A while back, I raised a few hackles with my views on taking the subway to Bangalore for cheap legal labor. Since they couldn’t do arraignments by phone, it seemed that criminal defense lawyers were fairly safe from this new trend that Biglaw was using to increase their per partner profits (ppp) while billing out 1st year associates for 7934 hours a year to corporate America. And they call plaintiff’s lawyers pigs.
Well, Jonathon “Spread the Love” Turley has found a new source of agita. What if Buffy and Jody of Bangalore are, dare I say it, of a “lower caste?” Then, it appears that your ppp may go up in smoke. According to numerous press reports,
Police in northern India arrested a man who allegedly threw a girl into a pile of glowing embers after he caught her trespassing, an attack authorities said Wednesday may have been motivated by caste. … [22-year-old Madan] Singh discovered the girl relieving herself Tuesday in a field he owned and demanded she immediately stop what she was doing and leave his property. “When she did not respond, he simply lifted her and threw her in a heap of embers,” local police official Govind Agarwal told the Associated Press.
Now what exactly, Mr. Biglaw guy, do you tell Mr. Corp Counsel when he inquires what’s happening with his document review?
The world may well have flattened some, but perhaps its premature to think that India is just like New Jersey, except the people there drive better. They may change their names when they answer the telephone to make themselves sound like your every-day Idahoan, but most people in Idaho don’t have to concern themselves with being burned alive for walking on a path reserved for the Brahmins.
And if human rights are your bag, not to mention any sort of appropriate feelings toward 6 year old girls, would it not be just wee bit disconcerting to think that you are contributing to a country and culture that still has untouchable issues? Let’s not even talk about China and selling organs from prisoners.
Sure, it’s all a matter of maximizing ppp and getting the drudgery of busywork done as quickly and cheaply as possible. But hopefully some enterprising journalist, or perhaps even blawger, will take note should some white shoe-iest of white shoes step on some lower caste 6 year old girl. Just think about it, will ya?
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You might want to do a little more research on the caste system or its remnants in the large metropolitan cities.
Or how about a country that has issues with race or gender…such as… I don’t know… this one?
To judge a country by the acts of a small minority (and with a population of over a billion, the people you read stories about constitute a very small minority) is really not appropriate.
I hate to say it – and you know I like you – but this post comes off as rather ignorant.
I may well be ignorant, but I did check to see if there was any news about reactions to this, such as outrage or denunciation by the government. Unfortunately, I found nothing. I did, however, come across this story, also via Turley, about the ritualistic toss of babies 500 feet down from a tower in the Indian state of Maharastra.
I’m sure this isn’t an everyday occurrence, which is why it’s news. The same is true of genital mutilation of women. But it’s still barbaric. And the fact that our country has its problems (which I chronicle here on occasion) does not relieve any other country from dealing with its own. And I like you too.
What is the government supposed to say? Every time something like this happens, there’s supposed to be an official statement from the central government? That’s a little unrealistic. Doesn’t even happen here. The man was arrested and will be prosecuted and probably get life.
Now, if there’s something you want to get upset about re: India, then you might want to look at the law and order system there and the crim. justice system. That’s a joke if I ever saw one.
Is it unrealistic to expect someone in India to care? The blogosphere cares: Caste system sets India back. I’m not crucifying all of India because of this, but tell 250 million Dalit that the caste system isn’t a problem.
It is and it isn’t. It is to some extent, but it isn’t to the extent that you’re making it seem.
Lots of people care and lots of people do something about it.
Again, I invite you to note the dichotomy between what happens in rural areas and what has been happening for years in the urban metropolitan areas.
I just noticed that you added the story about the baby tossing in your comment.
It’s stupid, for sure, but barbaric or worthy of international condemnation? I doubt it. I assume it’s a cultural thing (although I’ve never heard of it before) and apparently no kid has ever gotten hurt.
I note that Turley calls it “tradition in India”. Just like line dancing is “tradition in America”.
What’s more barbaric? That or not caring for your parents when they get old?
What about corporal punishment?
Further, from the CNN article about the 6-year old child:
India’s constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country.
The girl was walking with her mother down a path in the city of Mathura when she was accosted by a man in his late teens, said police superintendent R.K. Chaturvedi.
“He scolded them both and pushed her,” Chaturvedi said. The girl fell about 3 to 4 feet into pile of burning embers by the side of the road.
Even further, if you’d know anything about the geographic divisions in the country, you’d know that Uttar Pradesh is probably one of the only states in the country dominated by rural areas and a lack of education.
This does not happen in cities (at least not for reasons of caste).
Well, that explains a lot. See Gid, you ARE a font of wisdom. What would I do without you?
This isn’t just about India, lawyers, or outsourcing. Single-minded profit-maximizing global capitalism has had rich countries exploiting poor countries as standard operating procedure for centuries, while doing next to nothing to contribute to a country’s social development besides conspicuous consumerism. More of the same. Sigh.
This benign potrayal of Hinduism continues the American media does not have the guts to go after the darkness called Hinduism be it the racial persecution of inferior caste Hindus or the genocide of religious minorities like Muslims Sikhs and Christians in India, like the recent Gujarat genocide of Muslims in India in 2002 taking advantage of the september 11 attacks and the corporate media manufactured anti-Islamism.