Topic: Caste

Barkha Dutt admitted that she wouldn’t have shared the platform to take a snap had she known about the slogan written on the placard. For, she didn’t like the American CEO teaching Indians through that slogan and dealing with Indian’s internal matter. That’s very nice of Barkha Dutt. But that seems to be not true of others in the pic. Moreover, in India Brahminical Patriarchy has a connotation with Brahmin Caste. Ninety nine percent Indians feel that way whatever be its denotation in academic parlance. Vijaya Gadde’s public apology may have enraged the Left but the feelings of the Right are assuaged in India for the Twitter to progress.

Barkha Dutt comes from Punjabi Warrior Brahmin Class which itself has been perpetually dislocated from it’s origins in Iran. Does she support the Brahiminical Patriarchy slur? In that case her father is to blame. Would he contest this? And strange to read an Omar Zulfiquar talk of casteism of another religion when his tribe is hopelessly split along belief and caste lines itself. Shias, Sunnis, Ahmedias, Ansars, Qureshis and what not to fight each other.

Dear Barkha
In India every day some kind of elections and festivals! This is an unauthentic argument that Twitter should have avoided in the time of elections. If we can preach America on the Trump and several issues what’s wrong if Jack holds poster which is very relevent to his nation as very large number of Indians are residing in the USA. Apart from the time, as an individual he has every right to hold the T Shirt what he wants, and he must be aware about his Twitter business. As you have every right to debate on various issues without considering time and elections.
You article doesn’t take strong stand against caste discrimination! Seems want to take little bit both side.
One who Consider onslef as Brhmin itself is a castist. It’s joke saying that I am Brhmin/dominant caste and I don’t believe in the caste system. Either You Can be Dominant Caste or Human being. Both at once not possible.

Brahminims is cancer

With all due respect to the opinions of those who have posted comments above, I do believe it is rather daft to deny the prevalence of Casteism, and Patriarchy in Indian society, which the phrase ‘Brahminical Patriarchy’ rather succinctly encapsulates. I realise that an instinctive reaction to such a declaration is bound to be rife with indignation, and might aggravate an already keenly felt sense of hurt, and guilt, to some extent, rightly, but largely unwarranted, cultivated in the Upper Castes. While one can understand why the downtrodden classes chafe at their privileged superiors, who occupy that stature, by dint of nothing but the accident of birth, let us spare a thought to the millions that constitute the Upper Castes, who are asked to feel ashamed for the ‘Sins of The Father’, which is, at the end of the day, a Biblical notion, and not something homebred. That is not to say, we ought to reject Biblical principles altogether. Rather, it would be prudent to contextualise them in a country that is as diverse as India. Now, to the subject at hand, let us not continue to labour under the delusion that ‘Brahminical Patriarchy’ is a hoax perpetuated by the left-leaning Intelligentsia, which for a significant part of the last seven decades, monopolised academic spaces. It is a harsh, sinister and brutal reality, which the sooner we confront, the sooner we can eradicate — and by that, I am talking about a timeline of at least five to six generations. Only a fraction of crimes against Lower Caste women make it to the front pages of newspapers, and seldom are they accorded the same level of importance on the virtual space. Before heaping abuse on Liberals, one needs to pause, take a few steps back, and dispassionately understand that certain aspects of the ancient faith of Hinduism quite simply cannot be euphemised, and needless to say, caste and gender discrimination are definitely not notions the Modern (which is not essentially Western and Rational, neither of which I am) mind can reconcile itself to. And the more we try to sugarcoat it, and dress it up as a sort of ancient day precursor of the ‘Assembly Line’, the more Hinduism exposes itself to ridicule. Regardless of caste, Women remain at the bottom of the pecking order in India. Let us acknowledge this lest Myth blind us to the many imperfections of our societal structure. And, with due respect to the author, whose courage and gumption are beyond reproach, one is often left wondering about why outrage at such iniquities is often, and one hopes it is not deliberate, woefully ‘Selective’. The muted silence on the arrest of a Kodava journalist in Karnataka on the eve of Tipu Jayanti celebrations in the National Media ill-behooves those claiming to fight for the ‘Freedom of Expression’ and speech. In my head, the bane of the Liberals in India is their two-fold obsession with cosmopolitanism and political correctness, and one might be tempted to add, their reverence for all ideas of the Occident. Liberalism needs to be redefined in the Indian context. To inure and insulate the idea from religion in a country like India is folly. Regardless of when these religions came to India, whether it is Islam, Christianity or those that were born here, such as Sikhism or Buddhism, the demotic resonance of rituals and religious activities cannot be gainsaid. One must concede that ‘Cultural Assimilation’ as a phrase has been abused to levels that it is now beginning to sound shrill. It was not assimilation that happened in India, but more an endless process of Cultural Osmosis, and appropriation, in which members of all religions were willing participants. Attempts by the present dispensation at the Centre to reclaim a Mythical Land by renaming ancient cities to their supposed original names (With all due respect, renaming Allahabad to Prayagraj is nothing short of a travesty) is an exercise in futility. Strains of all religions in this country are distinct, and this land has contributed to this uniqueness. This is a land where a member of one religion or sect can, without thinking or being aware of it, continue practices alien to his or her faith, without fear of heresy, since that notion itself is anathema to India.