The resurgence of brahminism in India

Dr B.R. Ambedkar was once quoted saying “The history of India is nothing but a history of a mortal conflict between Buddhism and Brahminism.“. I consider the use of the words Buddhism and Brahminism metaphorical like Einstein’s god. While Brahminism stands for inequality, divide and discrimination, Buddhism stands for equality, love and peace. While all Buddhists and Brahmins might not entirely fall into those buckets, I can broadly accept the usage as a metaphor.

During the British rule of India, two groups started to benefit albeit at different levels. The brahmins who held the monopoly over social rules and education started to gain massive financial grounds by capitalising on their social status and knowledge. The Dalits who were discriminated and kept at the bottom of the social pyramid saw light through a government which didn’t care much about the Indian Caste Structure. Though, the British government didn’t change the structure at it roots it provided a way for the Dalits to see what can be done.

Post achieving their right to self-determine and govern themselves from the British, Indian government put in several constitutional measures to ensure equality in the society and upliftment of the downtrodden. However, that didn’t again fundamentally kill the biases in the society. It got questioned, suppressed and most commonly capitalised to the benefit of the ruling population. Now, it is raising its ugly head, just that this new version of the social software is much more dangerous. I want to break this down into happenings, reason and way forward.

What is the present state of India?

The caste system is rife with different sects of the society wanting to become the Brahmins of the past. When I last visited India, I found a rather depressing need for people to find out who is below them in the society. There was a sense of entitlement towards possession. I also saw an acute admonishment towards people who do possess lesser than oneself. There were plenty of cultish movements which had little regards for history or truth. I want to broadly classify this social phenomenon as the resurgence of the Brahminism in India.

As I mentioned above, the traditional brahmins have gained a lot of wealth, social status and power in the society. In the last century, there have been plenty of social changes, as a result, they had to give up their long-held right to dictate and discriminate the society. However, at their roots, they haven’t changed. They have found the erosion to their right to discriminate others extremely hard to accept while their accumulation of wealth as a matter of pride.

Traditional brahmins are not alone here. There are three sets of modern brahmins in the present day India.

1. Traditional brahmins – People who still call themselves brahmins by caste
2. Other castists – People who still believe in caste system and strongly associate themselves with a caste
3. Wealthy individuals – People with immense wealth to be able to drive around the society they way they wish

India, much like the US has a culture of entitlement and fate, where wealth is entitled and poverty is a result of fate; the crony combination of Capitalism and Theocracy. There are three indicators which have made me realise the resurgence of Brahminism in a more modern sense.

1. Grassroot movements spreading the righteousness of the religious & castist practices in India
2. Growing intolerance towards dissent and alternate viewpoints
3. Identity Politics – Realignment of people based on religion, caste and wealth

So, what are the evidence of each of these?

Grassroot movements: The social media has made the spread of  (mis)information extremely easy. Over the last few years, I increasingly see spread of messages praising the brahmins of the past, justifying caste systems, a neo-spiritual explanation for all the myths, a justification for past deeds of castists, a call for a fundamental belief system and above all a cry of foul over brahmins behind considered a venom of the caste system. I originally dismissed this as an aberration. I began to then see mass movements towards traditionalistic conservatism. Then I realised, my friends who were at least secular before are infected by this.  It has spread from just a Brahmin concept to a full-fledged rollback of social development. E. V. Ramasamy, popularly known as ‘Periyar’ was an anti-castist and a social reformer in southern India. He once said society cannot eliminate Brahminism without fighting Brahmins. It is so true. The torchbearers of the castist ideologies have just kept it hidden for decades. However, what is worse is that every other caste which was either discriminated or was on the periphery have joined the Brahmin bandwagon.

There is absolutely no intellectual honesty or a forum for healthy debate on the disconcerting Indian history. Freedom of speech as a constitutional right has been completely overruled by the right to get offended or more precisely right to physically attack blasphemy. Every cult or group having more than 50 members have enough hooligans and goons to cause chaos. In the past one year, India has witnessed attacks against non-believers, religious minorities in a location, women, individuals whose opinions are not accepted and worst of all attack on law enforcement for arresting a religious leader accused of raping minor girls. A bunch of activists who protested against intolerance and calling for freedom of speech were attacked under the name of nationalism. Anyone questioning any religion, especially the credentials of Hinduism is put behind bars or has to face mob justice.

Karl Marx referred to religion as the “sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” There can’t be a bigger testimony to those words than India. Religion has given people a tool to explain their status in the society, use it discriminate, use it to justify discrimination and use it to accept poverty and discrimination. Every religion feels superior using the same principles. Every caste seems to think the same way. The Wealthy feel entitled to their wealth either using Free Market Liberal principles or religious principles. Sometimes even they want to feel discriminated. The worst part of this is even the discriminated groups have now forgotten what they fought. They have made their new caste their identity and want special treatment. The identity of individuals seems to be their religion and caste. There is not a single secular party in India which has a truly non-religious aligned candidate. Parties decide the political candidate in an area is based on the major caste in that area.

So, what?

The most common question I encounter when I place this rather uncomfortable state in front of the fanatics is, “so, what? why is this Brahminism?”. I want to break this down to what exactly is happening as a result of all this. If one looks at traditional brahmins, their biggest levers were

1. Ability to dictate people’s position in the social pyramid
2. Education

M.K. Gandhi, himself a big castist supported the secular candidate Jawaharlal Nehru as the first prime minister of India. Nehru was a secular social democrat. He ended up working on making education free at best and affordable at worst. He worked with Dr BR Ambedkar to ensure systemic changes to dismantle the then social structures. He also ensured that businesses are controlled and regulated. Also, the policies were intended to ensure there is an equitable distribution of wealth and economic redistribution.

What has neo-brahminism done? It has undone the work of the first parliament. Secularism is just an abused word now. People who utilised the public education system from the early 1950s to late 1960s have not invested back into the system. They voted in favour of  private schools. The communities which were against discrimination now want the right to discriminate. The communities which had to stop discrimination are crying foul and want to discriminate again.

There are private schools, colleges and universities all over the country. These schools are extremely expensive and quite elitist. You cannot land in a decent university unless you are from one of these private schools. This leaves people who didn’t ride the first wave of social welfare or have subsequently been brought down with little or no scope of reviving their lives. The next genius could be languishing in the slums of Mumbai or the ghastly mines of Korba or the footpaths in Chennai or the stuck in the chaos of Kashmir. The only equality measure left in the system in of reservation, which is currently hogged by people who have already been capitalised. You will see a lot of people in India complain about reservation while virtually no one complaining about money in education. Caste as a means to bias in education is bad but money in education is just as bad if not worse. Reservation in education for underprivileged communities doesn’t take the opportunity away from people of privilege but money in education does.

Now, what?

There is no way to end Brahminism without taking the privilege out of the brahmins. Brahmins hold a grip over most critical events in a person’s life from birth to weddings to death. There is a social pressure to fall in line with their expectations. It can only be broken through education and counter approaches. We cannot silence them as that would amount to arresting freedom of speech. We need counter opinions to take the stigma out of not being associated with them. Once these key events do not require being associated with a brahmin, it takes the sting off their venom.

The next thing is to make education public and take money out of education. For this to happen, the government has to do the following

1. Slowly eliminate private players from education
2. Remove the system where seats can be bought by rich people
3. Ensure lodging and food can be made free to all deserving students

The only way to make this happen is to increase the budget for education. Make the corporations pay their share.

Brahminism is dangerous. It has corrupted the Indian societies for over 3000 years. There is no justification for the caste system and is utterly made up.