this is not about being clannish but about getting together for equality and justice
Dear mrifan and vanam9394:
Yes, we all MUST stand together, putting aside our pettiness, back-biting, jealous of each other, etc., etc. In reality, this is not the case. I have been pleading with many in our community just to join our organization. Even for that, I face opposition saying that we are clannish, have been made fun of saying that we are castiest persons.....
It is easy for us to talk about ideals. How do we bring about a change of heart for these people and get them to feel that they belong with their people?
Friends, let me make this clear first. I never consider that every brahmin is superior to non-brahmin or non-brahmins should not be treated with respect etc. All I am stressing on is equality for all . I am sure most of the people on the forum think likewise since that has been the essence of brahmanism.
The real problem is with the govt and the political parties and politicians who create and nurture casteism for their own benefits. Hence the society is now divided into two groups -- not brahmins Vs non-brahmins but people for equality vs casteists.
Brahmins fall under the category of the people fighting for equality. Ther are some non-brahmins like lawyer K.Vijayan and his wife (thought both are mudaliars ) who are in this category too. Obviously many non-brahmins such as karunanidhi, ramadoss etc fall under the casteist category. Even jayalalitha, by striving to preserve 695 reservation falls under casteist bracket. Hence getting together to fight for equality does not make one clannish.
Now, so far what i have talked about is in the public sphere-- education and occupation. But it is my firm belief that people can follow their own religion at home . Similarly they can follow their own customs and rituals at home or in some common places like temples as long as it does not affect others or as long as they do not force their customs and rituals on others. The customs and rituals is what defines a caste in this age. The caste is not defined by one's profession (except for the priests job which anyway is not economically viable and i really am not worried too much about who does that job as long as he follows the aagamas and shastras whcih have been the convention for centuries).
Also we see that it is not the brahmins but people like vaniyars, reddys, mudaliars, chettiars, kammas, kappus, gowdas, thevars and dailts etc who are proud of their castes and in fact are chauvinistic about it.
I dont mind if they want to keep their caste and stick together in private fucntions and the likes but i cannot tolerate their discriminating against other castes.
You find that only the vanniar kill dalits or the thevars kill dalits in tn. it is either them or some bc or mbc and never the brahmins. Brahmins may follow certian customs and they may be anachronistic but they never harm others.
So I wont call this getting together of brahmins as harmful to the society. In fact it has been beneficial. It is the brahmins who preserved the knowledge and fine arts and pirituality agianst the barbaric onsloaught form muslims and christians. If not for brahmins all these Bc , mbc and sc /st would have become muslims and they will be runnning around as terrorists and militants with explosives in their belly and no hope for future and they will not be in positions that they are now such as CJI of india, finance minister , chief minister , etc. They need to be grateful to the brahmins for that. Even now so many brahmins are disseminating the knowledge of Yoga and pranayama to make people better and bring equality and peace in the world.
The politicians are talking about oppression and racism committed by brahmins centuries ago. if the brahmins were really racists and oppressive then the poppulation of bc/mbc/sc/st would not have been this high -- it would be just like what happened in USA and south america -- where the whites destoryed thousands and millions of red indians , mayas,incas etc so that they now do not have enough numbers in the current set up of democracy to even carry a feeble voice. If brahmins had been oppressive and racist, then their poppulaton would have been in majority or alteast 30% and no political party then would be talking about hteir oprresion even if it were to be real because they cannot survivie without the votes of brahmins. So all this talk about brahmin oppression in the past is only because they are in minority, the moment brahmins even so far attain 30% of poppulation and vote in a block -- even veerammani, karunanidhi and ramadoss etc would start praising brahmins and may even sport the sacred thread on their body and vibhuti on their forehead. Such is the nature of these politicians and so the getting together of brahmins should never be considered clannish and it should be only viewed as getting together to fight for true equality in the society where no one is discriminated against because of his caste or religion.
