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Friday, March 29, 2024

How the West maligns Hindu Dharma

The concept of caste is not Hindu, no matter what a well-funded and well-organized West Coast socialist activist, Kshama Sawant, tells you. I submit to you, dear reader, that associating caste with the Hindu religion is an egregious fallacy that Western opportunists and the media have perpetuated for far too long. This misguided notion has caused irreparable damage to the reputation of Hindus worldwide, resulting in grave societal problems for Hindu minorities living in the USA, including mental health concerns. The West’s obsession with labeling Hindu society as inherently casteist is inaccurate and deeply offensive to the millions of Hindus who practice their faith with love, devotion, and a commitment to non-discrimination. Caste, as the West understands it, is an oppressive system that divides society into rigid hierarchies based on birth.

The erroneous concept of “caste” is entirely European, and even the word “caste” is derived from the Portuguese word “casta,” which symbolizes this Western idea collectively imposed on Bharat during the hundreds of years of colonial rule.

The purposeful Western misapplication of “casta” in Indian society is fundamentally flawed, bearing no resemblance to the Hindu concepts of Varna and Jati, from which the imperialist powers ruling over Bharat concocted their “casta.” Varna, which means color or shade, is one of the basic concepts in Hindu Dharma. Ancient Hindu society classified individuals into four Varnas based on their innate qualities and professions: Brahmins (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (merchants and traders), and Shudras (laborers and servants). This classification was not birth-derived but applied based on an individual’s aptitude, character, and talents. Hindu scriptures emphasize that one’s Varna is not fixed and can change based on personal growth and spiritual development.

To give you a real-life example, I, a supposedly “high caste” Brahmin, proudly renounced my Brahmin-ity to become a Kshatriya – a U.S. Army soldier fighting in combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon returning from the battlefield, I switched back to being Brahmin. I also operate as a Vaishya when I work on my family business and become a Shudra to earn a living working in U.S. government service. Capisce? To explain further, Jati refers to the sub-groups within each Varna based on family lineage and regional identity. These groups are not hierarchical and do not have the same level of rigidity as the Western concept of caste. Jati reflects Bharat’s diversity, and each has unique customs, traditions, and practices. To further emphasize the difference between the Western concept of caste and the Hindu concepts of Varna and Jati, it is crucial to quote from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most revered texts in Hindu Dharma. In chapter four, verse 13, Shri Krishna says, “I created the four categories of occupations according to people’s qualities (Guna) and activities (Karma).” This quote highlights the importance of an individual’s qualities and actions in determining their Varna rather than their birth.

Similarly, the Vajrasuchika Upanishad, a part of the Samaveda, states much as Shri Krishna does in the Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 6, that the true self is not identified with the caste, nor with the actions, nor with the body, nor with the mind. When free from all physical and material needs and qualities, one attains unity with [God].” In conclusion, associating caste with the Hindu religion is a misleading and damaging fallacy that must be dispelled. The Hindu concepts of Varna and Jati vastly differ from the Western concept of caste. The caste association with the Hindu religion has created a false binary of “casteist Hindus” versus “progressive Hindus.” This binary is inaccurate and harmful, creating division and discord within the Hindu community.

Instead of fighting amongst ourselves at the absurd provocations of Kshama, we South-Asian minorities of all religions must work towards creating a more inclusive and tolerant society where individuals are judged based on their qualities and actions rather than their birth or background here, in the United States, our home country, for it is here, where blatant individual and systemic racism is rampant, where state-sanctioned “military-wannabes” wearing authoritarian blue uniforms slaughter minorities daily with “qualified immunity.” Here, in the United States, half of the powerful federal political establishment embraces and propagates racist policies and chooses to twiddle thumbs as right-wing murderers slaughter our school kids almost daily in cold blood.

We Hindus must remember Shri Krishna’s statement in the Bhagavad Gita 3.35: “One’s own dharma, even if without merit, is far better than the dharma of another well-performed.”

Let us strive to live by these words and embrace the true spirit of Hindu Dharma, which is one of love, compassion, and non-discrimination. Let us resist the Western tendencies to reduce lofty ideas and theologies to bite-sized television-friendly remarks. It is essential to recognize that caste discrimination is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires nuanced solutions instead of misguided proclamations built on colonial untruths by power-hungry opportunists such as Kshama.

(This article was first published on bakshi.substack.com on February 25, 2023 and has been republished with minor edits to conform to HinduPost style guide)

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Hinduism has a terrible caste problem. It allows the lighter skinned higher castes to dominate weak poorer people based upon their ‘caste’ at birth. Hinduism must clean up its act and stop the caste discrimination. The only people who Hinduism treats worse are people like my parents, Indian Muslims. Time for Hindus to grow up and stop picking on people killing or abusing because they’re the ‘wrong’ religion or caste group.

    • Classic case of the Islamist pot calling the kettle black. Muslim society persecutes non-Muslims in a manner akin to how Nazis treated Jews. One just has to look at Pakistan, where daily abduction-rape-forced conversion-nikah of minor Hindu girls doesn’t trouble the conscience of the majority one bit, to realize how Islamic societies behave. But of course, for Indian Muslims like you, whose existence is based on Hindu-hatred (just like the Pakistanis your ancestors campaigned for), all you can do is spew venom at your fellow countrymen.

      This obsession with fair skin is an order of magnitude higher in Ashrafi caste of Muslims, who forever keep chasing foreign lineage back to Arabs, Persians, Turks etc, and consider themselves superior to ‘dark, short, unattractive’ Hindus. Yes, many Hindus also suffer from this craze for fair skin, due to the British colonial rule drilling inferiority complex in people…but our civilization never bothered about color. We worship dark-skinned deities like Sri Krishna, Maa Kali, Bhagwan Shiva, and are slowly regaining that consciousness!

      Jaati is a social grouping in entire sub-continent, just like clan, tribe, professional guild is in other societies – even the word ‘caste’ has Portugese origin and was used to differentiate between “pure-blood” Portugese and other progeny that resulted from their brutal conquest of Americas. I am sure you don’t need to be told how Ashrafis look down upon Ajlaf and Arzal class as untermensch, and how some even marry their daughters off to the Quran rather than let them marry somebody from a ‘lower’ caste! And by the way, slavery was introduced in subcontinent by Muslim invaders, and first abolished by Chattrapati Shivaji. If that abominable practise is alive anywhere in the subcontinent today, it is in Pakistan where landlords treat their bonded laborers as animals.

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