Give the dog a bad name and then hang it is the usual practice. You take for granted that missionaries are only working on the caste issue and are exploiting it. It is those who are interested in justice who are working on the caste issue and they are from different religious background. We work for equality on all issues and not merely for temple entry because caste is a social problem in all religious groups in India. So we do not have to treat it as a religious issue of Hindus and treat it as an internal matter. Temple entry is one of the cases of injustice as such it is not merely an internal matter of Hindus. Secondly, temple entry is not the only issue in caste. So we do not have to be on the defnesive and ask people to keep off.
Waler Dr Walter Fernandes Director, North Eastern Social Research Centre 110 Kharghuli Road (1st floor) Guwahati 781004 Assam, India
