Travel - International Indian

Editorial‘‘Many ofthe conflictsandbarbaritiesin theworld aresustainedthroughthe illusionof aunique andchoicelessidentity.‘‘doors for her outside Manipur.Jesse Owens, the Black American track andfield athlete won four gold medals at the 1936Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, whichwas presided over by a resurgent Adolf Hitlersupremely confident of Aryan prowess.In Indian society, how many impoverishedyouth like Owens are given a break to succeed?It is absurd to imagine that India doesn’t havethe human potential in sports. It is more likelythat deep rooted Indian attitudes blatantlydiscriminate against the country’s talent. Thereare many examples of this, from Dalits notallowed to enter temples to Muslims beingdenied housing in Mumbai etc. Two decadesof economic growth may have transformedcontemporary life in India in many ways,but sadly this syndrome has a history ofreinforcement that goes back even to the‘Father of the Nation.’For Gandhiji, respect for other cultures wasfine so far as the different cultures kept theirdistance from one another. This was not unlikehis attitude to caste, when he made it clear, ‘Ihave devoted much thought to the subject ofthe caste system and come to the conclusionthat Hindu society cannot dispense with it, thatit lives on because of the discipline of caste,’he said in 1916. About reform he stated: ‘Thecaste system is a perfectly natural institution…Iam opposed to the movements which arebeing carried on for the destruction of thesystem…We do not associate with membersof other communities for eating or enter intomarriage relationships with them.’ (CollectedWorks of Mahatma Gandhi, 13 pg 301, beforeOctober 1916)Amartya Sen points out that, “many ofthe conflicts and barbarities in the world aresustained through the illusion of a unique andchoiceless identity.” He terms the presumptionthat human beingscan be uniquelycategorizedon the basis oftheir religion orculture as, “theminiaturization ofpeople.”Frank RajFounder-Editor & Publisherfrankraj08@gmail.comThe International Indian@frankraj08Frank RajAre you looking for your life partner?Tired of looking in the wrong places?Not happy with parental coercion?Skeptical about what the stars foretell?COMING SOON!6The International Indian