#brahminism

[kamal-nayan]

genuine question how do you reconcile being hindu while also acknowledging/accepting that hinduism is brahminism/rooted in caste? i was raised hindu myself but left it/became atheist for many reasons (hindutva being one of them) but also mainly after finding out that i have family members who were shut out of education and other social opportunities because of their caste. and it's not like things have gotten much better for the millions of dalits today

Hi anon!💕

Thank you for asking this question! Hope you don't mind the long answer!

(if you wanna learn about my spiritual journey, I talked about it in this post)

My connection to god, Krishna, is what makes me a hindu. Pursuing spirituality has done wonders for my mental health as a whole and made me more compassionate towards myself and the world. Krishna's philosophy has made me more leftist and marxist than anything else.

Reconciling my faith and political ideology has been challenging, having the knowledge that brahminism is what poisons the very roots of this country and hinduism. The global rise of fascism and late stage capitalism has made it worse.

Hinduism as a whole cannot be defined, there is no one way to follow it, that is part of what I like about it. One can practice it however they want, that freedom is unique. There have been non-brahminical hindu sects and movements in the past which were later suppressed by brahmins (pancharatra vaishnavism is one). Ultimately the end goal remains moksha and in bhakti tradition, it is becoming one with god.

Also bhakti tradition and movement emerged as a social reform movement where it emphasized devotion to a personal god and rejected the caste system and social hierarchy as well. (The path I follow is that of bhakti). Many poet saints emerged during this time period.

A non brahminical practice of hinduism can be done. Currently, Ayyavazhi and Lingayats sects are few I have heard of (I need to do more research on them still) they reject the caste system and call for social justice. The paths are infinite, just as all the rivers lead to ocean, all paths lead to god/moksha, this is also what makes hinduism essentially secular. Neo-vaishnavism is also another sect that is anti caste and non brahminical

Chaitanya mahaprabhu, founder of gaudiya vaishnavism (or krishnaism) was one such social reformist, he was a brahmin by birth but his movement had a strong non-casteist and inclusive social impact, often challenging the rigid Brahminical orthodoxy of his time. (You can read more about him here) :

(Now this is my theist rant) Krishna was a social reformist of his time, he defied the status quo, he was a cowherder in his childhood faced discrimination for it later in life and chose to do away with discrimination in his time, everything about him is unique. He is called Vasudeva, which means "the god that dwells in everyone", so a system as discriminatory as the caste system should not exist in the first place as everyone comes and returns to the source itself, which in bhakti tradition is god. He built dwarka and made sure nobody faced injustice or discrimination on any grounds, he accepted those who were rejected by society (the 16k women for example), he can even be perceived as genderfluid and pansexual, he isn't bounded by anything. This is why I love him.

For me being anti brahminical and anti hindutva is not so in conflict when I remember that. The systems of discrimination were all man made and my love for God strengthens me to fight harder against these systems and against those who discriminate and spread hate.

I have witnessed casteism and bigotry in my own family and had a long journey before finally being able to accept that hinduism can be non brahminical, fighting hard to reform and approach a non brahminical way is what I can do to make it easier for people to practice it without facing all that discrimination. I am an obc (non creamy layer) myself, but the fact my own mother would tell me to not sit with my sc/st friends has only reminded me that the society is still very much casteist, it makes me fight harder against the current hindutva fascism and talk about caste discrimination even more.

Also, I am so sorry that happened to your family anon, I can understand how you feel. Sadly, casteism has only increased because of hindutva fascism and I think it is important for everyone especially hindus to fight against it and call it out.

->Hope this answer was helpful. Sending lots of love and hugs anon 💕🫂

[enigma-the-mysterious]

Pretending that casteism doesn't exist doesn't make it magically go away. It simply allows casteism to be perpetuated in invisibility

[meetdheeraj]

At the heart of Hindu nationalism and the cult of Hindu supremacy is the principle of varnashram dharm, the caste system, or what the anti-caste tradition calls Brahmanvad—Brahminism. Brahminism organises society in a vertical hierarchy based on a supposedly celestially ordained, graded scale of purity and pollution, entitlements and duties, and hereditary occupations. Right on top of the ladder are Brahmins, the embodiment of purity, the resting place of all entitlement. At the bottom are the “outcastes”—Dalits, once known as untouchables, who have been dehumanised, ghettoised and violated in unimaginable ways for centuries. None of these categories is homogenous—each is divided into its own elaborate universe of hierarchies. The principles of equality, fraternity or sorority are anathema to the caste system. It’s not hard to see how the idea that some human beings are inherently superior or inferior to others by divine mandate slides easily into the fascist idea of a master race. To escape the tyranny of Brahminism over the centuries, millions of Dalits and people from other subjugated castes converted to Islam, Sikhism and Christianity. So, the politics of Hindu majoritarianism and its persecution of minorities is also intricately intertwined with the question of caste. Even today, caste is the engine and the organising principle that runs almost every aspect of modern Indian society. And yet, so many celebrated writers, historians, philosophers, sociologists and filmmakers have collectively managed to produce a formidable body of work on India—work that is domestically as well as internationally applauded and handsomely rewarded—that either turns caste into a footnote or completely elides the issue. I would call that fake history, too. The great Project of Unseeing.

- From Arundhati Roy's 2020 Clark Lecture in English Literature, instituted by Trinity College, Cambridge. Arundhati Roy is the first Indian writer invited to deliver it.

[fdhfjdafdajfa]

“Hinduism” is a consolidation of multiple identity groups formed in contrast to a common enemy. That common enemy is me and other Muslims. That’s the only thing a Hindu is and the only reason anyone is able to make it look like the majority of India follows the brahminical religion. If that’s true now, it’s only because of RSS missionarism in rural areas that took place while this website and the rest of the woke-o-sphere, in India and the west, were pretending that Christian missionaries were the worst thing to ever happen to India and the world while ignoring the Indian KKK doing the literal exact same thing but worse because the Indian KKK are “indigenous PoC”.

[anarchistin]

Anti-caste Consciousness Beyond The Borders Of The Indian Subcontinent

Yogesh Maitreya in conversation with Mo Wrights at Wanakam at 7.30pm in Amsterdam today.

[anarchistin]

In early 20th-century Kerala, the Asari (carpenter) caste resisted colonial and Brahminical systems by deliberately ignoring opportunities offered by colonial institutions.

This act of refusal was a strategy against being shaped into compliant subjects within a hierarchical order.

Carpenters Who Refused An Empire | Panthi

In early 20th-century Kerala, the Asari (carpenter) caste resisted colonial and Brahminical systems by deliberately ignoring opportunities o

[anarchistin]

But it is right to ask if the Musalmans are the only sufferers from the evils that admittedly result from the undemocratic character of Hindu society.

Are not the millions of Shudras and non-Brahmins, or millions of the Untouchables, suffering the worst consequences of the undemocratic character of Hindu society?

— BR Ambedkar

[anarchistin]

The British have an Empire. So have the Hindus. For is not Hinduism a form of Imperialism and are not the Untouchables [Dalits] a subject race, owing their allegiance and their servitude to their Hindu Masters?

— BR Ambedkar