11-12-2006, 01:46 AM
An old article where Ghose (part of the anglicised elite mentioned in the article) gets away with making blatant generalizations about OBC's:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Fighting Barista Brahminism?
The VHP and the rise and rise of 'Shudra Hindutva'
Sagarika Ghose
When members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad assembled in New Delhi last
week they complained that they were treated with scorn. They said
English-speaking secularists made fun of them. They said they were ridiculed by
the 'Macaulayist' media.
The VHP-Bajrang Dal has, over the last decade, added a new enemy to their
list of evil influences on Hindu rashtra. Not just the Muslim and the Christian,
but also the 'English speaking' 'western educated' class, exemplified in the
persona of the 'secularist'. The secularist is not recognised merely by his
stance on the Babri masjid or the Shah Bano case or on terrorism. Instead, a
secularist is anyone who listens to western music, eats in Italian restaurants
or does not sport a tilak and dhoti. A secularist is an upper caste individual
employed in a corporate job or the private sector. As Pravin Togadia never tires
of saying,''Our enemies are the Three Ms: Muslims, Macaulayists and Marxists.''
Togadia hates secularists but loves the fact that they exist because without
them he would lose his "son of the soil" appeal. "Please argue with me," he
pleads.
Yet Togadia's critique conceals the increasing class and caste anger of
the VHP. The VHP's new definition of 'Brahminism' is anyone who is urban,
educated and drinks cappuccino at Barista. As a VHP worker said, "Today we may
riot against Muslims, tomorrow we will fight against Brahmin dogs if the need
arises."
When the VHP was first formed in the sixties as a loose organisation to
feed into the programmes of the RSS and strengthen Hindu feelings among the
diaspora, among its founders were Brahmins like K.M. Munshi and Ramaprasad
Mookerjee. Subsequently during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, caste differences were suppressed in the overall mission of creating a Hindu monolith. But over the last decade, the VHP has become transformed from an organisation of traders, petty industrialists and provincial bureaucrats to a grouping whose cadres are
made up predominantly of Other Backward Castes (OBCs). As Manjari Katju writes
in the recently published Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics, "with
change in social composition, the VHP's language of mobilisation changed from
mild socio-religious criticism to a vitriolic attack on the entire social and
political ideology of the state".
As part of the deliberate campaign of 'social engineering' and bringing
lower castes back to the Hindu fold, the VHP-BD is as much a party of Shudras as
it is of Brahmins, for whom strident oratory is in fact a deliberate drama
enacted to gain votes and social recognition.
Take a spot poll. Earlier generations of the VHP leadership may have been
Kayastha like Giriraj Kishore or Bania like Ashok Singhal. But new generations
are all OBCs or Shudras. Pravin Togadia? Patel, sometimes classed as
'Backwards'. Narendra Modi? OBC. Uma Bharti? OBC. Vinay Katiyar of the Bajrang
Dal? OBC. Acharya Dharmendra? OBC. Sadhvi Rithambhara? OBC. Kalyan Singh? OBC.
The VHP is thus, today, a movement that has been described by a Dalit historian
as a movement of 'Shudra Hindutva'. VHP Hindutva was once obsessed with the aim
of bridging caste divides in the creation of the Hindu vote. But now it
increasingly sees itself as anti upper-caste, anti-English and
anti-metropolitan. In the VHP's terms, even BJP members like Jaswant Singh or
Arun Jaitley or Arun Shourie or even Vajpayee himself are all the 'secularist'
enemy.
Today certain VHP workers claim a self-image akin to the revolutionaries
of the French revolution, who guillotined the elite on the street. "Why do you
accuse us of being violent? Didn't the French kill their rajas and ranis?" Some
VHP members say that their hero is Parashuram, slayer of upper castes. They
speak of the need to fight the "new Brahmins", who must be "fought because of
their monopoly on English-language education, employment and access to
international careers". While the RSS may be made of genteel Brahmin patriarchs,
the Shudra Hindutva of the VHP is a violent protest movement against all
elitism, a social revolution aimed to snatch power from the speakers of angrezi
and the wearers of bell bottoms. "Shudra Hindutva" is not only fiercely
competitive with Muslims but also enraged at being left out of the new economy.
In the anti-Muslim riots in north India in the eighties, Kurmis, Jats and
other OBCs formed the main fighting force. The VHP cadres in Gujarat are
predominantly OBC. It was the OBCs in the Gujarat Bajrang Dal, not Brahmins or
Banias, who were the frontrunners of the attacks against Muslims. OBCs are seen
to be more anti-Muslim than Brahmins precisely because their professions place
them in direct competition. A Muslim artisan's or a Muslim tailor's main
competitor is not the Hindu Brahmin or the Hindu Kshtriya but the Hindu OBC.
Many OBC fortunes have been made by membership in the VHP or Bajrang Dal.
The BJP's trishul distribution campaigns in Rajasthan are taking place among
OBCs, apart from Dalits and Adivasis, with the promise to hand them Kshtriya
status and an avenue for upward mobility. Membership in the VHP thus provides a
higher caste status in the Hindu hierarchy. Also, OBC youth who fail their
school-leaving examinations or suffer academically because of the lack of
English, can often find employment in the VHP. There are many instances of ABVP
activists or Reddy businessmen not only becoming affluent through membership of
the VHP but also acquiring liquor contracts, real estate and licences to set up
private colleges.
The Congress has failed to understand OBC aspirations. The OBC parties led
by Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav are in mutual competition with the VHP, but one only has to cast one's eye at the chic Diggy Raja to the Scindia
scion, to trendies like Aiyar, Soni, Alva and Nath, to realise that the
leadership of the Congress is still suvarna and paternalistic. The restless new
cadres powering their way into the VHP and the BJP cannot be won over by
pointing them towards Kabir's pluralism or the excellent bhajans of Mirabai.
What they are looking for is a counter-identity that provides social status,
seats in Parliament but, most importantly, the jobs and privileges of the
English-speaking class. They may not ever get these jobs, but the VHP provides,
at least, a place in the social sun. Togadia who grew up in an Ahmedabad chawl
may never get to play tennis at the Delhi Gymkhana but being in the VHP has
guaranteed him a place in a television studio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivili...n/message/34537<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Fighting Barista Brahminism?
The VHP and the rise and rise of 'Shudra Hindutva'
Sagarika Ghose
When members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad assembled in New Delhi last
week they complained that they were treated with scorn. They said
English-speaking secularists made fun of them. They said they were ridiculed by
the 'Macaulayist' media.
The VHP-Bajrang Dal has, over the last decade, added a new enemy to their
list of evil influences on Hindu rashtra. Not just the Muslim and the Christian,
but also the 'English speaking' 'western educated' class, exemplified in the
persona of the 'secularist'. The secularist is not recognised merely by his
stance on the Babri masjid or the Shah Bano case or on terrorism. Instead, a
secularist is anyone who listens to western music, eats in Italian restaurants
or does not sport a tilak and dhoti. A secularist is an upper caste individual
employed in a corporate job or the private sector. As Pravin Togadia never tires
of saying,''Our enemies are the Three Ms: Muslims, Macaulayists and Marxists.''
Togadia hates secularists but loves the fact that they exist because without
them he would lose his "son of the soil" appeal. "Please argue with me," he
pleads.
Yet Togadia's critique conceals the increasing class and caste anger of
the VHP. The VHP's new definition of 'Brahminism' is anyone who is urban,
educated and drinks cappuccino at Barista. As a VHP worker said, "Today we may
riot against Muslims, tomorrow we will fight against Brahmin dogs if the need
arises."
When the VHP was first formed in the sixties as a loose organisation to
feed into the programmes of the RSS and strengthen Hindu feelings among the
diaspora, among its founders were Brahmins like K.M. Munshi and Ramaprasad
Mookerjee. Subsequently during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, caste differences were suppressed in the overall mission of creating a Hindu monolith. But over the last decade, the VHP has become transformed from an organisation of traders, petty industrialists and provincial bureaucrats to a grouping whose cadres are
made up predominantly of Other Backward Castes (OBCs). As Manjari Katju writes
in the recently published Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics, "with
change in social composition, the VHP's language of mobilisation changed from
mild socio-religious criticism to a vitriolic attack on the entire social and
political ideology of the state".
As part of the deliberate campaign of 'social engineering' and bringing
lower castes back to the Hindu fold, the VHP-BD is as much a party of Shudras as
it is of Brahmins, for whom strident oratory is in fact a deliberate drama
enacted to gain votes and social recognition.
Take a spot poll. Earlier generations of the VHP leadership may have been
Kayastha like Giriraj Kishore or Bania like Ashok Singhal. But new generations
are all OBCs or Shudras. Pravin Togadia? Patel, sometimes classed as
'Backwards'. Narendra Modi? OBC. Uma Bharti? OBC. Vinay Katiyar of the Bajrang
Dal? OBC. Acharya Dharmendra? OBC. Sadhvi Rithambhara? OBC. Kalyan Singh? OBC.
The VHP is thus, today, a movement that has been described by a Dalit historian
as a movement of 'Shudra Hindutva'. VHP Hindutva was once obsessed with the aim
of bridging caste divides in the creation of the Hindu vote. But now it
increasingly sees itself as anti upper-caste, anti-English and
anti-metropolitan. In the VHP's terms, even BJP members like Jaswant Singh or
Arun Jaitley or Arun Shourie or even Vajpayee himself are all the 'secularist'
enemy.
Today certain VHP workers claim a self-image akin to the revolutionaries
of the French revolution, who guillotined the elite on the street. "Why do you
accuse us of being violent? Didn't the French kill their rajas and ranis?" Some
VHP members say that their hero is Parashuram, slayer of upper castes. They
speak of the need to fight the "new Brahmins", who must be "fought because of
their monopoly on English-language education, employment and access to
international careers". While the RSS may be made of genteel Brahmin patriarchs,
the Shudra Hindutva of the VHP is a violent protest movement against all
elitism, a social revolution aimed to snatch power from the speakers of angrezi
and the wearers of bell bottoms. "Shudra Hindutva" is not only fiercely
competitive with Muslims but also enraged at being left out of the new economy.
In the anti-Muslim riots in north India in the eighties, Kurmis, Jats and
other OBCs formed the main fighting force. The VHP cadres in Gujarat are
predominantly OBC. It was the OBCs in the Gujarat Bajrang Dal, not Brahmins or
Banias, who were the frontrunners of the attacks against Muslims. OBCs are seen
to be more anti-Muslim than Brahmins precisely because their professions place
them in direct competition. A Muslim artisan's or a Muslim tailor's main
competitor is not the Hindu Brahmin or the Hindu Kshtriya but the Hindu OBC.
Many OBC fortunes have been made by membership in the VHP or Bajrang Dal.
The BJP's trishul distribution campaigns in Rajasthan are taking place among
OBCs, apart from Dalits and Adivasis, with the promise to hand them Kshtriya
status and an avenue for upward mobility. Membership in the VHP thus provides a
higher caste status in the Hindu hierarchy. Also, OBC youth who fail their
school-leaving examinations or suffer academically because of the lack of
English, can often find employment in the VHP. There are many instances of ABVP
activists or Reddy businessmen not only becoming affluent through membership of
the VHP but also acquiring liquor contracts, real estate and licences to set up
private colleges.
The Congress has failed to understand OBC aspirations. The OBC parties led
by Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav are in mutual competition with the VHP, but one only has to cast one's eye at the chic Diggy Raja to the Scindia
scion, to trendies like Aiyar, Soni, Alva and Nath, to realise that the
leadership of the Congress is still suvarna and paternalistic. The restless new
cadres powering their way into the VHP and the BJP cannot be won over by
pointing them towards Kabir's pluralism or the excellent bhajans of Mirabai.
What they are looking for is a counter-identity that provides social status,
seats in Parliament but, most importantly, the jobs and privileges of the
English-speaking class. They may not ever get these jobs, but the VHP provides,
at least, a place in the social sun. Togadia who grew up in an Ahmedabad chawl
may never get to play tennis at the Delhi Gymkhana but being in the VHP has
guaranteed him a place in a television studio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivili...n/message/34537<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->