Re: Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 07:41:34 -0400 From: Jose Colaco <cola...@gmail.com> To: "goa...@goanet.org" <goa...@goanet.org> Subject: [Goanet] Was Candeth a racist?
The Indian Constitution prohibits discrimination against its citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex.... (Article 15) Is it true that Gen Candeth issued an order in 1961/1962 relating to WHITE Portuguese? If so, does the Indian Constitution allow discrimination on the basis of Race against non-citizens? Or .... Was Gen Candeth just a racist? Or ...are we all racists and don't own up to it? jc ................ The Indian Constitution itself is 'racist', since it grants a separate, and protective, status to Anglo-Indians, a category that can only be described as being constructed on 'racist', or at least 'ethnicist' terms since it is based on particular lineage, in casu 'European descent'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian It would not surprise me if Jose Colaco himself belonged to that category. 'Racism-in-reverse', especially towards 'whites' is a very complex and little discussed issue. But ever since the XVth century and the age of the discoveries, the 'white race' has not only considered itself superior but has also been widely considered as such by other, and I am not certain it happened entirely by its own doing. By now, the "sceptered race" (*) is slowly losing its shine, and I have witnessed myself this steady erosion of status in India, which is possibly influenced by an influx in large numbers of people perceived as 'white trash' - usually of Slavic origin. (I remember reading an article on the phenomenon, in Africa, but can't find it back). Anyway, to go back to General Candeth, he probably was merely going by the customs of his time: 'you do not touch whites'. Cheers from happy, multicultural Oslo (not always) p+5-3D! (*) -Walter Savage Landor, on the grave of Rose Aylmer, Calcutta