The current Western preoccupation with caste…

Fuelled primarily by Christian missionaries

From: gautam.sen@...com
Date: Aug 23, 2007

The history of caste has long been misunderstood and misrepresented by non Hindus especially the British, who, as Nichola Dirks, has shown in his pathbreaking work on Tamil Nadu (Castes of Mind) instigated (not always deliberately) some of the social rigidities which have come to be associated with caste. The actual history and significance of caste in India is much more complicated, but I won't dwell on that at present.

The current Western preoccupation with caste is being fuelled primarily by Christian missionaries. They have always held that Hinduism is constituted by what they describe as caste (i.e. the four varnas) Hindus alone. This is their justification for seeking to convert the significant numbers of Indians these missionaries assert are oppressed non Hindu tribals, etc. This has been a hugely success project for Christian missionaries in the northeast of India and a political and military disaster for modern India, which has failed to resolve the Christian insurgencies in states like Nagaland and Mizoram. These regions also discriminate aggressively against Hindus with the explicit encouragement of the church. Missionaries also insist that the 20% or so Dalit Indians are victims of upper caste Hindu racism, etc. and therefore fair game for conversion. This campaign has become their principal platform because Dalits are indeed alienated and their mass conversion would create an irresistible Christian constituency in India. This project also has the support of Western governments who correctly perceive Hindus as susceptible to radical subversion. They therefore see these allegedly 'marginal Hindus' as potential supporters of Western political preferences once they have been converted to Christianity, which would also make them immune to the immense danger of choosing Islam instead.

The alleged oppressor upper castes barely constitute 5% of India's population and most Dalits, who live in villages, are unlikely to have knowingly encountered Brahmins. Their conflicts are usually with OBCs, who are major owners of agricultural land, and often come into conflict with Dalits (as Dalit commentators themselves recognise). These also happen to be the vicious and illiterate group of assassins in power in the state of Tamil the Nadu.

The main purpose of constantly keeping the issue of caste in focus is to ensure that India's educated elites are always on the run. This is a prelude to subverting India by disempowering this very group because it is able to comprehend the evil intentions of Western powers (especially the British and Americans) and combat them. This is why the killing of Brahmins was routine during early Portuguese rule in Goa.

The supposedly innocuous survey of caste in England, where it barely has any social significance, is an attempt to introduce caste into the political agenda and beat Hindus on the head with it. I have lived in England for almost 40 years and cannot believe that caste oppression anywhere is worse than the racism that one encounters in it daily.

Dalits wield real political power in today, sixty years after Indian independence. How come the British did nothing to empower them during the 200 or so year they held complete political sway? And do Asians enjoy any kind of political power in the UK except as the catamites of the aggressively white political parties who use them when they need to. And let's not talk of the genocide against non whites by Britain and the US, currently on a massive scale in Iraq.