Internet makes us rely less on our knowledge'

Toronto IANS





People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access to internet, suggesting that our connection to the web is affecting how we think, a new study has found.Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada asked about 100 participants a series of general-knowledge questions, such as naming the capital of France. Participants indicated if they knew the answer or not. For half of the study , participants had access to internet. They had to look up the answer when they responded that they did not know the answer. In the other half of the study , participants did not have internet access.
The team found that the people who had access to the web were about 5% more likely to say that they did not know the answer to the question. Furthermore, in some contexts, the people with access to internet reported feeling as though they knew less compared to the people without access.
“With the ubiquity of the internet, we are almost constantly connected to large amounts of information. And when that data is within reach, people seem less likely to rely on their own knowledge,“ said professor Evan F Risko, from the University of Waterloo, who led the study .
In interpreting the results, the researchers specula ted that access to internet might make it less acceptable to say you know something but are incorrect. It is also possible that participants were more likely to say they did not know an answer when they had access to the web because online searching offers an opportunity to confirm their answer or resolve their curiosity, and the process of finding out is rewarding.
Punctuation can tell how sincere a text message is
The way you punctuate your text messages reveals how sincere you are in communication, a new study said. Text messages that end with a period are perceived to be less sincere than messages that do not, said the study from Binghamton University in New York.“Punctuation is used and understood by texters to convey emotions and other social and pragmatic information. It's not surprising that as texting evolves, people are finding ways to convey the same types of information in their texts,“ said lead researcher Celia Klin. In some very recent follow-up work, Klin's team found that a text response with an exclamation mark is interpreted as more, rather than less, sincere.

Source: Times of India, 10-12-2015

Thoughts And Thinking In Mystic Minds

Ali Ansari





Long, long ago the brains of our hunter-gatherer ancestors ­ having invented vocalised speech, which enabled them to exchange, pool and pass on life-saving and life-preserving information and knowledge ­ discovered subvocal speech, the stuff of thought.The purpose of language, its raison d'être, was to speak and exchange practical information with those on whom one depends. Why did the brain take to subvocally talking to itself ? What purpose does one's constant internal dialogue with oneself serve?
Fanita English, a psychological theorist and psychotherapist, has proposed a schema of intrapsychic drives in the human mind consisting of, what she calls, Survia, Passia and Quiesca. She conceives of them as three goddesses that may either operate harmoniously and support well-being (if properly balanced) or cause trouble (if one of them inter feres and conflicts with the other two).Verbal thinking, an offshoot of vocal speech, is driven by both Survia ­ survival needs, and Passia ­ expressive and creative needs in the mind. If verbal thinking becomes excessive or obsessive it may conflict with Quiesca, or quietude, a basic biological need, and disturb not only the mind's peace but distort the mind's vision of reality .
Fanita English's theory has helped me to place in perspective the emphasis in eastern philosophical and spiritual teachings on quietude, or cultivating quietude in one's mind. Sleep, as a biological need for quiescence, is built into the brain and body's operation to preserve health and balance. But beyond this, the many powerful meditation techniques offered in yogic disciplines or Buddhism help us, if properly understood, to detach from thought and self-concern, and prepare the mind to tap a source of energy and peace that is built into the very fabric of nature.
It is not surprising that mystics throughout the ages have considered inner silence to be the bedrock of spiritual understanding. When, many years ago, i read Jiddu Krishnamurti's pithy statement, `the thinker is the thought', i stopped in my tracks and reflected, only to realise that my reflection was in thought, and thought, Krishnamurti said, was like a cat chasing its tail. Thinking is good for practical purposes. It does not solve existential problems. On the other hand, it causes confusion and delusion in the mind, obscuring the direct apprehension of what is.The personal self arises in thought and creates the illusion of thinker. The inner world of the personal self traps consciousness, making it whirl around like a vortex inside the great free flowing stream of existence. To be free, to liberate awareness from the petty world of self, is to merge with the stream. It is not easy . Because language and thought were so important in our evolutionary history it may take many years to learn and master the right use of thought and to achieve the end of suffering that thought causes. But sometimes this may occur in a sudden flash of clarity .
Returning to Fanita English's schema, it is easy to be so taken over by Survia and Passia that the only experience of quietude in one's life comes from a few hours of exhausted sleep. But this is a `non-experience', since in sleep consciousness is absent. In the mystic mind, quietude is the permanent stage upon which consciousness quietly witnesses and enjoys the dance of the two goddesses, Survia and Passia. Perhaps, for this reason Fanita sometimes refers to Quiesca as Transcia ­ transcendence.

New nutrition report underscores the importance of leadership in addressing stunting in India

Bill Gates and Ratan Tata





W hen people around the world think of India they imagine bustling cities, lively markets, buzzing technology centres, and a young and vibrant workforce.Human capital is one of India's greatest assets. Yet, the world's fastest growing econo my hasn't touched millions o Indian citizens at the bottom of the economic pyramid ­ in parti cular, the 44 million children un der the age of five who are stun ted because they aren't getting enough of the right nutrition.
Nutrition is key to unlocking every child's potential. Well nourished children are better equipped to fend off diseases They do better in school. And they grow up to become more productive members of society .
A major new study , the Glo bal Nutrition Report, releasing today in Delhi, shows that India has made progress towards ensuring that every child can achieve their potential. Between 2006 and 2014, stunting among children under the age of five dropped from 48% to 39% ­ almost double the rate of decli ne compared to the previous seven-year period. Nearly al Indian states achieved declines proving that progress is possible in every part of the country.
But the fact remains that nearly four of every 10 young children growing up in India today are not getting enough of the right kinds of nutrition to help their body and mind grow to their full potential. And in states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the report found that declines have been much slower than the nationa average, indicating the issue is particularly entrenched.
These 44 million children are not just a statistic in a report. They are India's future and every single one of them de serves a chance to live a healthy and productive life.
Improving nutrition in India is key to India's continued economic prosperity . It's also the right thing to do from the standpoint of equity . Based on our organisations' work on nut rition in India, we believe there are three components to addres sing the problem.
First, India needs better in formation to design effective nutrition interventions and track progress. For too long, po licy makers have had to rely on outdated and incomplete statis tics to make policy decisions in India. Nutrition data has to be collected more frequently and consistently across regions to ensure that children are getting the nutrition they need.
The release of Unicef 's Ra pid Survey on Children last year marked a positive step forward in providing relevant data ­ fil ling a key information gap that had existed for nearly a decade.Government endorsement of key nutrition indicators and collection of relevant data every two or three years by each state is an important and necessary step to monitor progress.
Collecting better data is only part of the solution, however.Using that information to drive more effective nutrition interventions is critical.
Cost-effective solutions already are at our fingertips ­ better nutrition and healthcare in the 1,000 days between a mother's pregnancy and her child's second birthday, ensuring that women and girls get the nutrition they need, food fortification to address micronutrient deficiencies, and community programmes that address the needs of children with severe acute malnutrition. And states that have made good progress on nutrition can share best practices with high-burden states and strengthen the government's thinking and action on nutrition.
Finally ­ and most importantly ­ political leadership is essential. India has shown the political will to prioritise programmes that can eliminate malnutrition, but a shared sense of responsibility across all levels of government and sectors of society is required to end malnutrition. In particular, the government's proposed National Nutrition Mission will play a key role in strengthening work across different ministries and departments to deliver against the national nutrition targets.
India has the know-how and financial capacity to ensure that every child not only survives, but thrives. That has to start in a child's early years with enough of the right kinds of nutrition.We believe the Indian people share our commitment to this, and we are optimistic that by working together it is well within reach for India to tackle this very solvable challenge.
Bill Gates is co-chair and trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ratan Tata is chair of the board of the Tata Trusts

Carbon footprints don't lie: World's richest 10% release 50% of its CO2

Subodh Varma





Person In Richest Half Emits 17.6 Tons CO2, That In Poorest 50% Just 1.57 Tons

As the rich countries of the West lock horns with the developing world at Paris on the question of who will cut how much carbon emissions, a new study by Oxfam shows the jaw dropping chasm between emissions of the two sides. The richest 10% people of the world are responsible for almost half of all global carbon emissions while the poorest 50% -some 3.5 billion people -cause just 10% of it in one year.Here's another way of looking at this: a person belonging to the poorest half of the world emits just 1.57 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year while a person belonging to the richest 10% emits 17.6 tonnes -over 11 times more. If you compare the richest 10% with the poorest 10%, the gap is mind-boggling. The carbon footprint of the richest is 60 times larger than that of the poorest at a global level.
Why is this relevant to the Paris talks? Because in the smoke and mirrors of global negotiations, the commitment of the rich countries to their own lifestyles -and its humongous carbon footprint -is so entrenched they are unable to give it up, forcing changes on the str uggling poor of the developing world. This is all the more unjust because it is the developing world that is going to bear the brunt of extreme climate change effects, as a recent World Bank study of 52 nations showed.
Oxfam has made these calculations for consumption rather than production as is normally done. In this way , what happens is that if a soft drink made in China is consumed in the US, the emissions in production, transportation etc are counted in US. This is more logical as the reason for making the drink was a demand in US, as was its ultimate destiny . The vast majority of the world's richest 10% stay in OECD countries -North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In fact, a third of them stay in the US. So the culpability of rich countries in emissions is reaffirmed, with the additional information that it is their profligate consumerism that is driving emissions.
Where does India fit into this? Oxfam's estimates reveal that per person emissions of India's richest 10% are about 2 tonnes, just a quarter of even US' poorest 50%, whose emissions are 8.57 tonnes. If you compare the poorest half of the population of India and the US, the contrast is even starker. India's poorest 50% have a mere 0.42 tonnes per capita emission while for the US it is 8.57 tonnes a year, over 20 times more.
This incredible equation shows the wide and deep chasm between consumption-driven emissions in the first world and the third world. It also shows the locked down nature of the rich economies where even the poor cause more emissions than the rich of the third world.
So, what does it mean for the climate change negotiations in Paris? While it is a global crisis and everybody has to chip in, the magnitude of the problem is directly linked to the lifestyle choices and economic trajectories of the rich countries. Without even going into the question of historical responsibility, even on the basis of current emissions, the scale of emissions from the richer bloc is orders of magnitude more than India and other third world countries. Hence, the richer bloc of countries need to not only make deeper cuts, they also need to pay more to compensate for the damage caused by climatic changes in the third world.
Source: Times of India, 10-12-2015

What the citizen must do

The fundamental duties in the Constitution are essential for an organised polity.

It was indeed refreshing to see both Houses of Parliament debating the Constitution. Members of Parliament got an opportunity to take a close look at this fundamental law of the land. The debate also provided them an occasion to gain an insight into the phenomenal contributions made by Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and others in giving shape to the Constitution.

Any debate on the Constitution naturally focuses on the historic significance of the primacy of the fundamental rights of citizens. These rights placed India at the forefront of nations that cherish human rights. The historic significance of these rights lies in the fact that a people who suffered colonial oppression and the loss of basic rights for a long time reasserted themselves with a rare zeal in a constitution they gave unto themselves. It’s equally important that these fundamental rights were not limited to the celebrated freedoms under Article 19(1) and the right to life and liberty, but were extended to the freedom of religion also. The Constitution guarantees that these rights will be protected from any encroachment.

However, it must be said that while fundamental rights are crucial to the survival of a vibrant democracy, there’s an equally important aspect to an organised society that we often ignore. For a polity to survive, citizens should have a high sense of duty. The Constitution-makers didn’t think it necessary to list out the duties of citizens because they couldn’t have perceived a society that ignores such duties.

Through the 42nd Amendment, it was Indira Gandhi’s government that added

the fundamental duties of citizens, like filling a crucial gap. A close look will reveal these duties are fundamental to the survival of this nation as an organised polity. Some of the core duties need to be mentioned to illustrate the point: It shall be the duty of every citizen to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our struggle for freedom; to promote harmony and common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectoral diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women; to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture; to develop a scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform; to protect and improve the natural environment, etc.

But, even three decades after the fundamental duties were incorporated, there’s no adequate awareness among citizens. In 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government had appointed the Justice J.S. Verma Committee “to operationalise the suggestions to teach fundamental duties to the citizens of the country”. This committee submitted its report containing a number of recommendations for the government to act on. There are schemes being implemented by the ministry of home affairs, HRD ministry, the environment ministry, etc, to promote the teaching of fundamental duties. There’s also a big involvement of voluntary agencies. But the impact of governmental as well as non-governmental involvement in this process is not being felt much.

The fundamental duties are not trite formulations to be read and ignored. For example, one duty is to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood, transcending the barriers of religion, language, etc. But our democratic experiment over six decades has not fully equipped us to forge this common brotherhood. Today, our minds and hearts remain divided. Similarly, we have a duty to protect and improve the environment. But we pollute water and the air and complain about climate change.

We are living in a period in which Indian society is being subjected to unhealthy and dangerous pulls and pressures. The school environment and the social milieu are such that children learn all the wrong things about each other and become victims of social prejudices. The Justice Verma Committee had suggested changes in school and teacher education curricula to incorporate the teaching of fundamental duties, in a serious way, to children. If children learn these in the classroom, they will grow up with a sense of duty imprinted on their minds. But children haven’t been able to develop a sense of oneness, a scientific temper and the spirit of inquiry, nor a healthy, secular attitude. Religious and social prejudices would have no place if children developed a spirit of inquiry and began to understand the world with the help of science.

India has a composite culture. Every citizen has a duty to preserve it. Every race that inhabited this land has contributed to the development of this culture. The great rishis evolved a global perspective on man — “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam” sums up that perspective. They believed that ultimately, there is one truth, but wise men say it differently (ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti). This non-sectarian, secular and universalist perspective of the ancient rishis should form the core of citizens’ duties.

While we debate the Constitution, we should lay sufficient emphasis on the fundamental duties of citizens. A couple of suggestions are in order. The prime minister has rightly said our children should be taught the Constitution. Yes, and more than any other thing, they should be taught the citizen’s duties. We should consider incorporating the essential aspects of citizens’ duties in all oaths and pledges. The Supreme Court, too, has said that since duties are obligatory for citizens, the state should strive to achieve the same goal. Rights and duties have to exist together. Rights without duties will lead to anarchy.

The writer is deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

- Source: Indian Express, 9-12-2015

Anti-cancer molecules ‘discovered’ by varsity in MP

In a major breakthrough in cancer treatment which is inspired by the all-time tested properties of turmeric, a state-run varsity in Bhopal claimed to have discovered anti-cancer molecules which will bring a revolution in fighting the dreaded disease in an effective manner.

Bhopal-based Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) also announced that it has applied for a US patent of the discovery of the new anti-cancer molecules code named “CTR-17 and CTR-20,” Vice Chancellor, Professor Piyush Trivedi and his doctoral student Dr. C. Karthikeyan said in Bhopal on Monday.

“Inspired by the healing properties of turmeric, which is available in every household and considered as an effective antiseptic and given almost to everyone for treating various ailments, we have studied it deeply for almost 10 long years and discovered a molecule based on our findings which has magical effects on treating cancer during pre-clinical trials,” Prof. Trivedi said.

“It is novel and unique in a sense that unlike other cancer drugs, that have major side-effects especially when one undergoes chemotherapy. This molecule targets and destroys only cancerous cells and caused no damage to other vital cells of the body,” the Vice Chancellor of state’s only government Technological University said.

“The research was carried out in collaboration with Canada-based Advanced Medical Research Institute’s Dr. Hyoun Lee’s team and an US provisional patent application has been officially filed to protect intellectual property rights,” Mr. Trivedi, who is a pharmacist by profession, said.

“The molecules code named CTR-17 and CTR-20 elicits anticancer activity through a mechanism which involves obstruction of cancer cell division by inhibition of tubulin, a protein which is important for many important cellular functions, including chromosome segregation during cell division, intracellular transport, development and maintenance of cell shape, cell motility and distribution of molecules on cell membranes,” explained Mr. Karthikeyan, who was associated with the research since the beginning.

“Besides these two, we have also discovered 22 other molecules and their pre-clinical trials has also produced very encouraging results and would prove a boon to cancer patients,” Mr. Trivedi said. The Vice Chancellor said that RGPV is the only university in the country that has carried out research of this kind which will transform the lives of those suffering from cancer.

He informed that after pre-clinical trial which too were conducted in Canada, the stage was set for the clinical trials of the discovered molecule on animals (mice) at Canada only.

“Studies in the lab have also showed that CTR-17 and CTR-20 increased the life span of animals affected with tumour manifold by including tumour regression in mice models without showing any long term adverse effects, especially less toxicity.”

Furthermore, the molecules also showed strong synergistic effects in combination with paclitaxel (an anti-cancer drug in clinical use) on multidrug-resistant cells.

“The overall data generated shows that CTS compounds tested alone or in combination with paclitaxel, possess strong anti-tumour activity without notable ill-effects to animals observed warranting clinical trials to establish its safety and efficacy in humans,” Trivedi claimed based on his findings.

“This is a significant discovery especially in the present context when cancer has become worlds dreaded killer disease accounting for 8.2 million deaths (around 13 per cent of all deaths) in 2012 as per the World Cancer Report and scientists embattling cancer are on the lookout for newer effective and safer drugs for anticancer therapy,” he added.

Keywords: Anti-cancer molecules, cancer

Source: The Hindu, 9-12-2015

Hindutva and the Dalit question

Reluctant outreach has informed the attitude of Hindutva organisations to the Dalit question in the last century.

On December 6, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah paid tributes to B.R. Ambedkar on his death anniversary at the party office in the capital.

This happened days after the government fondly recalled Dr. Ambedkar, in his 125th birth anniversary year, in a discussion in Parliament on his contribution to the Constitution. Months before this, Organiser — popularly seen as a mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — brought out a special edition on the life and contribution of the Dalit icon, who was also India’s first Law Minister, and one of the key architects of the Indian Constitution.

But there have been jarring notes in between.

Union Minister General (retd.) V.K. Singh recently put the BJP in trouble by using a “dog analogy” when asked about the deaths of two Dalit children in Haryana from severe burns after their house was set on fire, allegedly by upper caste men.

Another Minister, Piyush Goyal, also courted controversy in Parliament when he dubbed as “manufactured discrimination” the Congress’s Dalit leader Kumari Selja’s assertion that she was asked her caste when on a visit to a temple in Gujarat. Her taunt that this, too, was the “Gujarat model” — a shorthand for governance in the BJP’s lexicon these days — annoyed many BJP members. Mr. Goyal did express regret later to cap the controversy.

Calibrating Dalit outreach

Reluctant outreach has informed the attitude of Hindutva organisations to the Dalit question in the last century. They want to reach out to prevent Dalits from embracing other religions, but they are aware that their core constituency is upper caste. But attempts at outreach are a must, as Hindutva — seen as a century-old movement to organise Hindus vis-à-vis Islam and Christianity — would lose its claim to represent Hindus without Dalit presence. The problem gets compounded as educated Dalits see representation as central to their politics. They demand government jobs, key policy-related posts and quotas in the private sector, where many jobs are shifting.

Many upper castes, often BJP supporters today, are hostile to quotas, making them take positions against those taken by educated Dalits. Hindutva has to negotiate this paradox, which explains why RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently sought a review of who should get quotas and the BJP promptly distanced itself from the statement.

The outreach, thus, has to be a cautious one and largely symbolic.

This problem — of having to calibrate Dalit outreach to the sensitivities of upper-caste supporters—isn’t specific to Hindutva proponents; even the Congress found that its bid to enrol Dalits during the days of Mahatma Gandhi’s Harijan programme 80 years ago wasn’t easy. While work among the then “untouchables” was seen as crucial, the organisation could not radically address the caste question from its platform so as not to alienate upper caste Hindus from the freedom struggle it was steering.

The mainstream parties’ Dalit outreach thus acquires a symbolic character. Both the Congress and the BJP celebrate Dr. Ambedkar today but would not be willing to implement many demands of educated Dalits, such as reservation in the private sector.

Root of untouchability

But the outreach on the part of the Sangh Parivar has an aspect not found elsewhere — the bid to trace untouchability to the arrival of Islam, thus blaming Muslims for the Dalits’ plight. This is a position historians do not take seriously.

In the Organiser’s special Ambedkar edition, RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal did precisely this. “He (Dr. Ambedkar) says untouchability encrypted Hindu society 12 to 13 hundred years ago,” Mr. Gopal wrote. “The first instance… can be seen in the family of Dahir. Dahir lost the war against Islamic aggressors. When the invaders entered his palace, the women of his family said, ‘They are coming. They are mlecchas (meaning dirty or bad). They will touch us and we will be impure. We should kill ourselves…’ This is the first reference to untouchability.” Dahir was the last ‘Hindu ruler’ in Sindh and parts of west Punjab.

This, however, is completely at odds with Dr. Ambedkar’s own reading of the origin of untouchability. “Can we fix an approximate date for the birth of untouchability? I think we can, if we take beef-eating, which is the root of untouchability, as the point to start from… The date of the birth of untouchability must be intimately connected with the ban on cow-killing and on eating beef,” the seventh volume of his speeches and writings edited by Vasant Moon states. “Cow-killing was made a capital offence by the Gupta kings some time in the 4th century AD… Untouchability was born sometime about 400 AD. It is born out of the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism.” In other words, Dr. Ambedkar lays the blame for untouchability on the ancestors of today’s Hindus and relates it to cow protection, an agenda that the Sangh Parivar takes seriously.

BJP spokesperson Bizay Sonkar Shastri, however, has a different reading of the origin of untouchability. He told The Hindu that today’s Dalits were those Brahmins and Kshatriyas who refused to accept Islam at any cost: “Some Brahmins and Kshatriyas decided they would not accept Islam at any cost — even if they died. To destroy their dharmabhiman (religious pride), swabhiman (self-respect) andrashtraabhiman (pride in nationality), they were forced into carrying the night soil and engage in leather-work. This is how Scheduled Castes were created.” In this reading — which flies in the face of professional historical research — the Dalit somehow becomes a Hindu warrior against Islam.

The upper caste Hindu outreach to Dalits — be it on the part of the Congress, the RSS or the Hindu Mahasabha figures — began more than a century back. The threat of religious conversions and the imperatives of the colonial census brought the Dalit question to the forefront. For those in the Congress, there was an additional need to engage Dalits: they did not want this section of society to ally with the colonial state against the Congress.

One Colonel U.N. Mukherji from Bengal wrote a book, Hindus — A Dying Race, in 1909, in which he expressed the fear that the Hindus would be extinct in a little over four centuries because of conversions.

Swami Shraddhanand — the Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha leader associated with mass Shuddhis (“purification”) of Dalits to win them social acceptance — had met Colonel Mukherji in Calcutta in 1912, where they discussed the colonel’s thesis, writes his biographer J.T.F. Jordens.

Census mentality

The conversion threats posed by normatively egalitarian religions such as Islam and Christianity made Hindus fear a loss of numbers. By this time, the colonial exercise of enumeration on religious grounds had produced a census mentality in which a community’s numerical strength had become synonymous with its power.

Small numbers of educated Dalits also used their numbers to their advantage. Adi (original people) movements came up in the 1920s across India — each claiming that upper caste Hindus were “Aryan invaders” and the Dalits “original Indians” and even successfully demanding that they be separately enumerated in the 1931 census with the prefix ‘adi’.

The 1930s saw Dr. Ambedkar champion the cause of Dalit representation. More than a decade later, the Indian Constitution accepted the principle of reservation — provided by the colonial state and the princely state of Kolhapur even earlier and accepted as a substitute for separate electorates in legislatures by the 1932 Poona Pact between the Congress and Ambedkar — as a cornerstone of social justice.

But, today, it is reservation itself that has alienated large sections of upper-caste youth, who believe it takes away their job opportunities.

The BJP can ill-afford to lose their support, as they are seen as its core support base. They are often sympathetic to Hindutva and are on the same page as the BJP on free market economic policies.

With greater representation in jobs being the key slogan of the Dalit middle class for decades now, it is difficult for the proponents of Hindutva to play ball without alienating their core voters.

JNU academic Badri Narayan says that while core RSS workers are conditioned to be sensitive to Dalit feelings, it is lateral entrants who sometimes lack the political astuteness to understand how an insensitive statement can generate heat.

It is this chunk — which has taken to the BJP in large numbers in recent years — that is part of the problem for the saffron party as far as the caste issue is concerned.

vikas.pathak@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: BJP, dalits, Ambedkar, RSS, right-wing, Hindutva and Dalits

Source: The Hindu, 9-12-2015