No, I understood your point the first time. And my point remains.
You are saying that both aparthied and the caste system are a form of racism, and hence to avoid hypocrisy, should be treated the same by the West.
I am saying, that although they have some commonalities (they are both forms of discrimination against an underclass of society), the differences between them are so great, so fundamental, that they should not be treated the same. They cannot be: the reasons behind them, and the strategies to remove them are too different.
So it isn't hypocritical to treat them differently: they *are* different, despite some superficial similarities. And I pointed out those differences in my last post.
Not exactly. I was observing that if apartheid and the caste system were treated the same (economic sanctions and divestment), then those articles in the Hindu Times and other places which are crowing over the decline of the West would have a distinctly more somber tone.
It is true that India is a democracy, and that many govt. officials are of lower castes. But that and four dollars will purchase a Starbucks iced coffee. In practice, many of the opportunities for the lower castes are still not there to an extent which would have US liberals and lawyers up in arms, were the inequity applied to any other group.
Full Disclosure: I am not a liberal, and so I don't believe in the divestment claptrap as anything other than self-masturb*tory symbolism. I just wish the internal progress in India would go at a faster pace: and am glad at least that the most recent election has taken the socialists in charge of the economy down a peg.
Cheers!