Hear the other side
The Hindu Business Line, 16 Aug 2004

APARTHEID exists amongst us, however much we may wish it didn't. Chandra Bhan Prasad writes a weekly column about this in The Pioneer. A compilation of his reflections is Dalit Diary: 1999-2003, published by Navayana (www.navayana.org). A piece written on August 15, 1999, is titled "Redefining merit and national interest". It rewinds to more than a century and half backward, and opens in the Presidency College, Madras. Majority of students were unable to pass the final exam in the first and second divisions, so "the administrators introduced a third division to ensure that more students cleared the tests." A line from a document dating back to 1890s reads thus: "Native Indians were highly disinterested in science and education... Their performance was so pathetic that many British professors returned to England in frustration." So much for the merit claim, argues Prasad passionately. Worth paying heed to.

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