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From: venu@umcp-cs.UUCP (Venugopala R. Dasigi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: An Independent Sikh State
Message-ID: <3750@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Oct-86 10:33:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.3750
Posted: Wed Oct  8 10:33:10 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 01:14:11 EDT
References: <1232@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: venu@umcp-cs.UUCP (Venugopala R. Dasigi)
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Sci.
Lines: 35
Keywords: religion. language, culture
Summary: India is unified by cultural bonds

In article <1232@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU> martillo@trillian.UUCP (Yakim Martillo) writes:
>
>From my reading of this news group and from acquaintanceship with many
>Indians of various ethnic origins including my relatives, I have the
>impression most Hindus casually equate Indian with Hindu.  Further the
>Government of India has at various times claimed the right to
>legislate Hindu religious law.  Consequently, Sikh discontent is quite
>understandable.  I have met many Sikhs who do reject terrorism, but I
>have not met any who actually rejects carving a Sikh state out of some
>portion of India in which Hindus might live, just as Sikhs could still
>live in the rest of India.
>
>India is an artificial creation and has really only been unified in
>the past under alien conquerers.

I think the terms Indian and Hindu are equated in the same sense as (rather,
in my opinion, to a lesser degree than) the terms Indian and Hindi (the
language) are equated. Hindi is the national language, but to my knowledge
there is no national religion! I would like to see specific instances where
Indian government has not treated all religions equally. There are many
people in India whose mother tongue is not Hindi, and I don't think they are
all interested in independent states of their own.

I find the last statement in the quoted part too gross. What unifies India
is its culture, which transcends the diversities in language and religion.
The culture has not been brought into India by any aliens.

--- Venu
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Venugopala Rao Dasigi 
UUCP   : {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!venu
CSNet  : venu@umcp-cs
ARPA   : venu@mimsy.umd.edu
US Mail: Dept. of CS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park MD 20742.