Dear Senthil I could read your mail only today. One point I would like to make is that one does not need magnanimity to condemn an evil like witch hunting. One only needs an ethical conscience to condemn things as they exist today or as they have existed in the past. For example, the caste and devadasi systems might have been different in the past. But an ethical conscience tells one that today they are extremely unjust systems and have to be changed in favour of justice to all. I went through the link you have given but I am not impressed by it because I have done a deep study of witch hunting and the Spanish inquisition. This link, like so many others, puts many instances together without looking at their relationship. In any case I do not need this link to say that witch hunting and the inquisition were acceptable. The same conscience tells me the caste and devadasi systems are unacceptable today whatever their past.
Walter Dr Walter Fernandes Director, North Eastern Social Research Centre 110 Kharghuli Road (1st floor) Guwahati 781004 Assam, India
