Free Republic

The June issue of National Geographic contains one of the rare honest looks at India. The article "India's Untouchables" gives a shocking picture of some of the most persecuted people on earth. For far too long, India has been one of a number of countries used by the intelligentsia to denigrate the United States. The image or the insinuation has been that we are materialistic, they are spiritual; we are violent, they are peaceful -- and so on. Instead of picturing every country as it is, warts and all, too often the picture of the United States has been warts...

In 1947, upon India’s independence, the secularist government of Jawaharlal Nehru avowedly renounced the hierarchical rigidity of the caste system and embarked upon erasing its impositions off the face of India. However, instead of eliminating the power structures, the Indian government has half-inverted them, fueling mutually escalating antagonisms among members of upper and lower castes. While caste-consciousness and institutionalized discrimination have risen to a record high, the sociopolitical barriers to the ascent of aspiring individuals from lower castes remain firmly entrenched in rural India. If India were to receive a grade for its performance in fostering equality of opportunity and...