BRAHMINS OF INDIA - PART 2

In the previous write up we saw how and why the Brahmins of India despite their low percentage of population in the country were able to become a power to reckon with. Let us look at some of the other factors that contributed to the present day position of the Brahmins.

The successive rulers in the country from the Guptas to British except for the Muslim rulers had patronised the Brahmins in one form or other.  The quick grasping power of them and their method of study combined with their higher intellectual capacity enabled them to be closer to the powers that be, during the princely kingdoms or during the European rule of the country.  Thus they were enriched with many gifts by way of donation of lands and cattle.  Most of them continued to live a very humble life despite such proximity to the rulers and enjoyed an exalted status in the society. Their genuine concern for cleanliness and hygiene resulted in their trying to avoid any physical or social contact with other people in so much so as to totally alienate others from their social functions and places of worship.  This resulted in the Manu stipulated varna system becoming cemented as caste system with the Brahmins enjoying a higher status in the social pecking order. Instead of the varna being based on one's education and vocation, it became by birth in a particular varna to the parents of that particular varna.  This was wonderfully exploited by the British who were eyeing for any chance to divide the population and continue their hegemony on the sub continent.

In the years to the end of the British regime, the anti Brahmin sentiments took strong roots and the post independent India saw the anti Brahmin sentiment becoming more vocal in almost all parts of the country.  However, the voices were shriller in the southern part of the country especially in Tamilnadu and Kerala.  In Kerala, despite the royal patronage the Kerala brahmins became objects of ridicule and the social justice reforms brought in by Narayana Guru and some of the prominent Brahmin leaders like Bhattathrirpad made the life of Kerala brahmins more tolerable in the post independent India.  The brahmins of Tamilnadu are not that fortunate despite many freedom fighters like Sathyamoorthy, Rajagopalachary etc.  The main problem seems to be that in the immediate past to independence, there had not been many social reformers from the brahmins of Tamilnadu.  This gave way to the culture of Dravidian outlook and parties and their leaders espousing anti brahmin sentiments openly ridiculing not just the way of their living or talking but desecrating the places and idols of worship, physical assault etc.

The brahmins of Tamilnadu, in the pre-indpendence days left their villages and their traditional way of living and migrated to cities on demand of their working in the government.  Though many brahmins continued their traditional way of living, it got diluted with their living in cities and towns far removed from their ancestral villages.  Most of them settled down in such places whereby the brahmin population in the villages started dwindling. This resulted in many villages, the temples were left with no one take care of daily worship.  The lands that were donated by the kings and rulers to the brahmins were sold to others.  The only umbilical cord that keeps the brahmins tied to the villages are the temples and in some cases their family deity temples.  

The ascendency of the Dravidian parties in Tamilnadu resulted in the brahmins getting deprived of any employment opportunities in the state in the early 1960s to 1980s and more people started migrating to other states.  The emergence of IT education and introduction of computers in everyday life made the brahmins catch the opportunity with both the hands and equipped themselves to migrate to foreign countries especially the USA.  Most of the early migrants took the way of their early life in the villages with them to such foreign places and started replicating their traditional way of life in their chosen abodes.  They also set up places of worship in places which allowed multi religious freedom.  Thus they ensured that their traditional method of worship, festivals related to the temples are continued even in their chosen abode abroad.  

The people who settled down abroad not only started practicing their religion as they were doing it in their traditional villages, but also started attracting the locals there.  This made the locals getting interested in the traditional way of life of these migrants in their countries but also the scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas etc.  There is an increased interest among many foreigners to learn the Vedas and live their life as per Sanathana Dharma principles.  This and the more number of Brahmin migrants  may see a day when the country of their origin is devoid of study of Vedas and practices as per Sanathana Dharma.  This may also result in the reverse migration of the people from developed countries with knowledge and study of Vedas and the way of life to the country of its origin, viz. India. This may cement the argument that the Vedic studies is basically imported into the country and not a native one.  The earlier work of the British and European historians in telling the world that the Aryans migrated to India from the central Asian plateau, may get re-written by some one in future that the Aryans well versed in Vedas migrated to India from the Amreicas and Europe.