From: sridhar@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (Sridhar Venkataraman)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: soc.culture.tamil
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:28:19 GMT
Reply-To: sridhar@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Sridhar Venkataraman)
Followup-To: soc.culture.indian
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe AZ

Since this proposal of soc.culture.tamil has taken an interesting
turn, I will voice my points on it. Bear in mind that I am a Tamil.

bkannan@HA07.ENG.UA.EDU (Balaji Kannan) writes on soc.culture.indian:

)  My question is this. If there are Tamils on the net that feel it
)  would serve their interests better to discuss things  "closed
)  -door",so that they are not heckled by numerous private mails 
)  that request them to stop excessive use of a regional language,
)  why should they be dissuaded from doing so?

By all means go ahead. Since everything on Usenet is taken for free
and since everybody thinks that their newsgroup is for the asking, it
is no surprise that people keep crying for groups. BTW, what do you
think would differentiate s.c.t from s.c.i given the fact that this
proposal has taken the support of some people who mince no words when
referring to a caste. I am still wondering what your definition of 
"closed-door" is. 

)  Secondly, it is possible that Tamils (at least the ones
)  who have been requesting a separate newsgroup) do not find
)  their identities tied to sci, then where is the question of
)  requesting them to post articles on sci? (discounting for
)  the silent majority that might have such feelings). Their 
)  "pursuit of happiness" may well lie in having a separate 
)  newsgroup and in not having to go through the trouble of 
)  deleting all kinds of "junk" that has nothing to do with Tamil
)  and the Tamil-Sub-Culture. 

If you don't know what a moderated mailing list means ask your system
administrator. He can help you to set it up. Ignorance about setting
up a mailing list doesn't mean you have to start a Usenet group. If
you want to know about how successful a mailing list can be reading of
comp.dcom.telecom is recommended.

)                             It is possible that they have 
)  inhibitions about posting more freely on sci because of a 
)  need to give porportionate representation to the others.
)  Why should the Tamils of Srilanka, Malaysia, Australia
)  and Germany be forced to read articles about the Indian
)  Caste System, North/ South and East/West debates, about
)  the Nehru/Gandhi/Rajiv legacies if they think it is 
)  irrelevant to their culture(Most of the time this is
)  what goes on in SCI).

Hey, if I don't want to read articles on Hyderabad, do I ask those
folks to start a soc.culture.indian.hyderabad. This idea seems silly
at best. You can please all the people some of the time, some of the
people all the time but now all the people all the time. That is
Usenet. If you don't like it get off it. 

)  Subscription to sci does not preclude Ms. Shyamala or anyone
)  else from benifiting from postings on sct. Who is to
)  decide that since there is already a private newsgroup that 
)  caters to a particular language/culture/caste/religion started
)  by someone at Georgia Tech, that it should  stop with
)  just that?. Same holds for soc.culture.orissa, or soc.culture.
)  gujarati or soc.culture.bengali or soc.culture.bahai and so on.

Well, Well...On the same argument, who is to decide that these groups
should be formed? The proposals have to go through
news.announce.newgroups and you have 1 month to convince folks on
news.groups about the proposal. If you succeed, well and good. If you
don't, don't blame all the people who voted NO. 

)  Subscription to sci does not preclude Ms. Shyamala or anyone
)  else from benifiting from postings on sct or sco or scg.
)  Isn't this symptomatic of a imperialistic(only in this case
)  it is linguistic imperialism) design in wanting that a
)  subset/minority efface themselves to please an English/Mainstream 
)  issues loving majority of sci. To me, this burning desire to suppress
)  an unwilling minority,(Tamils who have been requesting a
)  separate newsgroup), epitomises a gross poverty in thinking.  

I don't want to get entangled in supporting or opposing anyone on this
aspect. If you want my opinions on this, it will known once the
official proposal comes up. 

)   (Any attempts to draw a parallel between what is beginning to
)   happen here on sci and what is happening back in India is only 
)   a result of a trick that our mind is playing on us.)

)   Balaji Kannan

Yes I am a tamilian and oppose soc.culture.tamil. 

Sridhar.