Columnist Praful Bidwai at the 90th birthday celebrations of Marxist B.V. Kakkilaya in Mangalore, on Sunday, quoted in The Hindu:
“Communal attitude developed among the aristocratic and upper castes in the country as a reaction to modernity…
“As liberalism, socialism and gender equality began to spread during the 19th century, it put people at the top of the hierarchy in a vulnerable position. Modernity brought with it certain irreverence for established hierarchies. Suddenly, the actions of the all-powerful were not beyond question. It made them vulnerable.
“Reason demanded that there should be equality and demolition of feudalism. And that is exactly why the upper caste or class could not tolerate reason. As a reaction, they steeped themselves further into the practice of an orthodox brand of religion that preached inequality and oppression.”
Read the full article: Communalism originated from the upper classes
Typical Marxist drivel. The author has cleverly equated class with caste to fit in the marxist model to India. Caste is not class. There are many so called upper caste who belong to the poor working proletariat and many rich lower caste bourgeoisie.
A big fallacy in the marxist model is the assumption that the poor class is liberal and the rich capitalist class is conservative. This is a poor representational model of our current globalized capitalistic soceity. It could have made sense in the capitalistic world of early Industrial reveloution. There are many intermediate classes even in the bourgeoisie class itself. It is not just black and white. There are many many different shades of greys and other colours in the class spectrum.
When applying this model the Marxist writers/authors/film directors have all portrayed upper caste people in India as highly conservative and resistant to change and Minorities/ Sub alterns/ lower caste as progressive. Nothing can be far from truth. Take for example a typical Marxist movie like ‘Mr & Mrs Iyer’. The Muslim photogropher is shown as highly liberal as compared to the Iyer woman not to mention the murderous hindutvawadis. Ever heard of C.V.Raman, Vilayanoor Ramachandran. THey were Iyers. Please get a reality check and see how many muslims are liberal and don’t be blind to the fact that Iyers are one of the most highly educated. But
Marxist sociologists are blind to reality. THe most progressive people in India in the 18th and 19th century came from the upper caste – remember Raja Ram mohan roy, vidyasagar. Even the marxist liberals(??) were from the upper caste – Nomboddaripad, Dange, Vinod mishra. The most regressive people have always been the poor people who have not been touched by education. But Marxism romanticiszes the so called oppressed class and try to demonize the progressives in the soceity. They need a reality check especially in India where they subvert the Marxist paradigm to promote and justify Islamic terrorism (strange bedfellows) and casteism(Dalits/dravidian and subaltern).
Communalism has originated from herd instinct and from our genetic traits of tribal loyalties. herd instinct is more in the proletariat than the upper class. Marxists please spare us your sermons plagiarized from 18th century socialism. Wake up to the globalized flat world.
So is communism & socialism, you find mostly people from richest or poorest strata of the society constituting them.
Why must we keep pandering to those whose need is justice and not pity? Communalism is an extremely profitable industry even for a number of low caste operators.
Somebody give me a detailed breakdown of what legislators from reserved constituencies have done for their people.
I am not defending the criminal behavior of upper caste lawmakers by any means.
This anti national activist Bidwai (Bhadwai???) must be prevented from spreading such malicious canards according to his fancies. Each of his assumptions and conclusions can be taken apart readily.
Upper castes were feudal and oppressive:
There is no conclusive evidence for this. Though the caste laws seem strict, the rules of interaction between the jatis and the organization of society ensured that all voices were heard and acted upon. The “lower” jatis could have easily finished off the numerically inferior upper castes at any time. We must also note that the various jatis accepted their position in society. They made the choice that was beneficial to them at that point of time.
Upper castes resisted modernity:
In fact it were the upper castes who embraced the new knowledge and brought its benefits not only to themselves but to all the jatis.
So, upper castes adopted communalism:
Bullshit. What every Indian, regardless of his jati wants is the continuation of his lineage, his tradition. When alien influences like Christianity, Islam and Communism force him to abandon his identity his natural reaction is to find inspiration and strength in tradition. There is no crime in this.
Today secular knowledge is available to everyone with intelligence and industry, regardless of jati. The pursuit of wealth and happiness was always available to everyone in this country.Anti national elements like Bidwai and his socialist/communist/Christian/Islamic cronies find easy publicity by targeting helpless people without doing anything concrete for the betterment of the country.
Unfortunately, most of the backward jatis have been badly let down by their leadership. Over the past 40 years as the caste system slowly began losing significance could have easily been used to empower them educationally and financially. Instead what they did was upper caste bashing without putting in the necessary hard work to better themselves. They have none but their leaders to blame for their current state.