The Untruth of an Indian Majority Re: # 34

````I am not denying the existence of a Hindu identity.. just saying that it`s pretty weak. A sense of collective Hindu identity that is being promoted is artificial and purely for political motives.
````

Keeping my disagreement about your statement aside (I think it is politically weak, but spiritually and culturally strong) , let`s say you are right.

If it`s weak now, it does not mean that it cannot become stronger in future. Granted, people who are leading this identity formation are not exactly saints. But I see them only as tools.

A collective Hindu identity is crucial for the well being of India and also can be enabler to remove the Caste divisions..

Thanks,

The Untruth of an Indian Majority Re: # 19

I agree..

Casteism is the biggest scourge of Hindu society. Hopefully with this urbanization and cross province migration, we will see the end of it sooner than later.

Rgds,

The Untruth of an Indian Majority Re: # 15

You may be right about his intentions...

Historically we`ve always been benign, to our detriment. I hope atleast now we wake up..

Regarding your comments on Women`s rights, I agree. But I dont think that problem is limited to Pakistan or Islamic countries (though it may be more acute). Even we have miles to go on that issue...

Thanks,

The Untruth of an Indian Majority Rakesh,

Too bad that you blindly fall for this `Psuedo-Secular` propoganda.

Just because Hindus are divided on various other dimensions does not mean that they should not and cannot have a higher order religion based identity.

For all it`s various different sects/languages, Hindus have some commonalities in their beliefs. One can go deep into it, but let`s keep the theoritical discussion aside.

Your article argues against a political Hindutva movement. I disagree. You only need to look at the systematic discrimination of Hindus in the last 50 years to understand why we need and why we have a political expression of Hinduism.

Apart from that, we face a two-front battle against two very powerful enemies (the hard battle with Islam and the softer battle with Christianity). The need for unification of Hindus, esp. on political dimension is much greater now than in the past.

More later,
Thanks,
Avkrishna

PS: You did select a very nerdy subject for your career ;-)

Taj a Mirage Re: # 12

Don`t divert the topic by bringing in random conspiracy theories on various monuments.

The issue is whether Qutub Minar is built on the ruins of Hindu/Jain temples. And it is, as certified by ASI and evident to anyone who`s been there except the Jaundiced eye.

This denial by Muslims about genuine cases of destruction does not help anyone.

If Muslims can`t and won`t accept that the Islamic Invaders have destroyed innumerable temples in India, then they will face the reactionary theories (like you mentioned below) and incidents like Babri Masjid,

Thanks,

Taj a Mirage Re: # 5

Any one with half a brain can observe the Hindu and Jain ruins around the Minar.

Reservations and the Media Re: # 32

````Yes it does upset me when people try to unfairly skew the discussion````

What`s an unfair point to you is fair to someone else. You cant control others voicing their view. However you control whether you get upset or not.

```` but thats not why I put up this post here. ````

Not the way I saw it. But if you say so, so be it.

````Anyway- we`ve had our say. So let us just leave it at that.````

Yup,

Thanks,

Reservations and the Media We can mark it.

Post 17 is when this board is lost for any sane discussions ;-)

Reservations and the Media Abhishek,

You have highlighted the right problem, but came to wrong conclusions:

I agree with you that Forward castes are dominant in various aspects of Private sector (About 95%+ of all Senior Management in Private enterprises are from Forwarad castes)
I wont be surprised to see similar reads among Journalists, Lawyers and other professions.


I disagree with you that the status of OBCs. Though they still face some discrimination from the forward castes in terms of promotions etc, they have a much better deal than SCs and STs. Some of OBC communities are wealthy and very powerful. So I wont be surprised if in some cases, the discrimination comes from them.


Coming back to the main issue,

The public sector, which was the main stay for generations of backward castes is on its way out. So the problem can only worsen.

In this ultra competitive world, left to it`s own, Private sector will not accomodate backward castes in an active manner. ( An intersting anecdote here. Azeem Premji, when he visited our institute was asked by our Socialogy professor whether we are paying a high social cost for IT. You should see his reply. He outrightly dismissed the question and said he doesn`t care about the social cost and that he only cares about the competition. And he CAN be abrupt)

Now how do we take care of Backward castes without endangering the competitiveness of Private enterprises? A very important and tricky issue indeed. Here I am generally against the quotas. Though the spirit of resevations is admirable, we all know it`s been abused over the past 50 years. So let`s try to do it differently. Let`s create an incentive based structure rather than a mandatory one. We should give tax breaks and preferential allotment of goverment contracts for firms which abide by some guidelines in reservations.



Thanks,
Avkrishna

Reservations and the Media Re: # 11

````I can fully understand that only that which corresponds to your wavelength is okay ... everything else is ridiculous..````

I know that you didn`t like my comments on DAD in the other thread, but that`s not an excuse for picking up a fight on this topic. I dont profess to be an expert in this topic, but even with the little expertise, I know that you are out of your element and here`s why.

My statement is about OBCs, not SCs and STs.

SC and STs already have 22.5% reservation in all levels of education and govt. jobs, both at central and state level.

However that`s not the case with OBCs. OBCs only have reservations at state level, not at centrail level. OBC lists vary a lot from state to state. There is no uniformly agreed list on the composition of OBCs and here`s a few examples:

Yadavs are backward castes both in terms of influence, wealth, power in AP, but extremely powerful in Bihar

Likewise the dominant caste in Karnataka is a backward caste in AP


Regarding Gandhi-Ambedkar issue, I have seen enough on this, esp. from you on this forum. I have neither time nor inclination to start it all over again.

Thanks,

Reservations and the Media And calling all OBCs as being oppressed in India is ridiculous. Many of OBC castes are extremely powerful in almost every domain in their respecitive states,

Thanks,
Avkrishna

Reservations and the Media Bad article, No coherent arguments.

Apart from having a philosophical disagreement to extend reservations to 80% of population (it is not reservation for backward classes anymore, it is reverse-discrimination on forward castes),

the practical application is impossible.

Communities which are considered OBCs in one state are not OBCs in other states.

How do we solve for this?

Thanks,
Avkrishna

Saviour or Tinpot Dictator? Harish_hyd # various,

Thanks for your research into DAD and bringing out the truth.

Looks like this is the only way we can counter the biased propoganda here,

Thanks,
Avkrishna

Celebrity Courts and Kangaroo Justice All in all,

I am glad to see that immature, arrogant ba$tard Salman Khan finally going to Jail. Hope nothing else changes in the last minute,

Thanks,
Avkrishna

Saviour or Tinpot Dictator? Re: # 105

Thanks for your apologies. That`s nice of you.

Regarding the differences in stability between both the countries, I agree with your ethnic dominance theory..

- Avkrishna

Saviour or Tinpot Dictator? Re: # 91

Totally unwarranted. Punjabis, esp. Sikhs have given a lot more to this country compared to many other communities !!

And that was a legitimate question he was trying to ask, maybe not to the right person!

Thanks,
Avkrishna