Y’all are still a bunch of violent, irrational nutbags. That part isn’t very complicated at all.

I believe most of the people posting here are non-Indians, so most of them will have less information about the current situation than I am.

As said by Katie, the problem is with failed administration and judicial system.
Cipher asked “Is this a legacy of British colonialism?” well, some of it is that; and some of it is our traditions.

Every parent and every teacher consider it their fundamental right to beat up kids, if they have done anything wrong according to society rules.
This is based upon our old traditions.
Police & Government officials can pick anybody, and beat them.
This is a legacy of colonialism.

As an answer to question asked by many, is caste system still prevalent in India?
Yes it is still there, mostly in far off areas.

One person here asked what could have been wrong in a love poem.

The love poem is itself wrong accordingly to culture of rural India. As I already said, a teacher will beat up student if he has written a love poem/letter to a girl in school, no matter what his caste or religion is.

By the way love or sex is not bad things according to Indian religions and gods. They are bad according to Judeo-Christian-Islamic God,
but these are bad according to Indian culture.
And they will be bad according to many Hindus (because of our current culture).
That’s true, it is very complex situation.
Foreigners will find it very difficult to understand.

So, Christophe, you could try to do a wee bit of research now and again, mmmkay?

That’s not to say that the caste system (which is indeed religious – it is irrational faith-based dogma with no grounding in reality, even if it is not specifically Hindu, it is still irrational superstitious nonsense) isn’t an atrocious thing. It certainly is. It’s repulsive. It’s completely antithetical to human rights and the most basic concept of equality.

I hope this event and others like it can eventually trigger a response to tear down this ancient evil.

I may draw some ire for saying this:

I would not advocate any kind of external pressure from the US or any so-called “community of nations” to force India to change.

Why?

#1) Because we’ve got a lot of our own shit to get straight and we would, quite rightly, be accused of hypocrisy. Case in point: just recently after decades of being denied water service on racial grounds, the black residents of Muskingham County, Ohio have finally won their court battle and will receive water service just as if they were white. Imagine that! We are NOT better, just differently dysfunctional. There are good and bad cultural practices and we should start eliminating the bad from our own country first.

#2)Another reason is that humanitarian causes are often cynically exploited as cover for eliminating the competition among western military and corporate rulers.
They spread propaganda to make the “other” look barbaric, and thus justify collective punishment on a whole society for, what is usually, a statistically infrequent occurence. They end up hurting the ones they’re supposed to be help while the rich never lack recourse even in dire times.
#3) Also, as Obama implied: When people are insecure (from military threats or sanctions) they clutch their guns and Vedas. Outside threats only lead to greater support for tradition and the status quo.

Bottom line, I don’t trust “foreigners” (and that’s who we are to India and to China) to be able to solve other country’s internal problems which are generally rooted and tied into such a complex web of cultural interactions and institutions that our ham-fisted, single-minded demands don’t even translate. We just fuck everything up, while benefitting the already powerful.

PLUS, I never see “white” nations getting nominated for barbary-state status. Why is it when whites do stupid things, it’s regarded as an exception, but when brown people commit atrocities it reflects on their entire nation, culture, and history?

Or is the “untouchable” thing not so rigidly enforced these days? And if so, what was the problem?

I live in India, and one of the things I hate most here is the liberty given to teachers to beat up kids, injuring them many times, and even killing them in few instances.

n.s.,

I really had no idea. Is this a legacy of British colonialism? In any case, now I really want to start a boycott.

India reminds me of that old tv series Alien Nation. All the evidence of gov’t corruption is there, but no one knows who the real top dog is.