Re: Elitism

["MV" <maxv@vsnl.com>]

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> I agree with mv's observation that the caste system is the primary
> culprit
> for our present pathetic situation in terms of the litreacy of the
> masses.But when he goes on to ridicule our ancient texts in general I
> tend
> to disagree with him.A careful study of our scriptures will show that
> they
> are infact the most scientific works to be ever created and it is a
> known
> fact that they were authored by people from a wide range of social
> backgrounds(some of them women!!).Social status was never considered
to
> be
> hereditery but was a matter of personal accomplishment.It was the
reason
> why
> for a long time we were the most creative of the civilisations.Later
on
> people with vested interests came up with their distorted
> interpretations of
> these texts and that is when the downfall started.

I agree with Nagaraju, he as articulated it much better, my
intention was also to point out that most of the ancient texts
are adaptations in Sanskrit of concepts developed by wider
set of creative people who are illiterate now.

It is interesting to note that many of the Sanskrit books
were written by "Sages" while camping in rural areas. If those
sages  were the originators of knowledge base why should
they go to rural areas to do research?

In most of the stories of "Sages" there was some kind of
"confrontation" of the local people and these sages and
the sages seeking reinforcements form Kings. If the sages
were peaceful researchers why should the local people
fight them?  From this what we should infer is, these "Sages",
were not just recording the existing knowledge base but
also destroying the original texts as well as forcefully
converting "literate" people to "illiterates".










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