finding soodrahood in telingana

It has also been noticed that in speaking the Teloogoo, the Soodras use very few Sanskrit words; among the superior classes of Vysyus, and pretenders to the Rajah cast, Sanskrit terms are used only in proportion to their greater intimacy with the Bramins, and their books; and when we find even such Sanskrit words as these classes do adopt, pronounced by them in so improper and rude a manner as to be a common jest to the Bramins, who, at the same time, never question their pronounciation of pure Teloogoo words, I think we may fairly infer to be probable at least that these Sanskrit terms were originally foreign to the great body of people. 

from  the 'Introduction' section of the 'A Grammar of the Teloogoo Language, Commonly termed the Gentoo...' by A.D.Campbell. published in 1816, around the same age as when the nizams of hyderabad were either gifting away or being made to 'cede' the coastal andhra and rayalaseema regions to their colonial overlords.

two centuries later, if campbell were still around, he'd probably notice again that the 'Soodras' still can't get a hold on any sanskrit word without taking little conscious preparatory pauses. and their pronunciation still causes much jest among both the 'bramins' and those 'pretender' classes who have developed a much 'greater intimacy' with the bramins.  

when the the srikrishna committee submits its report to the central government today, and when delhi acts on it: both actions should be seen as the 'bramins' exercising their suzerainty over the 'soodras' of 'Telingana' (as campbell calls the whole of telugu speaking lands, including what are now referred to as 'coastal andhra' and 'rayalaseema' and other regions which are now a part of other states) yet again. as implied in the short paragraph, forces 'foreign to the great body of people' have always played a great role in the life of the 'gentoos'. brahminism and sanskrit, holding sway for several centuries couldn't destroy the ethos of the soodras even until the nineteenth century. it remained 'pure teloogoo'. but that project is still on, because soodrahood, innate to such pre-hindu cultures as the telugu culture, still poses the greatest challenge to the brahminical idea of india. and will, always. but how long should the soodras remain tethered to the trenches, fending off one assault after another, never attempting to subdue the enemy? they have to realize that soodrahood can also be a weapon, not just a shield to ward off the bramin's attacks. 

i remember an excellent post by dr.p.keshava kumar, teacher of philosophy and occasional blogger, on how the dalit movement is trying to deal with brahminism in tamil nadu-- let me quote a passage from the post in which he tries to explain the political philosophy of thol thirumavalavan of the viduthalai chiruthaigal katchi:

Let me elobarate further, tamil identity is not just a linguistic identity. As an eminent philosopher Wittegenstein said language is the form of life. Life has to be understood as social life. Social life exists in our social relationships. The social relationships are much rooted in our cultural life. For Thirumavalavan, tamil identity means it is all. He believed that tamil society is much more democratic society. There is no trace of caste system and is different from Brahminism, Hinduism and Aryanism. This distinct identity is maintained for so many centuries. On contrary to this our existing relationships hierarchy prevails there exists one over the other. The caste system is responsible for this. The hindu religion had the sole responsibility for strengthening it. It is the characteristic of brahminism/Hinduism which is internalized into Indian nationalism. In the course of time even it influencing the tamilians. Again to revive tamil identity one has to necessarily annihilate this caste system.

the democratic roots of soodrahood in telingana (i mean campbell's telingana, of course) have to be found again. one needs to dig a little, but not very deep because an outsider like campbell could spot them quite easily a couple of centuries ago.

terrorists in telangana

everyone says india is a land of a billion hindus. but why do we see such a massively scaled down version of hindu india in this list of hindutva terrorists?

there are nearly 80 million hindus in andhra pradesh-- but why is none of the prominent conspirators in the mecca masjid bomb blast case from hyderabad or andhra pradesh? the cbi has just filed a chargesheet against them, against lokesh sharma, devendra gupta, sandeep dange, swami asimanand etc why is there no lokesh goud or devendra mudiraj or sandeep madiga among them?

it's not like the gouds, or the mudirajs or the madigas are not willing to die for any larger 'ideal'.. hundreds of them, some only bare schoolkids, have committed suicide for telangana. much older people reportedly drank poison when rajasekhar reddy died, and even when jaganmohan reddy resigned from the congress a few days ago. no, it's not that the other 'hindus' do not have the 'courage', or the passion. so why aren't they in the list? 

because the head, heart and soul of hindutva has always been the top three varnas. the shudras have always been useful only as the muscle, the lathi arm. which means, nearly 70 years after savarkar, over 70% of so-called hindus remain hardly hindu. and the dalits were never used as even lathi arms. rather, they bore the brunt of the dance of the swords and lathis mostly.

telangana in the last few years has been the battleground for two different kinds of hindutva politics:  while one frustrated faction of the hindutvavaadis planted bombs, the other aligned with the dominant upper castes and a few ambitious obc groups to demand a separate state. while the first kind of politics claimed a few muslim lives and led to the illegal detention and harassment of hundreds of young muslims, the second kind is steadily proving to be more dangerous. it not only targets muslims who oppose the creation of a separate state but it also bullies other dissenting groups from among the dalits and adivasis. i've always maintained that telangana is a majoritarian cause, and the parivar, one of its oldest supporters, has much to gain from it.  

while swami asimanand's gang of terrorists was planting bombs in the mecca masjid, his other pals from the parivar, bjp leaders in the region, were touring all the districts of telangana with the leaders of the trs and assorted other political groups, including many ex-ultra left radicals, promoting the cause of telangana.

it's sad that many bahujans are still willing to be used as the lathi arms of the hindutva gangs. it makes me very angry that the people from the parivar that planted the bombs in the mecca masjid are now lionised as one of the staunchest supporters of telangana.

the hindu non-sense of equality

suhag shukla of the hindu american forum writes in the huffington post:

But the single most important point to take home from this pivotal report, I believe, is that even though caste-based discrimination may have arisen in Hindu society, it is not intrinsic to Hinduism. Contrary to the wide academic and media conflation of caste and Hinduism, the practice of caste-based discrimination is in direct contradiction to the quintessential Hindu teaching that each individual is equally divine and has the potential to realize God based on his or her own effort.

caste is not intrinsic to hinduism? you only have to check the comments on the same article to see that that's pure cow shit. the gist of the top comment runs like this: 

Caste system is etched in our sriptures & hence is here to stay for ever....(sic)

and it never gets better as you go down. ms.shukla's drivel is all the more disappointing because she doesn't seem to be a fresh-off-the-boat desi, as they say in america, i think. she was probably even born there. and the people commenting? wherever they were born, and whenever (though i suspect most of them are quite young), they seem to be enjoying caste a lot. which reminds you of what dr.ambedkar said: that caste is about 'graded inequality'. meaning there will always be people enjoying caste, because they stand to gain from it. therefore caste is not simply about 'discrimination', the thrust of ms.shukla's argument. 'x', the mere discriminator, might kick 'y' off a bus because he's 'inferior' in his view. 'x', the brahminized individual, will kick 'y' off the bus because it is 'superior'.

hinduism, according to shukla, sees the divine in everyone. well, the atma in everyone might be equally divine, but the brahmin body is 'superior' and the dalit body is 'untouchable' and every body between the two is also ranked. to be hindu, in practice, is to be a human measuring scale, primarily. each individual might have 'the potential to realize God based on his or her own effort', but, as ilaiah pointed out, there is 'superior' work and 'inferior' work. which effectively means some have to work more than others, to realize god or mammon.

wholesome drought

there's a flood of angst against the uid here. you'd think they've a lot to say, but look at this:

The Unique Identification (UID) project is presented as a sunny solution to the nightmare of access to the Indian social benefit system. Though the Bill states that it does not relate to benefits and services, the spin, symbolised by the wholesome image of Nandan Nilenkani, is that it will end the deprivation of the poor.

hasn't all spin in india, over 'socialism' 'secularism' or 'development' or 'rights' always been symbolised by such 'wholesome' brahminical images as nehru, indira gandhi, aruna roy or p.sainath etc? yes, brahminized india does face a drought of more marketable images but the articles featured at the site also seem to reflect a drought of ideas. all the fury seems to be focused on only one theme: invasion of privacy. privation isn't as big a concern.

the private concerns of the brahminized classes have always been the biggest problem for indian democracy. from land reforms to public schools, which wholesome idea did they not sabotage? a member of an online group opposing uid says:

I am horrified just thinking of the potential of a Mayawati or a Lalu to abuse this scheme for political ends (for example)!!

as i said, the privations of the majority have always been less important than the private 'purity' of these folks.