From: kumarv@blaze.rutgers.edu (kumar vadaparty)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian.telugu
Subject: Caste Discussions on SCIT
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:15:42 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <3552@creatures.cs.vt.edu>, juvvadi@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Ramana R. Juvvadi) writes:
> In article <1047@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu> chemsn@emory.edu (Sreehari Nimmala) writes:
>
> >probably(knowingly or unknowingly) trying to bring the topic of
> >"caste" into this group, and I strongly feel that is very
> >unhealthy.
> 
> I am not sure keeping mum and wishing it away is going to
> solve any problem. Casteism is a problem in our society and that should
> be dealt with by discussing it in detail. Why are we so jittery about

I agree with Nimmala Sreehari that a discussion on Castes is
unhealthy. But to who? To the newsgroup. I used to think like JVR
(Ramana R. Juvvadi) that an open discussion will go a long way; until
such open discussions started on SCI. The newsgroup is now dead as far
as I am concerned for making intelligible discussions on anything. So
low SNR (signal to noise ratio) that you can hardly hear. I nowadays
go by the author's name in the postings of SCI; obviously no new
author can impress me with his views -- simply because I dont read new
authors. I just can not take the risk of reading 50 postings a day.

> The issue is explosive and it requires writers of extreme balance,
> judgement, articulation and courage. But caste system is an important

Precisely! And, let me venture (at the expense of being flamed
excoriated, flailed and what not) to say that Indians AS A COLLECTIVE
GROUP do not have it (i.e., judgement, articulation, etc.), and
Andhras as a group never exhibited it.  I ask you to put forward
half-a-dozen writers in Telugu or English (the only languages I read
literature in) who expressed in good detail, but balanced detail, any
sensitive issue.  Koku and Gurajada and Kandukuri apart, I can not
recall any. Even gurajada and kandukuri were not explicit. Gurajada
was subtle and sarcastic, kandukuri was more preaching. RKnarayanan
comes close, but he hardly criticizes; he makes fun of.

> fact of our life and 'Glasnost' would go a long way in dismantling
> it than secrecy, silence, cliches and platitudes.
> 
> >---Sree

I agree. But, do we have enough gorbys with the courage and the
balance to do this? My guess is that just like America waited until
sixties to discuss about sex, we probably need to wait until another
twenty years to even openly discuss about caste system. Unfortunate,
but true.

Nevermind castesystem; just regionalism: I often was told by my
friends of Vijayawada origin (brahmins, kammas, kapus, and what have
you (the castenames arranged alphabetically)) that their telugu is the
best, and that the pandits of telugu originated from there. When I
confronted them with tons of details of Telugu history (both modern
and traditional) questioning about the so-called contribution from
Vijayawada (which there is, but not known to them), they remained mum.
They dont even know how many people together wrote the first telugu
translation of Mahabharatam, nevermind the subtilities. The moment I
say I come from Vizag, immediately, they say "Oh! YOu dont have vizag
accent" as if everybody in Vizag speaks like a "Jalari". Even if so, I
could not care less. But it is this supiriority complex combined with
the total ignorance of history that pisses me off! I witnessed such
discrimination by my friends on people from Telangana -- that their
telugu is not pure. I am sure JVR witnessed it too! But why? Because,
the whole attitude is "In order to prove that I am better than you, I
need to insult you, and what better way than appealing to your
origins, linguistic or geographic or casteistic" This sucks. plain and
simple. Unless we get rid of this, and try to recognize the relative
merits of each other, we can hardly participate in a productive
discussion on sensitive issues.

So, Ramana, if you want to talk about Casteism, you are risking both
low SNR ratio and enormous mudslinging. I know I am coping out; but
this seems more pleasant option than draining your emotions.

> 
> Ramana

kumar.
-- 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian.telugu