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From: arora@sunybcs.UUCP (Kulbir S. Arora)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Re: Political maturity of the masses
Message-ID: <1313@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Mar-85 15:36:53 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.1313
Posted: Tue Mar 12 15:36:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Mar-85 12:34:51 EST
References: <2458@hplabsc.UUCP> <173@sbcs.UUCP> <413@crystal.UUCP>
Organization: State University of New York @ Buffalo,NY
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> > 
> > Give me a break!  Does this guy have any idea of what factors influence joe
> > villager's vote?  Weighty non-issues such as the candidate's religion,
> > ...................
> > I'm especially flabbergasted at talk of "political maturity" when political
> > nonentities like Amitabh Bachhan win landslide victories over veterans like
> > H N Bahuguna and Chandra Sekhar.  Whither maturity when the only factors
> > that matter are a celluloid reality and caste and party stickers?
> > -- 
> > Saumya Debray
> > SUNY at Stony Brook
> > 
> > 	uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray
> > 	CSNet: debray@sbcs
> 
> 
> Does it occur to you that every one of your arguments applies equally well
> to this country and Reagan?  Lots of Americans feel Reagan lacks "political
> maturity", and that his forte is that he is able to create an illusory "TV
> ..........    

  Ravi, the trouble with your argumentation method is you ASSUME stances
  which haven't been stated.  I will not defend Saumya Debray, I am sure
  he can do an excellent job of it himself.  However, WHAT ON EARTH MADE
  YOU ASSUME THAT HE IMPLIED U.S. IS BETTER THAN INDIA ?  That is a
  fabrication of your own mind and your entire argument is based on that !!
  
  As I understood it, all that Saumya Debray said was that democracy in India
  is still infantile, the masses have yet to totally comprehend their rights
  and responsibilities, and that verbose praises of such a situation are
  quite meaningless.  Where was he comparing with the U.S. ?  Maybe I'm
  wrong....let's wait and see what Saumya has to say about this.

  Anyway, since you started comparing the U.S. and Indian democracies, let
  me take issue with you on some of your observations.
  You talk about the american electorate being as prejudiced as the indian one.
  Again, that's the incorrect dimension for comparison.  Give me one human
  being without biases and prejudices.  All of us, within the confines of our
  homes have our pet prejudices, opinions whatever.  The question is how do
  we let these biases affect the way we function in a society ?  There is
  a difference between the situation of a protestant father refusing to let
  his daughter marry ,say a Catholic; and the situation of that same protestant
  refusing to hire a Catholic for his company.  The former situation is not
  a crime by law one way or the other as long as the father and daughter
  settle the issue within the confines of their home.  The latter situation
  is a crime by law and punishable.  Distinguishing between these two
  situations, accepting them and conducting oneself within this framework
  is the duty of all aware citizens of a democracy.  The very fact that we
  are a society assumes we have accepted the fact we cannot function alone,
  we will accept differences which do not impede co-existence and reject
  ones that do.  Using this dimension, there is no question that the U.S,
  democracy is functioning better than the Indian one.  That is not surprising
  and neither is it an indictment of the Indian situation.  Our constitutions
  have much in common, but we're just about 40 years old whereas the U.S.
  democracy has over two centuries logged in.
  As a matter of fact, the parallels between early american history and
  India today are remarkable.  The kind of narrow-mindedness pointed
  out by Saumya Debray existed in the U.S. during the nineteenth century.
  I am quite optimistic about the way the Indian democracy is evolving.
  However, it'll help us to look at what's WRONG today, rather than be
  jingoistic about ourselves.
  Whatever the prejudices of an American, more often than not, his decisions
  outside of his home are based on functionality rather than race, religion 
  caste etc.  That isn't true of an Indian.  But we're getting there.  In
  the meantime, does it not behove us to be introspective (in the true
  Eastern spirit) rather than be jingoistic and slogan-shouting ??

  Kulbir Arora