{"id":503,"date":"2010-09-05T06:20:23","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T06:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2010\/09\/05\/letters-20\/"},"modified":"2020-05-10T22:00:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T18:00:18","slug":"letters-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/letters-20\/","title":{"rendered":"To Our Readers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers’ Response<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Your views are of interest to us. They help us balance the argument in the correct perspective. We welcome you to draw our attention to anything or opinion expressed in the Mauritius Times (or any national or international event of interest) with which you agree from your own angle or disagree due to a different appreciation of facts.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We will gratefully receive your communications at the email address:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

mtimes@intnet.mu We may decide to publish your comments or the relevant parts thereof if we consider that they will help our readers better understand specific contexts and maintain MT as the foremost and most balanced analytical newspaper of the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span>
\nAbout Belonging to Certain Groups<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The great physicist Albert Einstein, an ethnic Jew born in Germany, is reported to have stated, in an address to the French Philosophical Society, that if his path-breaking theory of relativity was proved successful, Germany would claim him as a German and France would declare that he was a citizen of the world. But if on the other hand his theory should prove untrue, France would say that that he was a German and Germany would declare him to be a Jew. The very young must perhaps be told in this context that Germany and France were very hostile to each other and that in the first half of the last century, they fought two wars that came to be reckoned as World Wars because of the number of countries that participated in those wars. They must also know that in those days Jews were hated, despised and severely persecuted in Germany. They should also ask themselves how, when subsequently Einstein’s theory was proved right, that particular fact made Germans great and gave them the right to conquer others and rule over them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahatma Gandhi belonged to the Bania caste, which is a sub-caste of the great Vaish caste, but nobody thinks he was a great man because he belonged to such-and-such caste or sub-caste. Actually some people in India think it is derogatory to be called a whatever because of their caste; they want to be taken for what they are, not for the group they happen to have been born in. If some people take pride in belonging to the same caste as Mahatma Gandhi or to any other caste for that matter, we should not begrudge them that. But if they use that privilege of birth to deny other people their rights, that would be a totally different matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mahatma drew his inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita and from the writings of Tolstoy, not from his Baniahood or Vaishness. It may be all right to do some chest-beating in private that one is of the same caste as Mahatma Gandhi or to some other caste of some other famous person, but it would be absolutely ridiculous and stupid to do something of that sort in public. If one can follow the example of Mahatma Gandhi in living a righteous life, one becomes great without any chest-beating. But if one considers oneself as belonging to the Mahatma’s caste but actually leads a life of corruption and dishonesty, only the very foolish or the very dishonest would agree that belonging to the “proper” caste overrides the objectionable conduct aspect. That would be equally applicable to any other person priding himself as belonging to whichever other great man\u2019s caste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since my childhood I have believed, rightly or wrongly, that the Ramgoolam family belongs to the Kurmi group. In some parts of India the Kurmis are regarded as a sub-caste of the Kshatriya group, whereas in Mauritius, probably because of their association with agriculture and land in Bihar, they are usually regarded as part of the Vaish group. But I do not think that SSR was motivated into following the course of life and action he chose because he was a Kurmi or a Vaish or even because he was a Hindu. Having grown up watching the sufferings of workers who happened to be Hindus in the majority, I have no doubt that he must have been motivated by those sufferings; we doubt whether he would have had a different view of life and of sufferings had the poor and wretched people he watched been Muslim or Christian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To quote a wise man, silence is foolish if one is wise, but wise when one is foolish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

P. Soobarah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0* * *<\/span><\/p>\n

Jean Marie F. Richard. Coordinateur Grupman
\nLarkansyel Kreol <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Discours de Mukeshwar Choonee \u00e0 d\u2019Epinay : \u00ab Un appel responsable \u00e0 l\u2019unit\u00e9 nationale \u00bb\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A l\u2019issue d\u2019une longue et franche rencontre avec le ministre de la Culture, Mukeshwar Choonee, ce jour autour de la pol\u00e9mique suivant son discours \u00e0 d\u2019Epinay dimanche dernier, je souhaite faire la d\u00e9claration suivante :\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

M. Choonee \u00e9tait l\u2019invit\u00e9 d\u2019une association socioculturelle Vaish qui comm\u00e9morait son cinqui\u00e8me anniversaire. Dans le cadre d\u2019une f\u00eate culturelle, le ministre, M. Choonee, a fait un discours de circonstance devant un auditoire comprenant toutes les composantes de la population de la circonscription num\u00e9ro 5 en pr\u00e9sence des deux colistiers du PM, Messieurs Faugoo et Rittoo.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Apr\u00e8s avoir parcouru le discours \u00e9crit de M. Choonee, il est \u00e9vident qu\u2019\u00e0 aucun moment il n\u2019a eu l\u2019intention, ne serait-ce que celle-ci, de tenir des propos contraires \u00e0 l\u2019unit\u00e9 nationale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab ki ham saath ra hein\u00a0 saay jihey ekta mein pragati\u00a0 karein mamoona banyhein \u00bb\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab Demeurons ensembles, soud\u00e9s, continuons \u00e0 vivre ensemble, progressons ensemble et faisons de ce pays un mod\u00e8le. \u00bb\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Comment appr\u00e9hender ces propos autrement qu\u2019un appel responsable \u00e0 l\u2019unit\u00e9 nationale dans la ligne pr\u00f4n\u00e9e par le Chef du gouvernement !\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Et qu\u2019aurait-il d\u00fb dire d\u2019autre \u00e0 une assembl\u00e9e de mandants du Premier ministre que ce sont\u00a0 eux qui \u00ab l\u2019ayant \u00e9lu \u00bb ont fait de lui le Chef de l\u2019Ex\u00e9cutif de ce pays et le Premier ministre de tous les Mauriciens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A mon avis, le seul reproche \u00e0 adresser \u00e0 M. Choonee est d\u2019avoir pour cette raison relativis\u00e9 le droit des autres \u00e9lecteurs du pays au profit de ceux, indistinctement de la circonscription no. 5.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jusqu\u2019\u00e0 preuve du contraire, Navin Ramgoolam est le premier d\u00e9put\u00e9 de la circonscription, leader du Parti travailliste, de l\u2019Alliance de l\u2019Avenir et Chef du gouvernement. En tant que tel, il repr\u00e9sente le pays dans sa diversit\u00e9. Pour ce qui nous concerne, sa cat\u00e9gorisation par la naissance importe peu.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

D\u2019aller \u00e0 la source et de placer dans le contexte sont deux exercices que nous avons pris la peine d\u2019effectuer avant de prendre pareille position.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jean Marie F Richard
\nCoordinateur Grupman Larkansyel Kreol<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on <\/em>5 September 2010<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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