" ........... and stop whining

Re: # 22

nb,

.... you are right, but these kids just don't get it ...... my older one who, thank god, doesn't look too indian was so thrilled when she got her first traffic ticket that she pinned put it up on the fridge alongside the younger one's grades ... why?.. because the officer had checked off the 'white' box in the race category! ..... unfortuntely, the younger one is exceptionally disadvantaged ...... damn grandpa gopinath!

Elementary, hamidm sahib. Rohit is telling us that you and I are bad people.

Re: # 21

nb,

exceptionalism in not limited to India. what is interesting is how the construction of exceptionalism contributes to a post colonial/developing nation's self narrative. the "american dream" is one example of exceptionalism that can be said to be authentic to some individuals and communities given an advantageous context of supportive institutional policies, and a punishing myth that is used to denigrate communities who fail to achieve it because they lack those structural advantages.

Re: # 20

hamid unkil,

your daughter mashallah sounds very bright and has several options available to her. buy her jorie graham's overlord, elizabeth bishop's collected poems, natalie angier and oliver sack's books on human biology and physiology.

i also believe that in order to understand rohit's essay, you need to grapple a bit with it. its inexcusably bad manners for interactors here to take pot shots and not engage honestly with the author's ideas.

kaal,

... you and saminashah make me feel so stupid!.... can you please explain this to me in ten bullets ....

........ and don't pull a homi bhaba on me because if, for a while, the ruse of desire is calculable for the uses of discipline soon the repetition of guilt, justification, pseudo-scientific theories, superstition, spurious authorities, and classification can be seen as the desperate effort to 'normalize' formally the disturbance of a discourse of splitting that violates the rational, enlightened claims of its enunciatory modality.

hamidm, considering your daughter looks very Indian, be happy with whatever she does.. it is difficutl to overcome such a disadvantage.

I think the writer has it wrong; I don't think exceptionalism is unique to India, and it is not always used as an excuse either.

Re: # 16

saminashah,

.... i am sure you understand this gobbeldygook, so why don't you do me favor and explain it to me in less than fifty words .... after years of trying to explain anything and everything on one powerpoint slide and in less than ten bullets, i just don't get this long-winded stuff .....

.... by the way, i passed on the copy of billy collins that you made me buy years ago to my younger daughter who seems to be on a slippery slope to skid row .... she keeps on saying that english and latin are her favourite subjects and that she wants to be a teacher .... i keep on telling her that she won't be able to afford the bmw and the coach purses that she covets if she doesn't listen to me and gets a real job like investment banking or law ....... luckily, she has all a's in math and science and really seems to get physics - i was absolutely thrilled and relieved yesterday when she announced that she 'loves' physics ...... but i am still worried - she could end up like this guy, rohit, or - god forbid - like masadi .........

Excellent example of Indian Exceptionalism, neembu. Thanks.

An example of exceptionalism taking place in the "hard sciences" field that seemed to go unremarked on by the Usual Suspects:


CNN.com
Nobel-winning biologist apologizes for remarks about blacks
Story Highlights
Jim Watson told a newspaper he was "gloomy about the prospect of Africa"

Watson: I can't understand how I could have said what I'm quoted as having said

Watson won the Nobel prize in 1962

Scientist has made controversial remarks in the past

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nobel laureate biologist Jim Watson apologized "unreservedly" Thursday for stating that black people were not as intelligent as whites, saying he was "mortified" by the comments attributed to him.

"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," Watson said during an appearance at the Royal Society in London.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways that they have."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief," he said.

Watson, 79, an American who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his role in the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, told the Sunday Times he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really."

Watson also asserted there was no reason to believe different races separated by geography should have evolved identically, and he said that while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."

His comments were met with an avalanche of criticism, and London's Science Museum canceled Watson's planned Friday appearance, saying his remarks had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."

The British government's skills minister, David Lammy, who is black, called the comments "deeply offensive."

"It is a shame that a man with a record of scientific distinction should see his work overshadowed by his own irrational prejudices," Lammy said.

Watson's remarks to the Sunday Times were the latest in a number of controversial comments from the eminent biologist.

In 1997, Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Watson as saying that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion.

During a lecture tour in 2000, he suggested there might be links between a person's weight and their level of ambition and between skin color and sexual prowess.

"That's why you have Latin lovers," he said, according to The Associated Press, which cited people who attended the lecture. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

All AboutThe Nobel Foundation • Alfred Nobel

Rohit, you always write very intelligently, and on this one, you have placed the very seal of perfection. Bravo.

We lesser beings, of course, don't even know what Indian Exceptionalism is (ali_1 says it has to do with the size of our equipments, and some liberal friends argue, it comes from the satanic US-Zionist-Hindu fundoo alliance).

Even I can see, you have clearly explained Indian Exceptionalism, and even more clearly proven it to be false. Bravo again.