For the British, the malleable fluidic social identities of India were mindboggling. Here commoners could become kings, kings could become gurus, priests become a farmer, and farmer a soldier. All effortlessly gliding from one segment to another within the larger construct of the Hindu way of life and religion. Compounding this bewilderment were the regional idiosyncrasies and cultural practices.

To govern this swirling once-solidifying-once-dissipating milieu required a framework that the most basic of Englishman could comprehend. So, a large complex regionally diverse system of social identities, cultural practices, and religious ways which had no parallels in the world was re-casted using a simplification process that had no parallels in the world!!

This involved butchering of nuanced yet pristine ideas that were difficult to comprehend and reduce them to their closest western construct. Rigidifying flexible boundaries by establishing new categories, hierarchies harking back to structures in the west. Forcibly packing perceived unwieldy, incompatible, and mismatched parts together to create new bounded classes.

The framework thus developed solidified basking in the sunlight of caste-religion based appeasement where “made-up categories” got mapped to “real rights”. Indian successors inherited this grotesque parody and continued to further cement it to the point that now this Frankenstein has taken a life of its own which is hideous, unstable, and at odds with its own existence.

Eye-witness accounts, testimonies on the Revolt of 1857 state that it would not have precipitated if not for the Brahmin soldiers in the army. And it could have become unstoppable if the armies of Bengal and Bombay had combined both of which had sizeable number of Brahmin men. Recruiting officers, it was found, were predisposed to recruit brahmins because of their built, strong sense of identity, mental agility, and cleanliness.

British also noted the sway that Brahmin soldiers had over their comrades and the colonist used this influence often to control the men. Lord Elphinstone wrote that the influence Brahmin soldiers had on others was a danger to Military discipline. This was not because of any caste superiority but in reverence to the moralistic moorings other soldiers believed Brahmin soldiers had. Thus, when the flag of rebellion was raised soldiers simply followed believing that the Brahmin soldiers were right.

To destroy a set of people, it is important to kill the symbols which they hold dear. Post 1857, the systematic targeting of brahmins while creating rifts within the Hinduism was adopted. The concept of caste was cemented within the psyche of the nation and associated with benefits – sometimes notional and sometimes real. Hinduism was debased methodically via false narratives, stereotyping, favoritism, and destruction of the two of its primary symbols – Temples and Brahmins.

Temple Takeover: In 1925, the Madras Hindu Religious Endowment Act was enacted to regulate Hindu Temples. Temples were not just places of worship but the axis of Hindu society acting simultaneously as socio-economic centers, charitable institutions via community contribution, and patrons of art and music. Temples enabled society to function more-or-less autonomously. This power of the temple disturbed the British. Self-sufficient people are not conducive to the idea of pseudo-socialism. And a parasitic welfare-dependent populace does not have the ability to fight back or ask questions. The Temple’s wealth was a bonus, the real goal was to alter the Hindu society, weaken its core to make it parasitic due to paralysis, and reduce the grip of Hinduism on the masses. Decay of temples achieved these objectives. Later in 1957, a very ‘secular’ government repurposed that act as Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act. No points for guessing what the intention behind that repurposing was.  

Brahmin Subjugation: While many accurate reports exist about the atrocities of caste systems, few exist on the brunt and backlash that Brahmins had to bear. British in the early days, and later many leaders built their identities around the fight against caste-based injustices, Hindu practices, and bashing Hinduism. But the direct consequence was borne by the Brahmin, crimes which seldom have been accounted. Brahmins were de-facto poster boys for everything vile in India. And it is not because they alone were “allegedly” the perpetrators of the said atrocities. But because they were the “only caste which was visually synonymous” with Hinduism and the real target was the religion.

For the British, Brahmins were the force that held sway and could become the unifying factor for another rebellion. For Christian missionaries, Brahmins were the primary hurdle to Christendom because of the reverence they commanded. For the left-cabal of godless atheists, Brahmins were the fountainhead of spiritual/religious/social views of Hinduism. For the Buddhist, Brahmins were the villain that destroyed the dream of total Buddhist India. For the champions of caste-politics the Brahmins were the custodian of the Manusmriti and the evil patriarch. Thus, these groups directed their singular vitriolic ire against the community. The Brahmin was the sacrificial lamb at the altar of any and all Hinduphobic pogrom and aspiration.  

Scant data exists on the exact status of the Brahmins, no such study (if one exists) is easily available in public domain. Anecdotal accounts, however, abound about their sorry state which is often not discussed lest it is considered communal or regressive in a nation that has drifted far into the treacherous waters of left-liberalism, wokeism, and smash-Hindu patriarchy. Enough proof exists about Brahmin persecution, discrimination, and ridicule. With tacit support from the establishment, media leads the charge in creating the image of a Brahmin gangster, corrupt politician, pimp, womanizer on one hand or as an idiotic anachronistic fool, cowering weakling, or a greedy pauper. In all such depictions, prominently displayed are Hindu symbols- teeka, janeu, rudraksh, gods  and goddesses.  

But the reality is far more bitter and bothering. A vast majority of laborers in cities – rickshaw puller, auto/taxi drivers, security guards, cooks, road cleaners, office boys, etc. – are Brahmins. A sizeable number of Brahmins (that constitute 6% of India’s population) live in poverty or below poverty. And such is their plight that being upper caste they are denied government schemes and relief due to caste-based policies leading them further down the hellhole of human existence. Ill-conceived quota system denies their children good education leading them to take up menial jobs for sustenance. Those that do overcome such educational challenges have limited opportunities in government jobs, and if they surmount that too, then they are limited in promotions and growth.

Paradoxically, higher education and access to information is further fueling Hinduphobia via anti-Brahminism. This can be attributed to increasing wokeness in Indian society, which itself is disturbingly prejudiced. Biased institutes, left-of-center educationalists, narrative shapers have created a deep layer of intellectually institutionalized anglophones who are culturally vacant and emotionally detached. Plied with self-deprecative narratives via education or compromised media, these people toe the line either because of planted biases or pressure to be accepted in the social circles of upwardly mobile new-age Indians who fancy to associates themselves with the international sub-culture of liberalism and political correctness. This is the vicious ouroboros that senseless adoption of western wokeism and neo-Ambedkarite self-loathing has created.

And it is the Brahmin, who already marginalized almost to extinction, is being garlanded with it, becoming the punching bag for the society. With no messiah and no well-wisher, the ordinary Brahmin stands alone and bloodied. No wonder that self-centricity and self-preservation has become the primary characteristic of the community, perhaps cultivated as defense mechanism against the trials that it has been subjected to. Yet, the real culprits of Brahmins are Brahmins themselves. They have failed to stand-up for their rights in a society that is increasingly coalescing on such caste/regional identities. The Brahmin have increasingly become the Dalit of yore, wooed only at elections, used-abused, forgotten, and then left to die.

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