BRAHMINS – HOW THEIR EXEMPLARY CONDUCT SAVED INDIA FROM RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE !!!

The world is witnessing as well as experiencing the RELIGIOUS Violence that has engulfed the entire West Asia, which is the birthplace of the three “GREAT” historical Religions of the World.

India geographically is not that far away from West Asia, but historically Religious violence here was unheard of till it came into contact with Islam & Christianity. Here in India, we had experiences similar to that in W.Asia, -new off-shoots from Hinduism like Buddhism and Jainism trying to over-run the mother religion. But Indians in general & BRAHMINS in particular had been exceptionally wise in their RELIGIOUS attitude and conduct, in neutralizing the effects of these incomplete religions. Thus these new and ephemeral saplings pretending to be deep-rooted trees, withered by itself in course of time within India.

We get to know about the attitude of BRAHMINS towards

RELIGION & other castes from MISSIONARY narratives of the 19th century.(1800’s AD). Missionaries in providing these accounts were demonstrating the CUNNINGNESS of Brahmins as a class. But the impression we may gather is contrary. We find in these negative portrayals the ingenious conduct of Brahmins in matters related to Religion, and the intolerance and SUPERIORITY complex of the Missionary. Another detail that we understand is the EMPATHY shown by Brahmins towards the natives belonging to other castes. The Brahmins shared friendships with other castes and communities. Brahminical tyranny or Brahminical Hinduism, which the Leftists and Ambedkarities have invented, is completely absent in these Missionary narratives. 

One such narrative is provided here, and it is available in the public

domain. Here the Missionary has tried his level best and succeeded to a great extent in creating cleavage between Brahmins/Other Hindu Castes vis-a-vis Nadars(Shanars) of Tirunelveli District ,Tamilnadu. In the process, he had succeeded in wrenching away a sizable number of Nadars from Hinduism, through outright lies and misinformation campaigns. The Result -“The proportion of Christians in Tirunelveli is larger than any other province in India.” –Source Wikipedia. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirunelveli

Quote from Bishop Robert Caldwell “I may here remark, that it is the peculiar policy of the Brahmans to render all the religious systems of India subservient to their purpose by making friends of them all. Brahmanism repudiates exclusiveness ; it incorporates all creeds, assimilates all, consecrates all. People are permitted to entertain any opinions they please, and to practise any ceremonies they please, provided only that the supremacy of the Vedas and of the Brahmans is acknowledged. When that acknowledgment has been duly made, the new heterodoxy becomes another new authoritative orthodoxy, especially revealed by the Supreme Being himself for the enlightenment and salvation of the particular class of people amongst whom it has become popular. Thus Brahmanism yields and conquers ; and hence, though the demon-worship of Tinnevelly is as far as possible repugnant to the genius of orthodox Hinduism, and was not only independent of it in origin, but, as I believe, long anterior to it, yet even it has received a place in the cunningly-devised mosaic of the Brahmans, and the devils have got themselves regarded as abnormal developments of the gods.”

Caldwell, Robert, 1814-1891. “Lectures on the Tinnevelly missions

: descriptive of the field, the work, and the results : with an introductory lecture on the progress of Christianity in India.” London : Bell & Daldy, 1857. iBooks (page 57 of 185)

CASTE –SECULARISM NOT SUITABLE FOR INDIAN DISPOSITION !!!???

Whatever  be said against Caste, it is ‘closely intertwined’ with religion, as Missionary experiences in this matter reveal.  Missionary frustration in getting converts from the ‘higher and middle castes’, results in hatred against  Caste System, Brahmins and Hindu Religion. Missionary accounts though highly prejudiced

   reveal the veneration of caste institutions, by the people of India. As a corollary to the whole situation, SECULARISM does not suit the Indian disposition !!!!

Quote “It is one of the peculiar difficulties that Christianity has to encounter in dealing with Hindus of the higher and middle castes, that the religion of the country is so closely intertwined with the usages (customary practice) of Hindu society. The more punctilious a high-caste Hindu is in the performance of his religious ceremonies, and in the maintenance of his caste purity and exclusiveness, the higher are supposed to be his claims to social respectability. It is not necessary for him to be a believer in the doctrines of his religion; but it is absolutely necessary, if he is a man of " good caste" and in affluent circumstances, that he should carefully practice all its rites. He cannot keep his place in society, he cannot claim to be regarded as a gentleman, without affecting (pretend to have or feel) to be superstitious. A poor low-caste man may be as careless as he likes about his religious duties ; but one who occupies a respectable position in society cannot choose but show himself ceremonious, just as an English gentleman cannot choose but live in a style appropriate to his rank. Hence, to propose

to a Hindu of respectability to abandon all the usages of his sect and caste, and embrace a foreign religion, sounds in his ear like asking him to abandon the proprieties (conformity to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals) of life and become a Pariar. No class of people are so enslaved to custom and precedent as those who are wealthy and luxurious without being enlightened.”

All Excerpts From

Caldwell, Robert, 1814-1891. “Lectures on the Tinnevelly missions : descriptive of the field, the work, and the results : with an introductory lecture on the progress of Christianity in India.” London : Bell & Daldy, 1857. iBooks. (pages 57, 58 of 185)

STATUS OF WOMEN IN T.NADU IN THE 19th CENTURY - 'MISSIONARY POSITION' IS AIMED AT DEPRECATING HINDU SOCIETY !!

Whatever be the actual facts on the ground , Missionaries deliberately distorted and gave a deprecating account of  Hindu society. This could be garnered from their published narratives. -Missionaries thus had left evidences at the crime-scene.

In this post, the Protestant Christian Missionary, Bishop Robert Caldwell , first says that Women enjoyed a high status in Tamil society , they were NOT slaves. But  in the next paragraph he says that Hindu women had a servile status in society, bordering on SLAVERY. Thus he tries to obfuscate the reader with his narrative about Hindu religion, society & culture. Here it is evident that he is deprecating the VALUES inherent in ancient TAMIL/HINDU culture.

What is surprising  as well disturbing is the fact that Indian historians & social reformers of the 20th century, considered Missionary narratives as sacrosanct , and taking that as the Gospel

truth, 'fabricated' our historical past, unwittingly tarnishing the reputation of our inimitable past. New generation of Indians are thus made to believe that, there is nothing worthy of value belonging to the past.

Women/Mothers caring for  their husbands and children's daily needs and displaying respect towards other menfolk are deemed as SERVILE by the Missionary. A wife waiting or serving food for her husband, is construed as  women not

having equal rights with the men. The Missionary is trying to find fault with the Hindu society, conveniently forgetting their status in Britain. His religion ie Christian percepts are such that women do not have a soul or possessing only  1/360 th of the soul of a man. (Because they were made from the material, ie  a rib bone of man/Adam.) Thus they never can attain equal parity with men and

are mere material objects, inert matter as per Christian civilization. In Britain , women received the right to vote on the same terms as men (over the age of 21) only in 1928.- When a woman married in the 18th and 19th century in England and Ireland she had no rights. Source: L.M.Reid

Overall, the status of Hindu women in India were better than those of Christian women in Britain.

Excerpt from the Missionary Literature published in 1857, Year of the First Indian Mutiny  "It is a mistake to suppose that Hindu women are treated like slaves, if hard work is regarded as an essential feature of slavery ; for, perhaps, in no country in the world have women less work to do than in India. They live an easy, shady life, with little to do and less to think about; they are well fed, better clothed than the men, well hung out with jewels, rarely beaten when they don't deserve it, and generally treated like household pets.In their own opinion, they have nothing to lament as a class, but are as well treated as women could wish to be, and are perfectly content.On the other hand, if slavery means social degradation, Hindu women must be regarded as slaves; for not only are they denied equal rights with the men, but they are regarded as having no claim to any rights or feelings at all.

The Hindu wife is not allowed to eat with her own husband ; her duty is to wait upon her husband whilst he is eating, and to eat what he has left. If they have any children, the boys eat with their father, and, after they have done, the girls eat with their mother. Nor is this the custom among the lower classes only; it is the custom amongst every class of Hindus, in every part of India where I have been. When they are assembled together on any festive occasion, you never see the women seated on the same level with the men : if there is a dais or any elevated place, the men occupy the elevation, which is the place of honour, and the women squat cross-legged on the ground, or stand. If a party are going any-where on a visit, the men always walk first, the women humbly follow ; the wife never so far forgets her place as to walk side by side with her husband, much less arm in arm. The husband, it is true, is not forgetful of his wife's comfort; if they can afford it, a conveyance is provided for the female portion of the party, and the men are content to walk. Still, they generally take care to preserve their dignity by walking on in front, and the conveyance must keep behind. In the Telugu language, the language of fourteen millions of people in southern India, the relative position of the women is illustrated by the pronouns of the third person. There is no feminine pronoun—no word signifying "she"—in the ordinary spoken dialect! The only pronouns of the third person commonly used are vddii, " he," and adi, c: it." " He" of course denotes ''the lords of the creation," and to whom or what does "it" apply ?—to women and cattle and irrational things in general. Worse than all this is the circumstance that Hindu women are unable to read, and are not allowed to learn .[…]"

All Excerpts From

Caldwell, Robert, 1814-1891. “Lectures on the Tinnevelly missions : descriptive of the field, the work, and the results : with an introductory lecture on the progress of Christianity in India.” London : Bell & Daldy, 1857. iBooks.  -PAGES  139 & 140 of 185