Dilip Mandal Presents “Thesis on Brahmin Privilege”
In western social science, we have ample literature on white privilege. The most popular of these was written by Peggy Mcintosh in 1989 – of Caucasian descent and equipped with honesty to write about the privileges accorded to her race.
As no Brahmin in India has the guts and the honesty to write on the privileges they have, I will try to map this phenomenon based more on common sense and a perspective from below.
Read also –
Top 10 Privileges Brahmin Men Enjoy
Top 10 Privileges Upper Castes in India Enjoy
What is Brahmin privilege?
1. If I am a Brahmin, I will be revered in the society and a “Ji” will be added to my name. I will be known as a pundit, although I can be dumb or even illiterate.
2. If I am a Brahmin, there will not be any difficulty in getting public accommodation. I need not fear that people of my caste cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places they choose.
3. Almost all public places will be open for me.
4. I will find restaurants serving food according to my cultural choices. Asking food of my choice will not be considered a bad thing. Rather, that will enhance my stature.
5. If my neighbour or co-traveller knows my caste identity, he/she will not hate me or look down upon me.
6. I can upload my profile on Brahmin matrimonial sites and not face prejudice.
7. There is every possibility that the interview board I will be facing in a university department will have representatives of my caste.
8. If I am a Brahmin, I can be sure that the books and texts prescribed in the school and college syllabus will reflect my cultural leaning, and many of them will be written by people belonging to my caste.
9. Whenever I am told about our national culture or about Hindu civilisation, I am sure that I am hearing about something that is our caste heritage.
10. Whenever I will be travelling to any Hindu religious place, I will find no difficulty in getting accommodation.
11. If am travelling abroad, I will find a diaspora dominated by my caste members. Many of them are employed because of the diversity policies of foreign companies.
12. Despite getting jobs due to the affirmative action policies in the West, I will keep opposing reservations in India.
13. Despite getting jobs underthe diversity principle, I will not consider myself less meritorious.
14. I will oppose affirmative policies of India and consider myself caste-blind or caste-neutral. Opposing reservation will not make me casteist.
15. When I enter a music store and ask for traditional Indian music, there is a fair possibility that the shopkeeper will hand me over something that has been produced by my caste brethren.
16. My caste gets almost 100 per cent reservation for the position of a priest, but I dislike the constitutional scheme of reservations.
17. Even If I don’t have the domain knowledge to speak on a topic, I will be considered eligible to speak. My ‘C’ grade work will be cited in research papers by virtue of my surname.
18. Being oblivious and ignorant about the customs, traditions and present situation of the majority population, which is lower caste, does not make me a bad scholar. I will still talk about the whole nation.
19. My love for the nation and patriotism are a given, and even if someone of my caste sells defence secrets to Pakistan or China that will have no bearing on my caste.
20. My caste is the mainstream.
21. I get jobs in the private sector easily because my name is referred to by people of my caste in higher positions. But that does not make me casteist.
22. If I speak for the backward classes or SCs, I will be considered humanist and democrat.
23. But if someone from the lower caste does the same, he/she will be branded casteist.
24. When I watch television to follow news or debates, my caste people are over-represented as analysts, anchors and editors.
25. My caste people write most of the opinion pieces in the ‘National Press’.
The university libraries are full of books written by scholars of my caste.
26. If I do something foolish or boorish, or even heinous, nobody will attribute it to my caste.
27. I will consider myself a great humanist for eating or studying or working together with a Dalit or attending marriage of someone from the lower caste. This is sufficient to make me caste-neutral.
28. If my roommate or hostel mate is someone of a lower caste, I can produce this fact to prove that I am not casteist.
29. If I am a Brahmin and if a case is being heard in the higher judiciary, there is a fair possibility that someone of my caste will be at the bench to hear my case.
30. If I am a Brahmin, I will find it easy to publish my thesis in an academic journal where people of my caste are members of the editorial board.
Author – Dalip Mandal, Source – Facebook
Three days back, I commented with detailed points relevant for the issues. Where are they? Have they been rejected in moderation?
No, your comments are approved.
Sorry for the delays, it’s been quite busy for us.
Congratulations to Dilip for his impressive list, which can indeed be enlarged infinitely.
Let me furnish a historical input.
Ballal Sen, the king Bengal, who is credited with institution of kulinism in Bengal for the five Brahmans imported from Kanauj, [present UP] created, nay fathered the sixth kulin.
Story of the sixth kulin, I am afraid, is unknwon to many. Ballal Sen had a concubine, who was Brahmin. His profligacy with the concubine resulted in the birth a son, who, it is said, was a scholar. So, a new branch of kulin, called pandit-ratni [jewel of pundits] was instituted in his honour.
This fact has been documented by Dr John Wilson, the first Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University established in 1858 in his famous two-volume work, Indian Caste, published in 1877 after 25 years of research. He noted that there were 800 families of Panditratni.
Pandit Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, [MA, BL, Calcutta University] was the President of the Colleges of Pandit of Nadia. His book, Hindu Castes and Sects [1896 published by Thacker, Spink and Co, Calcutta], noted that W. C. Bonnerjee, an advocate of Calcuta High Court was a panditratni.
by the way, the same Bonnerjee was the first President of Indian National Congress held at Bombay in 1885. Incidentally all Brahmans with surname Banerjee/Bandyopadhyay are descendants of Bhattanarayan, who was the foremost of the five imported Brahmans from Kanauj by king Adisur. There was no king called Adisur and hence he is fictituous. But nonetheless all scholars of Bengal go gaga over the kulins Brahmans. This is also a privilege.
By the way I do not know who were the other Panditratnis in Bengal. Researchers may direct their attention to this aspect.
Not all bastards are honoured by the Hindus. By the way, I may note, Sir Surendra Nath Banerjea began his Memoirs [1925] with a classsic declaration, “I was born in a kulin family……………” [A Nation in Making].