varna and jati

Thu May 27 22:33:51 UTC 1999

For an appraisal of the Anti-Brahmin rhetoric, please read the relevant
article at

http://www.hindu.org/publications/ramswarup/index.html

Suffice it to say that even the Mandal Commission report classifies Brahmin
subcastes under OBC's. For instance, Iyers are OBC's in AP, the Goswamis in
Delhi and so on. This shows that the notion of Brahmins being exploitative
is not tenable.

Besides, very few people know that not all so called 'Kashmirian Brahmins'
are Brahmins or Pundits. When the very existence of Hindus in Kashmir became
imperilled during the reign of a Muslim emperor, the caste system was
dissolved and all were elevated to the Brahmin status. Refer: "Converted
Kashmir: A Memorial of mistakes" by Saigal. The honorary title 'Pundit' was
accorded to all Kashmiri Hindus by a Firman of a late Mughal Emperor.

The truth is that Brahmins were at the forefront in the defence of the Hindu
society and are said to have offered a stout resistance even to the forces
of Alexander. The worst expolters of Sudras have actually been people of the
intermediate castes ( Including perhaps mine)

Regards

Vishal

----Original Message Follows----
From: nanda chandran <vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: varna and jati
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:19:39 PDT

>To some extent, this can be due to the poor state of wealth/economics
>among today's Tamils;

Is that what a heritage is worth -  a few bucks? I don't think so. And as I
mentioned before, the brahmins were never wealthy. So what made the
dravidians accept their culture?

>The success of varNa dharma, sanskrit alphabets
>and words are some other reasons why Non-Tamil Dravidians
>are little shy of their Dravidian heritage.

If as per Dravidian rhetoric, the brahmins exploited the masses using
varnAshrama dharma, then one would think that the other dravidians would be
more than eager to free themselves of the brahmanic yoke and reclaim and
take pride in their original heritage.

I've lived in Bangalore and Pune and have both Keralite and Telugu friends.
In Bangalore, I never experienced any such anti brahmin sentiment. The poor
of Andhra resent only the land owning Reddy and Kamma (I think). Ofcourse,
the communist propoganda in Kerala is very much against the Namboodaris,
quite justifiably in some areas. But the Namboodaris hold over religious
activities is still strong and even endorsed by the public. And there are
also smArthas living in Kerala in PAlakAd, who also haven't been treated so
badly. Go to Pune and you'll know the influence and the respect that the
brahmins wield in MahArAshtra.

Infact, people from all four categories (Keralite, Telugu, Kannada, MarAti)
that I've met, stoutly deny that their language is derived from Tamizh, and
insist that it's Samskrutam which is the mother language. Even if they're
actually wrong, it still reflects their respect and affinity towards
Samskrutam, which could never have been achieved by coersion.

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