August 27, 2010

Mark in Delhi

Last week on the 18th of August, I proclaim ...

Wrong film, sorry. (Which one?)

But on the 18th of August, there was a discussion around my book Roadrunner at the American Center in New Delhi. The writers Manjula Padmanabhan and Stephen Alter were the invited panelists, and Michael Pelletier of the US Embassy led the discussion. I've had a number of these events over the last several months (as some of you who've followed this space might remember), and this was one of the more stimulating ones. There were about 70 people who braved the Delhi traffic and rain to attend, several of them asked interesting questions and some stayed to chat afterwards. Thank you, all.

Yesterday, I got a note from someone called Mark Klassen. He said he had been in the front row at the event, bought my book at the end and read it over the next few days. When he finished, he wrote a post about it on his blog. It's a remarkably thoughtful examination of some things I wrote about.

I'll say no more. Take a look: War and peace in my Delhi life (the second section of the post is about my book).

4 comments:

Jai_C said...

Hi Dilip,

"How do I square that [people who live their faiths in the best way possible] with the hostility others feel and spread in the names of their partifular faiths?"

1. I used to wonder about this too when I was younger, but its simply to do with people's natures, is it not? A good kindly person will live in the "best way possible" regardless of what their faith has to say about it (or what they think their faith dictates).

2. I also did not get the part where you try to square this up with people who spread hostility "in the names of their faiths".

I am clear that you distingush acts of terror, for example, from the beliefs of the people perpetrating them. I think you consistently object to this "in the name of their faith" aspect.

I'm thinking about some old thread and your reference to some train bombers: non-humans. I remember some vigorous debate where your opponents were using this "in the name of faith X" argument.

3. First pass at resolution:

Targeted discrimination at a faith X, or at everybody who is not X, is what you are referring to. This discrimination claims to be "in the name of X".

When you judge a faith X by how well it treats others/non-believers this reference is bound to happen.

thanks,
Jai

Jai_C said...

Just realized the above comment hasnt much context to your post here! I was referring to your comment on Mark's post on his blog. Do feel free to delete it if it violates your comment policy.

thx,
Jai

Dilip D'Souza said...

Which above comment? Did you delete it? (I didn't). It's in my mail but not here.

Please post it again if you like.

Jai_C said...

looks like it vanished by the time I put up this follow up. I didnt save it :-( ... dont know if I want to post something on the lines again.

It was a sort of reflective comment linking your thinking (or my understanding of your thinking) across different posts. Maybe its not of much use to anybody else.

-Jai