On Dec 12, 2007 8:45 PM, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wednesday 12 Dec 2007 1:16 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > With the unbridled faith in science, technology and economic growth that > > seems to have gripped the middle classes, some critical reflection on > > India's current development trajectory is in order -- which is precisely > > what sociologists (and others) are supposed to be good at. Yet they do not > > often enough air their views, or their knowledge, in public. > > Carol your study was itself an eye opener. You showed how the IT boom was > restricted largely to the forward castes. You were bold enough to mention the > unmentionable "R" word that can earn you a fatwa -"reservation!! > > As you pointed out (and as was mentioned in an article that I Googled) Engilsh > rules the airwaves. People who use English in India get heard the most and > their views are echoed and amplified by the dominance of the anglosphere > courtesy the US of A. > > I have often felt (with no proof whatsoever) that the old (pre-independence) > cliches about India, many of them negative, were based on interaction of > foreign visitors and invaders with the upper castes of India. If you exclude > ancient Indian literature, the narratives of India that exist are the > narratives of the upper castes of India and their attitudes and habits. You > will not find, for example, a narrative of a "chamar" or a "bhangi", or even > a "mochi" - a word that caused recent uproar for being used in a Bollywood > song. I have no way of verifying this theory- there is no independent > corroboration that I know of. > > But if that is true, it only adds on to another possible anomaly that can be > verified if someone bothers to do that. > > I spoke of the way the views of the Indian anglophones are propagated and > amplified. But a question that has always puzzled me is whether anyone has > ever done a caste distribution study of Indian immigrants in the US. I > suspect, without proof, that they are likely to be predominantly Indians of > forward caste descent. If there is a correlation between Indian > English-speakers and forward caste, we may be hearing a narrative of India > that excludes the 95% of Indians by virtue of their lack of English that also > correlates with a complete absence of serious information about the state of > lower castes, non English speakers and the poor. > > In other words, there may be a complete dysjunction between what is said and > discussed in the English media and issues on the ground in India. I would > consider this a serious social anomaly. > > shiv
That was very thought-provoking and I am going to mull that over...this perspective had never occurred to me before...who the chroniclers were, and are... Ironic that English has to be the link language and is yet a sharp divider of the "haves" and "have-nots", whether it is a bank balance or education or access to information that the "haves" have. But I suppose that is true everywhere in the English-speaking world? Deepa. > > > > >
