[Buddha-l] India: dalits and tribals in thousands headto Mumbaifor conversion to Buddhism

[jkirk]

>
Gandhi was too much trying to be a good Hindu and a good Indian. Being an
excellent actor he got more credit then he deserved. In South-India Periyar
(Ramaswami Naiker) was the one who stood up for the Dalits against the
Brahmins and that was something Gandhi never dared to do. 
And that again made Gandhi more popular.
Naming someone a child of God, a Harijan, is a good way of belitteling him,
of repressive toleration.
Erik

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Gandhi can be "read" a few different ways. I never said he was perfect.
IMO he wasn't working on being a good Hindu or a "good Indian." He got
involved in the nationalist movement in India from the start, basedon his
earlier experiences in South Africa. He was bestowed the mantle of a
spiritual leader by thousands of avid followers and sympathizers, and took
this role to heart, but his spiritual beliefs were concoted from different
directions. He read Cristian and Muslim texts as well as the Gita. He kept
trying to unify the masses away from their various social and religious
divisions, and failed, partly because he became wedded to the Congress
Party. As for standing up "for the dalits against the brahmins," Gandhi was
a man of north India and was a Gujarati as well, both characteristics of
someone who supported the caste system, which he did. Periyar came from the
south,  where anti-Brahmin movements got started early on, and they weren't
led only by people who were standing up for dalits.

Joanna      

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