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Superficial

Sir,— In his article, Social equality: Lessons from the U.S. (Dec 4), Kancha Ilaiah takes a superficial look at the history of African Americans and civil rights in the U.S. Lincoln's Republican Party was hardly conservative in the 1860's — during the civil war. It was a party of free enterprise in the mould of Adam Smith in a largely agrarian society. At that time the GOP was a progressive force in American politics.

While there is no doubt that America is a deeply religious society and a number of abolitionists and civil rights advocates were motivated by religion, it is not as simple as that. The advocates of slavery and the segregationists were equally devout and used the same religion to deny blacks their due. Moreover, such an argument is a great disservice to the many non-Christians, agnostics, Jews and atheists who were willing participants in the civil rights struggle. We should not forget that a large group of civil rights activists like Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammed and Louis Farrakhan renounced the Church and embraced Islam to protest the treatment of blacks within Christianity.

It is disingenuous of Ilaiah to suggest that Americans honour Mao for his struggle on behalf of the oppressed. Mao is generally remembered as the person who caused massive famines during the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.

P.S. Sriram,

Chennai

Sir,— Ilaiah writes that the Brahmins of India - including the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, who through the enactment of an anti-conversion law is on a collision course with the Dalit-Bahujans of her State - do not seem to have learnt any lessons from the US experience even today.

There are no Dalits in Hindu society and it is only a term of contemporary politics of recent vintage. The people of Tamil Nadu and of States such as Orissa and MP much earlier have passed anti-conversion laws based on their experience and wisdom.

V.V.S. Sarma,

Bangalore

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