On Tuesday 21 Apr 2009 10:11:30 pm Zainab Bawa wrote: > Some pretty radical dislocations are required i.e. traditions > and paradigms that challenge the hegemonic beliefs of religion, identity > and property.
An understatement. I am in the middle of a radical exercise to assess the psyche and measure levels of bigotry in an admittedly small sample of a predominantly educated, non resident Indian Hindu crowd. This group accuse all Muslims of living in a blinkered world out of which it is difficult or impossible to dislocate them. However - sufficient prodding shows that the exact mirror image of those attitudes exist among these people too with no insight and therefore a complete inability to change their viewpoint or see things in a different light. To me the most interesting thing is the presence of these attitudes among people who otherwise imagine that they are liberalism's gift to humankind. In the last two or three days (perhaps yesterday) I was reading a newspaper article (Times of India or Deccan Herald) about how "us and them" atitudes are introduced very early in pre-school life and that teachers in schools need to be taught how to handle with care. I tried to locate that article - but I haven't found it yet. Even Google uncle has been unable to help. shiv
