While there is no doubt that Hindutva is a Brahmin-Baniya movement, it is also true that it has successfully evolved its ideology and now has many Dalit and Adivasi voters; recent elections in India uphold this (“Caste and the battle for secularism”, Sept.9). The writer only appears to have written a polemical article with an aim to denigrate the upper castes. The other claim, that Hindutva forces want to emasculate the OBCs and Dalits by keeping them under the Hindu-fold, is hard to understand. Is he trying to say that OBCs and Dalits are bereft of thought?
Soumyakanti Chakraborty,
Visakhapatnam
There is no identity crisis as far as a Christian or Muslim nation is concerned. Only in India do we have this crisis as we have declared ourselves to be a secular state.
Today, caste divisions are both a trump card and a vote-bank for politicians. It is no wonder then that every political party in India has a caste tag. The fact is also that not all the backward communities and castes are economically weak nor are those in OC financially healthy. Unless this sensitive issue is addressed soon, one may have a situation whereby affluent castes may also join the caste bandwagon citing the Constitution which promises equal rights for all.
E.S. Chandrasekaran,
Chennai
It is right that OBCs and Dalits have faced caste atrocities in times past but after Independence their situation has been witness to a growing secularism; 50 per cent of quotas in almost all fields have enabled them to climb the social ladder in many instances.
Mohit Sharma,
New Delhi
