Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: arun gera who wrote (42700)	5/24/2002 3:00:58 PM
From: Joe S Pack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Arun, >>>All those explorers came to the "sub continent" in search of spice and other wealth> I didn't hear of native americans being called red sub-continentals. <<< >>> the concept of India is created by British for administrative purpose and hence there was no country called India to begin with.> You mean the Moghuls did not have any administration? << >Let us not talk about Mahabaratha and Ramayan. Those things have as many immoral (by our modern standard) and inhuman things as moral values.> I was not talking about Mahabharat and Ramayan in terms of their religious or moral value. Just to show that even in ancient epics that were probably written at least 2500 years ago, there is a geographical and cultural entity which you may call India or Bharat or whatever you want. Examples. Gandhari, the mother of Kauravas, is from Gandhar (hence her name) or better known as Kandahar these days. Krishna is born in Brindawan near Agra and becomes the King of Dwarka, which is in Gujarat. In the Ramayana, the exiled King Rama travels all over India to ultimately fight with Ravana, the King of Lanka (Sri Lanka). >I am now reading a small version of Mahabaratha (to my 7 year old son got from one of the leading cultural schools) and it immediately made me realize how horrible they are (as portrayed by that book) to read to kids.> You may find that kinds of horribleness in any of the ancient epics such as Homer's Odyssey. For kids you are better off with reading them Panchtanra. > It talks about untouchability, revenge, cunningness and what not.> The whole book is setup for the big war (which is what "Mahabharat" is - "The Big Indian War"). Revenge, cunningness, righteousness. Good ingredients for any literature. >Though the final outcome is good winning over bad, but the way in which the end is achieved teachs all immoral ways to reach the end.> You forget to mention that each character in the book who ever commits an immoral act ends up paying for it, even if the papback is in a reincarnation. There is no escape! :-) >What moral values are we teaching with Mahabarath when one lady is a common wives for 5 brothers? > Look I am not an expert on Mahabharat, but please go deeper than that. You did not notice that each of the brothers is an allegory for one of the qualities of a complete human being. Yudhishthar, the eldest is Dharmaraj, or the Righeous One. Arjuna is the the skilled warrior. Bhima signifies strength. And the younger two signify sensitivity. Every woman know how hard it is to find all the qualities in one man! :-) Again you noticed that one lady is a common wife of 5 brothers and didn't see that multiple wives seem to be allowed in the Mahabharat, and in many cultures and religion. I think the 5 husbands is a good literary construct in Mahabharat to jolt the reader into an alternative way of thinking.<<< >Both Mahabaratha and Ramayan is filled with the odor called Brahminism. > Can't deny the brahminism. Much of the ancient literature in India, such as the vedas, was developed before the creation of writing. The society was divided into various castes with one caste , the brahmins, who were responsible for passing the collective knowledge and literature to future generations. The recording was done by memorizing. This answers all questions about the evil called Brahminism. You say that they are responsible for passing knowledge. So, we can interpret from this what they chose to pass and what they forgot to pass. Despite all their control on passing knowledge to all others, they couldn't entirely suppress the odor and is still leaking for generations. It seems you are getting confused with fictional epics and literary constructs with real history and facts. You also nicely glibed over questions about moral values and asked me to look deeper. This is the standard cop out answer given when pointed to out all immoral things. I don't think if a sixteen year old girls asks me that question (how come one wife being kept by 5 guys? or multiple wives for one guy ) I cannot tell her to look deep other than saying that that's how those barbarians lived thousands of years back and those moral values do not apply to our civilized current society. So does their narrow minded castism and their desire to keep it up a any cost. But I am glad that you agreed to the central point of the entire discussion about the odor called castism created via Brahminism. I hope like every culture it will also change and become civilized. Regarding India as a country before Independence, even moguls had to conquer a lot of kingdoms as did British. It was not a single country before and even Nehru agreed to this point. And that is why they had to annex and integrate 100s of Kingdoms and princely states after Independence to enjoy economic exploitation by maintaining castism. You are getting confused with the origin of the word India (Indus river, Indus valley civlization) with "Bharat". They are not the same but that is how they are being portrayed by the status quo. -Nat