From: banerjee@hsc.usc.edu (Samit Banerjee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: (misleading) Indian Express Advertisement re: RJB
Date: 28 Jan 1993 07:17:24 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: hsc.usc.edu

ghosh@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Sanjoy Ghosh) writes:

>Where would we poor humble peasants be without your indulgence.  Even
>the Good Lord himself could not be more charitable.  So please let your
>good humour shine at least till the end of the week.

Actually your bucolic fawning coupled with your servile attitude is
wholly undeserving of any divine benefaction. As for my own self imposed
abstinence from flaming, it may not last very long. Patience has never
been a hinderance in my dealings with the inane, arcane or asinine displays 
of downright ignorance. Now that you have been warned, save the "I told you
so" smug cliche for another time.

>Do I think that?  Did I ever say I think that?  Such feats of intelligence
>are beyond me.

Ok, but only if you insist. Let it not be said by posterity, that I stiffled
your creativity by making disparaging remarks about your intelligence.


>>So far so good. A bit far fetched perhaps, but that's probably
>>your style. 
>
>The flame-thrower at your fingertips itching to get off the leash.

Wonderful, my dear Watson. How did you guess I was getting tired of an
bantering, frivolous, substanceless, argumentative and unproductive 
discussion? You would have to be quite clairvoyant to pick up such 
subtle signs.

>Again to repeat an earlier argument, by your reasoning
>it would be okay to say that India is a Hindu country.  As you know,
>better than me ofcourse, that is not true.  India is a secular country.

There we go again. Time for Lesson #2 in civics.  

Secularism in the Indian context refers to the seperation of church and
state or simply means that the Govt. is equally indifferent to all
religions. Calling a country Hindu or Muslim does not refer to what the
majority religion may be in that country....it refers to the fact that
the Government is run according to Hindu or Muslim or Christian tenets.
The two may or may not be the same and the distinction as far as I am 
concerned is quite important.


>I am not sure what you mean.  If you mean, would I agree that non-K
>m/s/c can not own property in K.  Yes I would.  But I don't think
>I would complain.  Simply because I don't want K to turn into another 
>Assam.  But I digress.

No, please expostulate on your views, O 'Learned One. Tell us why or why
not Assam can go the Kashmiri way. Since I hold a somewhat dissimilar 
view, this might make for an interesting discussion, afterall.

>>I must still point out
>>that statistically speaking, you are arguing a lost case.
>
>The Law does not speak statistically.

Laws are made based on statistics and cases are argued based on precedent.
That is legal jargon for statistics. What has happened in the past 
influences a judge or jury as much as the merits of the actual case.
To argue otherwise is naive, to defend that argument, ignorance.

>Excuse me.  Reading the reports on sci, of people returning from Bombay 
>in the past few days, I would hardly call them imaginary ghosts.  And
>if you are planning to be in Bombay anytime soon, I would not call the
>Shiv Sena paper tigers.

My, my what flights of fancy. Next you would have us believe that the 
average Shiv Sainik reads SCI after his morning ablutions, puts in his
fair share of posts and flames, attempts to conserve bandwidth and the
environment and then after having satiated his thirst for the standard
liberal messages floating around, dons his trishul and calmly kills 
a couple of muslims/tamils/or whatever else that is on the menu for that 
day. 

Phu-lease, get real. And while you are at it, you are excused from SCI.

>No?  What would you call Mao's Cultural Revolution.  But then I digress
>again.

Actually a poor example but nonetheless serves to illustrate what 
education is not about. It is not about the lack of choice, the teching
of dogma, and inability to think and analyze, except when confronted
with the barrel of a gun. The CR actually changed little educationally
in China other than the killing of intellectuals who were branded 
enemies of the people. "Red star over China" by Adam White who happened
to be with Mao during his Long March and  afterwards details this purging
of the "bourgeois intelligensia" even as history books were changed to
obliterate references to Chiang-ki-shek.


>>Not if you quote me out of context and make thinly veiled attempts at
>>ascribing incorrect political identities.
>
>Again, irrelevant in either case.

Am I missing something here, or is your circuitry malfunctioning and
spewing forth the same irrelevant one liner, each time. Maybe it's time 
for that yearly overhaul.
-- 
Samit Banerjee,			    |  
University of Southern California   |  A man who smiles when things go wrong,
Internet: banerjee@scf.usc.edu      |  has found somebody to blame it on.
Bellnet : (213) 342-1401            |  
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,sci.history,soc.culture.indian.telugu