On Sunday 28 Sep 2008 12:17:39 am Ingrid wrote: > The discussions made us acutely aware of the > limitations of education of privilege. Most Shriram children did not even > know who dalits were. Many had not heard of the practice of untouchability. > A few claimed that caste was a system 'that prevailed only in ancient > times'.
This is really the fault of Indian historians and educators isn't it? Tecahing children about all the bad things about Indian society would also mean telling the truth about the manner in which the egalitarian religions battered their way into india. And how mosques are still being brought down in revenge for the temples destroyed then. It would mean teling the truth about "direct action day" in 1946 in which the Muslim league massacred Hindus and Sikhs in Calcutta followed by nationwide riots and murders of Muslims and non Muslims. It would mean telling the truth about a certain train in Godhra as well as its aftermath - rather than pretending that the train incident did not occur but the aftermath did. It would mean telling the truth about what Hindus really think of Muslims and what Muslims think of Hindus. But we are a secular country and we would not want to hurt the sentiments of our Muslim brothers would we? Why would we want to hurt the sentiments of any community? Better to lie and pretend that history does not exist and did not happen. I have a video on Youtube that contains clips of the massacre of some the 3 million or so killed by the Pakistani army in Bangladesh. An alumnus of my med college 20 years my junior was surprised to see the video and said he was unaware that such a massacre took place in Bangladesh. So much for education in India.. shiv
