Dear Editor,
I would like to sincerely thank Ms Scheherazade Ishoof Khan for reading and responding to my letter, as well as for her call to refrain from what she interpreted as “the ethnicization of legitimate academia” (SN, November 2). Ms Khan, who currently serves on the NCN Board of Directors for the coalition government, has outlined a number of fallacies associated with a partisan approach to, as well as the dangers associated with “ethnic interpretation” of knowledge and scholarly research. There is no need to repeat them here. However, for the record, this was never the intention, and, unless this point is lost, this was not what my original letter advocated. Nor was I suggesting that there were no Indian intellectuals. A re-reading of the letter, may convince Ms Khan that I was merely echoing a call by another letter writer who raised the subject matter regarding the need for Indian intellectuals to provide guidance on matters that are potentially divisive within our multicultural mosaic.
Yours faithfully,
Baytoram Ramharack
