Criticizing the Country

Letters to the Editor - Dawn
August 21, 2007

I agree entirely with Rajendra K. Aneja that India has a long way to go before it can claim to be a successful and prosperous nation. I also acknowledge the facts, with a degree of shame, which the writer stated.

Nevertheless I must also mention that a nation is not just a piece of land marked by boundaries. It’s the people who constitute a nation and define it. In other words all the people in a country are one family and the country is their home.

Even after 60 years of independence, people in the subcontinent, and India in particular, have not developed a sense of responsibility towards their nations.

We are quite fond of commenting about the pathetic state of affairs in our country but we rarely ask ourselves whether we can help overcome the country’s problems.

If the educated and well-informed had tried to work for the nation, then India would not be facing any of its problems that it faces today. Instead they decided to move to greener pastures and dedicate their spare time in criticising the nation. I don’t condemn their criticism but I do condemn their dereliction of duty.

Why didn’t these pessimists try to run the country? Why didn’t they enter the civil services and try to change the nation? Why didn’t they join politics and contest elections? If they had, then their criticism would be justified.

Dalits in India

Letters to the Editor-Dawn,Pakistan
June 27, 2007


This letter bears reference to the article "A broken People in Booming India" dated June 22nd. The writer it seems has concluded that India's economic boom has not benefited its dalits based on a few stray incidents of discrimination. I would like to inform your readers that this is a gross exaggeration and misrepresentation of the truth.

Firstly the caste system was not an integral part of Hinduism which traces its origins to 3000 B.C. The oldest Hindu texts: the four Vedas, the Upanishads, the Shastras and the Sutras bear no reference to castes. People in ancient Hindu civilizations were segregated based on their occupation. Nobody was born into any caste nor did they inherit their caste from their parents. Later certain vested interests hijacked this system of maintaining social order and used it to retain a monopoly over education,politics and trade for themselves. Thus a large majority of the population was discriminated against and the Dalits were born.This argument can be substantiated by the fact that many venerated Hindu saints like Adi Shankara and Ramanujacharya were severely critical of the caste system and called it non-Hindu.

The writer goes on to say that dalits face rampant discrimination in India today in education.The fact is in India 22% of seats in all schools and colleges is reserved for dalits.The Govt. heavily subsidizes their education and provides free mid-day meals in schools and aids&grants in colleges.Such affirmative action is hardly any discrimination. Dalits do not face political discrimination too.The four southern states are ruled by dalit parties.Mayawati, a dalit woman is the CM of Uttar Pradesh.The former President of India Dr. K.R.Narayanan was a dalit. The present Chief Justice of India Justice K.G.Balakrishnan is a dalit. The civil,police,judicial and military services have numerous dalits in their top ranks.

Lastly, in modern India, discrimination against dalits is weaning not due to the compulsions of a capitalist economy as stated in the article. It is purely due to conviction on the part of the people. With the spread of education and awareness, people have realized the evils of the caste system. There can be certain stray incidents of discrimination but the reader must understand that a system that is thousands of years old cannot be done away with in a jiffy. Even the so called 'epitome of democracy', the USA, has not been able to do away with discrimination against the African-Americans as the world witnessed in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

India is a juggernaut and its people have realized the benefits of a free and open society. If any belief or system stunts the growth of the country, the people themselves will overthrow the system. Such is the fate awaiting the caste system.

Danger to Siachen Glacier

Letters to the Editor-Dawn,Pakistan.
8th June 2007

THE presence of an entire division of the Indian army in the Siachen glacier has caused immense damage to the already frail ecosystem of that region. I'm sure the situation is the same on the Pakistani side as well.

Both armies have acknowledged that they have lost more men to the hostile weather than to enemy fire.

It is sheer madness to stay perched on such heights in such weather and in the process cause immense environmental degradation.

A huge network of rivers in the northern part of our subcontinent is fed by the glacier. The region also hosts a variety of flora and fauna.

Any melting of the glacier will endanger the life forms there and also reduce the water flow in the rivers.

This in turn will affect the climate and raise the temperature and lead to further melting; irrigation and hydroelectric power generation will also suffer.

Both the governments must realise the dangers in store for their armies and to the ecosystem and take immediate steps to demilitarise the region and repair the damage already done.