To Goanet - Valmiki Faleiro wrote: >The 'Times of India' article at the link below makes >interesting reading. Pretty sure Rajan Parrikar wouldn't >find a common thread between the national trait and >Goa! > >http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/LEADER_ARTICLE_We_Do_Things_Differently/articleshow/2908280.cms
Valmiki-bab, Very quickly - I skimmed through the TOI article. As soon as I saw the author was from JNU and a sociologist to boot, I knew we would be wading in hooey. The Western standards of personal hygiene and civic cleanliness are relatively recent. Up until the mid-nineteenth century, Europe was a filthy sty. Personal habits were abysmal - the number of times King Louis XIV bathed in his entire life is said to be less than 10. Ladies thought nothing of relieving themselves publicly at his social functions (if I correctly recall, he once slipped on urine and broke a bone or two). Garbage would be tossed out of windows onto the streets and so on. There are books written on the evolution of Western hygiene and standards of cleanliness. And oh - at the beginning of the 20th C there was a public call to people in England to bathe at least once a week, in which it was pointed out that "even the benighted Indians take bath once a day." To which an Englishman responded: "Since the Indians are unclean to begin with they need to take frequent baths whereas we don't." Quotes above paraphrased from memory. Regards, r