I wrote an article to the Times of India, Chennai in response to Badri Seshadri s article. I sent it yesterday night, till now I dont find any hint of it being published by the Daily, either in Print or web. So, I choose to publish it FB. Here it is... Supremacist Identity Badri Seshadri, in his recent article, has lamented about the sorrow plight of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. He says that many in Tamil Nadu believe that a Brahminical Conspiracy is at work and thus, Tamilians have eschewed the Brahmin from the social sphere. His major argument is that they must be allowed to identify themselves as Brahmins, Tamilians and Indians. When there cannot be any contention in claiming to be a Tamilian as well as an Indian, what is disgusting is that one wants to identify oneself with a category that was the prime product of an “archaic social hierarchy”. His claim to be a Brahmin as well as an Indian does not seems to be compatible. To be an Indian, one needs to respect and follow the constitution, which says that all the citizens are equal and denies out rightly any system of social hierarchy. But, whereas to be called as a Brahmin, defeats the very purpose of the constitution. Because, the term Brahmin, denotes the supremacy of a category of a “miniscule” population who privileged themselves over the majority citizenry of our nation. Even if that was archaic, the question that arises is, why one likes to be called should so, if that identity denotes hierarchy and stratification. Such an identity is a Reminiscence of a dark age when the society was graded by birth but not by merit. As he himself states that Brahmins enjoyed a privileged position in the society in the pre-independence era, he has to understand, that in post-independence India, it is the constitution and not any Brahmin Manu Dharma Shastra, which is at work. He attributes the exodus of Tamil Brahmins to more lucrative avenues, to the reservation policy, which questions his understanding of the Social Justice Principle. One has to remind him the Reservation (as implemented in India) or Affirmative actions (as implemented in the US) are based on the Scholarship of Sociology as a means to uplift the socially suppressed communities and the other communities cannot blame anyone else other than themselves for their current state. More importantly, Badri Seshadri says that everyone here believes blindly that the Brahmins suppressed them (non- Brahmin) for the past two Millennia. As he himself is a publisher, one need not suggest him the works of Ambedkar and the historians in this regard. Finally, he argues that Brahmins are blamed for OBC atrocities on dalits. May be true, because once again, the one who enjoyed the top position in the “archaic social Hierarchy” and segmented the society into varies strata, should feel remorse to such an idea of dividing the society, rather than want the same identity of that bygone era. The social supremacy of a long-gone era must go, also must go is any notion of basking in such a supremacy hangover. In India, it is liked that everyone identifies himself/herself as an Indian rather than by an identity that belong to an archaic malign hierarchical society. - R.Sivakumar.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:44:50 +0000
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