Common people in the west know hardly anything about Bharat. But one thing they all know: Bharat has an ‘inhuman’ caste system, which is an important feature of their religion, Hinduism (the Western name for Hindu Dharma). Most also ‘know’ that Brahmins are the highest caste, which oppresses the lower castes, and worst off are the untouchables.
I learnt this already in primary school, but knew nothing at that time about the concentration camps of Nazi Germany only a few years earlier or about the atrocities of slavery or colonialism. Yet Bharat’s caste system with Brahmins as villains was part of the curriculum in Bavarian schools in the early 1960s, and it still is today: some time ago I asked three young Germans in Rishikesh what they associate with Hindu Dharma. Their prompt reply was, “caste system”. Surely, they also had learnt that it was most inhuman. In all likelihood, all over the world school children are taught about the ‘inhuman’ caste system. Why?
There is likely an agenda behind it.
Yes, the caste system exists, and untouchables, too. And it exists all over the world. Curiously, ‘caste’ is Portuguese for class. It is not even a Bharatiya term. The ancient Vedas mention four varnas – Brahmins, Kshatryas, Vaishnas and Sudras, which form the body of society, like the head, arms, thighs and feet form the body of a human being. It is a beautiful analogy which implies that all parts are important. True, the head will be given more respect, but will you ignore your feet? Not everyone is made for intellectual work, fortunately, because a society without farmers, traders, workers won’t be possible. All have their role to play. And in future lives, there are likely to be role reversals.
Varna was not hereditary originally. It depended on one’s predominant guna (quality of character) and one’s profession. The job of Brahmins was specifically to memorise the Vedas and preserve them absolute correctly for future generations. They had to have predominately Satwa (pure) guna and had to stick to many more rules than any other caste.
Due to their satwa guna, Brahmins were least likely to be abusive to other groups in society. Usually it is the group which considers itself socially just above another group, which looks down on those lower. This trait is there in all societies, but it is true, that in Bharat, unfortunately over time, the four varnas were inherited by birth. There are today many Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras, who do not follow their dharma any longer and therefore should not consider themselves as belonging to their inherited varna.
But why is the structure of the society in Bharat constantly decried, when nobody accuses for example the nobility, the highest ‘caste’ in the west, that it does not mingle with workers and won’t live in their neighbourhood?
Why is nobody upset that the British allowed only ‘whites’ into the club of Madikeri town in Karnataka and probably all over the country, as an old Bharatiya gentleman told me? If I remember right, he said that the sign at the club read, “Dogs and Indians not allowed”.
Why is nobody upset that the agriculture policy of the British Colonialists starved some 25 MILLION people of Bharat to death? 25 million men, women and children slowly dying because they had nothing to eat in a country that was one of the richest before the British took over… There are terrible pictures on the net of Indians only being skin and bones, barely alive.
Why is nobody upset that the British, after slavery was abolished, sent indented labour from Bharat all over the world in cramped boats, where a big number died during the journey already (and were spared the torture in the sugarcane estates)?
Why nobody talks about what the Muslim invasions did to Hindus and especially to Brahmins? How cruel they were? How many Hindus were killed or made slaves? How many Hindu women committed mass suicide by jumping into fire so that they won’t fall into the hands of the Muslim troops?
Nowadays, due to ISIS we can well imagine what happened then, yet the Leftists and even ‘respectable’ British Parliamentarians are not concerned with all this. They are concerned with the ‘most inhuman caste system’ of Bharat. It can be safely assumed that the colonial masters tried to drive a wedge between the castes by ‘fixing’ the former fluidity of varnas in their census from 1871 onwards. And today, their democratic successors, though without political power in Bharat, try to drive a wedge with the help of manipulative media and even parliamentary legislation in their own country.
My point is: what Brahmins did by segregating from others or even snubbing others is negligible in comparison to what Christian colonialists and Muslim invaders did.
So why are the so-called atrocities of the caste-system so hyped? The reason may well be to divert the attention from those who actually should feel guilty what they did and still do to Bharat. It’s not the Brahmins. Many of them suffer today, as despite being poor they are excluded from benefits which are given to religious minorities or lower castes.
But this is not the only reason why the caste system and Brahmins are being bashed worldwide. Another important agenda is to shame Brahmins, to make them feel guilty about their forefathers and to make them reluctant to follow their original Dharma of learning and teaching the Vedas. The goal is to make Vedic knowledge disappear in Bharat, because it poses a danger for Christianity and Islam. It can easily challenge their so called “revealed truths”. Vedic knowledge makes sense and is therefore the greatest obstacle for Christianity and Islam to expand over the whole world.
Unfortunately, a lot of Vedic texts are already lost. The former Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, says in his book “The Vedas” that out of 1180 Shakas, into which Veda Vyasa divided the 4 Vedas some 5000 years ago, only eight are still in use. (Just wondering: would a search in England, Germany and other countries rediscover some of this treasure? )
It is about time to stop this Brahmin bashing and stop portraying Bharat’s caste system as the worst that has ever befallen humanity. It sounds so fake, especially, when ISIS gets neutral treatment by just mentioning facts, like, “ISIL burns 19 Yazidi women to death in iron cages because they refused to have sex with fighters” without any emotional colour or condemnation.
Some time ago, I saw an old Brahmin couple in a temple in southern Bharat. They had dignity, but were very thin. When Prasad (sacred food) was distributed, they were in the queue before me. Later I saw that they joined the queue again…. It was in all likelihood due to poverty.
Brahmins don’t need to feel guilty about their forefathers. They can be proud of them, because it is only thanks to them that Bhaart is the only country that has preserved its precious, ancient wisdom at least partly. Yet others should indeed feel guilty, but those others are brazen and won’t. They rather vitiate the atmosphere with unjustified hatred for Hindu Dharma and Brahmins.
(Featured Image Credit: http://topyaps.com/girl-defends-hinduism-before-education-board)
(This article first appeared at https://mariawirthblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/the-bashing-of-brahmins-and-indias-caste-system-has-an-agenda/ and is being reproduced with some minor edits with the author’s consent)
Did you like this article? We’re a non-profit. Make a donation and help pay for our journalism.
[…] writer Maria Wirth explains the deep and pervasive Brahmin-phobia in this write up […]
bullshit article. You are downgrading these right wing (Hindutuva) website with these low quality articles. If it is just political then this is alright but if you think this can be a genuine place for hindu people’s then this should be stopped. We dont see tv and go to the scroll,wire,newslaundry like website because those are regressive left websites, good luck if you want to be a regressive right wing website.
what is ‘low quality’ about the article…lets discuss calmly
The article from the german trying –
1. mixing our caste system/jati/varn vyavastha. to some portuguese class system. but dont know that our original system was turned indirect class system after 2 or 3 generation later , when brahman said my child will become next brahman. and i dont have to explain who got the most value in our class system and social status.
2. she trying to relate our social ill with the outsiders just that we dont feel ashamed of our ills, by the way what the west done is mainly in past, but our class system exist today not only in small cities but in big cities also.
3. And she is relating us with the isis, shameful. The thing is in west leftist support refuges from isis countries because they trying to get the votes of the muslims, like leftist do with dalits and muslims, they ask for quota system in private companies but will never give in their parties.
4. Nobody in west right talks about the injustice they have done. Will we also want ourselves to say they dont criticize themselves for what they have done, so we prove they have done much worse than us, so we are fine. They are proud to be white supremacist and justifies by what they have achieved but our high class cant even say that after thousand years of slavery.
5. For our sudra’s, for centuries only masters changed brahmans, kshatriya’s, then muslims, brits, then our beloved gandhi’s. these article gave our high caste supremacist false reason what they have done in the past was not bad and its also continues today in some form. In country like India, has the most fault lines in world who’s countrymen think they can be a superpower, this types can fuel their alienation.
And why do you thinks that i will not be calm. Good thing you replied
I am from a so-called “brahmin” family. I say so-called because Vedas suggest that a brahmin is not by birth. But let me tell you that most of my family is very poor. Indeed, there are portions of it which are semi-literate only (by that I mean they did not even get to finish high-school). They have never “exploited” anyone, nor do they look down on anyone. Yet, they do preserve Vedic way of life—they all are vegetarians, they do daily Vedic rituals, they are largely vice free, etc. I would say they are quite dignified in that sense. And I am talking of extended family, which covers hundreds of people across 3 states. The entire narrative of brahmins, fed to us by Muslims and Evangelicals, is intended to destroy Hindu Dharma. Please do not fall for it.
I also wanted to add one thing. When I was in school, I was one of the very few “brahmins” (by birth I mean), and was easily one of the poorest in the class I studied in. I never had any pocket money, and did not carry lunch either because we could not afford it. I never thought about any brahmin vs. non-brahmin idea at all. We were poor, and that was just the way it was. My friends (all non-brahmins) used to sometimes make fun of our house also because of the poor situation it was in. But again, I never thought about any caste angle there. The English press and English books always put everything in caste angle, but the ground truth is not that way always. I am sure in rural areas, there are caste issues, but they are not always brahmin vs others, but more often some caste vs some other caste. In general, brahmins are not the wealthy group in India (many other castes such as bania, marwari, jain, papa sikh, etc. would be much much wealthier on average).