Great question. I am sure Google or Wikipeida will be no help for once

Consider what happened in India after the Tsunami disaster of a couple years ago, Divya. Higher castes were blocking relief from reaching the lower caste. Thats the ugly reality of the casteism that you are trying to justify:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/158/story_15877_1.html

“The killer tsunamis of December 26 washed away everything that people in southeastern coastal India held precious, but failed to obliterate deeply-divisive social caste lines. This rigid, inherited social hierarchy determines which victims are entitled to relief supplies and an opportunity to rebuild their lives. The dalits or “broken people” of southern Tamil Nadu state are doubly damned. They were battered by the tidal waves, and those who survived are being denied food, water, toilet facilities and space to recover in overcrowded relief camps, aid workers said Friday.”

You seem to be under the illusion that casteist India is a successful society that has everything together. It takes a seriously twisted mind to consider a casteist culture that has resulted in perennial defeats and enslavements, that is the most degraded and wretched on earth, as a success story and a shining model of social security!

Contrast this with the earthquake in Pakistan a couple of years ago. There too society is organized along caste/tribal lines. There was no rape or looting.

Funny to see you, Kush Tandon et al trying to exalt hindu brahminical casteism with examples from a muslim people! In Islam, charity towards your fellow muslim is one of the five pillars of the religion. It is a stark contrast to Brahminism. For you to use muslim tribals as an example of hindu casteism is obscenely dishonest. Casteism is not the equivalent of tribalism. And muslims are not hindus. Drill that into your skull.

. Since we’ve discussed pretty much everything here, I had one question: why can’t one get feni outside Goa? I think its one issue all Indians need to unite on.

Now, pass the feni

1. Very important, they are not called harijans anymore.
2. Your comment goes to show you don’t know jack about Tamilnadu. I grew up for the first 14 years of my life in a village in Tamilnadu. So dont tell me about tea shop glasses. your story when did it happen? like 50 years back?. Next Thevars belong to OBC category)one above SC and ST.
3. And most importantly who do you think runs the tea shops?? Thevars are way too powerful and rich to run tea shops despite their OBC category.
4. And when was the last time you had tea in a tea shop in a Tamilnadu village. Coz I had one last year and it was damn good.

And this is what you are defending?? Your mom and millions of other simple-minded hindus have been brainwashed by an irrational, immoral system that condemns them to a lower status simply by pedigree. And that actually makes perfect sense to you!

Why dont you explain why you/your mom are so convinced that there is “no question of being as good as a Brahmin”? What exactly makes the brahmins so superior? Since there is no test for “fitness” that they have to pass, how do you conclude that they are qualified for the status naive gullible hindus such as yourself are brainwashed into accepting?

I will respond to any reasonable critique of this post. But I do expect that you try to prove, rather than assume: • Caste system is bad/immoral • Caste system is the reason for degradation of Indian society • All humans are equal and should be treated equal, while the remaining species are subject to the law of the survival of fittest

Caste system is bad/immoral/degrading because it is unfair and inhumane. There is no evidence whatsoever that all brahmins are superior by birth to you and your mother. Or that you are superior to all sudras and dalits. Thats brainwashed idiocy, plain and simple.

If you really subscribe to the jungle law of “survival of the fittest” (again we see the nazi sympathies of these hindu fundoos) then why dont you fake jingos quit whining about brahminical/casteist India being regularly conquered by handfuls of foreigners. Indians of all castes must be unfit to survive in your ideal world then.

What do you think is the reason for the obvious degradation of hindu society if not brahminism/casteism?

Ok. I’ll concede that.

I have not heard of Goans storming the hinterland on New year’s Eve to “celebrate.”. You have to live thru the reverse scenario to see what an impact Hindi films has.