Hi, I thought I'll start by posting one of my articles (Which was never circulated outside my small circle). I tried to counter a few misconceptions being spread about india, hindus & brahmins.. Please post your comments..
The (hi)story of a society:
by Rajesh T Srinivasan
This starts a long time ago, after land emerged from the ocean into five islands, and life evolved from oceanic creatures to amphibians to various stages of primates into Homo Sapiens. People all over the world started interacting socially and started living in societies.
One society in the largest island became much more advanced than the others. That simply was because the founders of the society realized one important fact. "As long as men lived in caves, for oneself, it was individual might that allowed him to survive. But to form a society, We need specalists that would excel in spcific tasks, working colloboratively". With that realization, They formed the society into classes and formed rules regarding their duties. The life style of each class were formed depending on their work and the role they would play in the society. The major classes were "Scholars", "Warriors/Administrators", "Merchants" and "Farmers". There was a "fifth class" that included others that were not covered by the four major classes.
First were the "Scholars". Their job was to seek knowledge and maintain it, and distribute it as per necessity. Neither were they rulers, nor were they rich. As their role as the "Knowledge Centres", they had no need for physical strength, and their food habits and lifestyle were geared more towards intellectual development. They were allowed only plant food and milk. Their daily routines were also centred towards excelling in their role. They seeked knowledge both external and internal, everything from medical to celestials, entertainment to sex, the seen and unseen..
Then there were the "Warriors" who were also the "Managers/Rulers". They were to oversee the society, maintain law & order, and to protect the society from internal and external adversaries. As their job was both physical and mental, their food habits included White meat along with plant food, and they had "advisors" from the scholar class. They exceled in warfare and administration.
The "Merchants" were responsible to keep the society going.. by acting as bridges between different people.. enabling them to trade what they have with what the need. Earlier, it was a "Thing for a thing", but later, they formed Universal "thing" called money, based on things that were deemed valuable at that time.. like the gold.
The "Farmers" were responsible for producing food for the society, that not only involved plant cultivation, but also animal based food like livestocks, fish etc. Due to the intense physical nature of their work, they were allowed to eat Red meat, White meat and plant food.
These classes followed their duties and lifestyles for generations. As the life styles of all the classes were different, and as a man is defined by his lifestyle, it was so evident that just by looking at a person, it was possible to determine what class he was from. For example, the vegetarian class were not physically well built, had less body hair, and were lighter in colour due to the absence of physical works, and visibly fragile compared to the other physically active class. But these same traits enabled them to be more active mentally.
As man had the tendency to look up on the "unknown power" they started forming "Religions" with designated deities. This specific society had an open policy on deities.. Each could chose the way he can visialize his deity. Be it Nothing, self, natural elements, animals, human or superhuman.. But the general idea of deities were "Mother", "Father", "Teacher" and "Any other Deities" in that order. There was no concept of "False God" or "Non Believer". The religion had no name except 'All-Encompassing Belief". Knowledge was transferred from generation to generation by a unique system of teaching, where students lived at the teacher's place for years together and did nothing but learning.
The scholars acted as the brain of the society. The Warriors acted as it's hands, the merchants as it's stomach and the farmers as it's feet. Each did their job, formed subclasses and sub-rules and excelled in their job. They lived together with harmony, as one entity, and the society progressed much more than any other in the world. It was so advanced that other societies from far across the world seeked out easier routes to either interact with this society or to conquer it.
Time and again this society was invaded by other societies, endured but prevailed. But within the last couple of millenia, as new religions formed, who believed in "My way or Highway", who considered everyone else "Wrong". And they believed in spreading their belief by sword or every other means. The last of those people who seeked out for business with the flourishinig society, looking at it's richness, desired to "conquer" and "Dominate" it. They also had the purpose of spreading their religion amongst the "Non Believers". One knight, called "Lord Macaulay", gave the following speech at his queen's parliament..
"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the indians think that all that is foreign and english is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture, and they will become what we want them, a truely dominated nation"
To do this, they decided that they will have to break the harmony of this society. They went on doing it systematicaly. They decided to create disharmony among the classes by pitting one against the other. The first thing they had to target was the brain of the society. The scholars, though were neither wealthy nor mighty, were greatly respected in the society. So, the invaders managed to convince the farmers and the "Fifth Class" that they did not get equal respect as the scholars, and that they were "suppressed" by the scholars. At the same time, they also got to discredit the ancient religion by preaching that this inequality is dictated by their religion. Having thus sown the seeds of disharmony, they proceeded to destroy any documented knowledge of the society and started bringing in their own knowledge, which actually was inferior to the ages of knowledge and wisdom gathered by the scholars of the society.
Once they managed to discredit the ancient culture and knowledge of that society, Once they managed to disconnect the brain to a large extent, conrolling the rest of the body was easy. And they happily continued to plunder the wealth of the society, anything of value, and within a few centuries, the society was reduced to almost nothing. Until they decided that they had nothing more to gain from the society, and decided to leave. But also wanted to make sure that the disharmony remains, and any history of their glorious past is destroyed, and that they never rise to their formar glory again. They made all arrangements to divide the country based on religions, the seeds for which was sown much earlier than the actual departure. And that the social disharmony stays alive for ages to come.
With this story, we shall start giving some names.
The founders of the society were called "manu" There were a few of them who kept refining the rules as per evolving society.
Their rule book for all classes was called "Manu Smrithi" or "Manu Dharma".
The "Scholars" were called "Brahmans".
The "Warriors" were called "Kshatriyas".
The "Merchants" were called "Vaishyas".
The "Farmers" were called "Shudras". Incidentally, Shudra also meant "The Core" or "Secret".
The "Fifth Class" were called "Panchamas".
Their all-encompassing religion was called "Sanathan Dharm"
The Country which was generally refered to "Bharat Varsha", named after one of the earlier kings, was the biggest country in the island called "Jambu dweep", was names as "India" by the arabs, meaning the "Land where the river hind (sindhu) flows"
With these definitions, let's fast forward to current day. The society is averaged out. Anyone can do anything. There are no "Specialists". If their abilities are not suited to what they want to do, they can shut down other able people by repeatedly saying that they were suppressed class, even though they don't know for sure, but just wanted to believe it.
Even today, a Scholar, a professor or a teacher earns more social respect than a farmer or a butcher. Not only in this country, but all over the world. A common man cannot sit equally with a "privileged class", The only difference is that the "privileged class" is not brahmans, but the ones who are able to earn more money, by hook or crook. The scholars, who were denied any place in the society, started offering their services elsewhere, helping other societies to grow. The New class of "Politicians", who had learnt the effectiveness of the "Divide and rule" policy from the foreign occupants, continue to use it to the fullest, to their advantage. Now, forget about getting the old glory.. the country called India is struggling to even match up with civilizations which were once much inferior to it, With it's self-dependence gone, looking up to other countries for everything, with no hope in the forseeable future.
The (hi)story of a society:
by Rajesh T Srinivasan
This starts a long time ago, after land emerged from the ocean into five islands, and life evolved from oceanic creatures to amphibians to various stages of primates into Homo Sapiens. People all over the world started interacting socially and started living in societies.
One society in the largest island became much more advanced than the others. That simply was because the founders of the society realized one important fact. "As long as men lived in caves, for oneself, it was individual might that allowed him to survive. But to form a society, We need specalists that would excel in spcific tasks, working colloboratively". With that realization, They formed the society into classes and formed rules regarding their duties. The life style of each class were formed depending on their work and the role they would play in the society. The major classes were "Scholars", "Warriors/Administrators", "Merchants" and "Farmers". There was a "fifth class" that included others that were not covered by the four major classes.
First were the "Scholars". Their job was to seek knowledge and maintain it, and distribute it as per necessity. Neither were they rulers, nor were they rich. As their role as the "Knowledge Centres", they had no need for physical strength, and their food habits and lifestyle were geared more towards intellectual development. They were allowed only plant food and milk. Their daily routines were also centred towards excelling in their role. They seeked knowledge both external and internal, everything from medical to celestials, entertainment to sex, the seen and unseen..
Then there were the "Warriors" who were also the "Managers/Rulers". They were to oversee the society, maintain law & order, and to protect the society from internal and external adversaries. As their job was both physical and mental, their food habits included White meat along with plant food, and they had "advisors" from the scholar class. They exceled in warfare and administration.
The "Merchants" were responsible to keep the society going.. by acting as bridges between different people.. enabling them to trade what they have with what the need. Earlier, it was a "Thing for a thing", but later, they formed Universal "thing" called money, based on things that were deemed valuable at that time.. like the gold.
The "Farmers" were responsible for producing food for the society, that not only involved plant cultivation, but also animal based food like livestocks, fish etc. Due to the intense physical nature of their work, they were allowed to eat Red meat, White meat and plant food.
These classes followed their duties and lifestyles for generations. As the life styles of all the classes were different, and as a man is defined by his lifestyle, it was so evident that just by looking at a person, it was possible to determine what class he was from. For example, the vegetarian class were not physically well built, had less body hair, and were lighter in colour due to the absence of physical works, and visibly fragile compared to the other physically active class. But these same traits enabled them to be more active mentally.
As man had the tendency to look up on the "unknown power" they started forming "Religions" with designated deities. This specific society had an open policy on deities.. Each could chose the way he can visialize his deity. Be it Nothing, self, natural elements, animals, human or superhuman.. But the general idea of deities were "Mother", "Father", "Teacher" and "Any other Deities" in that order. There was no concept of "False God" or "Non Believer". The religion had no name except 'All-Encompassing Belief". Knowledge was transferred from generation to generation by a unique system of teaching, where students lived at the teacher's place for years together and did nothing but learning.
The scholars acted as the brain of the society. The Warriors acted as it's hands, the merchants as it's stomach and the farmers as it's feet. Each did their job, formed subclasses and sub-rules and excelled in their job. They lived together with harmony, as one entity, and the society progressed much more than any other in the world. It was so advanced that other societies from far across the world seeked out easier routes to either interact with this society or to conquer it.
Time and again this society was invaded by other societies, endured but prevailed. But within the last couple of millenia, as new religions formed, who believed in "My way or Highway", who considered everyone else "Wrong". And they believed in spreading their belief by sword or every other means. The last of those people who seeked out for business with the flourishinig society, looking at it's richness, desired to "conquer" and "Dominate" it. They also had the purpose of spreading their religion amongst the "Non Believers". One knight, called "Lord Macaulay", gave the following speech at his queen's parliament..
"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the indians think that all that is foreign and english is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture, and they will become what we want them, a truely dominated nation"
To do this, they decided that they will have to break the harmony of this society. They went on doing it systematicaly. They decided to create disharmony among the classes by pitting one against the other. The first thing they had to target was the brain of the society. The scholars, though were neither wealthy nor mighty, were greatly respected in the society. So, the invaders managed to convince the farmers and the "Fifth Class" that they did not get equal respect as the scholars, and that they were "suppressed" by the scholars. At the same time, they also got to discredit the ancient religion by preaching that this inequality is dictated by their religion. Having thus sown the seeds of disharmony, they proceeded to destroy any documented knowledge of the society and started bringing in their own knowledge, which actually was inferior to the ages of knowledge and wisdom gathered by the scholars of the society.
Once they managed to discredit the ancient culture and knowledge of that society, Once they managed to disconnect the brain to a large extent, conrolling the rest of the body was easy. And they happily continued to plunder the wealth of the society, anything of value, and within a few centuries, the society was reduced to almost nothing. Until they decided that they had nothing more to gain from the society, and decided to leave. But also wanted to make sure that the disharmony remains, and any history of their glorious past is destroyed, and that they never rise to their formar glory again. They made all arrangements to divide the country based on religions, the seeds for which was sown much earlier than the actual departure. And that the social disharmony stays alive for ages to come.
With this story, we shall start giving some names.
The founders of the society were called "manu" There were a few of them who kept refining the rules as per evolving society.
Their rule book for all classes was called "Manu Smrithi" or "Manu Dharma".
The "Scholars" were called "Brahmans".
The "Warriors" were called "Kshatriyas".
The "Merchants" were called "Vaishyas".
The "Farmers" were called "Shudras". Incidentally, Shudra also meant "The Core" or "Secret".
The "Fifth Class" were called "Panchamas".
Their all-encompassing religion was called "Sanathan Dharm"
The Country which was generally refered to "Bharat Varsha", named after one of the earlier kings, was the biggest country in the island called "Jambu dweep", was names as "India" by the arabs, meaning the "Land where the river hind (sindhu) flows"
With these definitions, let's fast forward to current day. The society is averaged out. Anyone can do anything. There are no "Specialists". If their abilities are not suited to what they want to do, they can shut down other able people by repeatedly saying that they were suppressed class, even though they don't know for sure, but just wanted to believe it.
Even today, a Scholar, a professor or a teacher earns more social respect than a farmer or a butcher. Not only in this country, but all over the world. A common man cannot sit equally with a "privileged class", The only difference is that the "privileged class" is not brahmans, but the ones who are able to earn more money, by hook or crook. The scholars, who were denied any place in the society, started offering their services elsewhere, helping other societies to grow. The New class of "Politicians", who had learnt the effectiveness of the "Divide and rule" policy from the foreign occupants, continue to use it to the fullest, to their advantage. Now, forget about getting the old glory.. the country called India is struggling to even match up with civilizations which were once much inferior to it, With it's self-dependence gone, looking up to other countries for everything, with no hope in the forseeable future.
