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Traits Hindu Orthodoxy before Birth of Congress by A Hindu by Birth

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Submitted by Dr. S L Dhani IAS (R) (India), Sep 7, 2010 at 06:43

Traits of Hindu Orthodoxy Before Congress

By Dr. S L Dhani

It is well known that the Hinduism is divided into four Varnas and thousands of castes. It is also fairly realised that Hindus are governed by priestly leadership which is hundred per cent constituted by Brahman Varna. The status of all the four Varnas, namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra is determined by accident of birth and no amount of merit or demerit earned by an individual is capable of changing his Varna status in this life. Any individual who cared to question this rigid system of watertight compartments had no option but to get out or to be turned out of Hinduism. There have been no exceptions to this rule. Even the celebrities like Mahatma Buddha, Vardhaman Mahavira and Guru Nanak the founders of great religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism respectively had to meet this very fate.

Undoubtedly, there have been some important saints like Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and Dhanna etc., belonging to the Sudra castes who are also remembered in Hinduism with some respect, but they also have never been allowed by orthodox Hinduism to rise above their castes or Varnas. All of them have been given a place of tolerance, not honor, within Hinduism on the condition that their teachings must be in keeping with and not opposed to the basic character and teachings of the Vedas, Puranas and Hindus Law Codes etc.

Hindu Leadership's Tolerance?

The Hindu religious leadership can tolerate any body, even the enemy of the nation, provided he agrees to keep its social organization of Varna division intact. This is how the Brahmanas have been having excellent relationship with the orthodox Muslims and Orthodox Christians and even the Sikhs. The present day Upper Caste Hindus want to remain themselves orthodox and they have been respecting and even encouraging the orthodoxy in other religions.

The Upper Caste Hindus do not encourage revolutionary thinking within their own religion. Similarly, they are not enamored of the reformers of other religions for the simple reason that such reformers tend to reduce the formal differences between any two religions and thus pose a threat to the distinct character of mutually opposed orthodox religions.

The Upper Caste Hindus have a long list of so-called reformers within Hinduism, but they are those people who have criticized their fellow religionists for not adhering to their respective Varna rules could. In this category fall their Swami Vivekanandas, their Aurobindos, their Dayanandas, their Sankaracharyas, their Ramakrishnas, their Gandhis etc.

The Hindus 'value' unity of souls but only in the "heavens" after the death of living beings here. They have talked of brotherhood but that is the brotherhood within particular Varnas or castes. They do talk against exploitation of man by man but only when they feel exploited by others as a class. But they always keep their own eyes shut to the organized exploitation of lower castes and the women, through the pernicious Varna System believed to have been ordained by Manu, who is projected to be the first lawgiver of the world.

Excellent Relations with Leaders of Other Religions

The Upper Caste Hindus have been so 'large-hearted' that they have maintained excellent friendly relations with the heads of other religions including the Muslims and Christians. They have co-operated with the latter in the matter of having their saastras [scriptures] translated in foreign languages by sitting with such Muslims and Christians, who are otherwise referred to as the Mlecchas, which is one of the most degraded titles as we already know.

But interestingly, the Hindus religious leaders have never permitted such sort of proximity to their own Sudras and Untouchables, constituting about 75% of total population of the country, either in relation to themselves or to their saastras even from a distance. So much so, they have never officially permitted the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas, being number two and three respectively in Hindu social hierarchy, to study the saastras independently, without the 'guidance' and preaching by Brahmana.

At Home with Foreigners

It has been the traditional policy of the Upper Caste Hindus that they can feel extremely at home with any foreigners and national enemies only on one condition that their own stratified social structure should not be disturbed. They have been themselves inviting the foreign invaders from the time of Alexander in order to settle their scores against such of their own castes which have endeavored to vie with the religious leaders, the Brahmanas. They had brought about the end of Buddhism with the same method and they had felt quite jubilant over the fact of wholesale massacre of Buddhist Bhikshus by the Muslim invaders. Actual revival of modern Hinduism has been possible only after Muslim advent in India in any capacity. Its ideological foundation had been Srimad Bhagvad-Gita, the first commentary of which was written by Adi Sankaracharya, who died at a young age of 32 in 820 AD.

The Upanishadic literature proves that the social structure as secretly planned by the Brahmanas had been first challenged only by the Kshatriyas, the No. 2 group in the Varna hierarchy, in the given capacity of the rulers.

Thus the first foremost enemies, treated by the Brahmanas as such have been the rulers themselves turned so by themselves, when the latter posed a threat to them or to their social structure, which had given the ultimate supremacy to them.

It is under these circumstances that the Brahmanas or the religious leaders themselves of their own religion have been inviting the foreign invaders from time immemorial in order to settle their scores against their own rulers and successively lower castes going out of their control.

Some New Facts

The Muslims had finally lost their empire known as Moghul Empire, not long back and as such they couldn't be expected to think in terms of any unified action with the Hindus against the British. Ramayana of Tulasidas had taught them not to bother as to who was the ruler of theirs at any particular time. Tulasidas had said: Kouu nripa houu hamen kaa haani? (Whosoever may be the ruler, what is our harm?). In this sense, the Hindus had generally resigned to the fate of their slavery and had even stopped entertaining any hope of achieving freedom from self-invited foreign slavery.

In such a mood, the Upper Caste Hindus could at best express their venom against such of the sections who could be easily attacked in their private conversation. This mood is fairly expressed in the Satyaartha Prakaasha of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj. He had tried to 'remind' the Hindus that their religion is the best and their past was the greatest. In this effort, he had no option but to talk indignantly.

Therefore, Swami Dayananda did not spare Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism or Buddhism and indulged in ruthless criticism of these religions or their founders, not always confining within the limits of literary decencies. So much so, he did not spare his own class, the Brahmanas for engaging in direct loot of the Hindu masses on the pretext of unnecessary exploitative ceremonies.

Many people mistake him to be reformer of Hinduism. But in fact he had tried to reform only the Brahmanas by asking them to put a limit to their greed and ingenious exploitation of non-Brahmanas. The purpose behind this teaching was to avoid a situation in which the non-Brahmanas did not reject them altogether. Another purpose was to avoid the non-Brahmanas rising against such Brahmanas in a revolt of the type, which had led in the past to severance of large chunks of population in order to form still newer religions or sects like Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism.

Still, he rose to become sort of reformer of Hinduism. He drew a dividing line between the Vedic Hinduism and Pauranic Hinduism and maintained that the Vedic Hinduism was all embracing and could be proved to be catering to the needs of all the Varna divisions. He also vaguely introduced the idea of merit in relation to the determination of the Varna of a man. In other words, he did try to preach a semblance of unity between different sections of Hindu population but within the limits of the ancient social divisions, which had little practical value.

The idea behind the efforts of the Swami was to create confusion in the minds of the non-Brahmanas about the true nature of the Hindu religion. The British had been initially able to exploit the prevailing distrust against the Brahmanas in Hindu society and to entice many of the lower classes to their side. By doing so, they were able to have the support of the lower classes, in their initial fight against the Hindu rulers who, in turn, had been the real slaves of the Brahmanical priesthood. They had also been able to pave the way for voluntary conversion of the lower classes to Christianity, the religion of the British, as against the forcible conversion to Islam sanctioned by its scripture.

The Swami's motive behind creation of such confusion was to pave the way for bringing back the lower classes to their original position of being exploited but in the false hope of change of Hindu minds. The possibility of adverse impact on conversion programme was naturally to make the British rulers cautious about their future. The Muslims were also naturally made cautious in their attitude towards the Hindus in general.

Incidentally, he saw greater logic in Islam and Christianity treating God as Formless. The Swami, therefore, became a great critic of Hindu image-worship with a view to snatch the importance of criticism against Hinduism from Islam and Christianity. It has to be remembered, however, that Sikhism, an offshoot from Hinduism had already adopted the idea of Formless God centuries before Swami Dayananda. Of course, the history of Hinduism has shown that any one questioning its fundamentals has to severe his connections from it.

Swami Shraddhananda, the disciple and successor of the Swami Dayananda translated the thinking of his Guru in practice, by introducing the idea and practice of Shuddhi and so-called purification of the converts to Islam and Christianity. Naturally, the Muslims could not be happy about the new situation and the British and the Christians could also be in similar mood of distrust against the Hindus and to make a common cause against the Hindus. By that time, the Muslim divide had not become very evident and therefore in certain pockets, they were seen to be co-operating in their fight against the British.

Since the Arya Samaj had developed the reputation of questioning the Hindu Orthodoxy, which came to assume the name of the Sanatana Dharma, in bid to beat the Arya Samaj on its plank of the Vedic Dharma being proved to be the ancient most religion of the world, Arya Samaj was also carrying along the Sudras and the Untouchables in its fold. Therefore, it was necessary for the British to create someone out of the Hindus to cause disenchantment of the lower classes from the Arya Samaj.

Hegemonic Relationships

British Empire would not have been set up at all if the British traders had not been welcomed by the Indian trading caste of the Vaisyas. The British would not have understood the intricacies of Hindu exploitative system without the wholesome support of the Brahmana Sanskrit Pundits. Initially, India would not have become a slave country if the Brahmanas had not, in their own selfishness, created the Kshatriya class only for their own protection. They needed to be protected against the rest of the so-called Hindu population, which mainly comprised the non-Aryan natives of India.

The country would not have lost its freedom, if a system of preparing all the able-bodied youth of the country and training and inspiring them to fight the aggressors had been introduced in the country. But the rules of the Smritis and other Hindu scriptures had earmarked instead only one section of population, the Kshatriyas, for fighting and taking up the arms, to the exclusion of all others, except the Brahmanas. The latter were free to take up arms only against the Kshatriyas if the former refused to act as tools of the Brahmanas.

Unfortunately, the British adopted the same policy in order to serve their imperial interests, on the suggestion of the Brahmanas. In independent India, those who are treating India as their exclusive empire have not changed the same policy, which is making unfortunate inroads into other spheres like sports, which have turned to be an exclusive affair of the Upper Castes. Since, 10 per cent upper caste men and women cannot be everywhere, such a policy is repeatedly resulting in regular national dishonour in the field of sports at international level. But if there is none to take the things to their logical conclusion, the national honor has to be invariably at stake, and obviously at the hands of the so-called nationalists. According to them, it is their India and the majority of OBCs, Dalits and others have no business to claim her as their India as well.

Traders and trading castes had been made to concern themselves only with exploiting the situation as usual to their pecuniary advantages. Even if existing recalcitrant Kshatriyas were to be fought against, the other Kshatriyas were needed to be instigated by the Brahmanas, in order to fight the former. The purpose behind such rules was to doubly weaken the striking power of the Kshatriyas in order to keep them divided so that the Brahmanas could easily and automatically exploit them. The Smriti rules had not envisaged a foreign invasion.

Anyhow, the Kshatriyas had got into a situation of rising in revolt through their soldiers in the British army, on the ground of their tutored religious sentiments getting injured. Although, the Hindus and Muslims had jointly fought against the British rulers, yet their joint fight against the British was not the result of their natural unity. Rather, the religious sentiments of the sepoys of both the religions had been shown by their respective fundamentalist leaderships to be independently injured by the British. Consequently, the naturally antagonistic groups had come to join temporarily on the principle that 'enemy's enemy is a friend'.

Hegemonic Relationship with Brahmanas

The history of the Indians since the emergence of the British rule has been such that the latter had created sufficient vested interests for different classes and divisions. So far as Hinduism is concerned, such vested interests were created for all the upper three Varnas of Hinduism, in the background of their traditional occupations, which were designed, by the framers of that system, to be divided in different watertight compartments. In that system, higher Varnas were given a facility of exploiting in every conceivable sense, all the lower Varnas, both individually and collectively, with the result that each one of them had started wishing the continuance British rulers in India. The British rulers consciously followed this policy of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs after the declaration of 1858 made by Queen Victoria, already referred to earlier.

The Brahmanas had reserved for themselves the right to speak from the stage on the pretext of being the exclusive preachers for the whole Hindu society. Therefore the non-Brahmanas were not even free to raise a voice against the British rulers., without the express direction of the Brahmanas for fear of losing religious and spiritual merit.

Hegemonic Relationship with Kshatriyas

Kshatriya castes, we already know, had been a definite source of nuisance to the Brahmanas, since before the Pauranic age. The Brahmanas had been employing lot of craft in dealing with them, for example. They had been:

· Declaring the Kshatriyas as Sudras;

· Inviting even foreign tribes to take over the political power from the existing Kshatriyas, under the promise of declaring such foreigners as Kshatriyas, which would mean automatic approval and acceptance of the masses of the foreigners as the genuine rulers; and

· Encouraging non-Kshatriyas available within the country to take the reins of powers from the unruly Kshatriyas.

Manu-Smriti records the fact of many non-Kshatriya castes having been declared as Kshatriyas under the inherent powers enjoyed by the Brahmanas under the Hindu scriptures written by them. Taking advantage of these situations, Sudra castes have also been usurping political powers at times to the embarrassment of the Brahmanas themselves.

The Puranas disclose the fact of the Sudras establishing great empires, lasting for whole millennia. The first such empire was the Nanda Empire, which was succeeded by Mauryan Empire through the distinctive role played by the great Brahmana strategist, Kautilya. He had to indulge in this otherwise sacrilegious act (for a Brahmana under the Hindu scheme of Varnas), to create another Sudra Empire with a view to bringing an end to another existing Sudra Empire. It had been hoped that in the process, some Kshatriya nominee of the Brahmanas could easily replace the existing adversaries. But it was not to happen and therefore it did not happen.

Brahmanas had to take this unusual step because of the problems created by themselves, by way of finishing Kshatriyas from the whole country through the agency of a Yaadava, Krishna of Gita fame, by causing unprecedented civil war of Mahabharata. After the Mahabharata, Brahmanas did not want to allow Kshatriyas to come to power for fear of reprisals in the light of the role of mythological Parasurama to extirpate Kshatriyas en bloc a number of times.

Reverting to the subject of the starting of freedom movement in the wake of all round exploitation of the country by the British, Dalits and Sudras were not in a position to stake their own claim as successors of the British. They could not do so for the simple reason that they themselves were the slaves of the Upper Castes. Moreover, in view of the village setting, they were nowhere in majority, since they had been deliberately scattered by the Caste Hindus to perform the auxiliary functions in an agricultural economy, which was in the hands of Vaisyas and others.

After the winning of the freedom, the Upper Caste Hindus of different Varnas and castes have taken in inheritance, the entire background sampled above. This fact continues to be important contributing factor to the problems of the Hindu masses divided into a caste hierarchy. Every intermediary caste is higher than many others and lower than still others. Thus, no two castes can naturally co-operate with each other on the basis of equality, for fear of social disapproval.

Different castes among the Kshatriya castes and different religions provided the British rulers a peculiar advantage of organizing the army on caste and religious lines and in certain cases, even on the basis of different regions. In case of turmoil, a regiment of one of caste could be set against that of the other.

Indian culture being a changeless traditional culture had far-reaching effects on British rule. The lawyers, teachers and other professionals who used English as their working language became the natural supporters of British rule. Individuals like Motilal Nehru consciously adopted the culture of the British rulers in a mood of taking great airs.

It does not need to be pointed out that in these circumstances all the benefits were monopolized by either of the Upper three Varnas, to the cent per cent exclusion of the Dalits and other Backward Classes, on account of the latter's traditional disabilities imposed Hindu scriptures, particularly in the matter of education.

The British were forced to take certain reform measures in their own interest and in that of some selected sections. It has become a fashion in India to blame the British for indulging in a policy of 'divide and rule'. But it has to be realized by every body that a worse and more effective policy of 'divide and rule' than the Hindu Varna-Vyavastha has never been devised by any other people of the world throughout the history. That policy had been given the name of religion that threatened the successive lower stratified groups to be punished by the State in this life, and by God, after death.

The British rulers were made to adopt the same policy by the Brahmanas to their mutual advantage and to the disadvantage of all other sections of population, not excluding even the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas.

Kshatriyas and Muslims were generally avoided

For the reason that the Kshatriyas were being used as the important arm of repression, the British were obliged to strategically keep the Kshatriya castes away from the freedom movement. There were two reasons therefor:

· That the British had taken over the country from the Muslim rulers, who could be naturally inclined to wish for an overthrow of the British empire with the aim of throwing them out of power; and

· That the British choice, therefore, could fall only on the Hindus and out of them on the Brahmins and Banias, whose religion taught them to be non-violent patient, submissive and agreeing to be a slave in the belief of following the rule of adversity.

This policy immensely helped the Brahmana and the Bania sections to retain almost exclusive leadership over the Congress or the so-called freedom movement. Gandhi cap was in fact a Bania cap, obviously designed to keep the Kshatriyas and other ruralites away from it. Having been born in 1932, and belonging to a village, this author remembers the Gandhi cap being derided upon with great contempt giving rise to laughter among the Kshatriya castes and other agricultural rural families. The derisive laughter suggested that the Congress was a party of Banias. Around the period of rise of Charan Singh as Prime Minister, the highly placed Jat Congressmen used to describe the then Congress government as being run and controlled by Babbaa, standing for BB, suggesting the Brahmin-Bania Combine. The present day BJP is also being understood by the laity as being led by Brahmin-Bania combine. VT Rajshekar of Dalit Voice openly refers BJP as Brahmin Jati Party in his organ.

Hegemonic Relationship with Vaisyas

The British initially came to the country as traders. The Hindu religion itself permits lack of scruples for a Vaisya, which fact makes him totally unprincipled person. Any one who is interested in artha is called arthee. And, arthee dosho na pashyati, that is, a selfish man sees no harm in his selfishness.

The Vaisyas had also naturally felt the need for Indian barristers, since most of the disputes pertained to trade and property. The Vaisyas were in possession of both, thanks to the Hindu laws of Manu and others.

Brahmanical Monopoly over Education

The Brahmanas had been enjoying the monopoly over education and discretion of educating or not educating all others, within Hinduism. Therefore, they enthusiastically learnt the English language and in a matter of give and take, agreed to teach Indian languages and particularly the Sanskrit language to the British. The Sudras and the Untouchables had already been rendered by the Brahmanas to a sub-human level, and as such the former were not in a position to render any help to the British or to take any advantage of the developing opportunities. Thus, the Brahmanas had been having a field day throughout, throwing only crumbs to Kshatriyas & Vaisyas.

The class of barristers became yet another organ to safeguard and serve the British interests in exchange for getting first opportunity of serving their own interests, in the process. Naturally, the barristers came from the trading castes and the Brahmanas. The same was the case in respect of doctors and engineers. Even these professions top positions went to Brahmanas.

Brahmin-Bania Combine versus Kshatriyas

The Aryans had a variety of male gods with the supreme power being called Brahma, after whom Brahmanas came to be called as such. Their close associates, the Kshatriyas came to have their own supreme power, which had been named Vishnu. The Aryans were ready to admit a non-Aryan male God to their own divine fraternity but they were not in a position to accord equal status to their own male gods.

After winning the confidence of the non-Aryans, the Aryan elders were able to cause acceptance of a male consort to the non-Aryan Goddess Kali, as equal to their own Brahma and Vishnu. In view of certain misgivings in the minds of the non-Aryans about the status of their own deity, the Aryans even offered to give to non-Aryan male deity called by whatever name, the title of Mahadeva or the Great God. After Kali, this newly transformed male God to be called Kaala [the masculine sounding word signifying the fierce looking Kali, which also meant 'dark', 'time' as also 'death'.

Thus, the Vedic revivalists had to evolve a strategy of relegating the original Vedic gods to an insignificant position and of accepting the new gods having three manifestations. The idea was to cement three strands of cultures into one whole through artificial means. Brahma, the God of Brahmanas, Vishnu, the God of Kshatriyas, and Siva, the newly created God of Non-Aryans, were the three manifestations. Siva was transformed from the Non-Aryan God, Rudra, [literally, terrible] who was also given new epithets like Kaala and Mahadeva.

With this settlement, Non-Aryan Rudra, the terrible, ceased to be Rudra or terrible for the new masters, the Aryans, and he came to be transformed into Siva [the auspicious] for them. As a consequence, there came to be a Trinity, comprising of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.

Present day Hindu is born into a political condition of democratic India, in which most of the situations around him are legally and constitutionally diametrically opposed to the religious mandates. In this condition, a Hindu majority, normally headed or at least guided by a member of Brahmana Varna runs the government in actual practice. In view of his religious position, such a man perforce has to have split personality.

This split is in two opposing directions. Constitutionally, the Brahmanas are required to believe in and working for equality of all and, religiously, they have heavenly ordained duty of treating unequally the members of other castes, creeds, religions, and people of different ethnic or social backgrounds. They also have a duty not do anything, under any circumstances, to disturb the plan of God Vishnu, or of Dharma, or of Varnasrama. Otherwise, the lord will be forced to undertake an incarnation in order to restore the Dharma of inequality and injustice, and to punish the people responsible for bringing about a situation of Adharma.

Thus, a Hindu has probably not much chance of avoiding to fall into the bane of fundamentalism, in which he must always have a sense of guilt in supporting any measure of social welfare, as a member of any political party or of any government in whatever capacity.

It deserves to be underlined here that the revivalists of the Vedic religion were not at all concerned with removing of the defects of the type noted above, of the Sudras and the Ati-Sudras, constituting a very great majority of their own and who were their co-religionists. And, the fact that the use of the term Dvija was monopolised by the Brahmanas themselves, the scriptural commands concerning Dvijas were systematically avoided for Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, if such commands went to confer any merit on any of them.

Sudras Much Sought After

Obviously, the Sudras had become comparatively speaking much sought after class. Firstly, they were welcomed into the Buddhist order. Secondly, Jainism also gave them the opportunity to become Munis, a counterpart of Vedic Rishis and Buddhist monks. The Buddhist alternative to Vedic rishi was more appropriate and even more telling. Since, they were directly referred to as Bhikshus or beggars. Analytical study of the priestly functions of Vedic religion in relation to the means of livelihood, leaves one in no doubt that, at one sage, begging had become the mainstay of the Brahminical priests.

Historically speaking, the Upper Castes had made the Dalits and the Sudras homeless in their own home, that is, Indian sub-continent. The latter had been made to forget their past. The road to all knowledge was blocked for them by forcing ignorance, abject poverty and hunger, through the scheme of samskaaras, which were denied to the Sudras and the deprived Castes and women.

The samskaaras were the only instruments of bits of education and information to the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas. They were designed to turn the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas into the best conformists to Vedic religion and to make them the enemies of the masses, the Sudras and below. The Dalits were also regarded as the outcastes, the Bahyas, literally, the outsiders. In other words, the real natives were declared as the outsiders and the aliens were declared as the ones belonging to this country. The seeds of nationalism among the Upper Castes can be traced to this strategy of turning the natives into despised outsiders.

The Upper Castes became the governing classes, the term with which Dr. Ambedkar referred to the Caste Hindus. For most of the time in recorded history, the fight for supremacy had been between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas. A closer analysis of the Pauranic literatures goes to prove that when the Kshatriyas humbled the Brahmanas, the latter compromised and accepted the Kshatriya supremacy through the legend of the Ramayana.

The Brahmanas in the name of the Untouchables [cf. Sage Valmiki] created the Ramayana epic, in order to render permanency to the pact between the two upper-most castes. The period, which marks the tussle between the two Varnas, is represented by the exploits of Kshatriyas culminating into the rise of Buddhism. The said period was prior to the Ramayana period. The fissures developed in the pact between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas, in due course of time. The Brahmanas then turned to the Sudra castes. Consequently, an Aabhira or a Yadava was declared the new reincarnate of Lord Vishnu, obviously to dislodge the Kshatriya Rama from the high pedestal of avataarahood. The new avataara named was Lord Krishna.

The Sudra power was not enough to dislodge the Kshatriyas from position of supremacy. Accordingly, the help of Untouchables was sought through the agency of Krishna, who befriended the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who had commonly descended from the Untouchable sage Vyasa, who was himself a son of the Untouchable woman Satyavati and sage Paraashara. The sage Paraashara was himself the son of an Untouchable Chaandaali, whose father is not mentioned, in the relevant Pauranic episode. The Sudras were made to rise over the corpses of the Untouchables. Later the Sudras were themselves got finished through the same Krishna, who was made the new Vishnu Incarnate.

The Brahmans had hoped that the Sudras would never be in a position to challenge them. But since the late seventies of the twentieth century, the Sudras also started fighting the Brahmanas for supremacy in political and social life. Their first victory was in the form of Charan Singh, becoming the first Sudra Prime Minister, as a result of their revolt against Brahmin-Bania combine. Later on, VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Devegauda, Mulayam Singh Yadava, Lalu Yadav and Kalyan Singh Yadava, Rajesh Pilot and Shekhawat etc. have emerged to challenge the Brahmanas in different ways from different platforms.

The Brahmanas have by now thoroughly discredited themselves among the Dalits and the Kshatriya Castes. Their strategies like operating now through the Congress and the through the BJP etc. have all failed. Their only hope lies at present in the Vaisyas. How long the Vaisyas can afford to play second fiddle to the Brahmanas is yet to be seen. The future, however, seems to promise a definite rift between the Brahmans and the Vaisyas. Before the feared rift, the Brahmanas can transfer the formal supremacy to the Vaisyas.

But that possibility appears to be remote in view of the firm Brahminical control over the public media and the consequential monopoly to spread blind faith among the Vaisyas in the mythological gods and goddesses and their miracles. Strangely, the present believers in the miracles and the blind faith being generated by the Brahmanas are only the Vaisyas.

The lessons of history favour the inevitability of the fissures in the Brahmin-Bania combine. The Banias actually fear the physical-striking propensity of the Sudra castes, regarding themselves as ht e martial races. Such groups have so far concentrated on the support of the Dalits and the minorities. The day they turn their attention to the Vaisyas and modify their approaches and the habits, the Brahmanas are bound to become isolated and go out of power.

The love of nationalism of the Caste Hindus can be traced through the historical threads lying broken and scattered in the above bits of history. The Upper Castes are very much afraid of actual history coming to the fore and becoming a matter of common knowledge. The present controversy started by Arun Shourie about the Left Historians can be best understood in the fear-psychosis of the Hindu fundamentalists. Our idea here is not to prove the left historians wrong or right. The idea is to point out to a reality that lies behind such controversies.

Various technological, cultural, political, and economic advances further strengthened tendency toward nationalism. Improvement in communications became a contributing factor. Of course, the spread of education in vernacular languages to the successive lower sections gave them the feeling of participation in the so-called common cultural heritage. Some of the lower sections were made to learn somewhat mistakenly the common background and tradition. In this manner, they also began to identify themselves with the dotted historical continuity of the nation.

The Indian long tradition of co-existence of orthodox and heterodox religions served as the cohesive traditional element in uniting peoples of various castes, creeds and languages. There also came to be felt a forced necessity of tolerance and co-operation between Muslims and Hindus because of political compulsions, although they were extremely suspicious about their position in independent India. The influence of Western ideas also played an important role in creating a sense of belonging in Indian society.

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Traits of Hindu Orthodoxy Before Congress

By Dr. S L Dhani

It is well known that the Hinduism is divided into four Varnas and thousands of castes. It is also fairly realised that Hindus are governed by priestly leadership which is hundred per cent constituted by Brahman Varna. The status of all the four Varnas, namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra is determined by accident of birth and no amount of merit or demerit earned by an individual is capable of changing his Varna status in this life. Any individual who cared to question this rigid system of watertight compartments had no option but to get out or to be turned out of Hinduism. There have been no exceptions to this rule. Even the celebrities like Mahatma Buddha, Vardhaman Mahavira and Guru Nanak the founders of great religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism respectively had to meet this very fate.

Undoubtedly, there have been some important saints like Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and Dhanna etc., belonging to the Sudra castes who are also remembered in Hinduism with some respect, but they also have never been allowed by orthodox Hinduism to rise above their castes or Varnas. All of them have been given a place of tolerance, not honor, within Hinduism on the condition that their teachings must be in keeping with and not opposed to the basic character and teachings of the Vedas, Puranas and Hindus Law Codes etc.

Hindu Leadership's Tolerance?

The Hindu religious leadership can tolerate any body, even the enemy of the nation, provided he agrees to keep its social organization of Varna division intact. This is how the Brahmanas have been having excellent relationship with the orthodox Muslims and Orthodox Christians and even the Sikhs. The present day Upper Caste Hindus want to remain themselves orthodox and they have been respecting and even encouraging the orthodoxy in other religions.

The Upper Caste Hindus do not encourage revolutionary thinking within their own religion. Similarly, they are not enamored of the reformers of other religions for the simple reason that such reformers tend to reduce the formal differences between any two religions and thus pose a threat to the distinct character of mutually opposed orthodox religions.

The Upper Caste Hindus have a long list of so-called reformers within Hinduism, but they are those people who have criticized their fellow religionists for not adhering to their respective Varna rules could. In this category fall their Swami Vivekanandas, their Aurobindos, their Dayanandas, their Sankaracharyas, their Ramakrishnas, their Gandhis etc.

The Hindus 'value' unity of souls but only in the "heavens" after the death of living beings here. They have talked of brotherhood but that is the brotherhood within particular Varnas or castes. They do talk against exploitation of man by man but only when they feel exploited by others as a class. But they always keep their own eyes shut to the organized exploitation of lower castes and the women, through the pernicious Varna System believed to have been ordained by Manu, who is projected to be the first lawgiver of the world.

Excellent Relations with Leaders of Other Religions

The Upper Caste Hindus have been so 'large-hearted' that they have maintained excellent friendly relations with the heads of other religions including the Muslims and Christians. They have co-operated with the latter in the matter of having their saastras [scriptures] translated in foreign languages by sitting with such Muslims and Christians, who are otherwise referred to as the Mlecchas, which is one of the most degraded titles as we already know.

But interestingly, the Hindus religious leaders have never permitted such sort of proximity to their own Sudras and Untouchables, constituting about 75% of total population of the country, either in relation to themselves or to their saastras even from a distance. So much so, they have never officially permitted the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas, being number two and three respectively in Hindu social hierarchy, to study the saastras independently, without the 'guidance' and preaching by Brahmana.

At Home with Foreigners

It has been the traditional policy of the Upper Caste Hindus that they can feel extremely at home with any foreigners and national enemies only on one condition that their own stratified social structure should not be disturbed. They have been themselves inviting the foreign invaders from the time of Alexander in order to settle their scores against such of their own castes which have endeavored to vie with the religious leaders, the Brahmanas. They had brought about the end of Buddhism with the same method and they had felt quite jubilant over the fact of wholesale massacre of Buddhist Bhikshus by the Muslim invaders. Actual revival of modern Hinduism has been possible only after Muslim advent in India in any capacity. Its ideological foundation had been Srimad Bhagvad-Gita, the first commentary of which was written by Adi Sankaracharya, who died at a young age of 32 in 820 AD.

The Upanishadic literature proves that the social structure as secretly planned by the Brahmanas had been first challenged only by the Kshatriyas, the No. 2 group in the Varna hierarchy, in the given capacity of the rulers.

Thus the first foremost enemies, treated by the Brahmanas as such have been the rulers themselves turned so by themselves, when the latter posed a threat to them or to their social structure, which had given the ultimate supremacy to them.

It is under these circumstances that the Brahmanas or the religious leaders themselves of their own religion have been inviting the foreign invaders from time immemorial in order to settle their scores against their own rulers and successively lower castes going out of their control.

Some New Facts

The Muslims had finally lost their empire known as Moghul Empire, not long back and as such they couldn't be expected to think in terms of any unified action with the Hindus against the British. Ramayana of Tulasidas had taught them not to bother as to who was the ruler of theirs at any particular time. Tulasidas had said: Kouu nripa houu hamen kaa haani? (Whosoever may be the ruler, what is our harm?). In this sense, the Hindus had generally resigned to the fate of their slavery and had even stopped entertaining any hope of achieving freedom from self-invited foreign slavery.

In such a mood, the Upper Caste Hindus could at best express their venom against such of the sections who could be easily attacked in their private conversation. This mood is fairly expressed in the Satyaartha Prakaasha of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj. He had tried to 'remind' the Hindus that their religion is the best and their past was the greatest. In this effort, he had no option but to talk indignantly.

Therefore, Swami Dayananda did not spare Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism or Buddhism and indulged in ruthless criticism of these religions or their founders, not always confining within the limits of literary decencies. So much so, he did not spare his own class, the Brahmanas for engaging in direct loot of the Hindu masses on the pretext of unnecessary exploitative ceremonies.

Many people mistake him to be reformer of Hinduism. But in fact he had tried to reform only the Brahmanas by asking them to put a limit to their greed and ingenious exploitation of non-Brahmanas. The purpose behind this teaching was to avoid a situation in which the non-Brahmanas did not reject them altogether. Another purpose was to avoid the non-Brahmanas rising against such Brahmanas in a revolt of the type, which had led in the past to severance of large chunks of population in order to form still newer religions or sects like Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism.

Still, he rose to become sort of reformer of Hinduism. He drew a dividing line between the Vedic Hinduism and Pauranic Hinduism and maintained that the Vedic Hinduism was all embracing and could be proved to be catering to the needs of all the Varna divisions. He also vaguely introduced the idea of merit in relation to the determination of the Varna of a man. In other words, he did try to preach a semblance of unity between different sections of Hindu population but within the limits of the ancient social divisions, which had little practical value.

The idea behind the efforts of the Swami was to create confusion in the minds of the non-Brahmanas about the true nature of the Hindu religion. The British had been initially able to exploit the prevailing distrust against the Brahmanas in Hindu society and to entice many of the lower classes to their side. By doing so, they were able to have the support of the lower classes, in their initial fight against the Hindu rulers who, in turn, had been the real slaves of the Brahmanical priesthood. They had also been able to pave the way for voluntary conversion of the lower classes to Christianity, the religion of the British, as against the forcible conversion to Islam sanctioned by its scripture.

The Swami's motive behind creation of such confusion was to pave the way for bringing back the lower classes to their original position of being exploited but in the false hope of change of Hindu minds. The possibility of adverse impact on conversion programme was naturally to make the British rulers cautious about their future. The Muslims were also naturally made cautious in their attitude towards the Hindus in general.

Incidentally, he saw greater logic in Islam and Christianity treating God as Formless. The Swami, therefore, became a great critic of Hindu image-worship with a view to snatch the importance of criticism against Hinduism from Islam and Christianity. It has to be remembered, however, that Sikhism, an offshoot from Hinduism had already adopted the idea of Formless God centuries before Swami Dayananda. Of course, the history of Hinduism has shown that any one questioning its fundamentals has to severe his connections from it.

Swami Shraddhananda, the disciple and successor of the Swami Dayananda translated the thinking of his Guru in practice, by introducing the idea and practice of Shuddhi and so-called purification of the converts to Islam and Christianity. Naturally, the Muslims could not be happy about the new situation and the British and the Christians could also be in similar mood of distrust against the Hindus and to make a common cause against the Hindus. By that time, the Muslim divide had not become very evident and therefore in certain pockets, they were seen to be co-operating in their fight against the British.

Since the Arya Samaj had developed the reputation of questioning the Hindu Orthodoxy, which came to assume the name of the Sanatana Dharma, in bid to beat the Arya Samaj on its plank of the Vedic Dharma being proved to be the ancient most religion of the world, Arya Samaj was also carrying along the Sudras and the Untouchables in its fold. Therefore, it was necessary for the British to create someone out of the Hindus to cause disenchantment of the lower classes from the Arya Samaj.

Hegemonic Relationships

British Empire would not have been set up at all if the British traders had not been welcomed by the Indian trading caste of the Vaisyas. The British would not have understood the intricacies of Hindu exploitative system without the wholesome support of the Brahmana Sanskrit Pundits. Initially, India would not have become a slave country if the Brahmanas had not, in their own selfishness, created the Kshatriya class only for their own protection. They needed to be protected against the rest of the so-called Hindu population, which mainly comprised the non-Aryan natives of India.

The country would not have lost its freedom, if a system of preparing all the able-bodied youth of the country and training and inspiring them to fight the aggressors had been introduced in the country. But the rules of the Smritis and other Hindu scriptures had earmarked instead only one section of population, the Kshatriyas, for fighting and taking up the arms, to the exclusion of all others, except the Brahmanas. The latter were free to take up arms only against the Kshatriyas if the former refused to act as tools of the Brahmanas.

Unfortunately, the British adopted the same policy in order to serve their imperial interests, on the suggestion of the Brahmanas. In independent India, those who are treating India as their exclusive empire have not changed the same policy, which is making unfortunate inroads into other spheres like sports, which have turned to be an exclusive affair of the Upper Castes. Since, 10 per cent upper caste men and women cannot be everywhere, such a policy is repeatedly resulting in regular national dishonour in the field of sports at international level. But if there is none to take the things to their logical conclusion, the national honor has to be invariably at stake, and obviously at the hands of the so-called nationalists. According to them, it is their India and the majority of OBCs, Dalits and others have no business to claim her as their India as well.

Traders and trading castes had been made to concern themselves only with exploiting the situation as usual to their pecuniary advantages. Even if existing recalcitrant Kshatriyas were to be fought against, the other Kshatriyas were needed to be instigated by the Brahmanas, in order to fight the former. The purpose behind such rules was to doubly weaken the striking power of the Kshatriyas in order to keep them divided so that the Brahmanas could easily and automatically exploit them. The Smriti rules had not envisaged a foreign invasion.

Anyhow, the Kshatriyas had got into a situation of rising in revolt through their soldiers in the British army, on the ground of their tutored religious sentiments getting injured. Although, the Hindus and Muslims had jointly fought against the British rulers, yet their joint fight against the British was not the result of their natural unity. Rather, the religious sentiments of the sepoys of both the religions had been shown by their respective fundamentalist leaderships to be independently injured by the British. Consequently, the naturally antagonistic groups had come to join temporarily on the principle that 'enemy's enemy is a friend'.

Hegemonic Relationship with Brahmanas

The history of the Indians since the emergence of the British rule has been such that the latter had created sufficient vested interests for different classes and divisions. So far as Hinduism is concerned, such vested interests were created for all the upper three Varnas of Hinduism, in the background of their traditional occupations, which were designed, by the framers of that system, to be divided in different watertight compartments. In that system, higher Varnas were given a facility of exploiting in every conceivable sense, all the lower Varnas, both individually and collectively, with the result that each one of them had started wishing the continuance British rulers in India. The British rulers consciously followed this policy of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs after the declaration of 1858 made by Queen Victoria, already referred to earlier.

The Brahmanas had reserved for themselves the right to speak from the stage on the pretext of being the exclusive preachers for the whole Hindu society. Therefore the non-Brahmanas were not even free to raise a voice against the British rulers., without the express direction of the Brahmanas for fear of losing religious and spiritual merit.

Hegemonic Relationship with Kshatriyas

Kshatriya castes, we already know, had been a definite source of nuisance to the Brahmanas, since before the Pauranic age. The Brahmanas had been employing lot of craft in dealing with them, for example. They had been:

· Declaring the Kshatriyas as Sudras;

· Inviting even foreign tribes to take over the political power from the existing Kshatriyas, under the promise of declaring such foreigners as Kshatriyas, which would mean automatic approval and acceptance of the masses of the foreigners as the genuine rulers; and

· Encouraging non-Kshatriyas available within the country to take the reins of powers from the unruly Kshatriyas.

Manu-Smriti records the fact of many non-Kshatriya castes having been declared as Kshatriyas under the inherent powers enjoyed by the Brahmanas under the Hindu scriptures written by them. Taking advantage of these situations, Sudra castes have also been usurping political powers at times to the embarrassment of the Brahmanas themselves.

The Puranas disclose the fact of the Sudras establishing great empires, lasting for whole millennia. The first such empire was the Nanda Empire, which was succeeded by Mauryan Empire through the distinctive role played by the great Brahmana strategist, Kautilya. He had to indulge in this otherwise sacrilegious act (for a Brahmana under the Hindu scheme of Varnas), to create another Sudra Empire with a view to bringing an end to another existing Sudra Empire. It had been hoped that in the process, some Kshatriya nominee of the Brahmanas could easily replace the existing adversaries. But it was not to happen and therefore it did not happen.

Brahmanas had to take this unusual step because of the problems created by themselves, by way of finishing Kshatriyas from the whole country through the agency of a Yaadava, Krishna of Gita fame, by causing unprecedented civil war of Mahabharata. After the Mahabharata, Brahmanas did not want to allow Kshatriyas to come to power for fear of reprisals in the light of the role of mythological Parasurama to extirpate Kshatriyas en bloc a number of times.

Reverting to the subject of the starting of freedom movement in the wake of all round exploitation of the country by the British, Dalits and Sudras were not in a position to stake their own claim as successors of the British. They could not do so for the simple reason that they themselves were the slaves of the Upper Castes. Moreover, in view of the village setting, they were nowhere in majority, since they had been deliberately scattered by the Caste Hindus to perform the auxiliary functions in an agricultural economy, which was in the hands of Vaisyas and others.

After the winning of the freedom, the Upper Caste Hindus of different Varnas and castes have taken in inheritance, the entire background sampled above. This fact continues to be important contributing factor to the problems of the Hindu masses divided into a caste hierarchy. Every intermediary caste is higher than many others and lower than still others. Thus, no two castes can naturally co-operate with each other on the basis of equality, for fear of social disapproval.

Different castes among the Kshatriya castes and different religions provided the British rulers a peculiar advantage of organizing the army on caste and religious lines and in certain cases, even on the basis of different regions. In case of turmoil, a regiment of one of caste could be set against that of the other.

Indian culture being a changeless traditional culture had far-reaching effects on British rule. The lawyers, teachers and other professionals who used English as their working language became the natural supporters of British rule. Individuals like Motilal Nehru consciously adopted the culture of the British rulers in a mood of taking great airs.

It does not need to be pointed out that in these circumstances all the benefits were monopolized by either of the Upper three Varnas, to the cent per cent exclusion of the Dalits and other Backward Classes, on account of the latter's traditional disabilities imposed Hindu scriptures, particularly in the matter of education.

The British were forced to take certain reform measures in their own interest and in that of some selected sections. It has become a fashion in India to blame the British for indulging in a policy of 'divide and rule'. But it has to be realized by every body that a worse and more effective policy of 'divide and rule' than the Hindu Varna-Vyavastha has never been devised by any other people of the world throughout the history. That policy had been given the name of religion that threatened the successive lower stratified groups to be punished by the State in this life, and by God, after death.

The British rulers were made to adopt the same policy by the Brahmanas to their mutual advantage and to the disadvantage of all other sections of population, not excluding even the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas.

Kshatriyas and Muslims were generally avoided

For the reason that the Kshatriyas were being used as the important arm of repression, the British were obliged to strategically keep the Kshatriya castes away from the freedom movement. There were two reasons therefor:

· That the British had taken over the country from the Muslim rulers, who could be naturally inclined to wish for an overthrow of the British empire with the aim of throwing them out of power; and

· That the British choice, therefore, could fall only on the Hindus and out of them on the Brahmins and Banias, whose religion taught them to be non-violent patient, submissive and agreeing to be a slave in the belief of following the rule of adversity.

This policy immensely helped the Brahmana and the Bania sections to retain almost exclusive leadership over the Congress or the so-called freedom movement. Gandhi cap was in fact a Bania cap, obviously designed to keep the Kshatriyas and other ruralites away from it. Having been born in 1932, and belonging to a village, this author remembers the Gandhi cap being derided upon with great contempt giving rise to laughter among the Kshatriya castes and other agricultural rural families. The derisive laughter suggested that the Congress was a party of Banias. Around the period of rise of Charan Singh as Prime Minister, the highly placed Jat Congressmen used to describe the then Congress government as being run and controlled by Babbaa, standing for BB, suggesting the Brahmin-Bania Combine. The present day BJP is also being understood by the laity as being led by Brahmin-Bania combine. VT Rajshekar of Dalit Voice openly refers BJP as Brahmin Jati Party in his organ.

Hegemonic Relationship with Vaisyas

The British initially came to the country as traders. The Hindu religion itself permits lack of scruples for a Vaisya, which fact makes him totally unprincipled person. Any one who is interested in artha is called arthee. And, arthee dosho na pashyati, that is, a selfish man sees no harm in his selfishness.

The Vaisyas had also naturally felt the need for Indian barristers, since most of the disputes pertained to trade and property. The Vaisyas were in possession of both, thanks to the Hindu laws of Manu and others.

Brahmanical Monopoly over Education

The Brahmanas had been enjoying the monopoly over education and discretion of educating or not educating all others, within Hinduism. Therefore, they enthusiastically learnt the English language and in a matter of give and take, agreed to teach Indian languages and particularly the Sanskrit language to the British. The Sudras and the Untouchables had already been rendered by the Brahmanas to a sub-human level, and as such the former were not in a position to render any help to the British or to take any advantage of the developing opportunities. Thus, the Brahmanas had been having a field day throughout, throwing only crumbs to Kshatriyas & Vaisyas.

The class of barristers became yet another organ to safeguard and serve the British interests in exchange for getting first opportunity of serving their own interests, in the process. Naturally, the barristers came from the trading castes and the Brahmanas. The same was the case in respect of doctors and engineers. Even these professions top positions went to Brahmanas.

Brahmin-Bania Combine versus Kshatriyas

The Aryans had a variety of male gods with the supreme power being called Brahma, after whom Brahmanas came to be called as such. Their close associates, the Kshatriyas came to have their own supreme power, which had been named Vishnu. The Aryans were ready to admit a non-Aryan male God to their own divine fraternity but they were not in a position to accord equal status to their own male gods.

After winning the confidence of the non-Aryans, the Aryan elders were able to cause acceptance of a male consort to the non-Aryan Goddess Kali, as equal to their own Brahma and Vishnu. In view of certain misgivings in the minds of the non-Aryans about the status of their own deity, the Aryans even offered to give to non-Aryan male deity called by whatever name, the title of Mahadeva or the Great God. After Kali, this newly transformed male God to be called Kaala [the masculine sounding word signifying the fierce looking Kali, which also meant 'dark', 'time' as also 'death'.

Thus, the Vedic revivalists had to evolve a strategy of relegating the original Vedic gods to an insignificant position and of accepting the new gods having three manifestations. The idea was to cement three strands of cultures into one whole through artificial means. Brahma, the God of Brahmanas, Vishnu, the God of Kshatriyas, and Siva, the newly created God of Non-Aryans, were the three manifestations. Siva was transformed from the Non-Aryan God, Rudra, [literally, terrible] who was also given new epithets like Kaala and Mahadeva.

With this settlement, Non-Aryan Rudra, the terrible, ceased to be Rudra or terrible for the new masters, the Aryans, and he came to be transformed into Siva [the auspicious] for them. As a consequence, there came to be a Trinity, comprising of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.

Present day Hindu is born into a political condition of democratic India, in which most of the situations around him are legally and constitutionally diametrically opposed to the religious mandates. In this condition, a Hindu majority, normally headed or at least guided by a member of Brahmana Varna runs the government in actual practice. In view of his religious position, such a man perforce has to have split personality.

This split is in two opposing directions. Constitutionally, the Brahmanas are required to believe in and working for equality of all and, religiously, they have heavenly ordained duty of treating unequally the members of other castes, creeds, religions, and people of different ethnic or social backgrounds. They also have a duty not do anything, under any circumstances, to disturb the plan of God Vishnu, or of Dharma, or of Varnasrama. Otherwise, the lord will be forced to undertake an incarnation in order to restore the Dharma of inequality and injustice, and to punish the people responsible for bringing about a situation of Adharma.

Thus, a Hindu has probably not much chance of avoiding to fall into the bane of fundamentalism, in which he must always have a sense of guilt in supporting any measure of social welfare, as a member of any political party or of any government in whatever capacity.

It deserves to be underlined here that the revivalists of the Vedic religion were not at all concerned with removing of the defects of the type noted above, of the Sudras and the Ati-Sudras, constituting a very great majority of their own and who were their co-religionists. And, the fact that the use of the term Dvija was monopolised by the Brahmanas themselves, the scriptural commands concerning Dvijas were systematically avoided for Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, if such commands went to confer any merit on any of them.

Sudras Much Sought After

Obviously, the Sudras had become comparatively speaking much sought after class. Firstly, they were welcomed into the Buddhist order. Secondly, Jainism also gave them the opportunity to become Munis, a counterpart of Vedic Rishis and Buddhist monks. The Buddhist alternative to Vedic rishi was more appropriate and even more telling. Since, they were directly referred to as Bhikshus or beggars. Analytical study of the priestly functions of Vedic religion in relation to the means of livelihood, leaves one in no doubt that, at one sage, begging had become the mainstay of the Brahminical priests.

Historically speaking, the Upper Castes had made the Dalits and the Sudras homeless in their own home, that is, Indian sub-continent. The latter had been made to forget their past. The road to all knowledge was blocked for them by forcing ignorance, abject poverty and hunger, through the scheme of samskaaras, which were denied to the Sudras and the deprived Castes and women.

The samskaaras were the only instruments of bits of education and information to the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas. They were designed to turn the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas into the best conformists to Vedic religion and to make them the enemies of the masses, the Sudras and below. The Dalits were also regarded as the outcastes, the Bahyas, literally, the outsiders. In other words, the real natives were declared as the outsiders and the aliens were declared as the ones belonging to this country. The seeds of nationalism among the Upper Castes can be traced to this strategy of turning the natives into despised outsiders.

The Upper Castes became the governing classes, the term with which Dr. Ambedkar referred to the Caste Hindus. For most of the time in recorded history, the fight for supremacy had been between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas. A closer analysis of the Pauranic literatures goes to prove that when the Kshatriyas humbled the Brahmanas, the latter compromised and accepted the Kshatriya supremacy through the legend of the Ramayana.

The Brahmanas in the name of the Untouchables [cf. Sage Valmiki] created the Ramayana epic, in order to render permanency to the pact between the two upper-most castes. The period, which marks the tussle between the two Varnas, is represented by the exploits of Kshatriyas culminating into the rise of Buddhism. The said period was prior to the Ramayana period. The fissures developed in the pact between the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas, in due course of time. The Brahmanas then turned to the Sudra castes. Consequently, an Aabhira or a Yadava was declared the new reincarnate of Lord Vishnu, obviously to dislodge the Kshatriya Rama from the high pedestal of avataarahood. The new avataara named was Lord Krishna.

The Sudra power was not enough to dislodge the Kshatriyas from position of supremacy. Accordingly, the help of Untouchables was sought through the agency of Krishna, who befriended the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who had commonly descended from the Untouchable sage Vyasa, who was himself a son of the Untouchable woman Satyavati and sage Paraashara. The sage Paraashara was himself the son of an Untouchable Chaandaali, whose father is not mentioned, in the relevant Pauranic episode. The Sudras were made to rise over the corpses of the Untouchables. Later the Sudras were themselves got finished through the same Krishna, who was made the new Vishnu Incarnate.

The Brahmans had hoped that the Sudras would never be in a position to challenge them. But since the late seventies of the twentieth century, the Sudras also started fighting the Brahmanas for supremacy in political and social life. Their first victory was in the form of Charan Singh, becoming the first Sudra Prime Minister, as a result of their revolt against Brahmin-Bania combine. Later on, VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Devegauda, Mulayam Singh Yadava, Lalu Yadav and Kalyan Singh Yadava, Rajesh Pilot and Shekhawat etc. have emerged to challenge the Brahmanas in different ways from different platforms.

The Brahmanas have by now thoroughly discredited themselves among the Dalits and the Kshatriya Castes. Their strategies like operating now through the Congress and the through the BJP etc. have all failed. Their only hope lies at present in the Vaisyas. How long the Vaisyas can afford to play second fiddle to the Brahmanas is yet to be seen. The future, however, seems to promise a definite rift between the Brahmans and the Vaisyas. Before the feared rift, the Brahmanas can transfer the formal supremacy to the Vaisyas.

But that possibility appears to be remote in view of the firm Brahminical control over the public media and the consequential monopoly to spread blind faith among the Vaisyas in the mythological gods and goddesses and their miracles. Strangely, the present believers in the miracles and the blind faith being generated by the Brahmanas are only the Vaisyas.

The lessons of history favour the inevitability of the fissures in the Brahmin-Bania combine. The Banias actually fear the physical-striking propensity of the Sudra castes, regarding themselves as ht e martial races. Such groups have so far concentrated on the support of the Dalits and the minorities. The day they turn their attention to the Vaisyas and modify their approaches and the habits, the Brahmanas are bound to become isolated and go out of power.

The love of nationalism of the Caste Hindus can be traced through the historical threads lying broken and scattered in the above bits of history. The Upper Castes are very much afraid of actual history coming to the fore and becoming a matter of common knowledge. The present controversy started by Arun Shourie about the Left Historians can be best understood in the fear-psychosis of the Hindu fundamentalists. Our idea here is not to prove the left historians wrong or right. The idea is to point out to a reality that lies behind such controversies.

Various technological, cultural, political, and economic advances further strengthened tendency toward nationalism. Improvement in communications became a contributing factor. Of course, the spread of education in vernacular languages to the successive lower sections gave them the feeling of participation in the so-called common cultural heritage. Some of the lower sections were made to learn somewhat mistakenly the common background and tradition. In this manner, they also began to identify themselves with the dotted historical continuity of the nation.

The Indian long tradition of co-existence of orthodox and heterodox religions served as the cohesive traditional element in uniting peoples of various castes, creeds and languages. There also came to be felt a forced necessity of tolerance and co-operation between Muslims and Hindus because of political compulsions, although they were extremely suspicious about their position in independent India. The influence of Western ideas also played an important role in creating a sense of belonging in Indian society.

•••

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10search for the truth [71 words]anilSep 30, 2010 08:34176659
8Please...... stop it [137 words]venkateshJan 14, 2011 14:28176659
2You are right [25 words]AbrahamMar 2, 2011 06:17176659
i have no problem [89 words]Ravi Ranjan Singh Bharat PanthiMay 15, 2011 13:47176659
8islam [72 words]samApr 26, 2010 02:37171721
1Re: [101 words]shayanSep 1, 2010 09:52171721
2Obsessive cumpulsive and more [110 words]JillSep 15, 2009 05:30161545
1Islam and voilence and terrorism [27 words]David ChellarajSep 21, 2012 04:24161545
3Please provide full Verse, don't quote OUT OF CONTEXT. [103 words]imranMay 19, 2009 09:36155771
4rama [39 words]jonJan 19, 2009 06:21148400
4those who have ears hear [279 words]chiranjeeviOct 21, 2009 21:59148400
3reply to rama(those who have ears hear) [185 words]mohd zeeshanAug 22, 2010 08:53148400
3those who have eyes see! [125 words]SunilAug 28, 2010 15:36148400
4islaam can never be better.. [138 words]indianNov 7, 2008 15:26142379
3Misconception about the word KAFIR among the hindu people [163 words]M Y KHATRIJan 3, 2009 10:54142379
yes you are right [185 words]rajnish mishraMar 29, 2010 04:17142379
Good market, bad product [18 words]Sardar Ravi Ranjan Singh 'Bharat Panthi'Apr 12, 2010 13:18142379
1THE CREATOR [121 words]R N SathiyamJun 2, 2012 14:16142379
1no hindu religion? [29 words]toramanaFeb 7, 2014 17:20142379
You don't get it, my dear. [111 words]TimMar 30, 2016 02:39142379
13a question for true muslims [63 words]muhammadAug 16, 2008 02:36136814
1Reigious clash [97 words]R SUBRAMANIANSep 3, 2008 05:48136814
8Muhammad [252 words]SK BallalNov 16, 2008 02:57136814
11Please go from non muslim country India [47 words]Manish SaxenaMar 7, 2009 07:55136814
3brother ....what is absurd? [187 words]mayeedApr 6, 2009 09:46136814
5In response of Mayeed's comment [127 words]Manish SaxenaApr 8, 2009 07:54136814
1Manish sexena [392 words]MayeedApr 19, 2009 05:11136814
3Muhammad(Peace Be Upon Him) [325 words]A.Samad KhanApr 28, 2009 01:05136814
1shameless ballal [144 words]bilalJul 7, 2009 19:22136814
9islams ignorance of Hinduism [70 words]proud hinduSep 13, 2009 15:39136814
1to manisha saxena [94 words]naziaSep 29, 2009 11:07136814
love eachother [47 words]sheikhApr 16, 2010 07:19136814
2Islam and quran [41 words]samApr 26, 2010 02:26136814
1Love country [129 words]samApr 26, 2010 02:33136814
7Regarding worship of Idols [342 words]TarakJun 22, 2010 11:56136814
1prophet pbuh [12 words]rahimSep 28, 2010 08:11136814
yes we cannot comment without right knowledge [18 words]king slaveofallahJul 28, 2011 00:24136814
The Road Ahead [123 words]CrusaderMar 9, 2012 14:58136814
Country first -religion last [72 words]NARAYANAApr 25, 2012 16:13136814
insa Allah [11 words]JameOct 4, 2013 17:29136814
1War time? [92 words]ToramanaFeb 7, 2014 17:56136814
2Brutal Islamic conquest of India in the name of Islam [1775 words]SridharJul 16, 2015 11:08136814
being human [35 words]ABID ALI TAKOct 19, 2015 06:17136814
for true muslims [65 words]muhammadAug 16, 2008 02:25136813
You will Know [39 words]IslamAug 15, 2008 19:55136798
1AKMA [97 words]KabirOct 21, 2009 05:15136798
hindu or muslim [95 words]hindu-muslimJul 18, 2008 11:16135365
2dream on [29 words]AshwinSep 17, 2008 21:18135365
agree [15 words]jonJan 19, 2009 06:24135365
2Are All Religions Great? [860 words]Dr. S L Dhani IAS (R)Aug 13, 2010 22:42135365
1Hindu or muslim [143 words]masudJan 6, 2011 03:43135365
lowercast [8 words]dddJan 14, 2011 13:57135365
Obsessive cumpulsive disorder [105 words]PatilFeb 29, 2008 01:15121379
Truth is in the small print [63 words]vamananDec 5, 2007 10:30115761
Come on people, It's time to be cool!! [319 words]kcNov 17, 2007 09:54113919
2True religion is humanity [204 words]s.azizMar 3, 2007 21:1880013
2True religion is humanity(2) [99 words]IRMar 8, 2007 12:2280013
Sensible comment [28 words]Cool DrangoApr 10, 2010 02:5680013
1terror the new religion [124 words]RajMay 5, 2010 05:3980013
Disagreement [57 words]Pro BritainFeb 11, 2006 15:0534958
Blame it on Saud [240 words]Eddie MustDec 2, 2005 05:2329306
1Agree with Criticism of Saud [537 words]MkFeb 20, 2008 20:4329306
1Jews were in India long before Islam [19 words]Nov 22, 2005 18:5028719
1incomplete knowledge [61 words]ayeshaFeb 16, 2007 14:3528719
What a parody [30 words]PatilFeb 29, 2008 01:1828719
2Rubbish [208 words]Hindu4LifeAug 5, 2010 18:4428719
2you're right about Islam being the biggest threat in the world [187 words]americanaNov 7, 2005 17:1927909
you're right about Islam being the biggest threat in the world [142 words]MoMay 24, 2006 08:0527909
1Organized Religions [78 words]RationalistMar 6, 2007 23:2827909
1Fruits of colonialism [67 words]BajpaiJun 2, 2007 10:1927909
You have little knowledge about Islam [173 words]M. AkmalSep 30, 2007 03:0427909
Science as we know it started from Ancient India and the vedic religion [30 words]Vikram AdityaDec 4, 2007 20:2227909
What Development ? [1536 words]ShailendraDec 5, 2007 03:2727909
Biggest Threat? [502 words]MkFeb 20, 2008 21:0827909
fruit [9 words]jayJul 4, 2008 11:0127909
Oh poor dear, [136 words]naingwinJan 28, 2009 05:0527909
1hi mr shailander i am sorry i read your comment late [91 words]bilalJul 7, 2009 19:3827909
richest [29 words]the manMar 7, 2010 16:0527909
Lord Macaulay's address to British Parliament [142 words]TarakJun 22, 2010 12:2627909
God is watching! [323 words]Dr. MaidunOct 29, 2005 08:4627479
where is allah? [28 words]aejanJan 30, 2006 06:2927479
Islam [118 words]ParvezApr 15, 2007 11:4527479
reply [40 words]vikramMay 14, 2007 04:4227479
Please have a thought [116 words]RajatJun 3, 2008 12:1627479
2Prophet Muhammed made a blunder by claiming that he was the last one [359 words]PhilosopherJul 1, 2008 01:0027479
Reply [123 words]SRSep 30, 2008 10:2127479
1response [87 words]youmuslimApr 9, 2009 18:0027479
2what ... [365 words]Hindu4LifeAug 6, 2010 14:4727479
3Response to Dr. Maidun [969 words]Hindu4LifeAug 6, 2010 16:3427479
5Islam V Hinduism [60 words]Ravi LOct 3, 2005 07:3626556
HATE, VIOLENCE, BLOODSHED, WAR [93 words]RAJVINDER SINGHFeb 3, 2006 10:0826556
4Islam V Hinduism [2588 words]Shaikh ShafiAug 25, 2006 05:5826556
1HOLD UP [313 words]ishqmeil khan convert to hinduismSep 11, 2006 04:1626556
A True Muslim [428 words]ShafiSep 12, 2006 08:1826556
54Islam and Quran is only a Concept [1804 words]RamaOct 2, 2006 09:2626556
11Absurd Hinduism (Indian Paganism) [93 words]PamodhaNov 10, 2006 11:0426556
A different perspective!! [440 words]Satnam BansalDec 15, 2006 14:2526556
8Hindu civilization was destroyed in the 1000 years of living as a Dhimmi [131 words]sandyDec 21, 2006 06:5026556
1Finally there is a human among us............. [85 words]KaisJan 14, 2007 03:3226556
1A True muslim [46 words]shafiJan 18, 2007 11:0826556
2knowledge is power [36 words]DR. Naveen RainaJan 20, 2007 01:1626556
A True muslim [335 words]shafiJan 21, 2007 03:1126556
1Dear Satnam [161 words]MisraFeb 20, 2007 11:1326556
2Modern Physics including Quantum Theory & Hinduism [188 words]ShantanuMar 6, 2007 18:4026556
Why compare the religions?? [195 words]SoulMar 21, 2007 13:2126556
God give you wisdom [250 words]rachinApr 21, 2007 17:0726556
1ALLAH (THE ONE GOD) BLESS MUSLIMS [196 words]AysheMay 8, 2007 00:1326556
reply [88 words]vikramMay 16, 2007 12:1626556
reply [42 words]vikramMay 16, 2007 12:3326556
none [10 words]MuslimMay 23, 2007 15:4226556
absurd [76 words]AnonymousJun 6, 2007 15:4426556
reply [44 words]TariqJun 20, 2007 16:1926556
managing your view by your own way [32 words]SujitJun 24, 2007 17:5426556
Foolish writer [38 words]SujitJun 24, 2007 18:0226556
Islam V Hinduism [70 words]shafiJul 1, 2007 05:2826556
foolish writer...not [15 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:2326556
hello [11 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:3726556
islam isn't a concept but a way of life [431 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 11:0726556
To Satnam [359 words]Sukhdev Singh AulakhJul 20, 2007 20:1826556
1You can not compare philosophy to tribal laws [167 words]sincereefforts (www.faithfreedom.org)Jul 25, 2007 15:0626556
Reply to : Islam V Hinduism [322 words]Lotus MoonclanAug 22, 2007 22:0626556
get your life on track [162 words]ram gopalSep 9, 2007 17:5326556
1true hindu [111 words]ram gopalSep 9, 2007 18:2026556
2explain that i have seen that video [9739 words]IbrahimSep 13, 2007 16:4226556
1HINDUISM, JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY IS WHAT ITS FOLLOWERS MAKE OF IT [648 words]FerozSep 27, 2007 05:5726556
reply to Tariq [23 words]rahul(india)Nov 26, 2007 13:5226556
9Mecca is an ancient hindu temple [19 words]ShivDec 4, 2007 20:3226556
why [79 words]RikDec 10, 2007 03:4626556
Sure, there is no image of Brahman but that does not mean that He is formless [148 words]AMDec 25, 2007 12:5726556
Idolatry in Western Testaments [318 words]AMDec 25, 2007 13:5426556
All for wine in Mohammad's paradise? [166 words]AMDec 25, 2007 14:0326556
1misconception about islam [123 words]iqbalMar 27, 2008 13:5526556
8idol worship,hinduism and other religions [1301 words]sandeep koulMar 31, 2008 03:1426556
2You Said the truth [10 words]peaceboyApr 3, 2008 12:1526556
reply to Feroz [12 words]MohnishMay 18, 2008 16:4926556
ALLAH IS THE ONLY TRUTH [35 words]swapnilMay 21, 2008 00:3026556
2Hinduism or Sanatan [476 words]SibaramMay 29, 2008 21:1026556
Re [47 words]sibaramJun 3, 2008 05:5326556
YOU ARE WRONG [112 words]swetaJun 7, 2008 23:0226556
10the kalki [778 words]sultanJun 11, 2008 04:1126556
1NO YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS WRONG [402 words]PamodhaJun 20, 2008 19:5226556
Absolute non-sense [43 words]VishwasJul 13, 2008 21:3926556
first think then write [53 words]JasmineAug 13, 2008 00:2926556
Prove it [11 words]PamodhaAug 13, 2008 16:5126556
Quran is first and Last, nothing Else [137 words]mohamadAug 15, 2008 15:2926556
1kashmir [40 words]ajay panditaSep 20, 2008 04:3826556
respect others life [44 words]enlighten yourself this is ulimate goal not bomb blastsSep 27, 2008 10:5026556
explain [20 words]zodiacloveOct 2, 2008 08:1826556
Submitted by zodiaclove (Brazil), Oct 2, 2008 at 08:18 [62 words]RikOct 5, 2008 14:3626556
1Pamodha [231 words]Hindu-HumanistOct 16, 2008 02:0626556
3The term 'Hindu Humanist' is an oxymoron [1123 words]PamodhaOct 18, 2008 14:1626556
3The tyranny of Islam [566 words]Terry SmithNov 4, 2008 19:5226556
For everyone.... [357 words]SathyaNov 26, 2008 10:2026556
Hinduism, judaism and christianity [328 words]DelwinDec 6, 2008 05:4526556
Idol Worship mis interpreted [172 words]SauravDec 29, 2008 14:2626556
R U so foolish enough to say? [206 words]Naing winJan 20, 2009 07:5726556
You say Hinduism has already defined Islam [168 words]ShivaFeb 10, 2009 06:4526556
1Don't leak traditional secrets [70 words]Rama Z ZutshiFeb 13, 2009 22:5626556
1Islam Versus Civilization [149 words]BajpaiFeb 14, 2009 20:2926556
Truth Hurts [434 words]PamodhaFeb 19, 2009 18:0926556
3Holocausts, belief, and everything inbetween [136 words]Harkirit Kaur RayattMar 21, 2009 10:3626556
58wherever you find Hindu..Kill him....where does Quran say that? [1161 words]MayeedApr 5, 2009 12:0326556
2brother ....what is absurd? [204 words]mayeedApr 6, 2009 09:2026556
1idiot [192 words]AnonymousApr 8, 2009 21:5526556
1request [9 words]mayeedApr 19, 2009 08:4726556
to shaik shafi [20 words]racJun 18, 2009 09:0426556
Kalki is not mohammed. [26 words]M. Srinivas ReddyJun 28, 2009 03:1626556
ishqmeil khan ruscle [138 words]bilalJul 7, 2009 20:1926556
ram gopal kutta [91 words]bilalJul 7, 2009 20:3326556
why we are fighting for a silly thing??? [118 words]omnipresentJul 22, 2009 08:5226556
manu to shafi [93 words]shaAug 23, 2009 12:3526556
Please read [9 words]vikramSep 4, 2009 08:0526556
Islam vs Hinduism [116 words]NikSep 7, 2009 02:4526556
pak hind superpowers -- ram rahim ek hai - allah aur ram [111 words]rajSep 16, 2009 12:4626556
hmmmm [194 words]KabirOct 21, 2009 05:2726556
hmmmm [113 words]KabirOct 21, 2009 05:4126556
Do not quote out of context [172 words]NileshNov 20, 2009 03:4226556
TRUTH IS OUT THERE [129 words]MahdiJan 12, 2010 13:5726556
God is love [49 words]FatimaFeb 9, 2010 12:0426556
2know complete hinduism [110 words]mukesh ranjan mallickMar 5, 2010 04:4026556
Shiva lingam.Seeds of Jivatmas.God created created force to live in harmony,karmas are linked to bear its fruits. [57 words]shridevMar 6, 2010 14:1326556
1MOHAMED IS NOT THE PREACHER OF ISLAM [141 words]SAHAZAD AHAMEDMar 22, 2010 09:0526556
Mr Ibrahim - My response to your Research [807 words]Gods SonMar 28, 2010 04:2626556
5Muslim rulers in India never totured hindus or forced conversion [188 words]M Y KHATRIApr 3, 2010 02:0526556
2reply for godson [880 words]ibrahimApr 7, 2010 05:5326556
Then you must know this [47 words]C09FFApr 11, 2010 16:2526556
Buddha was not Hindu [187 words]PamodhaApr 15, 2010 12:5226556
17For all those followers of tripurasura ..... [659 words]snehta sisodiaJun 19, 2010 08:0726556
2Reply to Pamodha [190 words]TarakJun 22, 2010 13:4526556
Ekamevyadwitiyam [44 words]arindamJul 31, 2010 07:5926556
10HA HA, another cock up [1186 words]Hindu4LifeAug 5, 2010 10:4426556
MMmm Interesting [687 words]Hindu4LifeAug 5, 2010 19:5226556
here we go again [295 words]Hindu4LifeAug 6, 2010 17:1026556
response to AM [53 words]Hindu4LifeAug 10, 2010 18:3526556
response to Bajpai [48 words]Hindu4LifeAug 10, 2010 18:3926556
Response to Bilal [552 words]Vijay BhattAug 13, 2010 11:5326556
you ... need to read the whole shloka [28 words]vishal singhAug 22, 2010 01:0326556
Traits Hindu Orthodoxy before Birth of Congress by A Hindu by Birth [11344 words]Dr. S L Dhani IAS (R)Sep 7, 2010 06:4326556
@Sultan(India) [475 words]AkshaySep 29, 2010 03:4726556
TRUTH ABOUT KALKI [138 words]82_RKSMNov 29, 2010 12:5726556
No Self Declared GODS in HINDUS [97 words]Nirmal KumarDec 14, 2010 15:2826556
think peace not skeptism [231 words]Ravikumar ShuklaDec 24, 2010 14:2826556
oversmartness [26 words]johnApr 23, 2011 11:4126556
100% incorrect [58 words]hitlApr 23, 2011 12:0026556
100% foolishness [45 words]hariApr 23, 2011 12:0726556
kabha is a hindhu temple [17 words]V.R.YADAVSep 3, 2011 00:1326556
GOD [56 words]ram devJan 12, 2012 06:0726556
ISLAM FAILS TO REACH ITS MESSAGE TO ITS OWN FOLLOWERS [36 words]pranavFeb 14, 2012 12:0126556
Hi ! [19 words]ScrutatorMar 16, 2012 16:5226556
I AM THE GOD [36 words]WHAT IS IN THE NAMEApr 13, 2012 06:5026556
7Please educate yourself before you talk about Hindu religion [419 words]subenMay 13, 2012 14:4126556
Pamodha the wise man [49 words]PrashantMay 15, 2012 02:1326556
5Buddhism - An antidote for Hinduism [375 words]PamodhaMay 22, 2012 11:5926556
1Pamodha please do an intellectual inquiry [40 words]PrashantMay 23, 2012 01:5326556
THANK YOU [32 words]ASMA MAJIDJun 21, 2012 13:4726556
If you are a sincere Sikh I should praise you [131 words]ronNov 30, 2012 02:1126556
Re: Absurd Hinduism [44 words]AnkushApr 3, 2013 00:1726556
Spread of Islam in India [321 words]Independent ThinkerMay 19, 2013 06:0326556
Reply [42 words]Vishwas KMay 19, 2013 06:4126556
orthodoxy muslim [29 words]samar mohammad khanJul 29, 2013 12:2926556
real fact [50 words]hinduAug 5, 2013 01:3926556
TRUTH of Islam practice [721 words]HUMANNov 2, 2013 05:5026556
I Agree the greatness of the muslim religion but than why the followers are being so cruel to humanity [371 words]HumanMar 1, 2014 06:3226556
Thanks [4 words]KismaaatMar 30, 2014 18:0626556
KHAFIRS [37 words]HinduJun 29, 2014 05:4826556
Gita [100 words]RaviAug 19, 2014 16:2726556
Pamoda, you need to learn a lot. [165 words]RockyOct 7, 2014 15:3626556
If Islam is a religion of peace [17 words]S WrightJan 12, 2015 12:5026556
islam imposing [71 words]rkjJan 13, 2015 07:1226556
Islam is a cult [87 words]SridharJul 16, 2015 10:4926556
truth lies in facts [73 words]puneetSep 4, 2015 11:0626556
Excellent interpretation [562 words]Ujjwal KarmakarJun 3, 2016 05:1826556
Islam [11 words]SomadityaSep 15, 2016 00:4826556
All false claims! [31 words]kunal kumarNov 18, 2016 00:5026556
Really? [193 words]AddiyanJan 2, 2017 01:1326556
i left it [17 words]Haneef KhanMar 27, 2017 12:2726556
Quran was a improvised answer book by prophet mohammed [76 words]VinApr 6, 2017 05:3226556
Hadith says invade india [22 words]RajeevMay 9, 2017 11:2326556
Quran [123 words]SumitMay 24, 2017 03:4726556
humanity [155 words]sumitMay 24, 2017 04:5626556
UK and and USA will become islamic countries. [20 words]Sushama KumariOct 1, 2019 11:2626556
Numbering of prophets. [22 words]Mukhtar SipaiFeb 28, 2020 07:2826556
What is a "lakh" our dear Mukhtar? [133 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 28, 2020 14:0526556
3Does Allah protect Mecca and Medina from al-Ta'oon including the Coronavirus? It seems that this is not true [207 words]dhimmi no moreMar 4, 2020 07:4126556
سعاد صالح or Su'ad Saleh issues an apology for recommending that a husband is allowed مضاجعة ونكاح البهاءم if his wife dies! Read and laugh [190 words]dhimmi no moreMar 4, 2020 11:2526556
1The case for Quarantine or كرانتينا (E. Arabic) or الحجر الصحي (MCA) and President Trump is very correct to ban flights from Europe [292 words]dhimmi no moreMar 12, 2020 17:1326556
1Does Halah food protect Muslims from the Coronavirus? And delusions from Pakistan! [194 words]dhimmi no moreMar 16, 2020 11:0426556
Coronavirus has entered Medina [17 words]J.R. QwertzMar 28, 2020 16:1926556
Kafir means non-believer not Non Muslim [195 words]PranabMar 30, 2020 04:4526556
Qwertz: The Saudis and the Wuhan/Chinese coronavirus pandemic! [159 words]dhimmi no moreMar 31, 2020 09:0626556
Our dear Pranab and the word كافر [85 words]dhimmi no moreMar 31, 2020 14:5426556
Even Moderates Believe in Killing Kafir Today [157 words]SAApr 9, 2020 03:4226556
Kalki avtaar & relegion of peace [28 words]Abhimanyu vermaMay 1, 2020 19:2426556
what is Hinduism [429 words]RishikaMar 26, 2022 17:2026556
Islam destroyed buddhism from Dr. Ambedkar [155 words]SujataMar 26, 2022 17:5426556
Not intolerant [323 words]ArchanaAug 9, 2005 06:2324451
Mr.Pipes, please start all new Cable Channel "Freedom" [74 words]HerveMar 14, 2005 13:0020976
10Islam is biggest Threat for Whole World [610 words]HerveMar 14, 2005 12:4020975
What? [40 words]PEACEAug 13, 2007 13:4720975
1DEAF AND DUMB [159 words]KHANApr 21, 2008 17:0320975
1Wrong [86 words]MyraMay 11, 2008 18:4820975
1Me Again.... [106 words]MyraMay 11, 2008 18:5420975
2Real Educated (not brainwashed) Muslims can save the world [1903 words]XYZNov 2, 2008 12:3620975
3The world would be a better place without Islam [43 words]mieouxNov 30, 2008 01:1220975
the author is 100% correct [77 words]humanityJan 11, 2009 13:3720975
islam [173 words]markJan 25, 2010 12:1620975
muslim is not terrorist [27 words]AyeeshaMar 3, 2010 07:5420975
Rethink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [34 words]saqibApr 28, 2010 07:1020975
Not Really No [549 words]Hindu4LifeAug 6, 2010 10:5120975
Very Nice [384 words]Hindu4LifeAug 6, 2010 11:4520975
Inquisition - Arab Apology Demanded? [226 words]John Randall PeacherMar 8, 2005 17:1120877
Fear and Absolute obedience [273 words]John CarlsonSep 2, 2006 19:5120877
RE: Inquisition - Arab Apology Demanded? [513 words]MiquelJan 21, 2007 16:5920877
1Please do some research [223 words]Neutral observerApr 5, 2008 08:4720877
Excuse-me? [31 words]YnnatchkahApr 7, 2008 01:0320877
Slave Soldiers of militant Islam and the Tsunami Disaster [132 words]Ilona MelstradsDec 30, 2004 15:3619253
Re: Militant Islam [158 words]RenataNov 29, 2004 08:2518694
We should accept Turkey into the EU [20 words]OzgaziOct 28, 2004 11:5518015
I disagree [104 words]reema saffariniOct 20, 2004 12:2917817
Strong Opposition [213 words]PublicFeb 25, 2006 10:3217817
Brutality [141 words]S.C.PandaOct 14, 2004 06:1717721
2prophet mohammed said " who ever changes his islamic religion, KILL him " [223 words]Phil GreendJun 24, 2009 23:3017721
Islam is a violent religion [163 words]JohnnyNov 6, 2009 11:2817721
1from which side [50 words]doesnt matterFeb 25, 2010 16:2017721
its matter [19 words]sumitMay 24, 2017 05:1517721
Not all [34 words]JaimeOct 13, 2004 15:1617634
Thank you. [57 words]John EkdahlOct 7, 2004 12:4317558
Muslims are what Islam Makes of Them [97 words]Gamaliel IsaacOct 7, 2004 10:4817557
5Why is there such an anti- Hindu hysteria among some muslims? [73 words]Michael J BlusteinOct 5, 2004 00:2517520
answer to your question [75 words]a sasidharFeb 12, 2006 23:1217520
islam- much more than what they call it!!! [129 words]anubha khandelwalSep 5, 2006 12:5017520
Why is there so much anti islamic remarks? [48 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:1417520
Because they are jealous of hindus [128 words]VJJul 21, 2007 04:3017520
Islam is the only right way not hundism. [86 words]emran ahmedSep 29, 2007 18:2817520
Info [109 words]soulOct 26, 2007 11:4817520
4Islam- most intolerant & violent cult of madmen | Hinduism- the most liberal way of Life [130 words]Jai RamFeb 13, 2008 14:1717520
Disagree: Islam preaches hatred? Where? [48 words]MkFeb 20, 2008 20:4717520
1Muslims hate Hindus because we dont like geting pushed around [130 words]AnonMar 12, 2008 10:2917520
hindu religion [159 words]MR ?Mar 23, 2008 14:2817520
124Muslims hate Hindus because we dont like getting pushed around [193 words]sandeep koulApr 2, 2008 07:5017520
Re: Mr? [495 words]sibaramJun 3, 2008 06:1717520
Tecniques to rule over the world [332 words]surinder singhAug 1, 2008 03:2417520
Idols [31 words]Hindu-HumanistOct 16, 2008 02:1517520
the bene israeli jews have been in india for long before the birth of islam [71 words]sheenaJan 15, 2009 13:2417520
1Jai Ram is right [9 words]steadyfriendNov 21, 2009 19:4217520
muslims have to admit that there are other religions also exist in the world [55 words]ashishDec 29, 2009 15:3317520
why muslims hate hindus [37 words]siddarthJan 3, 2010 00:1817520
Ph.Ds not needed to see the sun [175 words]VamananJan 14, 2010 22:5117520
God Fight!!! [145 words]PeacemakerMar 27, 2010 12:4317520
2comment [79 words]Cool DrangoApr 10, 2010 03:0717520
islem is the religion of right [80 words]achouakApr 20, 2010 09:1317520
Muslims marry everyone [152 words]shankarMay 17, 2010 10:4217520
Islam tolerated in India as well [310 words]Jack SwaggerJul 8, 2010 10:0317520
Full View [341 words]DrPhilAug 6, 2010 13:2317520
Response to MR? [470 words]Hindu4LifeAug 10, 2010 18:1817520
Not another ... [762 words]Hindu4LifeAug 10, 2010 19:3217520
truth [48 words]David HarlowJan 22, 2011 10:4717520
AGREE!! [25 words]yogita ashokFeb 29, 2012 10:1717520
My Dear Brothers & Sisters [85 words]SafiJan 25, 2013 11:2117520
Pride to be a christian [33 words]BenSep 18, 2014 02:0717520
Excellent! A request [22 words]David TsalOct 4, 2004 03:4317513
Pakistani Judge's Comment [282 words]John C. ZimmermanOct 3, 2004 17:3217505
You read my mind [43 words]Harry F StarkOct 3, 2004 13:5617504
Militant Islam [54 words]Issa BotrosOct 2, 2004 13:0917498
Militatant Islam and freedom of choice? [66 words]John SmithOct 2, 2004 06:1717495
Lacunae in Pipes' writings on Islam related issues [230 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Shankar SharanOct 1, 2004 07:1917486
mr shanker you'r e so wrong [41 words]veeraApr 11, 2006 21:3517486
veera ji aap ko sachhai maalum nahi hain [118 words]dilipJan 19, 2007 10:1417486
Can we keep it simple? [84 words]Robert M. ArmstrongSep 30, 2004 11:0117475
no problem, robert [79 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:3017475
If thats so [65 words]Hindu4LifeAug 10, 2010 18:3217475
La Ikrah Fil Deen [218 words]maurice massaadSep 29, 2004 22:3217468
jizya [62 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:1917468
do they pay? [12 words]SathyaNov 26, 2008 10:1117468
A query on literalism and on politics in Islam [290 words]John ClementsSep 29, 2004 19:3417463
Islam is like all religions? [299 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Bill SweeneySep 29, 2004 15:3517460
What you see isn't What you get [628 words]Raymond LullSep 29, 2004 15:0317458
Gagging America in the Holy War [555 words]Jordan OroszSep 29, 2004 10:5917455
Tariq Ramadan [122 words]Dave KabaySep 29, 2004 01:0917449
Preaching vs Action [321 words]Hari IyerSep 28, 2004 23:5417448
Islam vs. Freedom of Religion [89 words]Arlinda DeAngelisSep 28, 2004 23:2217447
re [57 words]veeraApr 11, 2006 21:2817447
May Allah enlight you [301 words]naing winJan 28, 2009 05:3517447
"Infidels." [24 words]Douglas BoggsSep 28, 2004 22:1317446
Good Article [46 words]Umm YasminSep 28, 2004 21:4917444
Turkey must be allowed to enter the E.U. [49 words]J. SheffSep 28, 2004 19:1217441
Interpretation [60 words]vladSep 28, 2004 16:2417436
False Hope [175 words]Tom ClearSep 28, 2004 14:3017434
Please .......brother [26 words]mayeedApr 5, 2009 12:3817434
Faith vs. Reason [240 words]Ralph C. Whaley MDSep 28, 2004 13:5917431
Faith [139 words]PJSep 30, 2006 15:0517431
Re: The Koran on tolerance of other religions [1557 words]ElliottSep 28, 2004 11:5217424
control the world [194 words]jackDec 3, 2006 21:5417424
the quran [37 words]rashidJul 9, 2007 10:3317424
true history [64 words]jaYDEEPANDec 11, 2008 15:2617424
Not so different [32 words]marySep 28, 2004 11:2417422

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