I am indebted to Srinivasa for the information on how caste was introduced into politics. It was successful because the British found fertile ground on which to deploy it which had to come from the nature of Hindu society of which caste is a factor as it is indeed today.
I agree that traditional Hindu understanding of Hindu morality is relative from even a cursory reading of Manu's laws, and Hindu society remain a people who failed to make a leap from tradition/custom based law. Morality and ethics under the Western based rule of law live side by side with traditional practices. That this is the case has less to do with whether Hindu morality is relativist against the West's absolutes but to the of sort of society they represent. The Hindu superego has resided in their caste identity which as all the pages of the matrimonial columns show has been about the preservation of divisions. The awakening of a common Hindu identity can only be positive and we have Modi to thank. Hinduvta is too whooly a ideal. I ask the writer, when has self interest been a crime? As Christian's and Muslims are clear about theirs, we have every right to sit separately and identify our own too.
