Indian women who drink the Wikipedia Kool-Aid

Because no one else is doing it--not even the media.
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Soham321
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Re: Indian women who drink the Wikipedia Kool-Aid

Post by Soham321 » Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:41 pm

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Last edited by Soham321 on Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Flip Flopped
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Re: Indian women who drink the Wikipedia Kool-Aid

Post by Flip Flopped » Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:46 pm

Soham321 wrote:
Flip Flopped wrote:Sources without footnotes or inline references are not good sources. It doesn't matter if the writer is a judge. When someone is making a claim that would stand multiple fields on their heads, then their claim must be dismissed unless they are able to document why they are correct.


1. it is not that difficult to come up with references for the specific points that were made. Note that i don't agree with all the points he made in the article. (In particular, i believe low caste hindus were treated with indignity even in ancient and medieval India.) But it would not be difficult to come across writers/scholars who would support even his views with which i disagree with.

2. One of the seemingly controversial things in the article was this: "It is well known that before the coming of the British, India was one of the world’s most prosperous countries (at that time). India was exporting Dacca Muslin, Murshidabad silk, Kashmir shawls and carpets, ornaments, etc. apart from agricultural products like spices, indigo, etc. to the Middle East and even Europe. The discovery of Roman coins in several parts of South India show the great volume of trade from India, which shows the great development of the productive forces in feudal India. In fact India was once a super power with a 31.5% share in the global gross domestic production, which came down to 3% in the year 1991."

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I am not sure from where he got the 31.5 percentage; the references i have examined point to approximately 25-29% of global gross domestic production which would still justify the claim of India being an economic superpower at one point of time. See:

1. http://fortune.com/2014/10/05/most-powerful-economic-empires-of-all-time/

2. https://qz.com/764352/the-journey-of-indias-gdp-from-1000-a-d-to-2020/
He makes a number of unsupported and controversial claims. If you can source that feudal Europe utilized a caste system, go ahead.

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Soham321
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Re: Indian women who drink the Wikipedia Kool-Aid

Post by Soham321 » Wed Mar 15, 2017 8:33 pm

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Last edited by Soham321 on Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Flip Flopped
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Re: Indian women who drink the Wikipedia Kool-Aid

Post by Flip Flopped » Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:24 pm

Soham321 wrote:
Flip Flopped wrote:Sources without footnotes or inline references are not good sources. It doesn't matter if the writer is a judge. When someone is making a claim that would stand multiple fields on their heads, then their claim must be dismissed unless they are able to document why they are correct.
1. Just noting that the article has been published in a reputed Indian newspaper: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/Looking-back-on-the-caste-system/article16347694.ece


2. for the relevant scenario in England, see this book (read from page 47: "The Social Structure: An Open Hierarch"):

https://books.google.com/books?id=beQDA ... nd&f=false

this description of late 17th-early 20th British society given in the book comes across as being very similar to the Indian caste system. The writer realizes that his description of British society is coming across as being perilously close to the Indian caste system, and that is why he presumably offers the clarification on page 50 that his description of British society should not be taken to mean that it represented a caste system. To make the distinction he claims that upward mobility was legally possible. True enough, but the description of British society he gives makes it very clear that while legally possible upward mobility in British society must have been very difficult.

This was true also in India. Upward mobility was possible for low caste women: they could marry an upper caste Hindu man. (Hindu men could have more than one wife until 1955 when the Hindu Marriage Act made it legally impermissible for a Hindu man to have more than one wife.)

Upward mobility was not ordinarily possible for low caste Hindu men through marriage. However, there was one other way available to them to break the shackle of the caste system if they wanted to: they could convert to Buddhism.
It's unfair to the author to contort his thesis to try to make it fit what you want it to say.

Trump supporters here get published in newspapers, too.

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