Long Live Sen Sex India!

Long Live Sen Sex India!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Thirty One

Palash Biswas




Thus with indiscrimante Industrialisation and urbanisation, annihilition of production syestem, postmodern Manusmirti, information explosion and IT, outsorcing, Sensex boom, Luxury Malls and connectons, Blue Revolution and massacres and evictions in Rural India, the US World Order Hindu Zionist proposed Virtual India has become a beauty pageant at last!
Congratulations !
You may get some Miss Universe or miss World very soon!
It will change our destiny with MNC and Promoter, Sponser and Techno Raj, Aha!
Celebrate India, Celebrate!
Bharat is dead!
Long Live Sen Sex India!

Pledging to give the "highest priority" to development of quality highways, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Centre is planning to implement an ambitious Rs 2.20 lakh crore programme in the next five years for improving the National Highways Network.

The PM said the second bridge over the Brahmaputra near the city is part of the East-West corridor, which would connect the North East Region with the rest of the country and a high speed highway from Silchar to Srirampur is being constructed in Assam at an investment of Rs 6000 crore.

"I want this project completed as scheduled by December 2008. It will reduce the overall travel time and distance between the North East region and the rest of India," Singh said.
Bajaj Auto Limited today inaugurated its Greenfield Plant with a planned capacity of one million motorcycles per annum at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. Built on a total area of 65 acres with the balance 155 acres allocated to the vendor cluster, the Pantnagar facility would be Bajaj Auto's fourth Plant & first Plant outside Maharashtra. The unit has a plant area of 40,000 sq mtr and will employ 600 line engineers who have been trained at Chakan for 3 months.

In a pioneering manufacturer – vendor partnership, the Bajaj Auto Pantnagar Plant will be supported by manufacturing facilities of 16 auto component vendors in the immediate proximity. A part of the land area allocated to Bajaj has been taken up by vendors to set up dedicated facilities to ensure seamless integration with the mother Plant resulting in phenomenal manufacturing efficiencies.
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/auto/200704092485.htm


The Southern
10 US soldiers killed in Iraq
Los Angeles Times - 8 hours ago
By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer. BAGHDAD - Ten US soldiers were killed over the weekend as armed groups avoiding Baghdad's security dragnet attacked with bombs and other weapons in cities and towns just outside the capital.
Shiite leader calls for Iraqis to join militia The Age
Thousands join anti-US march marking Baghdad's fall CNN


Mumbai girl Sarah Jane Dias was crowned 'Miss India World', Puja Gupta 'Miss India Universe' and Puja Chitgopekar 'Miss India Earth' at a glittering awards function of the coveted beauty pageant in Mumbai. Sarah, who is a Veejay and a model, won the title beating 24 other contestants in the finals of the event.The first runner-up was Puja Gupta and Puja Chitgopekar the second runner-up, an official of the event organiser Pantaloons said.
http://india.gov.in/outerwin.htm?id=http://www.ddinews.gov.in/Business/Business+-+Top+Story/bank.htm


Sensex regains 13,000 level, ends 321 points higher.Market observers said besides massive buying by funds, expectation that corporate giants might come out with strong earnings for the fourth quarter, beginning later this week, also triggered buying activity. Extending gains for the fourth straight session, the BSE Sensex has crossed the 13k level thanks to an over 321 points rally fuelled by buying in heavyweight metals, IT, capital goods and banking sector stocks.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark-30 share index, Sensex which had gained almost 400 points in the past three trading sessions, climbed 321.66 points, or 2.5 percent to close at 13,177.74. It moved between 13,194.00 and 12,904.85.Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also crossed 3,800 points mark to close at 91.50 points, or 2.44 percent higher at 3,843.50.

All the 11 key segment indices ended in the positive zone with sizable to moderate gains, reflecting widespread buying activity.

Firming trends at other Asian markets too buoyed the trading sentiment here, they said.

PM should convene all party meet on quota: Nitish



Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar advocated reservation for OBCs on social and educational basis and urged the Prime Minister to convene an all-party meeting to find a solution to the quota issue.
On the other hand,Ten acquitted of rioting charges against Mandal report .Sixteen years after the Mandal Commission report triggered violent protests across the country; a court in New Delhi has acquitted ten persons of rioting charges for want of evidence against them. The chief minister told newsmen that he had spoken to Manmohan Singh and Union HRD minister Arjun Singh urging them to convene an all-party meeting on the day Supreme Court had stayed 27 per cent reservation for other backward classes in central educational institutions from 2007-08 academic year.

"The SC decision may make the OBCs feel that they are being denied the benefits of reservation deliberately," the Chief Minister further maintained.


Social and educational basis and not economic criteria should be the basis of reservation which, he said, would improve the social condition of the OBCs.


"If the OBCs are getting reservation benefits in employment why should they be deprieved of this benefit in admission to elite medical and technical institutions", the Chief Minister said.

The court, while exonerating the accused, who allegedly were part of an unruly mob that burnt governmemt vehicles and damaged other public properties in Palam Colony on 25th September 1990, also noted that even the investigating officer (IO) could not identify them correctly.


"The prosecution has not been able to prove the presence of the accused persons and this is one fact that it should have proved beyond all reasonable doubt," said Metropolitan Magistrate Anu Grover Baliga.


"Further, the failure on the part of the IO to prepare the arrest memo of these accused persons is also fatal to the case of the prosecution," it said in a recent order.


Citing a Supreme Court judgement, the court observed that it was the "duty" of the prosecution to have proved that all these persons shared a common object with the unruly crowd but the latter adduced no evidence on record to corroborate the charges.



"The prosecution has not been able to prove that the accused persons had any common object with the other members of the crowd and they were actuated by that common object (rioting)," it said.



The court absolved-- Sanjeev Kumar, Satish Kumar, Pawan, Shiv Shankar, Subhash Chand, Varun Kumar Mishra, Bhawani Shankar Aggarwal, Rajender Kumar, Bharat Bhushan and Michal Yates-- of the various provisions under IPC pertaining to rioting.



As per the prosecution, the accused were active members of the unlawful assembly protesting against the Mandal Commission report on 25th September 1990, at Palam Colony in South Delhi in New Delhi.



It had further alleged that all the accused persons were armed with deadly weapons and caused damage to public property and private shops in the locality.

Narayana Murthy as Prez? Kalam finds it fantastic

Sunday, 08 April , 2007, 17:42

Mysore:"Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic" — this was how President A P J Abdul Kalam reacted on Sunday when asked if he wanted Infosys' chief mentor and software industry icon N R Narayana Murthy to succeed him.



Asked again at an interactive session at the Infosys campus here about Murthy succeeding him, he replied, "I will say fantastic."

Though Murthy's name has been floated for the post in some quarters, he has sought to steer clear of such talk.

"I am not the person to comment on those things," Murthy said last month when asked if he was open to the idea of being a candidate in the presidential elections.

"This is all hypothetical. So we should not spend time on hypothetical issues...You have to ask the people who have said so (that he would make a good president)," he had said


Iran Says It's Able to Make Nuclear Fuel

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press
NATANZ, Iran -- Iran announced Monday that it has begun enriching uranium with 3,000 centrifuges, a dramatic expansion of a nuclear program that has drawn U.N. sanctions and condemnation from the West.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony at the enrichment facility at Natanz that Iran was now capable of enriching nuclear fuel "on an industrial scale."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/09/AR2007040900290.html?hpid=moreheadlines


Militant sanctuary busted in Kolkata

Two activists of a proscribed Manipur militant group have been arrested and a sanctuary of north-east ultras busted during a joint raid in Kolkata, Defence sources said.


On the basis of a military-intelligence report, the Army, state CID and the Manipur Police raided a house at Jadavpur in south Kolkata and arrested the activists belonging to People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleiak (Prepak) on Sunday, the sources said.

The duo were identified as 'Captain' Leishamba (alias Rakesh Singh) and 'Lieutenant' R K Dhanuka (alias Chakkmba) both important members of Prepak, they said.


Two others identified as 'Finance Secretary' Y Sanjay Singh, and 'Political Secretary' Lisaram Ibobi Singh managed to escape but were arrested after they landed at the Imphal airport by an Indian flight on Sunday, the sources said.


Several CDs and foreign currency, including Chinese Yuan, were seized from them.



McLeod: Does Asia have much to worry about from China's rising power and influence?
Chomsky: Anytime a big power is developing, everybody has to worry, including the Chinese people.
Concentrations of power are dangerous. There is plenty of history about that.
How much does it have to worry? Well, that depends on how things develop, so closer relations between India and China, which are now developing, could be beneficial to Asia. It's much better than having them muscle their neighbours.
McLeod: In your writings and speeches, you have said that the Asian Energy Security Grid is a very important issue, even though it hasn't received much attention in the media. Could you describe what the energy grid is and how it is important?
Chomsky: There are actually two parallel organisations. One is the Asian Energy Security Grid, and the other is the Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCC). Both are pretty much based in China.
The US applied for observer status to the SCC and was turned down, which was a blow. The central Asian states are part of it, Iran has observer status, India and Pakistan will probably join and Russia is a part of it.
The SCC is taking the form of a counterpart to NATO, and this is a large part of the conflict in the Middle East. And you are right that it is not discussed much here. (US Vice President Dick) Cheney, not long ago, gave a speech in Lithuania where he said that control over energy resources and pipelines can't be used as tools of intimidation and bribery - I think that was his phrase. Now he was referring to control of resources in the hands of others. Remember that others see exactly the same with the energy resources that are in the hands of the US...
Control of energy is a major problem. China and Russia and India understand very well that if there is going to be anything like what some people call an Asian century, they are going to have to control their energy resources.
But the North Korean problem is part of this too... North Korea has no economic resources to speak of, but it is the natural place for pipelines to go from the Siberian energy resources into South Korea and through to Japan. Also the trans-Siberian railroad might extend through there, so there is some geo-strategic significance as part of this very dynamic northeast Asian economic group.
McLeod: Do you believe that the Asian Energy Security Grid is a major factor in the conflict with Iran?
Chomsky: There are two basic issues with Iran. One is simply that, like Iraq, Iran is at the core of the energy producing system. However, there is another factor and that's the mafia factor that I mentioned. Iran was successful and defiant of the US in 1979 when it overthrew the US-installed tyrant, and it has to be punished for that.
You take a look at US policies ever since 1979. First under the Carter administration, the US tried to instigate a military coup in Iran, but that didn't work. So under Regan, they turned to supporting Saddam Hussein and his aggression against Iran, which was not a small thing.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed by chemical weapons, and the US and Britain and other western powers, and Russia too, provided full support for Saddam Hussein right through the worst atrocities... After that came harsh embargoes and boycotts, sabre rattling and other kinds of threats.
Right now, there are extensive naval deployments in the Gulf, which are almost certain to lead to some sort of confrontation even if by accident.
Take what happened (last week). Under disputed circumstances, an Iranian naval vessel captured a couple of small British naval boats. That is the kind of thing that can set off a major war.
There is a nuclear issue, but it is resolvable. In fact, if the US and Iran were functioning democracies, then it would be resolved. US public opinion and Iranian public opinion are very close on nuclear issues. Large majorities of both countries believe that Iran should have the right to produce nuclear energy on its own, and both same majorities believe that it should not have the right to develop nuclear weapons. Now that's a possible resolution if both countries were democratic.
McLeod: Turning to Israel, you have been very critical of Israeli policies. However, many observers, such as author Alan Dershowitz, say that Israel has been disproportionately criticised. He cites the fact that the UN has condemned Israel more than any other country and argues that Israel is far from being the world's worst human rights abuser. How do you respond to that?
Chomsky: Remember that Alan Dershowitz is a fanatic supporter of Israeli violence and atrocities, so he is not a neutral observer - he is way out in the extreme. It's sort of like asking a communist party member in the 1950s, "Look how much Russia is condemned, it's not the worst country in the world."
But aside from that, there is a reason why Israel is condemned. Plenty of other countries are much worse internally. But the military occupation of Palestine is very harsh and it has a potential settlement - everyone knows what the settlement is: a two-state settlement based on the international border. But Israel and the US have rejected it.
However, in one respect I agree with Dershowitz. It is wrong to condemn Israel - you should be condemning the US. Israel can do nothing without US authorisation. It's a small country and it consciously chose to be dependent on the US. We can even date it - in 1971, Israel was offered a full peace treaty by Egypt. Israel had a choice, either expansion or security. It chose expansion, and Henry Kissinger backed it, so Israel could do it.
Since then, Israel has lost its choices. If it wants a peace settlement, it can have it. The Arab League proposal of 2002, which is only one of many that go back to 1976, would grant Israel normalised relations and integration into the region. But it would mean abandoning expansion, which it does not want to do.
Figure another country that is in that situation, actually, there is one - Morocco, which is occupying the Western Sahara, but that's a US ally, so it's ignored.
McLeod: Israel has few natural resources and is not particularly significant economically. The US also pays a huge political cost for supporting Israel, so what does the US gain from its special relations with Israel?
Chomsky: We know that answer pretty well. The US-Israeli relationship in its current form began in 1967.
In 1967, Israel performed an enormous service for the US. It destroyed independent secular Arab nationalism, which was considered a major threat.
The oldest and most valued US ally is Saudi Arabia - that is where most of the oil is and Saudi is probably the most extremist fundamentalist Islamic tyranny in the world.
The main centre of Arab nationalism was Nasser's Egypt. Israel destroyed Nasser's secular nationalism, and that's a tremendous boost to US power. Nasser was considered a great threat and it was feared that Nasser might use the region's resources for the benefit of its people, rather than to the benefit of the West, and at that point, the relationship with Israel was firmed up.
In 1970, something even more important happened. The Palestinians were becoming an organised, secular nationalist movement, which is frightening (to the US). They were in confrontation with Jordan, a US-British ally.
In fact, the Jordanian army was slaughtering (the Palestinians). It looked briefly as if Syria might intervene to protect Palestinians and that was considered a major threat to the Hashemite monarchy and also to the Gulf tyranny in Saudi...The US could not intervene at the time because it was tied up in Indochina.
Israel - at US request - mobilised its forces and Syria had to back off. At that point, US aid to Israel quadrupled. That was essentially the end of secular nationalism in the Arab world.
Since then Israel has become a major US strategic asset. It's a western implant right at the periphery of the energy-producing region. For example, when the US and Britain wanted to evade sanctions against South Africa as they did, one of the ways they did that was through Israel, which was pleased to have open connections with the apartheid state - they regarded themselves as in a similar situation.
That even extends to Southeast Asia when Carter wanted to increase US support for Indonesian aggression in East Timor, which was slaughtering the population. There were congressional barriers, so the US couldn't support Indonesia directly and they got Israel to send US jets into Indonesia...
And when you say there is no economic interest (in Israel), it's not quite true. Israel is kind of an offset of the US high technology industry...

From: All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations < delhiprf@gmail.com >
Date: Apr 7, 2007 3:43 PM
Subject: Genetic Evidence for the Aryan Roots of the Caste System
To: Dalit Activists < scstconfederation@googlegroups.com>

Genetic Evidence for the Aryan Roots of the Caste System
By Dr.Joseph D'souza

Posted April, 7, 2007, www.dalitnetwork.org

A large number of historians have long contested that the dehumanizing and discriminating caste system has its origins in the Aryan conquest of India. The Aryans constructed caste ideology as a religious, political and social tool to rule the original inhabitants of the land. The Aryan invasion thesis has been contested by some historians and most recently by the extremist Hindutva forces who are committed to the perpetuation of the caste system.

Finally, the Human Genome project analyzing the DNA composition of humans has produced scientific evidence stating that the genetic origin of the upper castes in India is more European than Asian.

I enclose below a large quotation from the results of the research carried by Utah University in collaboration with Andhra University, etc. But what follows is the main result of the research:

Analysis of these data demonstrated that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians, and the upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are the lower castes. Collectively, all five datasets show a trend toward upper castes being more similar to Europeans, whereas lower castes are more similar to Asians. We conclude that Indian castes are most likely to be of proto-Asian origin with West Eurasian admixture resulting in rank-related and sex-specific differences in the genetic affinities of castes to Asians and Europeans.

This genetic evidence supports the long held view that caste slavery was constructed by foreigners who entered India and who created an elaborate social and spiritual system to dominate and rule the original inhabitants of the land. This genetic finding is no less important than the other finding which states that all human beings have come from one pair of original parents.

Caste, Racism and Slavery
Regardless of this fact about our common origin, human civilization is filled with examples of how one set of human beings has enslaved others on the basis of color, ethnic identity, nationality and religion. Human history is also replete with efforts to deal with racism and slavery. The modern anti-slavery and anti-racism movement has received another boost with the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the passing of the law that abolished the transatlantic slave trade through the work of Wilberforce and others. Abraham Lincoln said of Wilberforce, "Millions yet unborn will thank God for the memory of this man.'' Watch the movie "Amazing Grace" if you have not yet seen it.

Of all the slaveries inflicted on human beings, the caste system stands out as the longest standing system designed to keep the Dalits in perpetual slavery. Caste discrimination based on descent and occupation is nothing less than apartheid. The Dalits are visible victims of this invisible apartheid at work in Indian society. It is hard to believe that this system and ideology has brainwashed Indians for 3,000 years.

Given the scientific evidence and the social and moral arguments against the caste system, is this not the century to abolish the practice of the caste system globally?

Since the caste system degrades men, women and labor, it is imperative that India abolishes the system first as it stands in the way of India unleashing the full potential of its people and becoming the global power it is capable of becoming! Abolish anything that encourages the practice of the caste system, including caste-based marriage advertisements. Abolish the practice of the caste system in all religions by law!

More than the law, we must strengthen public opinion against this system which is so divisive in nature and scope that today it impacts all of life ¨C politics, religion, education and economics, to name just a few areas.

Extract from http://www.genome.org

The origins and affinities of the 1 billion people living on the subcontinent of India have long been contested. This is owing, in part, to the many different waves of immigrants that have influenced the genetic structure of India. In the most recent of these waves, Indo-European-speaking people from West Eurasia entered India from the Northwest and diffused throughout the subcontinent. They purportedly admixed with or displaced indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations. Subsequently they may have established the Hindu caste system and placed themselves primarily in castes of higher rank. To explore the impact of West Eurasians on contemporary Indian caste populations, we compared mtDNA (400 bp of hypervariable region 1 and 14 restriction site polymorphisms) and Y-chromosome (20 biallelic polymorphisms and 5 short tandem repeats) variation in 265 males from eight castes of different rank to 750 Africans, Asians, Europeans, and other Indians. For maternally inherited mtDNA, each caste is most similar to Asians. However, 20%¨C30% of Indian mtDNA haplotypes belong to West Eurasian haplogroups, and the frequency of these haplotypes is proportional to caste rank, the highest frequency of West Eurasian haplotypes being found in the upper castes. In contrast, for paternally inherited Y-chromosome variation each caste is more similar to Europeans than to Asians. Moreover, the affinity to Europeans is proportionate to caste rank, the upper castes being most similar to Europeans, particularly East Europeans. These findings are consistent with greater West Eurasian male admixture with castes of higher rank. Nevertheless, the mitochondrial genome and the Y chromosome each represents only a single haploid locus and is more susceptible to large stochastic variation, bottlenecks, and selective sweeps. Thus, to increase the power of our analysis, we assayed 40 independent, biparentally inherited autosomal loci (1 LINE-1 and 39 Alu elements) in all of the caste and continental populations (¡«600 individuals). Analysis of these data demonstrated that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians, and the upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are the lower castes. Collectively, all five datasets show a trend toward upper castes being more similar to Europeans, whereas lower castes are more similar to Asians. We conclude that Indian castes are most likely to be of proto-Asian origin with West Eurasian admixture resulting in rank-related and sex-specific differences in the genetic affinities of castes to Asians and Europeans.

From: KMGuru


Another one...


Dogs, Frogs and Dalits: The Indian Model Minority Has A Dark Side
By Brenda Walker

When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, he famously answered, "I think it would be a good idea."

His smug reply was more than just an unsubtle insult to Europe and America. It also indicated his assumption that India was morally superior to the West—despite copious evidence to the contrary.

India has brought the world an array of cruel social norms, from bride burning to the still-existing caste system, a racial social stratification in which those on the bottom are sometimes called "untouchables" (“dalits”). But Gandhi and many after him apparently believed that India's supposed spiritual heritage outweighs this rather serious deficit on the side of social justice, particularly regarding women's rights.

Make no mistake, Gandhi was convinced of Indian superiority:

"…Modern civilization represents forces of evil and darkness, whereas the ancient Indian civilization represents in its essence the divine force. Modern civilization is chiefly materialistic, as ours is chiefly spiritual. Modern civilization occupies itself in the investigation of the laws of matter and employs the human ingenuity in inventing or discovering means of production and weapons of destruction, ours is chiefly occupied in exploring spiritual laws." [GANDHI: Biography, Ideology, Resources]

Gandhi had a highly selective view of a society which remains largely unchanged despite the current image makeover in techno-hubs like Bangalore. The internet may be widely available for the middle class, but cows and untouchables remain, along with the usual assortment of Third World dysfunctions, from the subjugation of women to the high incidence of child labor, continuing religious violence and widespread poverty.

Incidentally, since "peace" activism is in the news, we should keep in mind that the pacifism which Gandhi espoused was absolute. He made no exceptions for self-defense. He thought the Allies should have surrendered to Hitler in WWII and that Jews should have hopped willingly into the gas ovens. Needless to say, none of this gets mentioned by today's peaceniks when they speak admiringly of Gandhian nonviolence. [The Gandhi Nobody Knows, By Richard Grenier, Commentary, March 1983]

Here in the United States, Indian immigrants have a reputation as being a model minority who have above-average incomes and education. We haven't seen many Indian gangs as yet—although they have become a problem in Canada—and for that we are grateful. Indians see themselves as hailing from the "world's largest democracy" (over one billion served). Some among them say openly that this will be the Indian century. And with greater wealth due to the outsourcing of American technology has come the desire to erase the tacky images of bovine creatures roaming city streets.

The Washington Post reported an Indian immigrant mom who objected to U.S. school materials: "American children will think India is some Third World country with pagan beliefs and backward thinking, not a forward-thinking country," Sandhya Kumar complained [Wiping Stereotypes Of India off the Books, By Maria Glod, April 17, 2005].

Frankly, it's hard to regard a country as "forward thinking"—or uniquely spiritual, in the Gandhian view—when it has engaged in an ongoing genocide of females. Males are valued, and females have been killed off through sex-selection abortion and infanticide. The number of "missing" Indian women and girls is estimated to be 50 million.

Such attitudes are hardly new in South Asia, where sons are frequently seen as economic assets and daughters as liabilities, given the need to marry them off with large dowries. Some parents have resorted to murder, smothering or starving their newborn daughters or even poisoning them with opium balls. [The Desperate Bachelors: India's Growing Population Imbalance Means Brides Are Becoming Scarce, By John Lancaster, Washington Post, December 2, 2002].

Modern technology has made sex selection easy. Many villages have an ultrasound machine. So unwanted female fetuses can be easily detected and discarded. Prohibitions against using sex-selection technology are widely ignored and never enforced.

India’s gender disparity has been rising as a result.

There is some understanding in the public mind that if no one has any girl children then many little boys will grow up to be bachelors. But the old preferences persist, outweighing any rumblings of individual responsibility, so many Indians want someone else to bother with girls, who are seen as more expensive and troublesome. Let Sanjit do it.

There’s evidence that a large gender disparity undermines social stability in fundamental ways. Some in government evidently agree, because the state Andhra Pradesh began offering cash rewards for girl babies in 2005.

Because of today's permissive multiculturalism, Indian immigrants to the U.S. see no need to leave their objectionable cultural baggage behind. Indians have brought sex-selection abortion with them to America, despite the fact that they are free to have as many children here as they want. According to a New York Times article, "Clinics' Pitch to Indian Émigrés: It's a Boy", [By Susan Sachs, August 15, 2001] services to deliver male heirs do a brisk business among Indian (and Chinese) immigrants.

CASTE
Another noxious custom which has been imported to America is the caste system, a kind of Asian-flavored apartheid. Even the diversity-loving New York Times had to do a little tapdance to excuse Indian immigrants' attachment to their ancient social categories: "just as descendants of the Pilgrims use the Mayflower Society as a social outlet", the paper opined about why Indian immigrants still retain caste [Family Ties and the Entanglements of Caste, October 24, 2004].

Caste in America is justified into more acceptable terms, like the computer programmer quoted by the NYT as saying, "That's why I went into the Brahmin group, because I wanted to give my children the same values." But the fact remains that Indians come to America, a society with minimal class distinctions, and see no problem with bringing their discriminatory caste system with them. Social mobility is certainly not an Indian value, although they expect to benefit from US egalitarianism when they immigrate here. When it's time to consider marriage, many parents want to choose a spouse of the appropriate caste and may want an astrologer's consultation as well.

The caste system extends back into India's history and has a racial basis. The Brahmin class of hereditary privilege is light-skinned while the Untouchable dalits are darker. It has been reported that newly affluent Indian women are spending millions of dollars on beauty products to lighten up unwanted dark skin, noting "It's believed that caste occupations were originally decided by skin color, with dark-skinned people assigned to the latrines and light-skinned people assigned to the Hindu clergy" [Modern India's complex connection with complexion, By Mike McPhate, Toronto Globe and Mail June 6, 2005].