Dears The first sentence of the most influential book of the most influential Indian of the last 139 years is: "The Gandhis belong to the Bania caste and seem to have been originally grocers." Was M. K. Gandhi vomiting in public?
I don't think so. Gandhi knew very well that caste was the most important aspect of an Indian's life. I am pretty certain that he chose to be very very upfront in this matter by being quite open about his origins. However he also chose to upset the caste hierarchy by personally doing the work of a toilet cleaner, the lowest caste in the Indian caste system. And as a leader, he chose to lead by not telling everybody else to follow his example, but by insisting first that his own wife and family should first to follow his example. I bring up this matter because worthies of the order of Jose Colaco and Cecil Pinto appear to be very embarrassed, uncomfortable and uneasy if the question of one's ethnic origins and past happen to be brought up. The issue arose because Elizabeth Carvalho aka Selma has created quite a stir by being explicit, and graphically explicit, about her roots. I think that to understand what she is up to, you have to understand that those who will publicly proclaim to being very 'modern' and who will deny that they are casteist or communal or sectarian in any way; are precisely this, if one merely scratches the surfaces of their skins. And that they will subtly and happily pass snide remarks about the origins of others, to explicitly affirm their superiority in private, but also implicitly in public through their choices of what they find offensive and what they are comfortable with. I think that if bringing up one's personal details is helpful in confronting such prejudices is helpful, then one has every right to do so. If there is anything we should hold against Selma it is that she is a verbose bore. Cheers Augusto -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350