Tuesday, November 22, 2005

yvette rosser: on teaching [about] india, hinduism

nov 22nd

yvette rosser has done pioneering work on how american textbooks and classrooms propagate the old cows-curry-caste prejudice about india. long but worth reading.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Rajeev,

Sign protest petition against M.F. Hussain's paintings

http://www.sanatan.org/en/05/Protests/MFHusain/petition.php?vtm=1132313026

Anonymous said...

Excellent read.

Anonymous said...

Haha. What I find amusing is that had Hussain been a Hindu trying some stunts like this about a Muslim figurehead, he would have been killed in his home the night he would have attempted such a thing, and there would have been sympathy for the perpetrators of such an act in the media. That is funny, that is all.

Anonymous said...

The article brings out the outside perception of India being full of half naked starving people worshipping equally starving cows. This is largely the
truth. The article also brings out the the fact that Hinduism is represented as a motley bundle of primitive looking rituals and exotic looking artifacts of worship.
This is also largely the truth. Now do you seriously expect people to spend half a year understanding the culture and history of India ? Or maybe people should know that the practise of Hinduism through religious festivities and periodic visits to temples is a means of expending time in a country lacking pubs/cabarets.
Just another thought - Maybe we should learn a lesson or two about the religion of "Keeping yourself challenged by the pursuit of non-trivial aims". This is practised by a significant portion of people in the west. I'm surprised our textbooks don't mention this.
Beg forgiveness for the incoherent albeit sincere thoughts

Anonymous said...

As I think the converted have a vicious fear of the 'primitives'. They can't progress, so many Indians beat the bastards of Macaulay, Mitrokhin etc, that their progress appear stymed.

If the following is the truth, why exactly those who have given their thoughts to Macaulay and exotic chicken flesh and bone from britain, Pakisthan choosed to devide the people in the crown of their empire ? Did the primitive hindus were a bit honest, compared to the charged of speeches of docaits, comrades and like ??




The article also brings out the the fact that Hinduism is represented as a motley bundle of primitive looking rituals and exotic looking artifacts of worship.
This is also largely the truth.

Anonymous said...

There are dozens of mischief makers in Indian media and social circles. Examine this organization. Press Trust of India. From the headlines of the news items posted by PTI, one can make out that they are intent on making mischief. Here are some examples.

1. "Laloo lost Bihar by 0.95 pc negative swing." (BJP and Nitish's party, each got 5% + votes than last time.. and the winner is decided by comparing..)
2. "Nitish agrees to appoint Deputy CM." (Did he ever opine against?)
3."Nitish's mom can't wait to live in CM house". (A very simple woman as shown on TV....This headline is an insult to that simplicity. And somehow suggests she is after the comforts and pomp).

I have been following these headlines for long. My only query for this group is.... How can this (clearly partisan) entity call itself the PRESS TRUST OF INDIA?

Anonymous said...

Bihar was no victory for upper castes, they are merely junior brothers in a yadav to kurmi power shift.

Kumar doesnt care for all the Hindu-shindu bhakwaas from BJP-wallahs. He laughs at it.

Lets see how many Brahmins get portfolios, then we'll know who is kissing whose hand.

Anonymous said...

san said,
This only plays into the hands of those who'd portray Hindus as a lynchmob or pack of book-burners.


San, even if we portray ourself as being 100% angelic Hindus, the foreigners would still find causes to throw mud on us. Its time Indians(Hindus especially) stopped worrying about what others think of us. Just got to do what one has got to do, both at an individual & national level. After all, once we succeed, that will shut the rest of them.

Watch what the Israelis always do. Where is Yasser Arafat & his PLO these days? PLO is history along with Arafat.

Anonymous said...

What DarkStorm says is absolutely true.Also his pithy description of the "artistic painters".

Best paintings and gratifying feasts for our senses are provided by Nature....for free...everyday the sky presents such variegated breathtaking spectacles!Add to that the tootling of insects and chirpings of birds!

The most soothing and peaceful way of waking up is to the cawing of Crows and certainly not any alarm clock or human voice!

Anonymous said...

No wonder these half-mad fellows are rioting all over Britain!

Marriages between cousins should be banned after research showed alarming rates in defective births among Asian communities in Britain, a Labour MP said last night.



The report, commissioned by Ann Cryer, revealed that the Pakistani community accounted for 30 per cent of all births with recessive disorders, despite representing 3.4 per cent of the birth rate nationwide.

"We address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity and we say it's a public health issue, therefore we have to get involved with persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle," the MP for Keighley, Bradford, told BBC2's Newsnight programme last night.

"I think this should be applied to the Asian community. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."

It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in an increasing rate of genetic defects and high rates of infant mortality. The likelihood of unrelated couples having the same variant genes that cause recessive disorders are estimated to be 100-1. Between first cousins, the odds increase to as much as one in eight.

In Bradford, more than three quarters of all Pakistani marriages are believed to be between first cousins. The city's Royal Infirmary Hospital has identified more than 140 different recessive disorders among local children, compared with the usual 20-30.

The findings were expected to be condemned by the Asian community, in which many see the tradition of marriages between first cousins as culturally fundamental.

"You have an understanding, you have the same family history," said Neila Butt, who has had two children with her husband, Farooq, her first cousin. "It's just a nicer emotional feel."








Inbreeding depression and intelligence quotient among north Indian children.

Badaruddoza, Afzal M.

Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, India.

This study presents the assessment of inbreeding depression on the intelligence quotient among north Indian Muslim Children of school age. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R)-74 was given to the children in both groups (50 each non-inbred and inbred of the first-cousin status), aged 6 to 11 years and from the same socio-economic status. The change of the mean follows genetic theory; however, the nature of the change in variance seems to be somewhat different.

PIP: The level of inbreeding depression on the intelligence quotient (IQ) of North Indian Muslim schoolchildren was assessed in a survey conducted in Aligarh. The 50 inbred children were products of marriages between first cousins; their mean age was 7.7 years (range, 6-11 years). A significant (p 0.001) negative association was found between inbreeding and score on the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-C). In addition, the weighted mean IQ of inbred children )88.4 + or - 1.37) differed significant (p 0.001) from that recorded among 50 noninbred controls of similar age and socioeconomic status (99.6 + or - 2.0). The group means for both verbal and performance IQ subscales differed significantly and in the expected direction between subjects and controls, but the lower variance recorded in the inbred group did not conform to genetic theory. However, data do not always demonstrate a clear trend of linear increase in phenotypic variance with inbreeding in human populations. Additional surveys in other populations and for various inbreeding levels are recommended

The encouraging news is the NON inbred IQ--which may refute the much stated claim that Indias IQ is 86. It may be 96 (putting it in line with USA), and with proper nutrition and outmarriage, even higher.

Anonymous said...

"If people have misgivings in the way that Hanuman is depicted in holding Sita, then let them merely articulate their thoughts as to why, rather than adopting too much of a protest mentality about it"---san.


The thoughts or sentiments (whatever)of the pious CANNOT be articulated to the smug atheists and I admit am not bothered by guilt or inadequacy.

There is an old Thamizh film song which succinctly addresses the atheists:-

Free transliteration..

I could not get hold of Him by becoming an Aasthik;

Alas,I could not intimidate Him by converting myself into a naasthik (atheist)

Anonymous said...

That bastard should be made to draw a painting of Jesus and Allah making with each other and then lets see how 'tolerant' our 'secular' breed are...
It should be made at gun point so that his artistic 'Talent' can come out 'freely'. (Like in china?)