I try to avoid online feminist discourse about women in the West because the level of freedom they talk about is something I can only dream of for people in my country. I wish we could have debates about things like bi-erasure in media or subtle misogyny, but that feels so far away in a place where same-sex marriage isn’t legal and marital rape isn’t even recognized as a crime.
That is why when I see some white woman bragging about her choice to be a "trad wife" or adopting Hinduism as a religion, it disgusts me. These aren’t empowering choices for us - they’re tools of our oppression. Here, women are forced into arranged marriages, denied basic education and pressured into being docile housewives. Hinduism isn’t some liberating "girlboss" religion - it’s deeply rooted in Brahminical patriarchy.
And oh boy, when these kinds of videos and discourses from the West make their way into the Indian manosphere, it just gets harder for us to fight against these oppressive, patriarchal practices.
In light of the recent attack upon an elderly Muslim gentleman in India, who was assaulted by Hindu extremist sanghis on a train for carrying beef, here are more essays to read, demonstrating how the concept of "pure vegetarianism" in India cannot be separated from ideas of caste hierarchy, oppression of marginalized groups and how foods and diets of different groups are shaped as much by economic disparities as by belief and spirituality:
In a London beauty salon run by women from the subcontinent, links between caste, food and odour echo the arguments in the debate in India o
“Food in India is closely tied to the moral and social status of individuals and groups. Food taboos and prescriptions divide men from women
Food has been an issue for most of my life. It has stood like a giant question mark between my relationships, my friendships, outside my hom
In India, food is not just a biological need but is deeply connected to social identities like caste. In pre-liberalisation India, caste-bas
Note: I know this shall breach containment soon but yeah, white vegans, "pure" vegetarians, and sanghis don't touch this post.
dalit christians? do castes exist outside hinduism too?
Dalit Christians are dalits (former hindus) who converted to christianity. Unfortunately, due to how pervasive casteism is in indian society, conversion did not reduce the caste oppression as they might have hoped, and dalit christians still face both caste based and religious discrimination from upper caste hindus.
A very interesting article from a dalit christian on how they don't feel fully welcomed in either dalit spaces or christian communities, and are eventually betrayed by both the church and the state.
To answer your second question, caste based discrimination does happen in religions other than hinduism - a carry-over of the original hindu caste system which has pervaded religion and seeped deeply into social structures, and caste practices that remained intact even as people converted to different religions. It is still actively practiced among Sikhs, in muslim communities of pakistan and north india, and to some extent among christians in south india.
Saw this comment made by a Pakistani under a post about Tilak Varma.
The casual casteist slur paired with colourism and hate against dark skin that i’ve seen being levied on Tilak Varma from Pakistanis is absolutely disgusting. Hinduphobes be roaming around tumblr and spreading hinduphobic propaganda of how “abolishing Hinduism” solves the caste problem when in reality casteism survives and thrives in countries like Pakistan that have completely destroyed and erased their “Hinduness” and continues to persecute their Hindu, Sikh and Christian minorities.
In reality these blogs aren’t actually anti caste, they are hinduphobic and they know it.
Caste is just a tool they use to further their hinduphobia and rally people against practicing Hindus.
the youth of india that has submitted to facism and right wing politics very conveniently complains about reservations but not about the lack of opportunities and seats by the government.
like do you really think by removing reservation, there would still be enough seats in institutions for lakhs of students?
the entire entrance system is a symptom of govt incapability to provide basic higher education and jobs and trap the youth into giving exams and blame their failure on students/candidates/people for not cracking them.
again, what good can come from the generation that believes that the government's responsibility is to build temples rather than focus on important things like education, infrastructure, development etc. these terms are almost non existent and alien.
every time i think the indian diaspora cannot get more unhinged they display outstanding commitment to proving me wrong. because tell me why someone i knew from uni is setting up a group for ‘qbipoc’ in the place they live (ie ‘queer bipoc’ even though using the term ‘bipoc’ in uk and europe is just asking for trouble because let’s just say that the uk is not the states or canada and the people who proudly identify as ‘indigenous’ brits and use that word about themselves aren’t exactly the type you want in a group like that to say the least, and it just reeks of borrowing american concepts/terminology with zero critical thinking) and they have an ‘entry criteria’ for this group.
which is perfectly fine right. i thought yeah fair it’s probably 18+ or some other practical characteristic. it was not. the ‘entry criteria’ is submitting a photo of yourself or having a profile pic of yourself so this person and their buddies can analyse whether you are adequately ‘explicitly non white passing’. helpfully, they have criteria for this, in which they state that dark hair is not, by itself, going to guarantee your inclusion, that having lighter eyes or ‘eurocentric features’ needs a ‘counterbalance’ like ‘darker skin’ or ‘noticeable body hair’ (bro? 😭) in order to count. all are direct quotes, you cannot make this up etc. bizarrely, they have a kindly little caveat: mixed race people with white parentage or european blood are exempt from having to conform to this criteria. if your granny’s white, you get to be in the club! caveat also extends to if you are jewish, practicing or otherwise.
and this part is of course my own interpretation, however, it is genuinely making me cackle because there is nothing in the world that gives away more than this caveat, the fact that the person setting this group up is suffering from the main character syndrome characteristic to a certain type of diaspora who is part of the dominant religion+caste in india aka upper caste hindus and assume that the specific version of racism (ie usa diaspora style ‘your lunchbox is stinky’ or ‘bindi’ racism) they face is the only valid experience. also let’s just say this group of people really enjoy phrenology when its results put them in the driver’s seat.
because if this deranged entry criteria specifically states that mixed race people with a white parent are given a free pass, so to speak, same with jewish folk, that means that there is only one group they intend to exclude, a group whose members are more likely than others to have lighter hair and eyes or ‘eurocentric’ features even if they have no european ancestry.
i’ll give you one guess as to which group this is!
the answer is, of course, people from the middle east. and people who have middle eastern ancestry, say, through intermarriage. which is to say, muslims. and this isn’t me saying that those features are characteristic of muslims, and not even the majority in any sense, but that they’re the only group where this could be applicable to a considerable number of people: not only those from the middle east but also south asian muslims.
if you’ve read prayers you know that similar features are not uncommon in kozhikodan muslims, thanks to arab admixture and centuries of intermarriage, even though kozhikode is very much in south india. as finnu notes in admiral, maedhros’ physical appearance is based on this to some extent. hell, i have some of these features. and you will know that said traits, whilst glorified in the dominant religion and deified in bollywood (regardless of actor’s religion) thanks to the almost circular venn diagram of capitalism, caste and colourism, are used to tar indian muslims as ‘foreign’ or ‘alien’ and exclude them from the idea of ‘indianness’.
like this solidarity group advert is one of the most perfect examples i have seen of how hindutva ethnonationalist sentiments operate in ‘liberal’ diasporic contexts. right down to the way in which this deranged criteria inadvertently excludes middle eastern christians, because being so rabidly islamophobic that you forget an entire region isn’t populated by 1300s saladins, is an equally common occurrence.
anyway the next time i feel like explaining how queer muslims are forever used as scapegoats or symbols and never assigned personhood, i will not write a 200k word fanfiction and instead give them a link to this group’s initial advertisement.
tldr: mooom the sanghis are at it again! in fucking ealing! ealing!
