Many analysts have presented critique of the abrogation of Article 370 and its impact on the political and social conditions but not much has been expressed about the causes of such hasty policy decisions. While the ‘ timing’ has been somewhat unexpected, there were many indicators that led to such a move. Hence, the decision is not very much surprising.

Hindutva organizations have been very critical of special status for Kashmir almost from the time of Independence. The political party representing these groups has openly expressed its intentions by incorporating the removal of special status in the manifesto.
 

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It is interesting to see how the one who should be protesting their systematic privilege are playing the victim card. Long back, our friend and Editor of Dalit Voice, VT Rajshekar theorised the Aryan-Zionist relationship. Rajshekar has been blunt and clear about his theory but perhaps he was too bold and open to be accepted by the political theoreticians who don our academia. But yesterday’s ‘hurt’ feelings of the Brahmins at the ‘ Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy’ posters has brought it again in the limelight and this time it is coming from the ‘community’ ‘intellectuals’ and not from any ‘outsider’.
 
A Brahmin ‘patrakar’ wrote that the Brahmins have become like Jews being targeted everywhere and by everyone for no fault of theirs. Her ‘sentiments’ were ‘echoed’ by an important leader of the Congress Party too. Claims are being made that in the two-thousand-year history of India, Brahmins were not in power and got nothing as it was ruled by others. Can anything be more obnoxious than such arguments?
 
I explained yesterday too that Brahmanism or Brahmanical system is basically a caste-based hierarchical order and anyone can be like that. An individual Brahmin can be enlightened and can be out of his caste. Once you come out of your caste, you don’t remain a Brahmin or any person of caste. It purely depends on your power relations. If you are powerful, you can do things which may not be liked by the Brahmins but they will still like to be attached to you. It is true for all other communities.
 
We follow an individual leader’s castes and not their ideas. Nehru was an atheist but he was always referred to as Pandit Nehru and Brahmins felt proud of him. Brahmanical Social Order was not merely being run by Brahmins but it has other actors too who were the ‘lathi’ holders maintaining the order. Brahmins unleashed the institutional violence that denied people knowledge while physical violence was left to the lathi holding non-Brahmin communities. The system was definitely invented by them. It was a unique invention which made India a unique country the world, where your identity and caste is already defined before you are born. All our work too became predetermined.
 
Most of the kingdoms in the past were Brahmanical because they followed strict caste order as defined by the Brahmins. You may not have been the Raja but you were the Rajgurus and the king never functioned without your advice. Don’t forget how you conducted the ‘Rajyabhishek’ of Shivaji Maharaj. Remember Rama Killed Shambhuk, a Shudra for reciting Vedic hymn on purely on your advice and not on his own. The non-brahmin followers were the instruments through which Brahmanism wielded its absolute power.
 
The poor Brahmins must reflect on the untouchables. Particularly those, who were forced to clean the human excreta, burning the dead, cleaning the street, skinning the dead animals and so on. You are upset with a few reserved seats which are not truly filled, but why not abolish the caste-based reservation which made you head of our religious institutions just on the basis of your birth, whether you were knowledgeable or not. Why not abolish the reservation made for the Dalits to do specific jobs without any honourable compensation? Is untouchability not a crime like apartheid? Frankly speaking, is it finished? Have we followed our constitutional values truly?
 
Great that the Brahmin intellectuals or Savarna intellectuals are accepting that they are a microscopic minority but should we be satisfied with this? The next line should make everyone think over the system created by them. How come a microscopic minority occupies all of India’s huge resources. Isn’t it true that Savarnas led by the Brahmins have got access to disproportionate assets and resources? We all know that this microscopic minority is not really over 2 per cent and yet it controls every aspect of our life. Shouldn’t it worry all of us? 98% of India’s population suffers at the hands of a microscopic minority and yet they are trying to portray themselves as victims. Isn’t it shameful?
 
And more than that, this comparison with Jews. Yes, they were victimized by Hitler but what did they do after that. They have become worse than Hitler. Is the Israel state a role model for anyone? Yes, it is for those who want to follow their model. Why is the Jew hatred not towards Hitler but towards the Muslims? What did Muslim do to receive this barbaric treatment by the Jewish state? You settled over their homeland and now you want them to be out. Are the Brahmins following the same pattern here? You occupy the Dravidian land and now you want to control them through dubious means when democracy is shaking the old structures.
 
I don’t believe that democracy today could shake the Brahmanical control over India but it has jolted many because you have to make way for others. You have to sit with those who you hated once. You had knowledge but your knowledge did not strengthen democracy. Instead, your knowledge became an instrument to control the minds of others who you denied knowledge.
 
Brahmanism or Brahmanical System or Brahmanical social order or Brahmanical Patriarchy need to be smashed but the problem is how?
 
My answer to this is to follow Dr. Ambedkar’s alternative in Buddhism which is basically humanism. Humanism is the only alternative. Smashing hierarchies and creating an equal society will only be possible once we admit that there was a problem in the first place. Followed by democratic redistribution of resources among all. If we are not ready to accept and acknowledge that the Bahujan masses were maltreated and looked down upon by the caste structures created by Manu, it is difficult. If you don’t admit it, the others will follow the same caste identities and it will take us nowhere except that some politicians and their parties may grow. But in all, India will remain lagging behind in the human development index.
 
As long as young couples are being killed in the name of maintaining caste supremacy and the purity of it, we will continue to feel that India remains caged in the prism of the deep-rooted caste-based system which is called Brahmanism. So long as Manu’s statue stands inside High Court premises and lawyers fight for its installation there without feeling shameful, we feel that this Brahmanical system is there. So long a single man and woman is dying inside the dirt of the sewage system, it will only prove that India has not moved an inch in removing the caste-based hierarchies, in fact, they are increasing.
 
I have no faith in arguments that every individual who is born in a certain caste is a saint or a sinner but it is time when we acknowledge these issues. There are many who are coming out of their privileges and extending solidarity against caste discrimination and untouchability. Many of the enlightened people had joined Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s movement and rejected the Manuwad. We need more such voices. Such people and voices need to be acknowledged. A twenty-first century India must get out of this heinous and criminal caste system. It must be abolished if India wants to remain united and civilised where each one lives with Equality, Liberty and Fraternity as Baba Saheb Ambedkar had visualized, then it must follow the humanist path shown by him and reject the old caste order.

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I appeal to all the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs to celebrate the Indian English Day on 5 October, 2018 as we have no significant place in the world of English even after 200 years of English education in India. We need to own the language as ours and learn it with vengeance. We have never been allowed to learn any Pan Indian or global language for millennia. Even now, the conspiracy of English educated Brahmin/Bania intellectuals is to deny this language of power and glamour to us. 
 
English teaching for the Indian Brahmin children started in the year 1817 on 5 October, which coincided with my birthday, much later in 1952. I was born in a shepherd family which had no right to education in any language. However, I went to Telugu medium school in the early sixties and learned the English language I speak and write on my own with an undaunted struggle. I then realized this language has the power to liberate education starved SC/ST/OBC/Shudras for centuries.
 
The Indian Christians taught English only to Brahmins and Banias but not to the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs for a long time. Now scores of world-class English medium private schools, colleges and universities are coming up with the tacit support of the ruling Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
 
Even now the best Christian and Non-Christian private schools only teach Brahmin, Bania, Kayastha and Khatris as they have economic resources at their command. As a result, Delhi is being ruled by these four castes, no matter who is the Prime Minister of the country. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, though non-English speaking Banias, rule politics. All the top industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, economists, media men, women, educationists, mainly coming from those four castes with good command over English rule India.
 
The complete control of the RSS over central power structures has not changed the power position of the Bania, Brahmin English class of India. The English speaking and writing intellectuals (most of them are BJP spokespersons on English TV channels) cannot win elections, hence get into Rajya Sabha as Arun Jaitley, (earlier Arun Shourie did), Nirmala Sitharaman, Prakash Javadekar, Ravishankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Swapan Dasgupta, Rakesh Sinha, GVL Narsimha Rao did and so on. They became rulers and policy makers. Hardly any Shudra/OBC/SC/STs exist in this crop of rulers.
 
During the Congress regime, Manmohan Singh, Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi, Manish Tiwari, Janardhan Dwivedi and so on, used the same channel of entry to get power. This caste- class that controls the nerve centre of the nation is in every major national political party.
 
The present English speaking and writing intellectuals, who rule India through Rajya Sabha, are strong RSS army men and women. Hence it now says the “RSS is not opposed to the English language” and wants the English education to remain in the private sector but not in the state sector.
 
It is fully supporting the establishment of private schools, colleges and universities by the top 20 monopoly companies—including Reliance, Adani, Vedanta, Lakshmi Mittal, Bharti group, Azim Premji and so on. They are establishing rich private English medium schools and colleges and universities in which no SC/ST/OBC/Shudra from rural areas can get in.
 
Even though a section of Jats, Gujjars, Patels, Marathas that are fighting for reservation could afford it because of their hold on the agrarian economy, they never realized its importance. They were or are mad linguistic chauvinists of their regional language. This is what the Brahmin, Bania English educated elite want so that the power of English could remain in their hands.
 
The Shudra agrarian castes have never understood the link between English education and Delhi’s power. After four years of RSS/BJP rule, they seem to have realized that the Brahmin, Bania forces have become more powerful than ever before. Hence many are asking for reservation but the English educated forces in the top judicial system will not allow that to happen. It is this English educated class that interprets the constitution, mostly in the favour of its own self.         
 
The ST/SC/OBC/Shudra children and youth can never get into these institutions as they could not enter the best Catholic schools and colleges like St. Stephen’s of Delhi or St. Xavier’s of Mumbai for several decades. Now they cannot get into the rich private universities because they lack that kind of elite English and money.
 
The lower caste, community children have only one way to get the English medium education. They have to force the state governments of all states to make all government schools teach in English medium. For that, these castes and communities must overcome the hatred and fear of English education and fight for that language medium in government schools.
 
All the major public and private schools, colleges and universities run in English medium where the presence of Shudras like Marathas, Patels, Gujjars, Jats, Kammas, Reddys, Lingayats are marginal, leave alone that BC/SC/STs. Unless these castes take the initiative, the Government sector will not change the language policy in the provinces.    
 
The very same English educated Brahmin, Bania intellectuals injected anti-English culture into the psyche of lower castes. They also injected a fear that no first-generation school going children can learn English, as it is a foreign language. They never let the examples like Mahatma Phule, Ambedkar or this author, who not only learned but mastered English without even going to the Christian or Non-Christian English medium schools within one generational learning of reading and writing. They do not let them realize that English is the easiest language that the children from the productive castes and communities could learn.
 
The higher Shudras like Marathas, Patels, Jats, Gujjars and so on, realized, of late, that their position in the Delhi power structure, in the national and international markets, is very poor because of lack of English education and reservations. Their feudal estates, the landed properties, no longer allow them to control the power structures of Delhi or the massive capitalist industries and markets, both in India and abroad.
 
They are slowly realizing about the link between bureaucratic power and globalized English language-controlled market system. Their feudal estates are shifting into the hands of monopoly industrialists in the form of special economic zones. The old Shudra feudals have now become rich farmers without understanding modern markets and the new Mall Economy. They are just sellers of produce in that market.
 
In one of my recent interactions with one of the richest Private English Medium Universities, The Ashoka University Haryana, among the alumnae who have undergone high-end leadership training course, there was not a single Jat or Gujjar, or Patel. They were all Brahmin, Banias with sympathy for poor and lower castes. There are no organic English speaking and writing intellectuals from the agrarian Shudra communities. They need motivation for English medium education.                               
 
Each year, the Shudra/OBC/SC/ST exclusion from the main market of India is increasing. Top industries, both hardware and software, is run by the Banias and Brahmins who have international standard English education that is acquired both in foreign and Indian schools, colleges and universities. All ideological forces, the right, left and liberal Brahmin, Banias are comfortable with the present private English medium education and regional language ghettoized in government sector education.
 
The Shudra/OBC/SC/STs must break this monopoly of the caste/community elite. The lower caste forces must begin to celebrate English language education as Indian. The double standards of the Brahmin, Bania elite must be fought with the same weapon that they control the lower castes with: first with Sanskrit and now English. Therefore, the new slogan “Bahujan Bache English Pado, Brahmin Bache Sanskrit Pado,” makes sense.   
 
The youth from all the Shudra/OBC/SC/ST communities should not remain in the regional language trap and in the grip of the propaganda that English is a foreign language. English has become a very powerful Indian language that controls the power, industry and communication structures of India. It has survived here more than two hundred years. Hence, we must own it, learn it and rule the nation through it.
 
Therefore, celebrate the birth of that language on 5th October to motivate ourselves.        
 
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is the Chairman, T-MASS and political theorist. He is the Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.
 

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It is, now, very clear that all the four Vedas were written during the period of pastoral economy after the Harappan economy was destroyed and before the Buddhist economy was built. The villages and cities were completely erased after the Indo-Aryans settled down. By then the Indo-Africans who later came to be known as Indo-Dravidians were enslaved to do the basic cattle rearing and sustaining of the pastoral economy. It is clear that the food production using animals—buffalo, cow, bull, sheep, goat and so on— was built by the Vedic Shudras. But they were not allowed to take any decision for advancing that economy that could lead to rebuilding of villages and cities. The Vedic Brahmins were the main decision makers. The Ksatriyas were assigned the work of defending and protecting the hegemony of Brahmins and the Vaisyas were assigned the work of distribution of the cattle economic products. The Brahmins could get the highest share of that pastoral economy for consumption and spiritual sacrifices.

Horse was the only other animal that the Aryans brought with them and used for mainly for war by Ksatriyas with a specialization. They were under the guidance of Brahmins who composed the Vedas. Once the Brahmin spiritual hegemony got established all other forces, including the non-Brahmin Aryans were under the Brahminic control. It was during this period that they established the psychological control over the rest of the communities—both Shudras non-Shudras.

The saints who were said to have composed or written the Vedas began to survive with the Shudra slave labour based on cattle economy. They did not teach them their spiritual knowledge. As there were no village communities, after the Harappan society was destroyed , mostly the pastoral life was of roaming cattle herders and saints who were living in the forests mostly under the trees or in the caves looking for self-salvation. That is the reason why even today a typical Hindu (mainly Brahmin) saint’s image in the school text books is that he is a lonely man sitting semi-naked under a tree or in a cave for self salvation. He is never seen amidst people teaching divine ethics or religious morals. It is here that the roots of Brahminic isolationist castesist Hunduism got struck into the Indian soil.

The Brahmin saints never believed in the community salvation. The Shudras were not treated as human beings. Though such Shudra socioeconomic slavery does not exist now, the culture of Shudra spiritual slavery continues to operate in the 21 century. Hence the Brahmin priest or saint remains away from the rest of the communities and the Shudras cannot lead the Hindu spiritual system. The Shudras including Marathas, Jats, Patdars, Gujjars, Kammas, Reddys, Nairs and so on are not even conscious of this spiritual non-existence. As their spiritual illiteracy and ignorance is long drawn out, from Rigvedic period to present, they have not acquired any philosophical strength to assert themselves. The modern philosophy is more associated with religious thought, though materialist and secular thought co-exists with it. For a long time in human history the Shudras were not allowed to enter into the world of reading and writing of text—religious or secular. This actually caused a huge loss for human knowledge of the world. One of the major productive human societies was kept out of positive philosophical discourses. Hence the poverty of philosophy among the Shudras continues even today. The Brahmin saints and priests did this quite deliberately and systematically starting from the Vedic period.

The Brahmin saints in the Vedic period were either celibate or having sexual relations with women only occasionally without accepting the marriage system that could have, perhaps, existed in Harappan civilization. Even the family culture was taken backward by the Vedic brahminism. They did not construct a spiritual theory of moral family life of one wife and one husband as happened in other religious spiritual books . The Shudras must have carried the Harappan man-woman relations with them into the Vedic period where some kind of marriage system existed among them. However, the Brahmanic sainst have not evolved any positive marriage system. This is very clear from all Purana writings of the same saints.

They did not recognize the female sainthood. No woman was allowed to construct a spiritual texts also. That is the reason why the first Indian text written by women is Therigatha of the Buddhist women only after 6th century BC.

The very nature of pastoral economy was that the cattle herders were roaming or travelling along with cattle for grazing without having any scope for settlement. Pastoral economy in nature and character was unsettled economy with a food resource that was centered around meat and milk. The Brahmin saints were living in the forests either engaged with one another among themselves or sitting alone in the dhyana and mantra pattana (reciting of Vedamantras) activity.

Agni, Vayu, or Brahma must have been their gods of worship and of offering sacrifices. They slowly seem to have left Indra to his textual existence. The sainthood that they constructed during the pastoral economy was by and large anti-people and self survivalist and without any interaction with the laborers. The animal economy also needed lot of hard work of grazing, taking care of young ones, keeping a watch of wild animals that attack the domesticated animals like buffalo, cow, sheep, goat and so on. No saint was involved in this work. Even the animal economic activity was treated as impure and un-brahminic by the saints. They, thus, systematically cut their relationship with physical economic activity. The purity and pollution relations in different forms were established.

The saints in other religions like Buddhism or Catholic Christianity from early days were working among the masses. Teaching the ignorant was their main job. They lived in the villages and towns. As there were no villages and cities in the pastoral economy the Brahmin saints in that period became so self centered and exclusionary that they stopped all forms of social interaction with the Shudras. Any encounter with an unknown human being was scary and sinful for the saints. It was here that human untouchability was constructed. The saints became so anti-labour that the cattle herding Shudras were treated as totally untouchable.

Only in 19-20th centuries, during the Bhakati movement ,the Shudra touchability, leaving only the Dalits as untouchable, started. The Shudra Bhakti Movement was given recognition in the face of large scale Shudra conversion to Islam in Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Bengal (present Bangaldesh). Till then all Shudras, including the present Marathas, Patidars, Jats, Gujjars, Reddys, Kammas, Nairs, Lingayats and so on were also treated as untouchable to Braahmins. In Food (dining) and Bed (marriage) related issues untouchability is practiced even now with the same Vedic fervor by the Brahmins pundits and saints. No Shudra community is in a position to challenge this kind of spiritual and social untouchability. The RSS/BJP are also not opposing that practice. They justify it as social practice with Indian sentiments.

The varna and caste system seems to have been constructed like that in the Vedic period. That had huge implications to the economy of the ancient and modern India. Two major spiritual systems that the Vedic Brahminism created did not allow any surplus generation in that period. Without surplus generation no good village and town system could survive. Actually religion should have played a positive organizational role for generating surplus and distributing that surplus among various working forces. But the Vedic Brhamnism chose a negative role of social fragmentation and anti-communitarian life. This practice of the spiritual intellectuals did not allow emergence of advanced village system and its development into urbanization.

This whole process played an anti-science role. Science can develop only in the social collectivity and with involvement of in hard physical and mental labour of the people. The educated teachers of the society both spiritual and secular play a critical role in the process. The self isolationism of Brahmin saints only negated that process of surplus generation. The Vedic pastoralist period is a good example of long drawn out socioeconomic stagnation of a big nation like India. Till the Buddhist school emerged this stagnation continued.
What are those two anti-surplus generation mechanisms that the Vedic Brhaminism deployed?

One was the wastage of milk products in the fire and in other rituals. The second was massive animal sacrifices that they indulged in. The Yagnas, Yagas, Kratus were perfomed by sacrificing hundreds and thousands of cattle—cows, bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats and so on. In yagnas or yagas like Rajasuya, Aswamedha thousands of cattle were killed at one go. The dead animals were thrown in the open space where they rotted polluting the environment. The animal sacrifice was a norm in all religions in ancient times. Only Buddhism completely avoided such animal sacrifice. Catholic Christianity and Islam practiced the animal sacrifice in various forms. Islam continues such large number of animal sacrifice on Bakrid day, which has its negative impact on the modern Islamic economy.

Though the Brahmin priests gave up this practice after the Buddhist spiritual revolution, Shudra/Dalit/Adivasi people still continues animal sacrifice even today in a limited way. Except for pure food purpose no animal should be killed and that was what Gauthama Buddha also propagated. Pure vegetarianism is also anti-developmental.

In Nepal there is still a practice of mass animal sacrifice with a Brahminic priestly class involvement. Such animal sacrifice without proper use for food purpose of human beings certainly negates economic development of any society at any given point of time. The Vedic period was full of unwanted sacrifices and that negated its economic advancement.

Now the Brahminic forces and the BJP/RSS live a vegetarian life but even within that vegetarianism food wasting through fire poojas and homam performances is allowed.

Throwing mainly ghee that was being produced in plenty in the pastoral economy came into brahminic life and it continues till now. Of all the milk products only ghee gets burnt in the fire. The other products like milk, curd would only put out the fire. But milk and curd they used for washing the idols ( what is known as milk wash) and leaving lot of curd (now with mixed rice) before idols as naivedhyam (godly food) to Godheads. Most of the ghee was either consumed by the Brahmins or poured in the fire rituals leaving hardly any milk products—particularly ghee– for the Shudra slaves and other Aryan Varnas like Ksatriyas and Vaisyas. However, the kshatriyas seems to have asserted their right to better food and better status as they were handling the horse power and war weapons.

The ghee consuming culture of Brahmins on daily basis continues even today along with pouring ghee in the Agni while performing fire rituals. Among the Shudras, Other Backward Classes and Dalits who actually produce ghee by grazing cattle the consumption of ghee is minimal. Hence the hard working people lived only for short period and the saints lived for long time.

The Vedas do not have any social science content, leave alone science content. They have only mantric content. The Buddhist Suttas and Pitakas have some social science content. Of course, the ancient Brahmin thinkers who wrote books of some social science content were Kautilya amd Manu. But those books—Arthashastra and Manudharma Shastra—written after the Buddhist revolution justified the Vedic social divisions and sacrifices of animals and food.

If the BJP and RSS want that ancient Hindu literature to be taught as science and social science to the Shudra upper castes like Marathas, Patidars, Jats, Gujjars, that are fighting for reservation this will only help to restore the Vedic slavery.

Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd Chairman T-MASS and political theorist.

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/
 

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In 1817, sometime in the month of October, English teaching was started in Calcutta by gathering together a few Brahmin male children both by British educationalists and Indians. Today, in 2017 we need to celebrate the 200^th year of English education in India.
 
For the last few years we Osmanians at the Osmania University, within the monumental arts college building built by the famous Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam, celebrate October 5 as the ‘Indian English Day’. Everyone knows that October 5 is ‘International Teachers Day’. Some of us thought that it should also be celebrated as the Indian English Day.

As I said in 1817 the English teaching started by imparting English alphabets to some Brahmin children because in those days there was no scope for the Dalit-Bajujan or even the  upper Shudras to study in any school.  Even persons like Rajarammohan Roy who was associated with that initiative were casteists. Roy thought of reforming Brahmin women’s life but never took any initiative for educating the lower castes.

The first educated modern Shudra in India was Mahatma Jotirao Phule, who studied in a Scottish English medium school in Bombay province. That was much later in the 1840s as Phule was born in 1827. The Calcutta province was in the grip of both Britishers and Brahmins. No caste reform movement was initiated by the Bengali Brahmins. Because of a Shudra ruler like Shivaji  who resisted Brahmin hegemony in the Bombay region some changes began there. 

Subsequently his grandson Sahu Maharaj took a serious step towards the anti-Brahmin mobilisation of Shudras and Dalits. Thus, that land became the land of the Dalit-Bahujan English Education also. If Calcutta province represented the Brahminical English the Bombay province represented the Dalit-Bahujan English.

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar was the first Dalit to get education in an English medium school and later on world class higher education. Even the Muslims of India were pushed back from access to English education because they went in for education in the Persian and Urdu medium. Sir Sayyad Ahmmad Khan pushed the ideology of English education within the Muslim community. Now there are several English educated Muslims in India. But for their English education the Universities like Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia English medium universities would not have existed and because of these institutions there is a modern Muslim community emergent and resilient.

Today the Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims and other minorities have attained their present position because of English education, though they are the least educated among all. If a person like me having come from a totally illiterate shepherd family could challenge mighty Brahminism that controls state power, temple power, even the educational power it was because of my access to ‘their’ English (earlier Sanskrit), though learned under the tree schools, at a very late age in my village.

The celebration of the Indian English Day is also needed to checkmate Hindutva forces from confining the SC/ST/OBCs to regional languages while they educate the rich and the upper castes in private English medium schools with their money power. Our struggle is to establish common medium and syllabus based schools for all children—the rich and poor of any caste.

I appeal to all those lovers of equality to celebrate today, October 5, as the Indian English Day and send a message to the diabolical convent and foreign English educated people: you cannot stop us from accessing good English education in our village schools by selling the bogus theory that English is not Indian language. We declare that ‘English is Indian’. We study in English and preserve our buffalo cultural nationalism as against the unproductive cow nationalism which is for Brahmins alone.
 
 
 

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi reveres Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, never forgets to tweet greetings on the latter’s birth anniversary. But Phule’s book, Gulamgiri (‘Slavery’), while Bali is presented in a positive light Vaman is seen as cunning, deceitful, treacherous and ungrateful.

Here, are a few excerpts from Slavery, an English translation of Phule’s book by Dr K Jamnadas:

• “Bali was a valiant warrior. He freed his many satraps from the depredations of terrorists and lawless elements and organised his kingdom into a well-knit structure. Vaman who then was the leader of the Vipras did not fancy this at all”.
• “Vaman was very greedy, enterprising and haughty of temper”.
•  [Dhondiba in conversation with Jyotiba]: “So then, (we are told that) Adi-Narayan incarnated himself as Vaman in the form of a pygmy beggar to banish Bali and hoodwinked him by asking for the gift of only three steps (of the earth). [Having been granted his plea] he abandoned his pygmy beggar’s form, assumed a gargantuan form, and having occupied the entire earth and the sky with his two steps, posed a problem before Bali as to where he should now put his third step. The ever generous Bali having become quite helpless now, told the gargantuan form to rest his third step on his head. At this the gleeful wicked gargantuan form banished Bali to the nether world by resting his foot on his head. Thus was the stratagem fulfilled. All this (fiction) has been described by the Upadhyas in their fictitious books of scriptures like ‘Bhagwat’ etc. Your narration conclusively proves that all this is rank fiction and bull-shit. So what so do you have to say about the whole thing now?
• [Jyotiba]: “Now just reflect for a while. When that gargantuan form occupied the entire earth and sky with his two steps, it stands to reason to suppose that whole villages may have been crushed under his first step. How did Bali escape unhurt is a mystery to us. It is not stated therein that Bali was lifted gently and placed on the giant’s feet. Secondly, when the gigantic form placed his second step in the sky many stars and galaxies must have dashed against one another and, hence, must have been crushed. Thirdly, if he occupied the sky with his second step, where does he rest his torso? A person can raise his foot only up to his navel at best. So, his trunk (torso) may have reached the utmost limit of the sky. He could have fulfilled the contract by putting his third step on his own head. But he chose instead to put it on Bali’s head (a sheer treacherous deed!) and pressed him down to the nether world. How do you explain this?”                            
• [Dhodiba]: “The gigantic form claimed himself to be the incarnation of Adi-Narayan. How dared he indulge in such rank treachery? Fie on those Bhat composers of the spurious scriptures who term this giant as an incarnation of Adi-Narayan! Their own compositions prove that Vaman was very mean, cunning, treacherous and ungrateful, because he condemned his benefactor unto the nether world”. 
• [Dhondiba]: “On what must that gigantic form have subsisted? Where could the four pall-bearers have been found to carry his corpse to the cremation ground? Where could they have produced such a vast quantity of wood or cow-dung cakes to cremate his huge corpse? If enough fuel was not readily available for his cremation, then perhaps stray dogs and jackals feasted off his corpse. As all these doubts which have arisen in our minds are not satisfactorily resolved, we are constrained to conclude that these original fictions (legends) may have been the basis of the spurious scriptures which the Bhats composed later on (to dupe us all).
• [Phule]: If you read the Bhagwat carefully, Dhondiba, you will conclude that Aesop’s Fables are much better (are far more credible) than the Bhagwat (of the Bhats).                                                       

 
The full text of Gulamgiri in Hindi may be accessed here.

The English translation by Dr K Jamanadas may be accessed here.
 

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In a statement issued yesterday, 69 academics and activists have expressed their support to writer and Prof Kancha Ilaiah who is under attack from a number  of Hindutva organisations and  against whom the Hyderabad police recently registered a case for ‘hurting religious sentiments’.

 The tendency to resort to police cases in order to stifle any criticism of Hindutva and the regime has assumed menacing proportions, against which we stand firmly with Kancha Ilaiah, the statement noted.

Full text of the statement:

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the continued harassment, attacks on and intimidation of Prof Kancha Ilaiah at the hands of various Brahmin / brahminical organisations, police and the state administration of Telengana for his political writings and views.  We also hold responsible for this intimidatory environment, the Telugu media that reportedly published distorted and misleading reports of Prof Ilaiah’s speech.

While speaking at the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, a wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on May 14, 2016, at Vijayawada (Amaravathi), Prof. Ilaiah had  said: “The Brahmins as a community have not contributed anything to the production process of the Indian nation. Even now their role in the basic human survival based productive activity is not there. On the contrary, they constructed a spiritual theory that repeatedly tells people that production is pollution.”

On the basis of this statement, the Brahmin Associations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana not only burnt his effigies and issued statements of condemnation, but a mob landed up at his office and personally threatened him, allegedly under the guidance of IV Krishna Rao, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Corporation. Following this, the Saroornagar police in Hyderabad booked a case against Professor Kancha Ilaiah for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.

The police was acting on the directions of a district court in Ranga Reddy. Last year, a VHP activist filed a complaint against him for his article in a newspaper, titled ‘Devudu Prajasamya Vaadi Kaada’ (“Is God not a democrat?”) after which the Telangana police filed a case against him under Section 153 (A) and Section 295 (A), bowing to pressure from Hindutva organisations. Prof Ilaiah had to move the courts to get a stay order on criminal proceedings against him for merely writing that article.

Prof Ilaiah’s formidable scholarship includes iconoclastic works such as ‘Why I am not a Hindu’, ‘Post-Hindu-India’, ‘Buffalo Nationalism and Untouchable God’ and numerous other writings radically denouncing the caste system in India. It is deeply disturbing to note that a scholar of international repute who has inspired scholars and activists to look at our own history critically, and who relentlessly challenges dominant orthodoxies in the academia, is being targeted by state agencies acting in tandem with Hindutva organisations.

The intimidation of Prof Kancha Ilaiah should be seen as part of the ongoing process of criminalisation of dissent and suppression of freedom of expression which has received a boost under the current government. In this process, the law has repeatedly been turned into a surrogate for Hindutva politics. It is shocking that the Telangana government too has fallen prey to the majoritarian ambience and that its state institutions are backing Hindutva violence.

The politics of Hindutva, while hurting every living being’s dignity and sentiments, continuously claims to be the perpetual and universal victim. Dalits today cannot speak of the indignities and oppression that they have suffered at the hands of the Hindus – even that has become a matter of ‘hurt sentiments’ of dominant groups and castes.

We demand that this intimidation should be stopped and that the police should immediately withdraw police cases against Prof Ilaiah.

 Signatories:
1. Peter Ronald deSouza, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Dr S Radhakrishnan chair of the Rajya Sabha
2. Uma Chakravarti, feminist scholar and historian
3. Tanika Sarkar, retired professor,  Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
4. Sumit Sarkar, retired professor,  Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
5. Partha Chatterjee, professsor, Columbia University and former director, CSSS Calcutta
6. Prabhat Patnaik, professor emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
7. Shivaji Panikkar, professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi
8. Nivedita Menon, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
9. Janaki Nair, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Unversity
10. Utsa Patnaik, professor Emeritus , Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
11. Apoorvanand, professor, Delhi University
12. Satish Deshpande, professor, Delhi Unversity
13. J.Devika, professor, Centre for Development Studies, Trivanddrum
14. Prathama Banerjee, associate professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
15. Kalpana Kannabiran, professor and director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad
16. Ayesha Kidwai , Professor , Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
17. Mary John, professsor, Centre for Women’s Development Studies
18. Ankita Pandey, asstt professor,Indraprastha College,  Delhi University
19. Subhash Gatade, New Socialist Initiative
20. Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD
21. Abha Dev Habib, professor,  Miranda house, Delhi University
22. Asad Zaidi  publisher, Three Essays Collective
23. Charu Gupta, professor, University of Delhi
24. Anubhuti Maurya , asstt professor, Delhi University.
25. Dilip Menon, director, Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
26. Nalini Taneja, professor, University of Delhi
27. Pravin Kumar, asstt professor, Satyawati College, Delhi University
28. Jayati Ghosh, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
29. Arunima G, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
30. Harish Wankhede, asstt professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi
31. Chirashree Dasgupta, associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
32. C.P. Chandrasekhar, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi
33. Surajit Mazumdar , professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi
34. Rohit Azad, asstt professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
35. Surajit Das, asstt professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
36. Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association, NewDelhi.
37. Mona Das, asstt professor, Delhi University
38. Rachna Singh, asstt professor, Hindu College, Delhi University
39. Mahesh Gopalan, asstt professor, St Stephens College, Delhi University.
40. Parth Pratim Shil, asstt professor, Delhi University.
41. Ena Panda , asstt professor, Delhi University.
42. Atul Sood,  professor,  Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.
43. Navsharan Singh, researcher and activist, New Delhi
44. Kavita Srivastav , People Union for Civil Liberties.
45. Wrick Mitra, assistant professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
46. Rohit Negi, assistant professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
47. Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist and independent writer
48. Anshumita Pandey, assistant professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
49. K Velentina, assistant professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
50. Aditya Nigam, professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
51. Mamatha Karollil, Assistant Professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
52. Sunalini Kumar, asst professor, University of Delhi
53. Shifa Haq, assistant professor, Ambedkar University , Delhi
54. Rachana Johri, associate professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi
55. Arindam Banerjee, associate professor,Ambedkar University, Delhi
56. Anita Ghai, professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi
57. Sumangala Damodaran, professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi.
58. Dhiraj Kumar Nite, asstt professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi
59. Tanuja Kothiyal, professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi
60. Janaki Srinivasan, asst professor,Punjab University
61. Achin Vanaik, retired professor, University of Delhi
62. Pamela Philipose, senior journalist
63. Anil Chaudhary, PEACE
64. Shipra Nigam, researcher, New Delhi
65. Udaya Kumar, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
66. Rohini Hensman, writer and independent scholar
67. Nandini Sundar, professor, University of Delhi
68. Anupama Potluri, University of Hyderabad 
69. Narendra Subramanian, professor, McGill University, Montreal 
 

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Bangaru Laxman’s statement, after he formally took over as the president of the BJP, that  “Nagpur is a place of both Ambedkar and Hegdewar” must have come as a surprise to the upper caste leaders of the RSS, particularly its chief, KS Sudharshan, who must all be Ambedkar haters. Nagpur, ironically, is the headquarters of both Ambedkar’s Buddhism and Hegdewar’s Brahminism. 

Laxman made it somewhat clear that he would like to be loyal to both Ambedkarism and Brahminism but this may prove to be an impossible task. Laxman’s colour (the Dravidian black) is itself an anathema to the Aryan racism that Hegdewar and Golwalkar stood for. Laxman’s position at the top of the party pyramid and having to live with his ‘un–Hindu’ statements are certain to be seen as the result of the unfortunate presence of Ambedkarism in the Indian politico–social space. 

The Hindu spiritual world has been hoping against hope all these years that it would not have to see a day when the Chandalas  emerge as a powerful force and undermine the divine dictum of the Adi–Brahmin-Purush, Brahma, that the Chandalas forever remain untouchables. Ambedkar has become a modern Buddha and Laxman knows that only too well. But for the Ambedkarite presence in the Indian political scene, Laxman would still be elsewhere, possibly stitching a shoe and certainly not the president of a party that was meant to be a Brahmin–Baniya saddle. 

Arun Shourie, who called Ambedkar a “False God”, must have licked his own boots as Laxman made his presidential pronouncements. Laxman’s statement proved that however weak a Dalit might otherwise be, when in a position of power he can make a difference. 

The appointment (not election) by Vajpayee of Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit leader from Hyderabad, as the president of the BJP has been done with a design to woo the votes of Dalits and appeal to South Indians as the BJP has been accused of being an enemy of both Dravidism and Dalitism. As a party that aspires to be a ruling party on its own, the BJP has to overcome both these images. 

In the sufficiently well established line of Dalit leaders like Jagjivan Ram, Damodaram Sanjeevaiah who were given similar positions  in the Congress party, some Dalit leader was badly needed to salvage the anti-Dalit image of the BJP. Laxman, given his name, colour and caste, appeared to be the most suitable person. What Laxman can do to Dalits depends on how the educated Dalits assert themselves and how an ageing Kanshi Ram builds his party. In politics, the strength of the Bahujan Samaj Party helps in the Dalit bargain with other parties. It is in this political backdrop that Laxman climbed the BJP ladder. 

The problem for the BJP would however be, that like Jagjivan Ram and Sanjeevaiah, Laxman seems to be behaving unpredictably. He has publicly stated that he got this post because of Vajpayee and like Rama Bhakta Hanuman even touched the latter’s feet of Vajpayee. In the process he has placed the self–respect of Dalits at the feet of a classical Brahmin. I do not think Jagjivan Ram and Sanjeevaiah ever did this to Nehru. But to overcome this surrender to a political ‘Swamiji’, he said his attempt would be to combine Ambedkar with Hegdewar. 

This very statement, however, creates a tension in caste ideology. Laxman has to salvage Hinduism, which does not want to give Dalits the right to priesthood, but the party that emerged to safeguard upper caste interests has to mobilise Dalit votes. Hinduism as a religion destroyed the moral foundation of Dalits and without reforming that religion a Hindu political party cannot salvage the situation. 

This is the reason why more and more Dalits are looking towards either Christianity or Buddhism. The Hindutva forces know pretty well that apart from Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram what threatens Brahminism is the “Acclesia in Asia” document that Pope John Paul II released at Delhi during his visit to India last year. 
The Pope said that the Cross was planted in Europe in the first millennium, in America and Africa in the second millennium, and that Christ will return to his birth place – Asia — with all the strength at his command in the third millennium. The Christian resolve seems to be that the last segment of  global spiritual slavery — India’s untouchables — have to be liberated by all means in this century. This resolution of global Christianity coupled with its cultural liberalism poses very serious challenges to Brahminism today. 

Whenever Hinduism found itself in deep crisis because of the Shudra-Chandala revolt, it took the help of  a Shudra or Chandala to overcome that crisis and they made these Trojan horses speak their language. Valmiki, a Dalit, was made to write the Ramayana, as they wanted it to be written; again a Krishna was made to write the Gita, as they wanted it to be written. Only Ambedkar refused to do that and that has pushed Hinduism in to a deep crisis. 

Given the threat of globalisation and Christianity in the era of Ambedkarism in India, Laxman has been chosen to overcome the present crisis of Hinduism. But Laxman is too inadequate a person to salvage the situation. Despite the promise that Krishna would incarnate, yuga after yuga, to protect Brahminism would not turn up in this yuga because of the God who originated  in Israel and has produced globally commanding capitalism and the English language. The gods who understand only Sanskrit are suffering a heavy loss of social base in their own land. The Dalits are the main social base of the expanding Christianity. The sangh parivar has to do something about it. Laxman seemed be the only alternative. 

Neither Hinduism nor the Hindutva organisations can offer spiritual and social liberation to Dalits, tribals and OBCs. The OBCs are fixed to Hinduism like nuts and bolts; hence the sangh parivar does not see any threat from OBCs in spiritual terms.  The sangh parivar does not mind marginalising any number of OBCs in the political sphere, too. Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharati are cases in point of this marginalisation. But that is not the case with SCs. But because of the overall impact of the organised church and Ambedkarite Buddhism, the SCs and STs have become a social force who can lobby for their Dalit cause in international fora. 

The OBCs could not evolve as a force to interact with the West. They could not modernise and acquire proficiency in English, which could loosen their nut and bolt location in Hinduism and allow them to look for global recognition of their position. So they are becoming a butt of ridicule in the hands of Brahminical  forces within the sangh parivar. Kanshi Ram once rightly said that the ruling classes of India are afraid of only SCs because they are a force to reckon with in the bureaucracy and in politics and section of them have got westernised. 

So Laxman becomes a useful tool to address some of the socio-spiritual and economic problems that Hinduism as a religion and Hindutva as a political force are facing today. If Laxman realises the historical context in which he has been given this position, he can work his way to South Block and become the first SC Prime Minister of India. After Vajpayee, there is no leader from the BJP top brass who is acceptable to all the NDA constituents. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have already burnt their fingers with their right–wing extremism. 

Laxman, who kept a low profile in the aggressive phase of the BJP, leads a non–controversial life style and has no base of his own in the party or at the mass level. These are good qualifications for a Dalit to be seen as a candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. 

Laxman has all the qualities that PV Narsimha Rao had when he emerged as a Prime Ministerial candidate in the Congress party after the death of Rajiv Gandhi. Laxman’s Dalit background is an added bonus. Judging by how Laxman has been speaking and conducting himself after being appointed the party president he is moving in the right direction. His statements on the minorities and Ambedkar seem to have been well–received in political circles. 

Laxman is right when he says that minorities are “blood of his blood and flesh of his flesh” in so far as he speaks as a Dalit. When talking of Ambedkar or of minorities, Laxman is speaking like a Dalit. Laxman is also expected to ease the BJP’s relations with Christians as the latter also feel quite comfortable negotiating with Laxman as head of the party rather than some upper caste leaders. Thus, there is good mettle in him to aspire to becoming the first Dalit to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair. 

But all this will be possible only if Laxman plays the part of Hanuman very carefully in a party of Aryan Brahminism. He must not think of crossing the laxman rekhas drawn by his Lord, Vajpayee. Of course, he can acquire his own small temples here and there. But his limited spiritual space will be safe only as long as the real Hindu heroes operating from Hindu temples feel secure with him as their watchdog. Advani, a Sindhi, a non–practising Hindu but a hard-line Hindutvavaadi, does have much support of the Hindu Brahmin priests. The NDA leaders do not trust him either. 

The Indian media, too, takes its cues from the temple of Brahminism before it projects somebody as an acceptable man or woman for the highest position. The Indian media used to hate Ambedkar. It hates Kanshi Ram. Its love–hate relationship with KR Narayanan turned into a pure hate relationship after he delivered his two historic lectures on the occasion of Republic Day this year. Laxman is still a bird in the egg so far as the media is concerned. If he chooses to play the role of Hanuman well, the future for him is very bright. 

But the Dalits as a historical community have every thing to loose. Just as the first Dalit president of the BJP, even the first Dalit Prime Minister of India would come and go without changing the socio-spiritual and economic status of Dalits even an inch. But many Kanshi Rams can be vanquished with this Dalit weapon called Bangaru (gold) Laxman. 

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2000 Year 8  No. 62, Cover Story 4

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In this context, it would be educative to look closely at the prescribed textbooks for history and social studies teaching in Gujarat, with virtually no alterations since 1991, many books prescribed by the ICSE national board among others, and even some college level texts that contain these problematic formulations. 

One of the recurring myths about Indian culture, perpetuated ad noseum is that it is one of the most non-violent, peace-loving and tolerant

The state syllabus detailed in the texts being currently used by the Gujarat state board, outlines clearly for the teacher and student of history that when the author(s) of the text-book write about India they use the term for the modern nation as synonymous with “Hindu”. The student is instructed that the idea of studying social studies is to develop a true understanding of ancient India. The political implications of this assumption are significant and dangerous, because, immediately for the history learner paradigms have been drawn. It is only within these that adjustments are subsequently made for ‘synthesis’ or ‘syncretism.’

The syllabus for the standard five social studies text printed by the Gujarat State board, outlines the objective of the syllabus that has been laid out for the ten-year-old child:

‘Towards understanding the Indian Cultural heritage in a proper perspective’. 
This ‘perspective’, as described below in detail, outlines erroneously that the ancient age begins with Vedic times.It becomes clear from this introductory social studies text for the fifth standard child that no perspective of world ancient civilisations is given through the syllabus; that the desire is not just to begin and end with India, but ancient India has been made synonymous with the Vedic; and that values like ‘respectable status of women in Indian culture’ are rooted in the characters depicted through stories taken from the Vedas. There is no attempt to develop any sense of historical enquiry that could lead to a student understanding the quality of life and civilisations that existed pre-Vedas; the exchanges that took place between ancient peoples through river and sea routes etc. 

Not only is this kind of social studies self-limiting and restrictive, it is an approach that is set to stifle free thinking and enquiry. Here is how the objective of the syllabus is outlined: 

Ø  Ancient Age (From Vedic times to  Harshavardhan)

Ø  Is introduced to Vedic literature which is an expression of Indian Culture.

Ø    Knows about the respectable status of women in Indian culture. 

Ø Gets acquainted with the basic truths of life against a backdrop of Indian Culture.

Ø  Learns for himself the truth; that in the context of Indian culture a person acquires a high status not by right of birth but by merit.

Ø   Knows about how in the Indian Cultural context the rules were oriented towards the subjects. 
Ø   Imbibes the basic values of Indian Culture expressed by the narratives of the epics, Ramayana, Mahabharat, and by the main characters in it. 

Ø   For instance, the importance of 1) The purity of domestic life 2) Steadfastness in adhering to truth even at the cost of suffering.

Ø   Moulds the character which makes one abide by ones duty when there is a conflict between personal relationship and a sense of duty. 
(Social Studies text, Gujarat state board, Std. V)

Apart from the stated objective of portraying ancient Indian culture as synonymous with the Vedas, the Gujarat board texts also proceed to depict Indian culture as inherently superior to any other.

In the chapter titled, ‘The Cultural Heritage of Ancient India’, the child is told: “Ancient Indian history covers a period of about four thousand years. It can be divided into the following periods: The Indus valley civilisation period, the Vedic period, the post-Vedic period, the Epic period, the Age of Buddha and Mahavir, the Maurya and the Post-Gupta periods and the Early Muslim period.” The same text goes on to assert that from the beginning of the Indus valley period to the ‘end of Hindu supremacy’ the contribution of Indian civilisation was unique, implying that, thereafter, with the ‘Muslim period’ the contribution could not be measured in a similar fashion. 

“Right from the coming of the Aryans to India (around 2000 B.C.) to the end of the Hindu supremacy (around 1200 A.D.). The Indian civilisation made a unique contribution in many different fields of life, a contribution which includes certain high moral values. It is because of this reason that the ancient civilisation of India has survived today in the form of Indian culture while other ancient civilisation like those of Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and China have disappeared from the world. These countries do not have the continuity of culture, which is found in the Indian culture.”

The same, Std. IX text, that selectively excludes historical details like the Shaivite-Buddhist conflicts, oppression of women and the shudras, the state of Dalits even today, is however emphatic that “the inherent peace and tolerance of Indian culture” is one of its characteristics. This is one of the recurring myths that have been repeated ad nauseum about India and her ancient culture, the fact that it is “the most non-violent, peace-loving and tolerant”, a myth that is essential if the ‘Hindu’ is to be pitted as the quintessential Indian, a myth that sits well with the ‘others’  being labelled both ‘invaders’ and ‘foreigners’. It is also a myth that seeks to justify present-day violence against the country’s minorities, seeking justification for this in ‘the wrongs of yore.’

In a section titled ‘Tolerance and urge for peace’, the fourteen- year- old is told: “Tolerance and a strong desire for peace are two distinct features of Indian culture. Brahminism with its two main functions namely Shaivism and Vishnavism. Buddhism and Jainism were the main faith followed in ancient India. These faiths adopted a policy of tolerance towards one another. For examples the Satwahanas and the Guptas were followers of Brahminism. But they showed tolerance towards Buddhism and Jainism and gave financial grants to their places of worship.          

Archived from Communalism Combat, October 1999, Anniversary Issue (6th) Year 7  No. 52, Cover Story 6

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