Letters to editor
Inland
Kinship Studies and Gender
T
his has reference to Leela
Dubes excellent piece on
Doing Kinship and Gender,
(November 11, 2000). Along with
Iravati Karve, she deserves appreciation
and respect as a great woman
anthropologist of India. In 1965 I met
Karve by chance in American Institute
of Indian Studies, New Delhi. Before
that I had the good luck of meeting
Dube in Mussoorie. Both have worked
on the subject of kinship. Just as Dube
guided a doctoral student to work on
matriliny in Islamic society, Karve
guided a student to explore linkages
between kinship and racial
characteristics of people. She discussed
this with me in the context of bilateral
cousin marriage of the Mers of
Saurashtra with preference for
matrilateral cross-cousins. This system
gives higher status to women in Mer
society. The subject of kinship and
status of women in different societies
may be looked upon as androcentric
bias of anthropologists. That is not
true by any means.
H R TRIVEDI
Ahmedabad
Bahujans and Others
A s a dalit from Tamil Nadu I am
sorry to see that Aditya Nigam
(Secularism, Modernity, Nation:
Epistemology of the Dalit Critique,
EPW, November 25, 2000) has not
bothered to consult dalit writers and
intellectuals from Tamil Nadu to get
a clearer picture. His references are
to writers all of whom belong to
either upper or powerful middle
castes. Their crocodile tears about
dalits have no meaning because they
are using dalits for their personal and
caste agendas. What EVR says about
brahmins applies equally to nadars,
thevars, vanniars, naickers, gounders
(all belong to OBC category). When
they want our political support, they
will talk of equality and social justice,
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T he Indian National Social Action
Forum (INSAF) strongly condemns
the killing of T Purshottam, joint-
Air Mail Surface Mail
Institu- Indi- Institu- Indi-
tions viduals tions viduals
secretary of Andhra Pradesh Civil Pakistan, Bangladesh
Liberties Committee (APCLC) on
and Sri Lanka 80 50 65 30
November 23, 2000. From all accounts, USA, Canada, UK,
it is the handiwork of the Andhra Europe, Japan,
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earlier occasions killed those human All other countries 100 70 70 50
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custodial deaths and torture. INSAF
demands a high level judicial enquiry
into the killing of Purshottam, who
was a popular lawyer known for Economic and Political Weekly
fighting for human rights, and demands
that the concerned police officials in
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Editor : Krishna Raj
who have made unprincipled Senior Assistant Editor: Padma Prakash
compromises with the forces of Assistant Editor : Bharati Bhargava (Delhi)
globalisation and communalism. The Editorial Consultant : Gautam Navlakha (Delhi)
twin threat from these forces has Editorial Staff : Cleatus Antony,
brought in the open the anti-democratic Prabha Pillai
stance of the governments pursuing Circulation : A S Shetty, B S Sharma
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RAJENDRA K SAIL Director : S L Shetty
Mumbai
Economic and Political Weekly December 30, 2000