Branding Brahmins as spiritual fascists absurd

A person who calls himself a social scientist but in fact full of idiosyncrasies has been making indecent, obnoxious, unwarranted and unsupported charges against the age-old Hindu religion. In his thoughtless literatures, he is making illogical, deficient comments and remarks on Hindu religion and its various gods.

These are often out-of-context connotations which have no basis or logic. He is making announcements with a malicious intent and labeling one caste as smugglers and the other as spiritual fascists. He is trying to make out a quarrel again and again with his pronouncements that Hinduism is governed by only few communities.

Thereby he is making out a false case as though Hinduism is root cause of all the evils in the world. If he does not have any faith in Hinduism, then he can jolly well stop worshipping the Hindu gods. But he has no business to insult Hindu religion, Hindu gods, or the sentiment of crores of Hindus and in the process a few communities.

It is better for all those who are writing and speaking against Hinduism to introspect as to who should decide what constitutes an Arya dharma and Arsha dharma? Are these poor intellectuals competent to analyse what constitutes the past, present and future as enunciated in the Hindu Dharma? For instance, is there anyone who is capable of totally unveiling the mysteries of birth, death and reincarnation?

Is there anybody, till date, who can make the proclamation that he or she knew about it? Despite the major strides that the science and technology made, except making a robot, could they manage to replicate the entire human body system? They have managed to create a test tube baby, but are they effective in producing the babies without the sperm and egg?

Since ancient times there are certain traditions, customs, conditions, practices, good and evil which one should understand. It is better to deliberate in toto rather than try to single out just a couple of things from the vast repository of ancient wisdom and exhibit their sheer ignorance of these great systems by making obnoxious statements on the traditional culture and wisdom.

In a great and ancient civilisation like India with the culmination of vast wisdom, values and traditions, it is important to know who practised which dharma. How would the future generations understand this great mosaic of varied cultures? Instead of saying that the epics, chronicles and Shastras are false, it is better to understand what is good and bad by studying them.

In our ancient texts, nowhere it is mentioned that such and such community or caste is great or superior and others are inferior. Through many characters and dialogues in our great literatures we are told about the various branches of ethos.

Meanwhile for the same writer it has become a habit to talk ill of Brahmins for every issue. He is linking Brahmanism and Brahmins to every issue and making abusive and insulting remarks against the community. He quite often uses words like Brahmin, power which is not desirable. It is not only undesirable but also highly objectionable to say that Brahmins are ‘Spiritual Fascists.’

This man who has no respect what soever towards Brahmins can not sprout his mouth and insult the Brahmins. According to the Chaturvarna system, the four-layered caste system of ancient times, there are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vysyas and Shudras. That was the then prevailing social necessity. We may agree or disagree. Even in our contemporary society, are we not categorised into several sets based on the needs of the society? A similar system existed in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Iran and China civilisations.

Are there not variances among people in the modern-day democracies worldwide? Are there not Class I, II, III and IV services in the government? Do we not find distinction between IAS/IPS and attender category employees though they are all governed and protected by the same Constitution as equals? Are we treating a doctor, engineer, a clerk and daily wage labourers on the same footing? The reason behind this is, if the base is on economic relations now, it was based on something else in the ancient times.

Let us understand what the caste is all about. In one meaning, caste is habitation or occupancy. Varnam is different from caste. Varnam denotes the sect while Jaathi stands for caste. It is like the difference between class and caste. Though there is a decline in caste, the four categories of class are continuing. The Chaturvarna system evolved based on the needs of the then society and its social structure. Hence nobody should feel ashamed or guilty that they are born in such and such caste.

There is also no need to talk ill of other communities or take pride in their own caste. As far as Brahmins are concerned, they have discharged their duties given to them with utmost dedication. They never encouraged casteism. As part of the duties thrust upon them by the society, the Brahmins served as ruling class, priests and strategists for the benefit of the people. In every village to ensure good governance and welfare of the people, the Panch Pradhan system had one or two Brahmins among them. This has become of late the Panchayat Raj system.

Noted historian DD Kosambi who wrote the history from the Marxist point of view had given a good certificate to the services rendered by Brahmins. He stated that the Brahmins are the culmination of the Arya and Tribal communities and appreciated them for protecting and preserving the ancient wisdom found in the holy texts, which is priceless. Hence, it is highly deplorable when some people try to talk ill of the Brahmins who are known for maintaining a low profile and leading their lives all by themselves.

The situation of Brahmins, who tried their best to keep the society united, has fast deteriorated. The anti-Brahmanism gained strength in the British India to begin with and reached pinnacle in the independent India thanks to some imprudent persons. Subsequently it spread its roots with the Mandal Commission recommendations. Victimisation of Brahmins under the British rule was done purposefully.

The British realised the key and important role-played by the Brahmins in the then society and freedom movement. The British with its divide and rule policy and for obvious reasons wanted to weaken the Brahmins who were spearheading the socio-cultural integrity of the country. The British decided to attack the Brahmins to pursue their agenda. The British sensed danger from the educated Brahmins in the country.

The socio-political system established for centuries with Brahmins and non-Brahmins living together had been changed. This led to replacement of class system with caste system. Now we have come to a stage where every issue, be it political, sociological, cultural is seen through the caste angle. The anti-Brahmanism has led to anti-caste and each caste is abusing the other. Discrepancy as upper caste, backward caste and Dalit has cropped up.

For such a system spreading its roots deeply, the sole responsibility certainly rests with few poor intellectuals posing themselves as social scientists and campaigners of anti-Hinduism. In such a backdrop, it is absurd to brand Brahmins as spiritual fascists. (Writer is Vice-Chairman, Telangana Brahmin Samkshema Parishath)

By Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao