Hacker News Reader

[dead]

The cited book has no information on how the surveys themselves were conducted. The book is an overall romanticization of pre-colonial india, and frequently indulges in nostalgia.

The following books have a good overview of education&caste in india.

A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India

Gail Omvedt, Understanding Caste

> The cited book has no information on how the surveys themselves were conducted.

These are not surveys. These are actual full data from the erstwhile British Administration’s revenue records with the data collected by each Provincial head and the District administration revenue collectors and officials at that time. The modus operandi of the data collection is also detailed in the book.

Do these books fix the day issue? How do they do it?

Not to mention Ramanujan grew up in a colonial British era, and to attribute his genius and success (instead of the oppression and difficulties) him and his environment struggled with due to British colonialism is utterly rich!

Ramanujan succeeded in spite of it, not because of the favors of the British. Imagine how many Ramanujans were ignored due to 200 years of British colonial rule in India, wherein caste system developed and thrived*

Reply on news.ycombinator.com