| Suman Dhakal |
Posted
on 02-Feb-02 05:25 PM
hello satya prakash. thanks for bringing up the topic of casteism. you have made several valid points. however, i do not agree with you on one point. u say that the government should prohibit the use of lastnames in the government jobs that indicate "jaat".
It is my opinion, however, that this in no way helps solve the problem. first of all, what u have written "Instead, use the first name and middle name only. Along with it, for identification purposes, one can use the first and middle name of both parents. But no last name." does not work. one can still identify what cast or ethnic group the other one belongs to by simply observing his/her first name. what would you do with all the nepali muslims? their first name is enough for one to conclude, in most cases, that a particular individual is a muslim. a good indicator as to what type of caste or ethinic background that particular individual comes from. using a similar logic, one's middle name can also indicate his/her caste or ethnicity.
does that mean first and the middle name should be droppped as well?
another point. if one is proud of his/her last name and works for the government, why should he/she be denied the right to use his/her last name. just does not make any sense.
and whats with selecting a last name that does not specify any cast and assigning that last names to a govt. officials? do u seriously think that will bring changes
consider the african americans satya prakash. when they were brought here from africa they were given European names. ever wondered why lot of african americans have last name such as washington and jefferson? that is beacuse they picked the prominant figure of that time and gave their last names to african americans. now that the african americans had similar names as europeans, the names now did not reveal that they were from africa, do u think that helped stop the segrgation and the opression of the blacks by the white and even now in many cases. No it didn't and doesn't.
also, i'm sure u have noticed that more and more african americans these days have african names.
Not only the dropping/changing of last name does not work logically, beacuse first name can still indicate on's caste, history has shown us that it does not work politically or socially.
therefore, changing/dropping of last names in the govt. jobs is not going to work satya prakash. also we should not try to be too politically correct. i'm sure you have witnessesed the consequences of political correctness in the american society.
Suman Dhakal
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