Reassessing the left’s hatred of Brahmins and Brahminism

Why do leftwing echo chambers enjoy continuing the British policy of divide and rule?

As is well known, the British policy in India during their colonial era project was of divide and rule. Their efforts were directed towards sparking enmity between Hindus and Muslims. They also strived for division along the lines of caste. Like today, their were many such individuals who spread their propaganda at the time, spouting venom against Brahmins and brahminism. “If you see a snake and a Brahmin, kill the Brahmin first”: this was a statement famously attributed at the time to caste separationists.

Some have denied its authenticity, but there is no doubt that left wing hatred towards Brahmins was unparalleled, and it was not long before violence followed words. For instance, there were many incidents of attacks on Brahmins in Tamil Nadu — their tufts and sacred threads were cut off — leading to a partial exodus of ‘Tambrahms’ from the state.

As well as dividing society along caste lines, proponents of such division were not only helping the British, whatever their motives may have been, but are also propagating division and hatred today.

There can be no denial that dalits were (and still are) treated disgracefully in our society. But the remedy is not to instigate hatred against Brahmins or other upper castes, but for dalits to join hands with the enlightened sections of the upper castes and jointly wage a struggle to put an end to this infamy.

The caste system, whatever be its origin, had evolved into a feudal occupational division of labour in the society, and every vocation became a caste. There was a small section of the society involved in intellectual work. They were the Brahmins, and their language was Sanskrit. There was no system of universal education in the feudal system, and the educated class in India was almost exclusively the Brahmins (just as in Europe, the educated people were mostly the priests, using the Latin language).

So, the Brahmins, being the educated class, had a head start over the rest. When the British came to India, the Brahmins learnt English, gaining disproportionate representation in the bureaucracy, the judiciary, academia and other professions.

So, it was not because Brahmins were intellectually superior to non-Brahmins, or because Brahmins were, by nature, tyrants, that dalits and others remained oppressed, and had far less job opportunities. There were historical reasons for it.

Unfortunately for likes of Arundhati Roy, Bharka Dutt and their nebulous ilk, such rationality is beyond them. Creating divisions long after the British did so is instead their raison d’être.