Textbook Cartoon Inflames India's Debate Over Caste

A widely praised Indian political science textbook for high-school students became the object of controversy and -- regrettably, but unsurprisingly -- violence earlier this month after a member of Parliament claimed that it contained a cartoon offensive to BR Ambedkar, the Dalit (or low-caste) intellectual considered the architect of the Indian constitution, and to Dalits in general.

To be sure, the matter wasn't a free-speech issue, like the Rushdie affair at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January, and it wasn't an example of crude political paranoia over cartoons, like the case of West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in April. Even so, Education Minister Kapil Sibal certainly struck a blow both against the ideal of teaching reasoned debate and against due process in the adjudication of disputes among adults, when he apologized for hurting the sentiments of the Dalit community and promised that the cartoon would be removed from future editions of the textbook.