From: dsr@balboa.eng.uci.edu (D.Sreenivasa Rao)
Subject: Re: On the birth of Andhra Pradesh (was Re: I HATE TAMILS)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 22 Aug 92 23:14:37 GMT


kumar@ug.cs.dal.ca (kumar yelubandi) writes : 
>>
>>              What do you want to do about it?  Morally, the Dravidians
>>              [O.K I'll stick to Tamizhs] should not feel a part of India.
>>              [to be ruled by North Indians]
>>
>>              Morally, Brahmins have no business in Dravidaland.
>>              Rather looking at it today, I would say morally Telugus
>>              had no business to enter Madras. Morally, they should not
>>              have been given a safe haven in what is T.N today.
>>              
>>              Nor should they be allowed to enter Madras[T.N] in the future
>>              because they'd become a Majority.
>>
>>
>     Cheers, Balaji.  *raises beer mug*
>     When will people realize that ethnic purification, and
>     borders erected for the purpose of ethnic purification, 
>     are -and always have been- the most important weapons
>     in the oppression of human beings by other human beings.
>     It is sad that any borders should exist at all but for
>     management purposes, ie. one can't eat a whole pie in 
>     one bite; it must first be cut into manageable pieces.


   Equating the formation of linguistic states in India to 
   ethnic purification is an outrageous distortion, to say 
   the least. (Either that, or you had too many beers...:-)
   Self-determination is the oldest craving of mankind, and 
   if something is going blatantly wrong, it is a natural 
   reaction to stand up and cry foul. In the Madras Presidency,
   for example, 40% of the population, 52% of the area and 
   more than 40% of the revenues were coming from Andhra dts. 
   (figures in 1932, I don't think they were significantly
   different between 1947-53). Does it not sound a little too
   unfair that you take my revenue and put the money somewhere
   else? Ever heard of the saying "sommokaDidi, SOkokaDidi"? 
   Howelse would you explain the lack of any infrastructure
   in Andhra districts, not even educational institutions? There
   was pure neglect of this region, the communication gap arising
   out of language differences was making any assimilation almost
   impossible. In the Guindy Engg. college, for example, each 
   Andhra dt. was allotted only *two* seats, while there was no
   such limit for students from tamil-speaking regions. Madras
   Medical college was even worse. (These two are experiences of
   my family members, you can consider them authentic). If you 
   think such discrimination deserves nothing but inaction, well, 
   you are not in very good company. Although your concern seems  
   to be more on the lines of "why dig it up all now?", I would 
   still disagree for the simple reason that such a view would  
   amount to running away from history. 

   True, borders should exist for nothing more than management 
   purposes. But managemant of what, and by whom? Let the people 
   being managed decide that; they are quite capable.


--sreenivas--                                             [8/22/92]