Kabir suggested that I apologise but for what, exactly? Why should Saffroniate be considered offensive? Own it. I don’t see anything inherently wrong with the idea of Akhand Bharat; the concept of a broader Dharmic civilisation makes eminent sense to me.
Likewise, I don’t understand why questioning caste identities provokes such sensitivity. Again, own it because the more caste is repressed, the more likely it is to resurface.
At heart, I’m a reformist, not a revolutionary. I believe in improving and refining what exists, not erasing it. Cultural features should only be abolished when they are truly harmful or deleterious, not simply because they make us uncomfortable.
The Commentariat are VERY blasé when they talk about Pakistan.
It’s not tit for tat but to thine oneself be true
I don’t think its too much to ask to at least attempt to be accurate and strive for objectivity regarding the complexity that YBNormal’s comment so clearly illustrates with examples.
Its absolutely fine to “discuss” caste, and criticize anything worthy of it. But when you start railroading folks with broad brushes, it creates the impression that its being done deliberately simply in order to coddle ruffled feathrs and ‘monkey balance’. This is a very unfortunate slippery slope and will not lead to anything good.
Pursuit of truth and facts should override ‘balance’. “to thine oneself be true” indeed.
Yes but what was precisely offensive.
Saffroniate, which is a humorous term.
The upper caste complexion of our readership base?
I am simply interrogating all avenues; I understand the readership has sensitivities but it is good to understand them.
I took Saffroniate as …a harmless poke. I’m not personally offended. But I did read repeated comments implying that the folks who were discussing caste and pointing out complexities in the one-note sweeping ‘critiques’ being shared, were being baselessly and a bit unfairly tagged as “upper caste/Brahmin/what have you”.
I’m personally ok if somebody calls into question my political leanings, or position on caste – provided said party is willing to accept clarifications in an objective, honest manner. But if it becomes a one-sided conversation, then I fear that the ‘balancing’ will lead to disillusionment and a disincentive to engage.
I think its dishonest if one is overly dismissive of the counterpoint that caste in India is a multi-facted complex issue. And that there are many Indias. It would be inaccurate to deny that there are many folks out there – like me, who were born and brought up in urban environs, where caste was simply a theoretical ethnicity marker, one that didn’t really carry much weight. Now are there other geographies/cultures where that’s absolutely not the case? I’m sure there are. But to dismiss my lived experience, as some sort of “upper caste privilege” is definitely inaccurate. And yes, a bit offensive.
Overall caste exogamy rates in India fall somewhere in the range of 4-7%, depending on which poll one looks at, who cares about individual anecdotes when we can look at the broader statistical picture of ground-level social reality?
Even taking 4%, that’s 40 million people. That’s an anecdote?
let’s close the loop, reply to the email 🙂
I mean, in the grand scheme of a country of 1.5 billion, it basically is. If we are just making high-level observations about Indian society we’re obviously going to be far more interested in what the 96% is doing, than in what the 4% is doing. Obviously, individual deviations can always exist, but these clearly are not representative of any broader sociocultural reality in India. The revealed preferences speak for themselves, Indians remain very much caste-conscious and identitarian in their basic worldview, across the board. I’m a big picture guy, I don’t waste my time reading effusive essays by shitlibs about how Islamic modesty culture is no longer a thing because some Saudi supermodel participated in Miss World last year.
I do think social media has liberalised the ethos
Each state has its very own hierarchy with different castes holding sway. In Maharashtra, the political capital is with the Marathas
The big difference with “political capital” being held by some Sudra Castes is that that it is not justified by ancient religious texts.
Why should Saffroniate be considered offensive? Own it.
I am quite happy to claim I am a Shudra, i.e. own it. Privileged, yes. Not because of caste. Because of historical reasons. Consolidated by my great grand father becoming a Anglican Christian from being a Hindu
In my opinion those who “want to get ahead” view religion no differently from a political party. Change it, when the wind blows the other way.
Another out of Topic
A doomsday outlook has led the climate community to focus **too much on near-term goals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases** that cause warming, diverting resources from the most effective things that can be done to improve life in a warming world, Gates said. In a memo released Tuesday, Gates said the world’s primary goal should instead be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
If given a choice between eradicating malaria and a tenth of a degree increase in warming, Gates told reporters, “I’ll let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria. People don’t understand the suffering that exists today.”
MY OPINION too. (wrote below in 2017)
First my personal opinion, I think whatever the consequences of increased human activity such as C02 emissions, increased population and deforestation are already baked into whats going to happen in the next 30-40 years. The consequences maybe (and its a big maybe) mitigated by actions now, but it will be 30-40 years before results will be seen. I’ll be dead by then, so I have decided not worry my little head over whether mitigating strategies will work or not, but to have exit strategies for probable outcomes.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/climate-change/bill-gates-climate-change-memo-rcna240225