This might be an unpopular topic to write on, and one that my fellow Dalits would disagree with, but one that I felt should be written. Brahmins and Dalits in South India (especially Tamil Nadu) must unite. Why is this important? I have tried to outline why a Brahmin Dalit unity is very very important in today’s context. That is not just the way forward, but how it should have been. I hope to not offend any readers whichever caste they might be from. We all would need to strive for a casteless society but certain facts must be stated. Also, I do talk about caste Hindus here just as an historical context but there could be caste Christians as well discriminating against us Dalits.
Personal Experience
As a Tamil Dalit, my friends who were Brahmin Iyers were the only ones who did NOT question my caste. Everyone else, like the Thevars and Mudaliars criticized the Dalits without knowing which caste I belonged to. Later, they tried to casually talk behind our Brahmin friends’ backs, saying things like “Oh those brahmins propagated caste”. This is a typical pattern used by non-Brahmin caste Hindus and every Dalit should be cautious not to fall into this trap.
It is not hard to reverse this interpolation into history. Probably as some say (and I don’t care much for religious texts of any faith) the caste was based on occupation not birth. The keepers of the rituals were Brahmins but the powerful ones were the ruling, and business castes. It is very easy to imagine the timid Brahmins being threatened by these powerful ruling castes to change this narrative into one of birth. I use timid not in a negative way but only to mean that Brahmins are not proud of aggression, a trait that I see to this day.
Somehow, I am not convinced that the entire caste Hindu population were asked to take up casteism by the Brahmins who still are merely a 3% of the population. The Kshatriyas and Vaishyas are an intelligent bunch. Do you think they would blindly listen to a minority? For a poor priest, it does not matter if a Dalit gives him a rupee or a Devar gives him a rupee. Caste matters however for a powerful landowner who works in the land for cheap. An unending supply of cheap bonded labor is what they needed.
Take a look at caste based violence perpetrated against the Dalits. Vitriolic attacks usually come from the non-brahmin castes. Devars, Vanniyars and Gounders have taken up the mantle to attack Dalits. The Brahmins on the other hand rarely (if at all) resort to violence. I have personally seen Brahmins married into Arundhathiyar families and coexisting peacefully. I have a friend married to a Brahmin woman and the family rallies around him like he is their own. Again, these are personal examples and cannot be applied to all situations.
History
There have been many Brahmins supportive of the Dalit cause once they have realized the folly of their ways. A few examples:
- Vaidyanatha Iyer led the Tamil Nadu Harijana Sabha and was instrumental in the temple entry movement (which again was hijacked by caste Hindus)
- Ramanujacharya, another brahmin was instrumental in trying to eradicate caste. Now, Dravidian leaders pen serials in praise of him.
- Bharathiar - reviled by nearly everyone had scant respect for people who practiced casteism.
- Adi Sankara himself is said to have recognized the folly of caste when Shiva came to him in the form of a beggar
I can also take a list of people from the North like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidhyasagar but that would be unnecessary.
The British invasion happened and the Brahmins worked for the British along with the caste Hindus and that became their undoing. The British in a bid to divide bought caste into highlight and was lapped up by the caste Hindus.
When the above mentioned Brahmins started realising their folly and began expressing their solidarity with Dalits the Dravidian movement arrived. The non-brahmin upper caste came up with an idea to unite the masses for a common cause - Pick the population who are just 3% and heap the blame on them. Also, they themselves categorized their communities as BC, OBC etc. Their modus operandi - we might have been the ruling class but now we are BC, OBC. How this is palatable in today’s societies is beyond comprehension.
These Dravidian groups also had a Tamil national identity. Again, Dalits and Brahmins were left out of this. A Sakkiliyar would be categorized as Telugu and for no reason at all Brahmins were regarded as Sanskrit speakers in spite of them being extremely tied to Tamil as their mother tongue - (e.g. UV Swaminatha Iyer etc). You could never ask a Naicker where he was from, or a Mudaliar if he was a Kerala Mudali. If you are thinking the ties between a Tamil Naicker and their counterparts in Andhra are tenuous you are right. So are the ties between Brahmin/Dalits and their counterparts in the other states.
