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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 12:56 PM
Original message
Question for any folks with good knowledge of India...
India is a very religiously observant country (right?)... And yet still they crank out about a jillion times more science degrees than America does...

Do they have Intelligent Design controversies in their biology curriculum, and crap like that to deal with? If not, why not? How did/do they manage to have science come from, well, the scientists?

Always good to look someplace where shit works 1/2-way close to right, I figure...
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La Lioness Priyanka Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. i am from india
till i moved this country i did not realize people actually believed in the adam adn eve version of the world.
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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. ... welcome a typical day in my world.... /eom
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Jesus H. Christ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. No, they don't.
"Intellignt Design" is an American phenomenon. If there's an "intelligent design" movement in India there would undoubtedly be American missionaries behind it.
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whistle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:21 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Good question, what limited knowledge I have of the Hindu....
...relgion, doesn't it incorporate the ancient sciences of astronomy and mathematics along with the multi-theistic explanations of how the universe was formed and where life evolves? The ideas of re-incarnation (Karma) appear to have a logical and very natural basis. The same with I believe it is Brahma (the cycles of the universe expanding and contracting going on forever). My understanding is so limited that it is probably dangerous for me to verbalize what I think I know, for it shows the true level of my ignorance. But, I have several acquaintances who are from India and also Hindu and their religious beliefs appear in complete harmony with science for they are doctors, engineers, pharmacists and other professionals who feel that the greatest good they can do while on their cosmic journey is to study and work and love and do good.

Hinduism is also very pragmatic and would quite easily embrace a fascistic political structure to achieve its ends of control and class structure and concentrated wealthy in an elite class within a heavily populated society. I still like Karl Marx's conclusion that religion is the opiate of the masses.
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muriel_volestrangler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:05 PM
Response to Original message
3. They do have people trying to get Vedic Astrology taught in university
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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Troo, but they're not tryin to shove it down the astronomy dept's throats
As far as I could see from the link - they just want their own department... which doesn't strike me as especially objectionable...
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whistle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. All is not harmony and peaceful debade in India either....
<snip>

Gujarat Genocide: The Passage to Fascism
Ashim Roy

The process of fascisation has entered a new phase. The Gujarat genocide has crystallized the reorganization of BJP state policy. Two political principles that fundamentally alter the Indian state have been articulated and legitimized as a state policy. First, the minority community is to be held responsible for every action of an individual, group or political trend within the community. Second, the representatives of the dominant Hindu community have the right to retaliate against and exact retribution from the minority community without due process of law. The acceptance of this principle by the BJP Government in Gujarat, and the NDA Government at the centre, along with the failure of the Indian polity to oust the Modi Government has sanctioned this ideological orientation, howsoever incompatible it is with constitutional norms. Narendra Modi personifies this orientation and he is the pivot of the reorganization of the fascist forces into a new phase. The political defeat of Modi can arrest this process momentarily.

Our main contention is that the Gujarat genocide is no ordinary political event or even one of the many increasingly vicious and brutal communal riots that have engulfed Indian society in the last decade with the rise of BJP. It is a decisive step by the Sangh Parivar to push the state system into a qualitative different and higher phase of fascisation of the state. No doubt this change of phase was precipitated by the recent electoral debacle which reflected the peoples opposition — ranging from militant struggle to wide discomfort — to liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, which has been induced by the imperialist restructuring of the global economy, and which has led to the erosion of support for the BJP.

The compulsion of imperialism is evident, but it does not explain the more than willing acquiescing character of the BJP which led to the loss of focus on economic policy that could serve the possible, limited national interest and the ability to sustain economic growth. Even that Indian big bourgeoisie that accepts dependency on imperialism expects the state to craft a policy that would enable it to accumulate capital so as to negotiate a better position for itself in the hierarchical global capital structure.

<more>

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv8n2/gujarat.htm
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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:43 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. yuppers - that's why I phrased my question as "1/2 -way close to right
And intended that the question be directly aimed at teaching crap vs noncrap in schools...

Always good to keep the bigger picture in mind tho.... Thx!
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Cleita Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:22 PM
Response to Original message
7. I know nothing of India, but I once heard
Deepak Chopra speak about Hinduism once on a talk show. He basically said that eastern religions openly embrace all religious concepts and question all dogmas, so there is no absolutes, like I'm right and you're wrong.

On the other hand the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are very dogmatic. You have to believe all that is written as the truth with no room for debate or questioning.

Anyway, as I said I am no expert, but it could explain a difference in intellectual freedom between different cultures and their beliefs.
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La Lioness Priyanka Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. there is still a lot of hindu-muslim conflict in india
there is often rioting and other crap!
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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:47 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Folks, folks, folks...
I tried to state my question clearly.

It *wasn't* about a GENERAL idea of why-does-India-rock-and-the-US-suck?

I think (correct me if I'm wrong) my question was very specific, having to do with the nature of a particular piece of their educational system, compared/contrasted with ours.

I get the feeling that some of the responses here are aimed at something I didn't say, suggest or imply...

If my question is boring tho, and y'all wanna talk about this other stuff, rock on!
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JI7 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-20-04 01:29 PM
Response to Original message
9. because it's more of a cultural thing rather than specific beliefs
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