On 8th September Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla tweeted along with some photos “Brahmins have always been at top of the society. Top position has been achieved through sacrifice and worship. For these reasons, they have always played the role of a guide in society.”

What could be wrong with the statement? Everything that you can imagine. First thing, he is speaker of Lok Sabha and he should be impartial but by giving such statement he has made it clear that he is a slave of Brahmins ruling from RSS’s headquarters in Nagpur.

After keeping enslaved so-called lower castes for centuries, instead of giving equal opportunities you are reinforcing the same sick mentality of Brahminical supremacy.

Further, what about the contribution of other caste groups? By ignoring almost 95% of the population, including Bania group, Om Birla is doing what Bania community has been doing since ages – falling at the feet of Brahmins and exploiting other so-called lower caste groups.

[irp posts=”11905″ name=”Unholy Nexus between the Brahmin-Bania Corporate and RSS/BJP”]

It is understandable that why would Bania try to please Brahmins. Each caste group is trying to emulate one higher and trying to be accepted by higher group for various reasons. Om Birla is doing the same. Brahmin-Bania hegemony in different spheres of lives is nothing surprising. [Read]

Tejas Harad, a copy editor at EPW, explains it well on Twitter, “A Baniya openly proclaims that Brahmins are at the top of the society and that they guide society. Clearly Baniyas don’t feel threatened by Brahmin hegemony. Brahmin Mahasabha too doesn’t have any qualms in inviting a Baniya to its Brahmin event. Clearly Brahmins want this Brahmin–Baniya alliance. It is a symbiotic relationship. Brahmins have a firm hold on literary and other cultural spheres. The trope of Brahmin poverty is a myth. Brahmins have accumulated capital through history. Baniyas obviously have capital. And they have used this capital and their closeness to Brahmins to gain entry into literary, cultural and other associated spheres at least in modern times. Brahmins and Baniyas clearly don’t see each other as antagonists but as collaborators.”

In a paper “The Omnipresent Bania:’ Rural Moneylenders in Nineteenth-Century Sind”, David Cheesman writes, “It positively went against a bania’s interests to have a debt discharged. It would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg for the interest, taken in kind, fuelled his activities as a trader.” Further Cheesman also notes, “With easy credit and heavy interest, the bania kept his client on a loose rein and at the same time gave him enough rope to hang himself with, should the occasion arise.”

“Since Maharashtra doesn’t have a caste like Baniya, moneylending and revenue collection functions were performed by Kulkarnis who were Brahmins. Phule writes about usurious ways of Kulkarnis and their scheming and scamming in his books,” writes Tejas.

This celebration of Indian caste system is not only condemnable but also cringe-worthy!

It's a joke on us that a casteist like him is our Loksabha speaker.

He should publicly apologise for this attitude. https://t.co/Wu2ZPKht3G

— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) September 10, 2019

Jotiba Phule in his book Shetkaryaca Asud writes on how Brahmin-Kulkarni exploits shudra, “Sometimes before the witnesses have their presentation ready, they give all kinds of awful threats through the Kulkarni and force them to flee the village. And if some foolish ignorant farmer should disregard the suggestions of the Brahman employees through the Kulkarni, and come to the government office to give his own testimony, since on the one hand he is illiterate his memory is not good, and on the other since he has no habit of replying to questions coming one after another out of context, the crafty employees frighten him so much when he gives the testimony that he simply wants to hide under the earth. Sometimes while taking the statements of the ignorant farmers, they make them so fearful with their mocking and taunting that they lose all capacity to give even a simple narration of the things they have seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears. Besides this, so many arrogant, bold employees, after getting a plentiful amount in their hands, prepare false proofs according to the legal requirements with the help of the Kulkarni, and are able to give whatever fine or punishment they wish to the ignorant farmer.”

Dalits on social media are protesting against the casteist statement by Om Birla. A verse quoted to Guru Ravidas has been shared multiple times, “रैदास बाभन मत पूजिए जो होवे गुन हीन, पूजिए चरन चंडाल के जो हो गुन परवीन।” (Ravidas says don’t worship Brahmin who has no qualities but worship a chandal who has quality.)

रविदास बाभन मत पूजिए जो होवे गुन हीन,
पूजिए चरन चंडाल के जो हो गुन परवीन। https://t.co/LHdEbnjgo7

— Shiv Chandra Ram Chamar (@ShivChandraRamm) September 10, 2019

In chapter 9 of book, “What Congress and Gandhi have done to Untouchables”, Dr Ambedkar writes, “In ancient and mediaeval times they made such an alliance with the Kshatriyas or the warrior class and the two not merely ruled the masses, but ground them down to atoms, pulverised them so to say—the Brahmin with his pen and the Kshatriya with his sword. At present, Brahmins have made an alliance with the Vaishya class called Banias. The shifting of this alliance from the Kshatriya to the Bania is in the changed circumstances quite inevitable. In these days of commerce, money is more important than the sword. That is one reason for this change in party alignment. The second reason is the need for money to run the political machine. Money can come only from and is, in fact, coming from the Bania.”

Dr Ambedkar further notes that would explain why in the first place Bania Om Birla is appointed as a speaker of Lok Sabha, “Being dependent on his money, it is impossible for the Brahmin to exclude the Bania from the position of a governing class. In fact, the Brahmin has established not merely a working but a cordial alliance with the Bania. The result is that the governing class in India today is a Brahmin-Bania instead of a Brahmin-Kshatriya combine as it used to be.”

Dr Ambedkar also describes Bania class, note his description of Bania is almost similar to Jotiba Phule’s description of Bania (Kulkarni), “The Bania is the worst parasitic class known to history. In him, the vice of money-making is unredeemed by culture or conscience. He is like an undertaker who prospers when there is an epidemic. The only difference between the undertaker and the Bania is that the undertaker does not create an epidemic while the Bania does. He does not use his money for productive purposes. He uses it to create poverty and more poverty by lending money for unproductive purposes. He lives on interest and as he is told by his religion that money-lending is the occupation prescribed to him by the divine Manu, he looks upon money-lending as both right and righteous. With the help and assistance of the Brahmin judge who is ready to decree his suits, the Bania is able to carry on his trade with the greatest ease. Interest, interest on interest, he adds on and on, and thereby draws millions of families perpetually into his net. Pay him as much as he may, the debtor is always in debt. With no conscience to check him, there is no fraud, and there is no chicanery which he will not commit. His grip over the nation is complete. The whole of poor, starving, illiterate India is irredeemably mortgaged to the Bania.”

BSP founder Kanshi Ram also understood the alliance between Brahmin-Bania well. In the early days of Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4), one of the early DS-4 slogans was ‘Brahmin, Bania, Thakur Chor, Baki Sab Hai DS-Four’ (meaning, Brahmins Banias Thakurs are crooks, the rest are DS4).

“Today, Brahmins and Banias continue to dominate India’s politics, government and economy, and control the country. A big reason for their grip over all the structures of power is that they control the system of Hinduism that they impose upon the Shudras. The Shudras have no say in this religion that is supposed to be theirs. They have no right to be priests or to take the lead in interpreting scripture”, writes Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd.

Kancha Ilaiah further notes on Brahmin-Bania hegemony, “The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, always headed by Brahmins, admires Patel because he did not disturb the varna order. He did not ask for the priesthood for the Shudras; he did not ask to wear the sacred thread himself; he did not ask that Shudras get the same rights as Banias and Brahmins in all spheres. When Gandhi decided that the first prime minister of India should be a Brahmin (Nehru), Patel obediently resigned from his post as the president of the Congress and handed it over to Nehru.”

Considering the past record of Brahmins and Bania it should not come to anyone as a surprise when a Bania promotes Brahminism.