04-11-2006, 08:28 PM
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/f...ontent_id=81036
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<b>Seeking 'social justice' through US intervention </b>
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNIÂ Â Â Â Â
Posted online: Sunday, October 30, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
I consider Babasaheb Ambedkar's address to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, the day before India gave herself a Republican Constitution, one of the greatest speeches ever made by an Indian.
It contains two cautionary thoughts. Firstly, he exhorted vigilance against internal treachery that could make India lose her hard-won independence again. (Ambedkar was brutally frank in citing cases of collaboration with alien powers in India's history.) Secondly, he warned that India would not become a dynamic nation without political empowerment, social justice and economic progress of the downtrodden.
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So far, India's achievement on each of these counts has been non-trivial, although an immense lot still needs to be done. Whatever has been achieved is due to a combination of legally mandated reservations; democracy-induced shift in the social base of political power; declining importance of caste in economic interactions; and heightened social awareness that untouchability is wrong.
However, Ambedkar's two warnings have begun to sound timely. Look at some of the disturbing trends in the debate on reservations in the private sector. I am a strong votary of affirmative action by the private sector â not exclusively through reservations, but with a mix of mandatory and voluntary initiatives to massively expand opportunities for education, skillset development, employment and entrepreneurship to benefit the SCs, STs, OBCs and even the poor among other classes and communities. This has become all the more urgent since government and PSU jobs are shrinking for justifiable reasons of right-sizing and, simultaneously, the private sector is growing rapidly thanks to liberalisation and globalisation. Unfortunately, our political and business establishments have so far refused to debate this matter squarely, focusing not on vote banks but on practical options that can harmonise the ends of both social justice and economic growth.
No less questionable is how some activists are advocating reservations in the private sector by lobbying for foreign interference in India's domestic policy-making. It's doubly dubious because their not-so-hidden aim seems to be to defame Hinduism by misprojecting caste as a human rights issue on global platforms, in order to make a case for mass proselytisation with the active help of foreign evangelical organisations.
Earlier this month, the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN), represented by its president<span style='color:red'> Joseph D'souza, who also heads the All India Christian Council, and social activists Udit Raj and Kancha Ilaiah testified before US lawmakers urging them to intervene to ''end caste and stop atrocities against low caste Indians''</span>. They sought reservations in US enterprises in India (BPO units, etc) as well as in the World Bank, IMF and USAID projects. Their loony logic: ''Indian industry, including the print and electronic media, would have to provide reservation for Dalits, tribals and OBCs if US companies do so.'' (If they had their way, the editorship of this newspaper would be reserved on a rotational basis!) Ilaiah (whose books include Why I am Not a Hindu and Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism) also favours taking the issue of caste â and private-sector reservations â to EU Parliaments and to all the veto-power nations in the UN.
Our intellectuals and politicians need to debate several serious issues that arise out of DFN's audacious way of securing changes in government policy and religious demography in India through foreign, especially US, intervention.
<b>ONE:</b> Which self-respecting nation would countenance such a move? Can Indian Parliament decree on race relations in America or dictate to Wipro or Infosys on what kind of job quota they should have for African-Americans and Hispanics in their US units?
<b>TWO: </b>Hasn't the world had enough of US interference in others' domestic affairs in the name of ''human rights'' and ''democracy''?
<b>THREE: </b>If Hindu extremists deserve to be slammed (yes, they do) for indulging in hate propaganda against other faiths, can there be a different yardstick for those who equate Hinduism with ''spiritual darkness'' and spread lies abroad such as: ''The clay cup is a symbol of Dalit oppression and throughout India (250 million) Dalits are forced to drink out of clay cups which are then destroyed so that no upper caste customer will ever use it and risk 'contamination by a Dalit's uncleanness'.'' (DFN sells one-dollar-per-clay-cup as an awareness-creation strategy in USA. See DFN's website and links for this and other discoveries.)
<b>FOUR:</b> Doesn't the overtly anti-Hindu â not just anti-Hindutva â propaganda by non-Hindu groups, with a thinly veiled agenda of conversion of Dalits and tribals, harm communal harmony? (Recall last week's violent Muslim-Christian clash in Alexandria, Egypt, on the issue of conversions.)
<b>FIVE: </b>Which community is free of deficiencies within? And whose obligation is it to effect reforms in one's religion â that of its own followers or others?
LASTLY, does religious freedom include freedom to slander or belittle other religions, purportedly in the name of reservations? Let's ponder, honestly.
Write to sudheenkulkarni@expressindia.com
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<b>Seeking 'social justice' through US intervention </b>
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNIÂ Â Â Â Â
Posted online: Sunday, October 30, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
I consider Babasaheb Ambedkar's address to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, the day before India gave herself a Republican Constitution, one of the greatest speeches ever made by an Indian.
It contains two cautionary thoughts. Firstly, he exhorted vigilance against internal treachery that could make India lose her hard-won independence again. (Ambedkar was brutally frank in citing cases of collaboration with alien powers in India's history.) Secondly, he warned that India would not become a dynamic nation without political empowerment, social justice and economic progress of the downtrodden.
Â
So far, India's achievement on each of these counts has been non-trivial, although an immense lot still needs to be done. Whatever has been achieved is due to a combination of legally mandated reservations; democracy-induced shift in the social base of political power; declining importance of caste in economic interactions; and heightened social awareness that untouchability is wrong.
However, Ambedkar's two warnings have begun to sound timely. Look at some of the disturbing trends in the debate on reservations in the private sector. I am a strong votary of affirmative action by the private sector â not exclusively through reservations, but with a mix of mandatory and voluntary initiatives to massively expand opportunities for education, skillset development, employment and entrepreneurship to benefit the SCs, STs, OBCs and even the poor among other classes and communities. This has become all the more urgent since government and PSU jobs are shrinking for justifiable reasons of right-sizing and, simultaneously, the private sector is growing rapidly thanks to liberalisation and globalisation. Unfortunately, our political and business establishments have so far refused to debate this matter squarely, focusing not on vote banks but on practical options that can harmonise the ends of both social justice and economic growth.
No less questionable is how some activists are advocating reservations in the private sector by lobbying for foreign interference in India's domestic policy-making. It's doubly dubious because their not-so-hidden aim seems to be to defame Hinduism by misprojecting caste as a human rights issue on global platforms, in order to make a case for mass proselytisation with the active help of foreign evangelical organisations.
Earlier this month, the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN), represented by its president<span style='color:red'> Joseph D'souza, who also heads the All India Christian Council, and social activists Udit Raj and Kancha Ilaiah testified before US lawmakers urging them to intervene to ''end caste and stop atrocities against low caste Indians''</span>. They sought reservations in US enterprises in India (BPO units, etc) as well as in the World Bank, IMF and USAID projects. Their loony logic: ''Indian industry, including the print and electronic media, would have to provide reservation for Dalits, tribals and OBCs if US companies do so.'' (If they had their way, the editorship of this newspaper would be reserved on a rotational basis!) Ilaiah (whose books include Why I am Not a Hindu and Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism) also favours taking the issue of caste â and private-sector reservations â to EU Parliaments and to all the veto-power nations in the UN.
Our intellectuals and politicians need to debate several serious issues that arise out of DFN's audacious way of securing changes in government policy and religious demography in India through foreign, especially US, intervention.
<b>ONE:</b> Which self-respecting nation would countenance such a move? Can Indian Parliament decree on race relations in America or dictate to Wipro or Infosys on what kind of job quota they should have for African-Americans and Hispanics in their US units?
<b>TWO: </b>Hasn't the world had enough of US interference in others' domestic affairs in the name of ''human rights'' and ''democracy''?
<b>THREE: </b>If Hindu extremists deserve to be slammed (yes, they do) for indulging in hate propaganda against other faiths, can there be a different yardstick for those who equate Hinduism with ''spiritual darkness'' and spread lies abroad such as: ''The clay cup is a symbol of Dalit oppression and throughout India (250 million) Dalits are forced to drink out of clay cups which are then destroyed so that no upper caste customer will ever use it and risk 'contamination by a Dalit's uncleanness'.'' (DFN sells one-dollar-per-clay-cup as an awareness-creation strategy in USA. See DFN's website and links for this and other discoveries.)
<b>FOUR:</b> Doesn't the overtly anti-Hindu â not just anti-Hindutva â propaganda by non-Hindu groups, with a thinly veiled agenda of conversion of Dalits and tribals, harm communal harmony? (Recall last week's violent Muslim-Christian clash in Alexandria, Egypt, on the issue of conversions.)
<b>FIVE: </b>Which community is free of deficiencies within? And whose obligation is it to effect reforms in one's religion â that of its own followers or others?
LASTLY, does religious freedom include freedom to slander or belittle other religions, purportedly in the name of reservations? Let's ponder, honestly.
Write to sudheenkulkarni@expressindia.com
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