The Plight of Brahmins
By Meenakshi Jain
The Mandal Commission report marks the culmination of the attempt at
social engineering that began with the Christian missionary (followed by
British governmental) campaigns against the Brahmin community in the early part
of the 19th century. It was not accidental that Brahmins emerged as
the principal target of British attacks. Britishers of all pursuits,
missionaries, administrators and orientalists, were quick to grasp; their
pivotal role in the Indian social arrangement. They were all agreed that
religious ideas and practices underlay the entire social structure and that, as
custodians of the sacred tradition, Brahmins were the principal integrating
force. This made them the natural target of those seeking to fragment, indeed
atomise, Indian Society. This was as true of the British conquerors as it was
of Muslim rulers in the preceding centuries. Mandal takes off from where the
British left.
The British were not wrong in
their distrust of educated Brahmins in whom they saw a potential threat to
their supremacy in India. For instance, in 1879 the Collector of Tanjore in a
communication to Sir James Caird, member of the Famine Commission, stated that
“there was no class (except Brahmins ) which was so hostile to the English.”
The predominance of the Brahmins in the freedom movement confirmed the
worst British suspicions of the community. Innumerable CID reports of the
period commented on Brahmin participation at all levels of the
nationalist movement. In the words of an observer, “If any community
could claim credit for driving the British out of the country, it was the
Brahmin community. Seventy per cent of those who were felled by British bullets
were Brahmins”.
To counter what they perceived, a Brahminical challenge, the British
launched on the one hand a major ideological attack on the Brahmins and, on the
other incited non-Brahmin caste Hindus to press for preferential treatment, a
ploy that was to prove equally successful vis-à-vis the Muslims.
In the attempt to rewrite
Indian history, Brahmins began to be portrayed as oppressors and tyrants
who wilfully kept down the rest of the populace. Their role in the development
of Indian society was deliberately slighted. In ancient times, for example,
Brahmins played a major part in the spread of new methods of cultivation
(especially the use of the plough and manure) in backward and aboriginal areas.
The Krsi-parasara, compiled during this period, is testimony to their
contribution in this field.
But far more important was
the Brahmin contribution to the integration of society. So influenced are
we by the British view of our past that we completely ignore the
fact that the principle by which the Brahmins achieved the integration of
various tribes and communities was unique in world history. This was perhaps
the only case where all incoming groups were accommodated on their own terms.
All aspects of their beliefs and behaviour patterns were accepted as legitimate
and no attempt was made to compel them to surrender or change their distinctive
lifestyles. Each group was left to evolve and change according to its internal
rhythm. What a contrast to the Christian method of conversion by the sword and
their efforts to obliterate all traces of the previous history of all converts.
Apart from misrepresenting the Indian past, the British actively encouraged anti-Brahmin sentiments. A number of scholars have commented on their involvement in the anti-Brahmin movement in South India. As a result of their machinations non-Brahmins turned on the Brahmins with a ferocity that has few parallels in Indian history. This was all the more surprising in that for centuries Brahmins and non-Brahmins had been active partners and collaborators in the task of political and social management.
Some British observers
themselves conceded that the picture of the Brahmin as oppressor was
overdrawn and that in reality there was little difference in the
condition of the Brahmin and the rest of the native population. H. T.
Colebrooke, one of the early Sanskrit scholars wrote, “ Daily observation shows
even the Brahmin exercising the menial profession of a Sudra… it may be
received as a general maxim, that the occupation, appointed for each
tribe, is entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, with few
exceptions, is open to every description of persons; and the discouragement,
arising from religious prejudices, is not greater than what exists in Great
Britain from the effects of Municipal and Corporation laws”.
The British census operations
that began in the latter part of the 19th century produced further
distortions in the Indian system. The British sought to interpret the caste
system in the light of their own pet theories. H. H. Risley who directed the
1901 census operations was, for example, determined to demonstrate that “race
sentiment” formed the basis of the caste system and that social precedence was
based on the scale of racial purity. The same race theory played havoc in
Europe in the form of Nazism and has now been fully repudiated.
The British, unmindful of the
complexities and intricacies of the social arrangement, sought to achieve
standardisation by placing all jatis in the four varnas or in the categories of
outcastes and aborigines. As a result they destroyed the flexibility that
was so vital for the proper functioning of the system. The census operations
raised caste consciousness to a feverish pitch, incited caste animosities and
led to an all-round hardening of the system. They led to frantic efforts at
Sanskritisation and upward mobility, so very different from the flexibility of
earlier times. When the system was made rigid everyone wanted to be a member of
a higher varna. Caste consequently became a tool in the political,
religious and cultural battles that the Hindus fought amongst themselves.
It is significant that the
census operations coincided with the attempt to reorganise the army on the
basis of the martial race theory. At about that time the British were also
beginning to raise questions about the relative balance of Hindus and Muslims
in the public services and about the “monopoly” of certain castes in the new
education. There was also talk of the conspiracy of certain castes to overthrow
their rule.
The forces unleashed by the
British continued to gather momentum. Them myth of the omnipotent Brahmin had
been so successfully sold that most Indians missed the overwhelming evidence to
the contrary. In recent years, however, a number of studies have appeared that
detail the downward mobility that has been the chief characteristic of he
Brahmin community particularly since independence.
Financially, the Brahmins
have been very hard hit. State laws combined with fragmentation of land have
had the effect of substantially reducing the size of family holdings so much so
that most Brahmins today find it difficult to eke out a living from land.
Traditional occupations like family and temple priesthood, recitation of the
Vedas and practice of Ayurvedic medicine no longer prove remunerative nor
command respect.
A study of the Brahmin
community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J.Radhakrishna,
published by Chugh Publications) reveals that all purohits today live below the
poverty line. Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty
and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of
ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of
reservations for the “backward classes” prevented them from providing secular
education to their children.
In fact according to this
study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. The
average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high
percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level.
In the 5-18 year age group,
44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per
cent at the pre-matriculation level. The study also found that 55 per cent of
all Brahmins lived below the poverty line that is below a per capita income of
Rs.65 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially
stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute
Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure. There is no reason to
believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is
different.
In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income
of various communities as stated by the Karnataka Finance Minister in the State
Assembly on July 1, 1978: Christian Rs.1562, Vokkaligas Rs.914, Muslims Rs.794,
Scheduled caste Rs.680, Scheduled Tribes Rs.577 and Brahmins Rs.537.
Appalling poverty compelled
many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent
decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to
government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential
policies for the non-Brahmins have forced the Brahmins to retreat in these
spheres as well. According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage
of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate
among them is as high as 75 per cent.
Clearly it is time to sit up
and see reality as it is before we complete the task the British began- the
atomisation of Indian society and annihilation of Indian civilisation.
(The
author is a historian and professor at Delhi university.)
© Meenakshi Jain