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On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, Dr. Jose Colaco wrote:
In the mean time, it appears that the Andaman Islands topic was glossed
over. Mr. Thomas, I put it to you AGAIN. In your considered opinion, Is India a colonial power in the Andamans? If you believe, it is not, Grateful if you would provide some insight into WHY you think it is not.
The Andamans *is* a serious issue for India to grapple with; it deals with the question of how an aboriginal people quite different from the 'mainstream' in a multi-ethnic nation (in this case, from a completely different ethnic group) are dealt with.
Many other countries (including the Americas, including the 'West Indies', and Australia and New Zealand) have to face up to similar concerns. Various approaches have been adopted, some successful, others not.
India obviously needs a more-enlightened approach towards treating its diversity, if it is to avoid its costly Punjabs and Kashmirs, and is to be considered something different from the approach it bequeathed from British colonialism.
The issue has got some attention in India, but obviously far from sufficient. Another issue that has come in for greater debate is the manner in which the ecology of the Andamans are being severely impacted.
Incidentally, the Andamans isn't India's only problem area. It would have been interested to have a full-length discussion on this issue here, but one is loathe to give South Asia/India/Goa-bashers like Dr JC another handle!
Contrary to what Dr JC suggests from his obviously restricted understanding of the media here, such articles are put out regularly, specially in more outspoken publications such as Tehelka, Outlook, Indian Express and the like. In this, the Indian media seems to have followed more the 20th century British self-critical tradition, rather than the Portuguese (don't try to put all the blame on Salazar alone!) approach of nostalgia (or Lusostalgia) over the past.
Good for both the media (helps with credibility) and the country (doesn't help to sweep such issues under the carpet, as economist Amartya Sen has argued in another context).
What we however surely don't need is all this gratutious advice from someone sitting half-way across the globe, and obviously going on like the proverbial broken-record about the Andamans.
Interestingly, Dr JC's fixation with the Andamans doesn't seem to come one iota from a concern of what's happening to the people or the ecology there, but rather since this is a cheap way of scoring points in his India-is-terrible-after-1947 and Goa-has-collapsed-after-1961 viewpoints.
Sorry for saying it so bluntly, but this has been going on for simply too long and it needs to be said. Apart from the Andamans, the Siddis, Raulistic revisions, and blaming the journalists for everything going wrong in the State of Goa (I'm no fan of the way the media works here, but JC's understanding is way off target and his criticism is obviously motivated!) what else does he have to base his arguments on?
Guess I can expect a barrage of mocking replies, further twisted questions, and issues that take the debate into a never ending string of accusations and counter-accusations. Last word to you; I've had my say. -FN
