Southasian governments as a whole are already espousing a forward-looking state policy on welfare. The challenge now is to transform policy into action, while addressing the peculiar regional problem of social exclusion.
Positive discrimination in government jobs and in education has helped the Dalit progress, despite continuing discrimination elsewhere. But when will leaders of Indian industry understand that the empowered Dalit means an economy that is vibrant?
In late January 2006, the sewer ran over. Our well-heeled street in Chennai pulsated with excreted lava. A work crew arrived to lift the manholes and break the pavement.
"We must learn how to be tribal. This is difficult for us, but very, very important," said Mr Mukhia in his lilting boarding-school English. Wearing thick horn-
The hierarchical and discriminatory caste system, legitimised by Hinduism, is so deeply entrenched in Southasian societies that it has even affected the adherents of theoretically egalitarian religions like Islam, Sikhism,
Abysmal, tragic, rotten, archaic, misgoverned - these are only some of the terms used to describe Bihar. And that's by those who live there. But the people of Bihar are slowly turning the politics of the region on its head.
There are many Castes which allow inter-dining. But it is a common experience that inter-dining has not succeeded in killing the spirit of Caste and the consciousness of
'Coolies' and 'Asiatics' no more, the Indians of South Africa recoil from India even as they reach out for Indian-ness. Attempts to sublimate the experiences of people of Indian origin – from descendents of indentured labourers to the newest wave of middle class migrants to the West – cannot w
Indian Tamils, Ceylonese Tamils, working class Tamils, middle class Tamils... the 'Indians' in Malaysia live in a divided house. Many are poor and will remain so.
