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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (115506)	9/22/2003 8:53:39 PM
From: kumar	Respond to of 281500

hogwash. eom.

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (115506)	9/23/2003 1:47:05 PM
From: k.ramesh	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Muslims are one among many groups of underprivileged in India. I think that is something we can agree upon. Just because you choose to see the world in Muslim non Muslim terms does not mean that it is so. eg. The Prime minister is a Hindu, but many in India probably support him because he is - gasp - a bachelor! (so less inclination towards corruption and nepotism!) Just like Americans will point out to Colin Powell, Michael Jordan etc. to prove lack of discrimination, India can point to the richest man in India and the head of the nuclear program - now President as prominent Muslims. But, yes Muslims are under represented in many fields, but so are Hindu's from non Brahmin classes. The group of people in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes(now Dalits) is around 25%. How has India chosen to address this problems? - Open and Constitution sanctioned Quotas, yes upto 50% of educational opportunities in Govt. Institutions and Govt. Jobs in the huge public sector are reserved for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Backward Castes (non Creamy layer). Has it worked? Possibly much better than in the US. where the mention of the word Quota - causes paroxysms. BTW. look for non creamy layer in Google. This was a result of a Supreme court ruling after riots (where else but prosperous Gujarat) against excessive quotas. Backward castes are really not all that backward economically, it turned out, so a ruling was made to exclude the well off among the BC's (creamy layer) from getting reserved goodies. You actually need a 'non creamy layer' certificate for certain job openings. Also it would be important to understand that Muslims in Eastern India & Bangladesh, converted long ago from the 'lower castes' to escape exploitation, and were not coerced by the muslim invaders as in North India. And Yes, Muslims from Bangladesh flock to India in larger numbers than Mexicans to the US - 20 million by some estimates (and have caused destabilizing demographic changes in some North Eastern States- like making it a Bengali or Muslim majority from non Bengali Hindu). Americans have learnt not to sterotype groups within this country, but have no qualms about categorizing huge swathes of humanity into convenient pigeonholes. Indian is just one of the labels worn by a sixth of humanity.