Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 14:03:32 -0800
From: djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu (rakesh bhandari)
Subject: Re: RAHUL: CLUTCHING YOUR PEARLS


Rahul wrote:

> while the racism of Indians against blacks is obviously of no great import to
>>anyone, the unbelievable prejudices of Hindus against Muslims and of caste
>>Hindusagainst untouchables dwarf anything you see over here. 

 Rahul, I must disagree.  The racism of Indians can be of  great import.  
I was speaking to  my advisor the other day, a professor of
African-American studies. He related to me the story of one his students.
Fathered by an African-American, she was forced into adoption by her Indian
mother's parents who did not want the family name sullied.  She has never
met either of her biological parents.  She spent  her early life in
orphanages, and she now wants nothing to do with Indians, most of whom are
probably all too happy to oblige.

Also, despite the white flight in which Indian professionals have been
honorary participants,  it is not as if they live on different planet,
keeping their prejudices all to themselves. 

Now despite all its controversial stances on the nature of the Indian
bourgeoisie, the mode of production and Naxalite ideology, etc. Jan
Myrdal's 1986 *India Waits* remains one of the most erudite and explosive
accounts of the class conflicts in the subcontinent. 

There was however a critical review of his father's (Gunnar) massive study
of Asian poverty which repays study: Paul Mattick, "Gunnar Myrdal's
Dilemma" in Science and Society, vol XXXII, no 4, Fall 1968.  The essay
includes a very illuminating discussion of Marx's theory of the world
market.  Jan Myrdal's work is obviously of a different nature than his
father's, but perhaps he confronts the same dilemma.  






     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------