On Sat July 8 2006 03:08, Thaths wrote: > Why doesn't > the article come out and say that the Dalits say that they are being > kept out of the festival and the officials deny this?
The article does say that, but I believe the issue itself may not be as simple and "black and white" as you have made it out to be - which would explain the vagueness of the language. The "dalit cause" in India is rarely taken up to do anything good for dalits - it is usually a political stunt to pull someone else down. The one fact that gets drowned out in all the shouting about dalits is that India can broadly be described as having three levels of caste related heirarchy 1) Forward castes (these are not just Brahmins, but many others as well) 2) Middle castes (some of whom are described as "other backward castes") 3) The outcastes - mlecchas - untouchables or dalits classified as SC/ST A lot of groups, Indian and non Indian have traditionally come down heavily on the "forward castes" for discrimination, completely ignoring the fact that middle caste groups are often vicious in their discrimination against dalits. The focus has been less on pulling up dalits and more on pulling down forward castes. The "winners" have been the middle castes who get to vilify the forward castes while they continue to discriminate and use the advantages that dalits deserve. In the long term - I see a political coinciding of interests of forward castes and dalits. Besides,the majority of "forward caste" members of silk-list whom I know personally display behavior which would instantly disqalify them from forward caste status. Their forwqard caste tag comes from family ties and governmental requirements that brands them as forward caste.
