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"We poor majority Hindus are being marginalised by the minority in India in the name of secularism." (Note that in India around 80% of the population is Hindu,

"We poor majority Hindus are being marginalised by the minority in India in the name of secularism." (Note that in India around 80% of the population is Hindu, and the minorities are less than 20%). The sophistry of argument is interesting here when it is claimed that lower caste Hindus cannot setup their own exclusive schools, while the minorities can (the right-wing claims this as "discrimination" introduced in the name of secularism). Funnily, such demands for a caste-exclusive institutions have always come from certain upper-caste dominated religious right-wing in India, who actually look down on the lower caste in India and don't socially interact with them unless they absolutely have to. They yearn for the days were every caste was educated by their own community, thus "preserving the purity" of the caste system (which is part of the Hindu religious system). With such a mindset, it is quite understandable why they would like to set up "exclusive and pure" schools that is only for their caste community. Caste discrimination continues to be a huge problem in India, and it should be thus quite obvious why the government of India has no interest in allowing such exclusive caste-based schools - it can lead to caste ghettoization that would just prolong and make the evils of caste discrimination worse. Hindus can absolutely setup their own private schools and colleges in India, but it cannot be "exclusively Hindu" or some "caste exclusive" only institution. But this is true for minority run institutes too - they can only allocate 50% of the seats to students of their community, while the remaining 50% has to be filled with students from other community. Apart from this 50% seats for their own community, they are also given more autonomy to run their institutions. Why are they so allowed? The indian state believes that minorities rightly have a concern that they can be deprived of educational opportunities as the majority hugely outnumber them. Thus, to allay this fear the constitution grants them the protection and privilege of running their own institutions which can be exclusively for their community to a certain extent, with more autonomy (which implies less interference from a "majority" run government). Since any Hindu can start and run a school or a college, and thanks to the nature of India's population, it is guaranteed to be filled with more than 50% Hindus, we can rightly guess that the real issue that the Hindutva right-wing have is: - They can't run castiest schools. - They have issues with the "extra" autonomy granted to minority run institutes. I have already addressed why India doesn't allow castiest institutes. On autonomy in minority institutes, it should be clear that this constitutional guarantee of autonomy is what prevents those in power from interfering in the affairs of minority run institutions (and was added in the constitution for precisely such a purpose - to protect the minorities from abuse by an unsympathetic majority in power). This kind of fair balancing of the rights of the minorities, which the majorities are expected to defend and uphold, is what is attacked in the name of "flawed secularism".

quetzthecoatl 6y ago
>The sophistry of argument is interesting here when it is claimed that lower caste Hindus cannot setup their own exclusive schools, while the minorities can (the right-wing claims this as "discrimination" introduced in the name of secularism). Funnily, such demands for a caste-exclusive institutions have always come from certain upper-caste dominated religious right-wing in India, who actually look down on the lower caste in India and don't socially interact with them unless they absolutely have to. They yearn for the days were every caste was educated by their own community, thus "preserving the purity" of the caste system (which is part of the Hindu religious system). With such a mindset, it is quite understandable why they would like to set up "exclusive and pure" schools that is only for their caste community. Somehow I missed addressing this in my other comment. So.. Not at all what I said. Anyway, I will make another effort hoping that you misunderstood instead of willfully distorting what i said. The lower caste hindus are poor and marginalized. They have no land, no money and no connections. Their only way for social upliftment is through education. No education, no social mobility. Now this is the base for my argument. As a dalit who has escaped from the system due to a combination of sheer luck and having parents who sacrificed their life for me, I want to setup schools just for dalits - to give it back to my community (for sure others won't). Where I am from, it's all dalits, upper caste hindus and muslims - with upper caste hindus and muslims being well off by margins you can't think off. There is zero reason for me to even think of schools for them. It's amazing how you think you should have the right to run your own schools but the marginalized shouldn't. That is precisely bigotry from your fundamentalist believes. Especially against poor who were oppressed and are still oppressed and marginalized. I also want to address your concern trolling of lower castes. If the upper castes wants to setup schools just for them, let them! parsis, sikhs, jains, muslims, christians already do. Don't worry about us. I also want to point out your logic of using concerns about upper caste doing something to discriminate lower castes. I am yet to meet a single "secular" (for lack of better term) who advocates for adding the lower castes into minority list. Until then, I see through your concern trolling. Everyone of us do. Do better. As for purity, there is only one state called "the land of the pure" - which was created more or less based on your on reasoning that the mere existence of hindus on equal foot is threatening, and hence there should be a separate country altogether. Every single one of your argument is - "Hindus must be contained, and thus must be discriminated and oppressed to do that". It's textbook bigotry.

quetzthecoatl 6y ago

>The sophistry of argument is interesting here when it is claimed that lower caste Hindus cannot setup their own exclusive schools, while the minorities can (the right-wing claims this as "discrimination" introduced in the name of secularism). Funnily, such demands for a caste-exclusive institutions have always come from certain upper-caste dominated religious right-wing in India, who actually look down on the lower caste in India and don't socially interact with them unless they absolutely have to. They yearn for the days were every caste was educated by their own community, thus "preserving the purity" of the caste system (which is part of the Hindu religious system). With such a mindset, it is quite understandable why they would like to set up "exclusive and pure" schools that is only for their caste community. Somehow I missed addressing this in my other comment. So.. Not at all what I said. Anyway, I will make another effort hoping that you misunderstood instead of willfully distorting what i said. The lower caste hindus are poor and marginalized. They have no land, no money and no connections. Their only way for social upliftment is through education. No education, no social mobility. Now this is the base for my argument. As a dalit who has escaped from the system due to a combination of sheer luck and having parents who sacrificed their life for me, I want to setup schools just for dalits - to give it back to my community (for sure others won't). Where I am from, it's all dalits, upper caste hindus and muslims - with upper caste hindus and muslims being well off by margins you can't think off. There is zero reason for me to even think of schools for them. It's amazing how you think you should have the right to run your own schools but the marginalized shouldn't. That is precisely bigotry from your fundamentalist believes. Especially against poor who were oppressed and are still oppressed and marginalized. I also want to address your concern trolling of lower castes. If the upper castes wants to setup schools just for them, let them! parsis, sikhs, jains, muslims, christians already do. Don't worry about us. I also want to point out your logic of using concerns about upper caste doing something to discriminate lower castes. I am yet to meet a single "secular" (for lack of better term) who advocates for adding the lower castes into minority list. Until then, I see through your concern trolling. Everyone of us do. Do better. As for purity, there is only one state called "the land of the pure" - which was created more or less based on your on reasoning that the mere existence of hindus on equal foot is threatening, and hence there should be a separate country altogether. Every single one of your argument is - "Hindus must be contained, and thus must be discriminated and oppressed to do that". It's textbook bigotry.