Is Hinduism paying bitterly for Brahmanical exclusion?

The article was published on January 10, 2016. 


Hundreds of people from the Mahar community gathered at Koregaon Bhima village in Shirur tehsil of Maharashtra's Pune district on January 1. This annual event of the Scheduled Caste community, comprising almost 10 per cent of the state's population, has little to do with the New Year though. It commemorates the Battle of Koregaon, where braveheart Mahars helped the vastly outnumbered British East India Company forces defeat the Maratha army of Peshwa Bajirao II, 197 years ago on January 1, 1818.

While community leaders addressed the gathering, a few phones kept going off to ringtones (Diwani and even Pinga) from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani – the hit Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra starrer about Bajirao II, his epic battles and his relationships with the half-Muslim Mastani and his first wife Kashi – much to their chagrin.

Though the film makes it clear at the outset that it is not a historically true narrative, the reel has spilled over into reality. And the coincidence of the film on Bajirao releasing just a few days before the Mahar gathering has led to increased debate – and introspection.

"Historians and filmmakers have denied us our historical legacy as Dalits. Why use ringtones and popular cultural symbols which glorify Brahmin supremacism?" reprimanded one such leader, Siddharth Waghmare, who had come all the way from Parbhani with 12 followers.

Brahmanical exclusion

Later, the pharmacy graduate and die-hard Priyanka Chopra fan ("Uske saamne Deepika toh bachchi hai") privately admitted to having watched the film twice. "Though I didn't like the over-glamourised celebration of Brahmanical supremacy, one has to give it to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for making a film that leaves you gripped. Once you're over the heavy sets, costumes and music, the scenes that stay with you are ones about the disparaging and derogatory manner in which the Bajirao Peshwa's mother Radhabai, brother Chimmaji Appa and even wife Kashibai talk to and treat Mastani just because she was born to a Muslim mother. While the film shows her being referred to as yavani, the more popular invective in those days was actually mlechcha (impure barbarian). Thankfully, unlike the Marathi black and white historicals of the late '40s and early '50s, this word is not used to describe Muslims."

Historian Dr Vijay More, who has done a PhD on the Koregaon Bhima battle, echoes the sentiment. "Exaggerated notions of purity in the name of religion were created by the Brahmins to keep themselves highest in the pecking order. They could then keep exploiting all those below. What US presidential race hopeful Donald Trump is doing by spreading hatred and creating fertile ground for ISIS to recruit, upper caste Hindus have done for a millennia with their hateful exclusion in the name of caste. This is what drove most people away from Hinduism in the first place," he explains.

Mahar Rashtra?

Placing it in historical perspective, he says Shivaji Maharaj recognised the valour of the Mahars and ensured they fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him. "Successive Chhatrapatis too continued this tradition till 1674 when the Brahmin Peshwas (prime ministers) began to grow in power, sidelining even the royal family itself."

According to him, Brahmanical notions of puritanical exclusion began to then grow and became a part of social norm. "Peshwa Bajirao I (1719-1740) could spread the Maratha kingdom across the subcontinent because of the contribution of the brave Mahars, but disaffection due to discrimination grew rapidly after his death when barbaric cruelties against Dalits were perpetrated."

Dr More insists this was the real reason some of the bravest sardars of the kingdom moved away from Pune up north to create their own kingdoms (Gaikwads in Baroda, Shindes in Gwalior, Holkars in Indore and Bhosales in Nagpur). "As discrimination turned to casteist persecution, the Mahar braves began to get alienated. The British knew this and exploited this divide, breaking the back of the mighty Maratha empire which then collapsed under its own weight."

Waghmare sums it up beautifully, pointing in the direction of the battle memorial in Koregaon Bhima. "This Koregaon obelisk, not only commemorates the brave and victorious Mahar soldiers but is also a symbol of the community standing up and winning against casteism. Little wonder then that our messiah for dignity-based-equality, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, himself had a tradition of visiting this place unfailingly every January 1,"

Like More, he, too, believes that exclusion creates hatred which is hard to forget. "Whether it is the Students Islamic Movement of India in the early 2000, ISIS now or some of the more strident right-wing Muslim political outfits, the youth from these 1st or 2nd generation Dalits converts form the eager foot soldiers. This vicious cycle will only break when the rationalist Hindus lobby long and hard enough to stop the horrific social meiosis and mitosis and break the shackles of Manuwadi exclusion. Then they won't need any ghar wapasi because who will want to leave?"

Discrimination continues

Over 1,000km away, another man is so angry and bitter with Hindu casteism that he's just switched religions. The year 2015 didn't end on a good note for Umrao Salodia, who now calls himself Umrao Khan after converting to Islam. On New Year's Eve, he quit as chairman of the Rajasthan Roadways Development Corporation, alleging casteist discrimination on being passed over for promotion to chief secretary of the state.

The 1978 batch IAS officer says, "I felt that being from the Scheduled Caste and a senior IAS officer, I'd be given a chance to work as chief secretary by the Vasundhara Raje government. I feel sad that the discrimination and victimisation I faced all these years as a Dalit, continued at this highest level too. I didn't want to continue in a religion which robs me of my dignity with its caste based inequality and hence converted to Islam."

According to the senior bureaucrat, much of the polarisation and hatred for Hindus comes from centuries of discrimination, "For hundreds of years, Indian society has been structured around the rigid Hindu caste system.

Though officially abolished in 1950, its legacy still continues. This hatred then comes back to haunt and hurt."

Khan (Salodia) may have a point. Hindus constitute around 84 per cent of the 1.2 billion of India's population. This large chunk is still influenced by the concept of the four main traditional castes, further divided into sub-castes and sects. Priests and academics who form the Brahmins; warriors, the Kshatriyas; traders or business community, the Vaishyas and the working class, the Shudras/Dalits.

"Shudras traditionally collected garbage, swept streets, cremated the dead and disposed human waste. Despite the essential nature of their work have faced prejudice and discrimination from upper caste Hindus who don't miss a single opportunity to humiliate them," avers the bitter bureaucrat.

Shunning the negative
Yet, there are those like rudra veena exponent Ustad Baha'ud'din Mohiuddin Dagar, who feel that dwelling on the past is negative and does not yield anything. This 20th generation representative of the Dagar lineage (which traces its history back to Nayak Haridas Dagar of the 16th century) should know what Brahmanical exclusion is all about.

"Our ancestor Baba Gopal Das was invited to the Mughal court to perform, where, impressed with his musical prowess, the emperor offered a paan from his personal box," recounts the musician. "Once he accepted the paan, his fellow Ramnami Pandits back in his village on the outskirts of Delhi said he'd been defiled and no penance could purify him to be accepted. Left with no choice, this eighth generation representative of our gharana converted to Islam, and became Baba Imam Baksh in the mid-18th century."

The family has since followed the festivals and tenets of both religions and goes to temples and mosques alike. "Thinking of using religion to divide is petty. From childhood, one has respected both religions. I think this approach can help one become both a better human being and a better musician."

This musician's strain finds a resonance with Prakash Kapadia who wrote the screenplay for the Bajirao Mastani. "We never set out to preach or give any sermon through the film. That is not Bhansali Sir's or my style. If the message of humanity, acceptance and love is coming wrapped with the beautiful love story, we are telling, that's fabulous. It is a mark of how involved audiences are becoming with what is unfolding on screen."

He points out a line where Deepika Padukone, who plays Mastani, laments that religion has been hijacked by symbolism. "I had written: 'One religion has taken saffron for its colour, the other green. But is it possible for us to separate these out of the rainbow'?"

And just like it plays out in real life, unfortunately the last bit had to be cut at the editing table on reel too. More's the pity…