When does Discrimination become Right?

NOTE: This article is about India’s social structure and trends in the current mindset in Indian society.

I had thought of typing the content of this article a lot of times, but it is only now that I find it really necessary. While it is correctly thought that the Hindutva are an ideology that can’t unite India, the self-claimed Secularists of India aren’t really in path to doing that either. I can actually feel the Anti-Brahmin sentiment on a high and furthur, it being thought of as ‘okay’ and accepted, as far as reservations, policies are concerned. Indians are presented a history in which the Brahmin community has become what I would call the “dirtbag”, which actually means the same as scapegoat. I used this term first in an online debate forum of the same topic. The dirtbag is the ‘bag’ in which a country (India here) puts the “reasons for failure into”. While it is generally accepted that the Hindutva do this against the Muslim community, and that theirs is a propaganda; the Marxist versions of Indian history, which speak in Anti-Brahmin overtones are taught in school and accepted as fact – which is why even the Aryan Invasion Theory is passed easily – it demonizes the Brahmins!

What the Hindutva does to Muslims, demonizing them, in their versions of History is what the Marxist historians have done to the Brahmins, in their versions of Indian history. In India, the national history presented shows the high castes as demonized suppressors and it is all that is historically attributed to their legacy. Anything praiseworthy, if mentioned, will be dismissed as a supremacist view, or a mythologized one.

How widespread is Anti-Brahminism?

The Anti-Brahmin sentiment is not something that exists merely in the government of a state like Tamil Nadu, but it can be seen, if indeed its searched for, in the views of many in the common population. It is not really a reasonable account, but its what has been spread in our nation as part of making groups feel equal by undermining the legacy of one group. On the other side, a people of a foreign culture are ready to believe the worst of the Brahmins. As such even if it isn’t spoken about, many non-Brahmins and even many Brahmins in their sense of unbias, within India, believe that Brahmins were the people who massacred populations in India and set themselves as the “highest”. Basically, they believe in the Aryan Invasion Theory. Its really a strange and paradoxical thing and has never been seen in history, actually: A population supposedly moves into a region, conqueors the “natives” and then set themselves as preists, idealizing non-materialistic living. Always an invading population, sets themselves as kings and the wealth bunch. That paradox would be interesting to pose to the Anti-Brahmin Marxists. Most importantly, this movement of Anti-Brahminism is more psychological than physical, and is not restricted to governement structures, but something people believe in quietly and not necessarily with a hatred towards Brahmins.

 The former (not so much now) Anti-Brahmin government of Tamil Nadu is merely external view of it. If views on this actually came out from communities, especially from the leaders of non-Hindu communities, we will come to see how widepsread the theory of “Evil Brahmins” actually is.  The views of Aryan Invasion Theory and Brahmins being the “dirtbag”, both of which reflect Anti-Brahminism, is something much of India actually agrees to. There is however, a deep psychological factor behind the acceptance of the Aryan Invasion Theory, which is intimately connected with the self-image of Indian groups. To put that psychology in short:  People in India accept the Aryan Invasion Theory due to their own racial perceptions, not because of any deep study they have done on the matter, or deep probe into chapters of history, propaganda, controversy, Hindu texts, mythology etc. The Aryan Invasion Theory is ready for being accepted even without proof, mainly because of the self-image of many Indians who see themselves as easily colonized, due to ideas of white supremacy in which some also like to link themselves as being “Aryan”, and others like to play the discriminated card of being colonized, vindicating them in taking unfair advantages today.

In the end of it all, the Evil Brahmin ’Theory’ is accepted. It is then fine to blame this community and certainly discriminating “evil Brahmins” is very fine and spectacularly righteous (sense sarcasm)! Its a view that has been spread by our Marxist historians, written textbooks and which is thus easily accepted. And ultimately, atleast to the view of Marxist historians whose version schools have adopted, India’s past history has been reduced to nothing other than a exploitative social order. While all other societies in the world had their stigma of this sort, no country has reduced their entire past history to only that exploitative social order. Slavery of the sort that existed around the world, never existed in India – it did in China, in the Roman Empire, in Africa etc, but you will never see any of them speak of it. In short, we Indians, in our attempts to look unbiased and level-headed, fall off the edge and imagine the worst of us and our past.

The Two Versions of Indian History

The first version is that of the Hindutva, the second and more widely accepted one is that of the Marxist historians. Since this article is to focus on the Marxist historian view, I will type that only.

Marxist Historian Version of Indian History

The Marxist parties identify a class struggle in all societies. While that is indeed true, there is a quick labelling of every past error or social backwardness on the Brahmin community in India. By this, Marxist versions of history would include that Brahmins have “imposed the caste system”, they kept others from education and that they are ultimately responsible for the poverty of Dalit groups today. In this way, the Brahmin community has become the scapegoat of the Marxist historical view. While the “high” of the high caste is made emphasis on, one needs to consider the wealth of the community and whether they were indeed responsible for the poverty of groups we see today through a study, rather than generalized views.

Foreign accounts of India, like those of Chinese or Greeks, don’t make any account of Brahmins being the oppressors of Indian community, even if they do mention certain people living outside the society for their contrasting, ill-considered living in Indian society. It is a well known fact, that Brahmins weren’t in majority, nor were they a wealthy lot. Any reasonable person can then say that if indeed Hindu society was in a direct control over “caste imposing” Brahmins, it would mean that the highly wealthy Kshatriya and Vaishya people didn’t use their brains! Which is a complete joke, even if a Marxist reading this would insist it as true. The point Marxist historians can accept is that the caste system, and discrimination associated with it was a construct of society that got formed like in any other place. It has nothing to solely do with the Brahmins creating or imposing it.

Caste was a social construct and discrimination on that basis was a society-wide thing. Not something that was propagated, nor exclusively practiced by the Brahmin people. Furthur, they give a joke of Brahmins hoarding knowledge, if even such a thing is possible by a non-wealthy lot! So a serious question should arise as to why this financially poor lot of society, who were learned though, have to be in the end of the accusation. Where were the kings who were governers of their kingdoms and had armies and mountains of wealth? We have a very unreasonable idea stemming from the Marxist version at this point, which is direct finger pointing to the Brahmins. They leave the real fact that India’s poverty reflected in this modern era, can clearly be traced to the effects of the biased laws and heavy taxes of the British Empire governement. Furthur, they forget that the Dalits are a self-designated group consisting of various origins, who came under one label due to their poverty in more recent times - not a group that has been living in poverty since ever ago or throughout history.

The treat Marxists get from demonizing the Brahmin community is to show that India’s backward society was caused by the Brahmins. By doing this, they undermine India’s past and cultural history, leaving it as nothing more than backwardness in the eyes of the general population. A Marxist historian needs one group to be the oppressor to demonize. But history tells us, that though Brahmins have in instances segregated as a community; Brahmins haven’t slaughtered populations, Brahmins haven’t usurped lands, Brahmins haven’t hoarded wealth. The ill-treatment on light of financial struggles and opportunities have been done a large part by other groups too. The oppressors of one era, in India’s history have even turned to the oppressed in another era. It tells us that there is no real parallel between Colonial Western history and Indian history, which is longer and much complex too. Financially, the Brahmins have been poor or moderately well, its not exactly the thing we see in other societies for the highest strata or the invaders and “oppressors”. The thing I am against is demonization of Brahmins and undermining their legacy where it exists. Apart from that, I don’t deny casteism done by Brahmins (or for that matter by others) towards the low castes. 

Like how Hindutva has come out to demonize Muslims, and justify atrocities against them by even hyperbolizing the wrongs of Muslim rulers; India’s own band of Pseud0-Secularists have come to demonize the Brahmin community and justify and unequal treatment of them. We are seeing an Anti-Brahmin government in the state of Tamil Nadu today, and we are aware of Modi’s government in Gujrat which is in the controversy of the Anti-Muslim Godhra riots. While a Marxist will come out a zillion and one times to point the Godhra riots, the entire case of Anti-Brahminism in Tamil Nadu is neglected like an unimportant thing – because to the Marxian biased ideology, it is an unimportant thing! The Brahmins of Tamil Nadu have migrated out, and their numbers there are only 2% today. Of course, the fact that this kind of a policy exists will be accepted by India’s Marxists and Pseudo-Secularists. It is because they wrongly identify caste discrimination as an invention of the Brahmins and not a social stigma of Indian societies as a whole! While I opened about Anti-Brahminism, an online friend of mine said it was because “They oppressed people for millions of years”. But the truth is, Brahmins share a mixed history in the Hindu society as far as discrimination of low castes is concerned. On the other hand, despite it being known that the rich Kshatriyas and Vaishyas defenitely have a part in all of it, the blame shifts to the Brahmin community exclusively. All this from bad reading of history, from part of that Marxist friend of mine. For a Marxist, a person demonizing the Muslims on accounts of rulers like Babur, Timur and Aurangzeb is playing communal, but doing similar of Brahmins is “fighting against caste oppression”. Brahmins at any time in history never formed the majority, nor the wealthy group. The fact that India’s self-claimed secularists are okay with caste based reservations against the Brahmin community, shows their actual thinking – that they are just divisive thinkers like the Hindutva itself, only in another costume. Searching Indian history, we would see that many Brahmin groups came out of poverty too. 

One thing a Marxist historian version of Indian history will not tell you is that down Indian history, we can find efforts to destroy casteist thinking from Brahmins like Basva Swami too. Till today, the history textbooks being taught in school will not acknowledge their efforts – after all it jeopardizes the “Evil Brahmin’ theory, they so well worked on.

The Dalit Myth about Buddhism vs. Brahmins

Dalit websites today all share their version of history which uses Buddhism like some sort of political gimmick. But what does the general population of India know about the underlying philosophy of Buddhism? Nothing much. If you have a Marxist version of history, philosophies of  such profoundness are not understood and are vulgarly reduced to the intention of “political movements”. Again, the same accusation follows that Brahmins tried to impose caste system on the society and that Buddha came and started a political reform. If it was indeed such a great conflict, we would have seen Gautama Buddha being tortured to death, like Jesus in Western history. This is the problem when people try to project the history of one place into another, without understanding the deeper and actual implications of the rise of a philosophy like Buddhism or the cultural trends of a place. 

Dalit parties forget that Gautama Buddha’s own lineage traces to the Brahmin Angirasa. They forget that some of the foremost disciples of Gautama Buddha were Brahmins – like Mahakashyapa. Brahmins like Kumarajiva were prosecuted in China for spreading Buddhism and a king like Ashoka had a mentor like Manjushri, of Brahmin family who introduced him to the Buddhist philosophy leading him to accept it and furthur, spread it. If it wasn’t for Ashoka, Buddhism wouldn’t have probably been very famous. After the Mauryan king Ashoka adopted Buddhism, it spread to places as far as Greece in the West, Japan in the East, Russia in the North and Sri-Lanka in the South.

After reading all this, which you (the reader) can verify yourself, the right question would be : Why would Brahmins helped the spread of this “casteless” philosophy if they wanted to keep their “throne”? Why was there no violence surrounding these events? The point is because these were just schools or philosophy and nothing as serious and dreadful as Marxists like to imagine, in their efforts to wave the red flag.

 Even in later eras, Brahmins like Padmasambhava, Nagarjuna, Bodhidharma, Nagasena and all, have promoted Buddhism, finding meditation techniques and even incorporating them from their own study of Yoga. There isn’t really a Brahmin vs. Buddhism war going on, which many Dalit sites seem to promote. If one actually understand the philosophies of traditional Brahmins like Vedanta, and compare them with other schools of philosophical thought like Buddhism or Jainism, they will find similarities. On the other hand, the caste system is labelled as “Brahminical Caste System”, merely due to the fact that they are designated the highest caste. Rightly speaking, you won’t find caste anywhere in Vedanata - try!

The problem is the fabricated account of Brahmins imposing caste system, when infact it was a social contruct identified by society, but not particularly imposed by any one group. As I mentioned above, Marxist historians have tried to club the history of all nations into a common sphere, without realizing the enormous differences brought by different cultures to the development of nations. By this, it leads them to think of the Brahmins as imposers of ideas, without considering their numbers or wealth status - they become the evil merely because they are the “highest” caste. Its also a discrimination the Marxist historians are glad in displaying, as it undermines the legacy of the Hindus and of their past society.

India’s Caste Discrimination

Let the reader not think that I deny the ill-treatment of low caste groups. I know that there have been eras in which low caste people were not allowed in public places, not allowed to drink from the same wells, couldn’t do anything if they were wronged. I know these problems for low castes exist even today in a number of places of India. I don’t deny the injustice. But I do deny labelling it the fault of one community, that is what is happening in India today – even silently. For me, and from my understanding, caste-discrimination was a stigma of India which did face opposition at times. The revolution resulted in temporary change and then things eventually got back to discrimination. I want India as a nation to come out of casteism and casteist thinking and I know that the way out of it, is not by making a huge deal of caste. While we need to keep casteist thinking in watch and condemn it, even with the enforcement of law, we shouldn’t really bring out the issue of caste in opportunities of admissions, jobs and other opportunities. 

Hardwork pays, there are many Brahmin people of poor families who have come up since the colonial era, when the British owned much of the wealth and when every Indian was poor. Dalits like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who started from poverty didn’t need (nor did they ask) for reservations. They just worked hard and achieved their goal. Any community can make it out of their poor state, and the problem of Dalits today and their social status is not only their problem, but a national problem – a problem for India. No matter what divisions we see among ourselves, to the world we are India.

India’s Pseudo-Secularists are the root behind Casteist thinking

Caste is not related to financial wealth, so the idea of caste-reservation is itself biased and only brings back a narrow separatist thinking.

The only way India will come out of caste-discrimination is by leaving caste aside and not politicizing it. What many have done is gain by politicizing it, and then claim to fight casteism when its their ticket to power! 

We shouldn’t look at people as belonging to certain caste while they come to grab opportunities, but actually see their worth as a human, an indvidual and an Indian. India’s problems can’t be solved by demonizing one caste, it can’t by solved by giving other castes unequal advantages. India’s problems will be solved eventually by our people when they largely start valuing education, by wanting to come up, by wanting better roads, by being not-fine with lazy officials and bad infrastructure, by wanting better change – That is when India will start development in all aspects. The lack of those concerns I mentioned, is the actual problem, which many ignore to play the discriminated-card or play caste politics.

Our pseudo-secularist parties in India make groups believe they are fighting casteism when in truth they are bringing back narrow and divisive thinking by classifying people in such a manner for every opportunity. We fill our caste in college forms, how worse can it get?! And now we speak of rooting casteist thinking?

How then can India come out of casteist thinking? India will only come out of caste-discrimination when people understand the bigger picture of a world, which we as Indians, have to face out there and actually look beyond caste, religion, region, sects, creed and move forward as Indians.

Our forefathers put out the fires that scorched this nation in divisive struggles, famine and poverty. Its our job to gather the ashes and rebuild this land. The freedom struggles of our forefathers lose value when we fail to recognize our goals ahead, and instead start looking at society in terms of religion, caste and sects again.

Tags: Brahmin, Brainwash, Caste, Casteism, Colonisation, Creed, Dalit, Danger, Discrimination, High, History, India, Lies, Low, Poverty, Propaganda, Religion, Shudra, System, Truth, Untouchable