True Face of India

[Southie]

Re: True Face of India

@Med911

Not to beat a dead horse, but I would make this one point. To be fair southie, this im sure is the response any intelligent educated Hindu would give. But what of uneducated and superstitious Hindus?

There are stories passed down from elders in our village of Hindus who would walk on opposite sides of the road in order to avoid their shadows mingling with those of Muslims. Or of those Hindus who if you went to their homes, would serve their Muslim guests on Palm leaves or the like and reserve the plates for their Hindu guests. Or they would fill their buckets on opposite side of the well to avoid mingling with the Muslims. So to many Hindus, perhaps not as well versed even their own faith, Muslims were often and perhaps still are considered to be among the lower caste, if unofficial.

There are those who draw up these fantasies of pre Partition India, as if we all lived together as brotherly as conjoined twins, but Religious discrimination was and is a very real thing.

Still though, you are right, baggage from the caste system is still prevalent among Pakistanis, especially among villages where everyone knows everyone else s family background. But beyond the villages, the anonymity of the city means many otherwise low caste clans etc do relatively well…

Med,

You are absolutely correct. There are biases that are handed down from generations. Especially in villages, lower caste folks are still discriminated against. As for the shadow part, my grandfather told me that was the case ~ 50 years ago. Things are not that bad now. Some folks (like my mother) are still stuck in the past. When you come home from the barber, you ae supposed to take a bath without touching anything in the house. Others are moving ahead with the times.

Especially in cities, anyone can go into any temple. We all rub shoulders with each other in trains buses etc.

I am not very knowledgeable about pre-partition days. But iy was and is still accepted that muslims make the best of friends and worst of enemies!)

IMO, at the root level, discrimination needs to be rooted out. That is the one thing that can hold us back. With education, other problems (even Kashmir) will solve themselves.

From reading your posts, I have known you as a progressive amongs Pakistanis. And have always respected your views (though I would like some softening of views in certain topics :))

Take care.