GL responds: I don't know how this discussion is related to the above title. It does not even apply to what is the custom in Goa? (Which I do not know!)
However the courts in the case below are not addressing 'the child's future'. The courts are addressing: Can a child deemed an upper caste (and perhaps lived the live of an upper caste) legitimately represent and serve the people of the lower caste. Further of course the court recognizes caste and in fact Indian law recognizes caste. That is why there are reserved seats whether it is for political represention or education or jobs, etc. People are known to work round the intention and spirit of the law to suit their own purpose. And others use the rules to their convenience. This is like the Goan school-drop-out who gets a preferential beachside shack then rents it to a bhailo to run it while the drop-out continues to be KIPPERS (kids in parent's pockets eroding retirement savings). At the last Illinois senate election in the USA, a republican / conservative 'afro' candidate (previously a presidential candidate, UN representative and considered an intellectual) accused his rival of 'not being black enough'. (The father was black Tanzanian and mother was white American). When asked to explain, he said that his opponent (even though consider himself 'afro' and married to an 'afro' girl) had not gone through 'the slave understanding' that US blacks experienced. Of course that lame explanation backfired and he lost pretty badly! Venantius J Pinto: The case below is interesting and is also politically motivated. Although, the court says that the child is entitled to the fathers caste; it should not immediately follow that the court is insistent-- that the child's future, be determined by accepting the ruling prima facie. The courts way of approaching the case is also a way of saying that caste does play a role in ones life. This leads to all kinds of further questions. TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2005 02:46:13 AM ] NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has ruled that a child born out of wedlock is entitled to his or her father's lineage. By holding this in a petition involving the caste status of a legislator elected from a reserved constituency in Andhra Pradesh, a Bench of Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justices G P Mathur and P K Balasubramanyan upheld an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment which had set aside the election of TDP candidate Sobha Hymvathi Devi. She had contested the 1999 assembly election from the Sringavarapukota constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes on the ground that her mother belonged to the Bagatha community, a notified ST community. Gangadhara Swamy, who lost to Sobha, had challenged her election on the ground that she did not belong to the Bagatha community. >----- Cip Fernandes: QUESTION The children of Hindu parents, (one is Brahmin and the other is Sudra), what caste these children inherit? ... and why? Just curious,
