…When Dr Ganguli was Pro-Vice-chancellor I wrote to him requesting conversion of the ground-floor toilet in our bungalow into a western-style toilet from the existing Indian style. We were expecting elderly guests and hence the request. Dr Ganguli routinely referred the request to Mr Makhijani, and the latter wrote: ‘Only foreigners, Anglo-Indians and Christians may be sanctioned Western-style lavatories, and not Hindus’. Dr Ganguli called me and showed me the engineer’s noting. I said: ‘Mr Makhijani should be appointed professor of sociology at once, and I should be sacked’. Dr Ganguli laughed and passed orders sanctioning my toilet.—M. N. Srinivas, Collected Essays, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, (2002) Paperbacks 2004. P. 628
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