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Brahmins have become the Dalits
- François Gautier
- Yet, once upon a time, caste was an arrangement for the distribution of functions in society, just as much as class in Europe, but the principle on which this distribution was based was unique and adapted to India’s social needs. It is true that the caste system degenerated and that it bred exploitation and abuses, which were often unforgivable. But look at today: it is the Brahmins who have become the Dalits of India. Brahmins are in minority in most of the UP villages, where Dalits constitute 60 to 65 per cent ; most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu; the average income of Brahmins is less than that of non-Brahmins; a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level ; 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins; and most of Delhi’s public toilets are cleaned by Brahmins (Brahmins of India by J. Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications, 2007).
- What is sure is that if there is a caste census, the greatest sufferers will be the ‘other’ non-Dalit Hindus, who constitute nearly 40 per cent of the Hindu community (unfortunately they are hopelessly divided). Indeed, we live today in an India where Hindus, the overwhelming majority of this country, are treated like an inconsequential minority. An India, where it’s okay to free the two Muslims convicted by the Mumbai police for helping in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, but where Swami Nityananda, a grown-up adult, who had consensual sex with a grown-up woman, is thrown in jail. An India, where the so called-Hindu terrorists of Malegaon, or Ajmer, languish in prison without ever having been convicted, but where those guilty of having killed so many people in the German Bakery of Pune, have never been caught, as there is no political will to do so. An India, where many institutions have been subverted by the Government to the point that in exchange for Mayawati’s support in the recent cut motion, the CBI lifted all cases against her. An India which is supposed to be the largest democracy in the world, but where phones are tapped, where politicians who take thousands of crores as bribes, get away with it, and where people are scared to speak aloud. An India where Sir Mark Tully (who most definitely wrote Hindutva, Sex & Adventures), is considered an icon of ‘fair’ journalism, whereas, when he was BBC’s correspondent, he set standards in reporting on South Asia, which still stand today and harm India’s image. Even though since the mid-Eighties, Pakistan encouraged, financed, trained and armed Kashmiri separatism, Tully always made it a point to say: “India accuses Pakistan to foster separatism in Kashmir”; or : “elections are being held in Indian- held Kashmir”; or “Kashmir militants ” have attacked an army post, instead of “terrorists”. All the other foreign journalists, yesterday and today have followed the BBC’s benchmarks.
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