From: krishnar@chopin.cs.unc.edu (Rajarama Krishnan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: reservation
Date: 23 Aug 92 15:03:08 GMT
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


As many people have already stated in this group, I also feel that reservation
ought to be based on economy and should not be caste-based. One thing I
noticed in IIT, most of the Brahmins who are there are upper-class or
atleast upper-middle-class Brahmins. This I guess holds for other colleges
as well. So I feel rather than basing reservation on caste it must be based
on the economy. Another thing reservation should be based on is Geography. I
remember reading somewhere (please dont ask me to give reference) that the
number of people per doctor in Urban areas in TN is about 600 whereas that
in rural areas 10000. Also incentive should be given to people who work in
rural areas particularly in professions like medicine. Though reservation in
principle should elevate the standard of the poor, it hasnt done any
justification to that. The standard of education in TN has been progressively
decreasing. Yet another tit-bit I read somewhere TN used to get almost 50% of
the top rankers in IAS before 1960. Nowadays it hasnt got even a single
top-ranker in several years. TN used to be one of the most industrious states
in India. Now it is very bad in this respect too. So something definitely
needs to be done about this. It definitely shouldnt continue the way it has
been continuing.

Someone once asked in the net how come there is no objection from the male
members about there being no objection at all about women getting reservation
in jobs etc. It is plainlyt because people feel that it is justified. There
is so much objection to caste-based reservation because of its gross
unfairness. Though it might be true that Brahmins have been a very privileged
lot for so many centuries, it not totally true now. I definitely agree that
Brahmins as a community is still very well-off when compared to most of the
other communities. But, this reservation affects not the rich Brahmins. It
affects the poor Brahmins who have to work to save their families just like
their non-brahmin counter-parts. Also it doesnt benifit the poor or rural
non-brahmins, it mostly benefits the urban, well-off non-brahmins who had
every facility their rich Brahmin conter-parts had. 

Also when attacking practices of Hinduism, try not to brand it as Brahminism.
Though Brahmins were the upholders of this religion for centuries, it is tough
not to get personal when someone is directly attacking your community.
Though many of youi keep saying that Brahminism is different from Brahmins,
atleast in spelling it comes too close to it. If your intention is to create
awareness of all the bad things that have been done our religion like sati,
animal sacrifice, gross inequality between castes, gross inequality between
sexes, please talk just about that and try to stop from saying things like
"Brahminism was responsible for this, that etc". Though you all migfht be
true in that, what is the point in fighting over what is gone. Spreading
awareness of these crimes without becoming personal will have much more
positive effect. Also try to judge individuals as individuals rather than
branding them under categories like "Brahmin", "Tamilian", "Hindu" etc.

I may be a Indian, a Hindu, a Brahmin, a Tamilian etc. But much more than any
of these I am myself, Rajaraman and would like to be considered only as such.

Thank you.

Rajaraman

ps. Please dont send me a mail from LTTE saying "Jihad! you would be killed".
I would be too scared. :) 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil