‘Brahmanvaad’ And ‘Brahminical Tyranny’ Are Figments Of Imagination

Brahminical tyranny, they cry. “Brahmmanvaad ke khilaph ladenge, nahi sahenge” they cry. They hyperventilate about being suppressed by Brahmins from time immemorial. Yet, Babasaheb Ambedkar was raised and educated by a Brahmin who also gave him the name. We worship a cowherd and venerate a non-Brahmin, Valmiki, who went on to become a Brahmin.

The population of Brahmins today has come down drastically. Their literacy rate is above 85% and they mostly excel in the fields of education, law, medicine and legal systems without the help of any reservation systems through honesty and hard work.

Brahmanism is more about following a particular lifestyle than about just being born into a caste.

The one who knows the Brahman—the supreme self, the ones who live a life of simplicity dedicated in pursuit of knowledge, the one who does not harm or cause bloodshed of any sentient beings, the one who believes more in his mental strength than any violent physical strength and the one who is against all that is dark and stands by a fair justice system, can be called a true Brahmin. It is in this context that in Indian mythology all the bad Asuras and the demons who spread evil are portrayed as dark and the one who destroys the evil is seen as a seeker of justice. The physical manifestations of dark or pale is therefore only a metaphor of what these entities stand for.

In South Indian temples, deities and idols are carved in black stones. The Krishna idol in Udupi is black while the one in Vrindavan is made of white marble.

Krishna means black in Sanskrit. Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Durga or Kali, the Hindu Gods are always depicted in blue which is symbolic of being extremely dark in complexion. Unfortunately, our mythologies have been hijacked and twisted to suit specific agendas.

The pseudo secular governments of the past have added many new Jayantis to commemorate sages and spiritual leaders by deliberately flaunting the castes of these figures. Revered sages like Valmiki, poets like Kanakadasa were leveraged to inflict a casteist divide and to create artificial dissent among Hindus. Yet the Brahmin community has never opposed or played into any of these moves as they believe in respecting knowledge no matter where it comes from.

Hinduism has always been open to change and discussion. It does not cling to its symbols, instead allows them to evolve over time. This has been taken as a sign of weakness. For example, In Dharmasthala in Karnataka, one sees a large Dhwaja Stamba topped with a golden cross in the front yard of a church. It is one of many ways in which our symbols, scriptures and sacredness is time and again manipulated and quietly meddled with amidst the untouched tribal areas, amongst poorer farmers and artisans, while our media only talks about how narrow minded the Hindus are.

Now, Mahishasura is being elevated as a Dalit icon and Goddess Durga is being called a white skinned Aryan prostitute. The Brahmin haters never miss an opportunity to denigrate Brahmins, because when all logical reasoning ends, begins violence and vilification.

On one hand propagandists of equality cry hoarse when Prophet Mohammed is called a gay and cite freedom of speech when Goddess Durga is denigrated.

It is Baba Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary this year, the architect of our Constitution, the mascot of Dalits. He proposed the reservation policy only for 10 years, so as to bring about social equality, but ironically even after 70 years of this policy, we remain divided and continue to fill the census forms with castes and sub-castes defeating the very purpose of devising this policy of reservation.

But politicians thrive on this division and they will not let go of it any soon.

Every year students commit suicide when they are unable to get admission into premier institutes despite good grades due to the reservation system. But no one talks about this. Whether Dalit students died of an over burdening load of academia or because of social inequality, we do not know but people will continue to come forward to join the celebrated posts of backwardness.

Schemes for the welfare and upliftment of minorities and SC/STs are done by breaking the backs of the middle class by increasing the burden of taxes on them. This middle class continues to pay these taxes hoping that one day India will be a super power when merit alone will triumph.

I do not have anything against anybody’s religious choice but if you interfere with mine and think it is rational to masquerade as one amongst us and indulge in spewing venom against us then your divisive agenda is out in the open and calls for corrective actions from our end by participating profusely in the political and administrative decisions of the nation.

“Brahmins are non-violent and peace loving people but never tyrannical, in fact they have been systematically oppressed in an organized way today so stop using words like Brahmanvaad!”