Brahmin: Wronged for no Wrong

       Few groups are as fascinating as Brahmins. And during the last century, no caste group or religion has been the target of all the attacks. There was a time when Brahmins were around 40% in Congress Party structure. Between 1882 and 1909 – almost same percentage of representation was there in state assemblies. Similarly, Brahmin representation in the Bombay Presidency floated between 19% to 37%. That was the time nation was fighting for independence, a different type of reforms, economic upliftment etc.  It means Brahmin participation was very high in the freedom struggle and in reform movements. They were beaten, jailed and repressed by imperial forces for fighting for the nation and people.

In Constitution Assembly, the representation of Brahmins was very high too.  In post independent India this trend continued. But the Brahmin leaders did nothing for their own community. In the constitution, they ensured the special rights, privileges to minorities. Similarly in the name of social justice special quotas and privileges were ensured by them to Scheduled Caste, Schedule Tribes, Backward Caste and Muslims . But they did nothing for their own community. It was totally neglected.

This trend continued in Post Independence era across the nation, especially the Hindi heartland of Bihar, Utter Pradesh, Rajasthan and M.P. states where Brahmins were a little over 9% of the population according to the 1931 Census. Their representation in assemblies peaked to 27% in 1962. But Brahmin leadership kept on given privileges after privileges to minorities, SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims to remain in power and to consolidate their vote bank. 

Although their representation in corridors of power was very high but ordinary Brahmin was neglected, harmed and subjugated in all possible manners. In all the seminars at universities, colleges, political platforms, etc., they were the first target of attack. Brahmanism became a very negative term, hurled without any fear or shame, but Brahmins sitting cosily in power corridors remained silent. Leaders like B.R.Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram, socialists, communists all joined hands in this vitriolic attack. In southern states, reform movements were targeted mainly against Brahmins. In Tamilnadu, their condition was worst hit. Even an abusive slogan, Tilak tarajoo aur talwar, inke maro jute char,” was welcome as a revolutionary epithet. One Chief Secretary of UP was removed from his post because he happened to be a Brahmin.  

The Brahmin dominance became a pan-party story from the CWC, BJP nation executive and Politburo of Communists parties. Communists’ story is very contradictory. They were at the forefront of social, economic, political and reform campaigns and almost all the campaigns were targeted against the Brahmins in one way or the other by the Brahmins themselves. There is a new industry of NGOs, experts, social scientists, reformists, activists, communists, intellectuals, jurists, and journalists etc., who always look holes in Brahmins.  Even, the always righteous but always wrong, use poverty, illiteracy, social ills, even terror campaign to name a few to puncture the Brahmin intellect.  The anti-Brahmin decay is so obstinate that even the killings of Brahmins in Kashmir are never treated as a crime and Kashmiris are still proud of their Kashmiriyat.

The so-called secularism and social justice movement saw very adverse changes in Brahmin fortune, particularly in the last four decades. Brahmins were no longer elected as CMs in big states. This anti-Brahmin feeling took place in TN, Kerala and AP much earlier. the state like UP and Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, had not a Brahmin CM in 25 years. Even BJP which is accused as a Brahmin-Bania party had ignored Brahmins altogether in recent times. MP and Rajasthan have not had a Brahmin CM for a while.

The country now has only three Brahmin CMs, Mamata Banerjee in Bengal, Jayalalithaa in TN and Devendra Fadanvees in Maharashtra but they do nothing for their abused brethren. Mamata Banerjee's first concern is Muslims, Jayalalithaa's quotas, quota castes and Muslims.

The marginalisation of Brahmins is treated as forwardness and secular. In a much-planned manner, all the Sanskrit schools and Hindu Gurukuls were forced to close down. For long they were denied grants and salaries to teachers and staff and here it is needless to say that in such institutions percentage of Brahmin employees and teachers were very high. On the other hand Muslim Madrasas, Urdu Schools, minority institutions are financed very liberally. Similarly, on caste lines, SCs, STs, OBCs etc., are financed very liberally.

Yet Brahmins has not only survived, but thrived. But criticism, neglect, subjugation are Brahmin’s polish, making them shine even more. Finally, figuring Brahmin out gives us insights about who we are as Indians. The Brahmins did well is their ability to manage exceptions. They work to get good metrics. Brahmins may not be the perfect people, but at least on a few parameters they did much better than others. More importantly, they never made tall claims beforehand. They work hard first and marketed themselves later.