By IANS,
Delhi: If the Congress-led government decides to go ahead with the inclusion of caste in the census, it may be seen as a step against the advice of its own prominent past leaders, as two telling quotes from Rajiv Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru indicate.
Their quotes on caste and regionalism have appeared in the latest issue of the fortnightly journal, The Supreme Saviour. While Nehru talks of narrow conflicts in the name of religion, province, caste and language and the need for a classless and casteless society, Rajiv Gandhi’s quote is more direct.
“We proclaim and celebrate the unity of India… But is it not also a fact that most of us, in our daily lives, do not think of ourselves as Indians? We see ourselves as Hindus, Muslims and Christians, Malayalis, Maharashtrians, Bengalis. Worse, we think of ourselves as Brahmins, Thakurs, Jats, Yadavs and so on and so forth.”