They were concentrated in certain western, northern and eastern regions of the

country. There were, consequently, frequent religious conflicts between Hindus and
Muslims in these regions which ultimately led to the Parlementary truth that birth
is an accident of life. Nobody is born in a particular family of his own will.
There is therefore no reason to glorify one and condemn the other. Will those who
believe in the theory of rebirth tell uThe conversion to Islam was large in number.
Most of the converted Muslims gained both in status and power, and even became
landlords. tition of the country on August 15, 1947.

Thus, the casteism of the Manuwadi social system, now formally called the Hindu
religion, created an irreparable rift in an otherwise homogenous society, and
divided the country on religious grounds, creating Pakistan to the west and
present-day Bangladesh to the The MS denied knowledge to women of all castes. They
were not to do any intellectual work, but rear children and do domestic chores.
This continued till as late as the first quarter of the last century, and explains
the strong opposition of some of the then fiery political leaders to impart even
primary education to women. The MS, though, permitted learning to the three upper
castes, and prohibited the Shudras from not only learning but also hearing any
words of enlightenment. The latter was considered a crime deserving severe
punishment including the loss of hearing power.

The Vedas and all the sacred literature were propagated as words of the divine
deity, and as such to be followed unquestioningly. This along with a ban on any
other form of knowledge, ensured that the ignorant remained perpetually so,
enslaved by the dominant castes. Vested interests glorified the status quo and the
nation continued to live in the past even as other countries, particularly the
West, travelled into the industrial age. We still say that India lives in villages
and are proud of it.

Language as schism
An attempt by the English missionaries to start a school for girls in the West
Pargana district of the then Bengal province in 1844, failed as the bhadralok
opposed it tooth and nail. The country thus lost, for centuries, the contribution
of about 50% of its population in all walks of life. This was in addition to
inhuman practices such as sati, the marriage of teenage girls to much older men,
tonsuring the heads of widows, preventing remarriage for widows, in short,
subordination and enslavement throughout the woman’s life.

Distortion of history

The Manuwadis deliberately falsified history to conceal their ways, destroying

records, demonising and even eliminating anyone who opposed them. False gods and
heroes were deified, propaganda, social sanctions and boycotts, lynchings and crowd
hysteria, all ensured that the lowly fell in line or perished. There cannot be a
better example of consent manufactured by a few and prevailing over centuries.
Goebbels must have learnt his art from us. Repeat untruth several times, it becomes
truth.

Regressive mindsets

A few months ago, a Brahmin judge of the Kerala high court, while addressing a
Brahmin convention, enumerated some special traits of the Brahmins which according
to him, made them alone capable of ruling the country. A few days later, the
Brahmin governor of Gujarat reiterated the same view. The present RSS chief
addressing a public meeting in Pune about two years ago, defended the caste system,
implying that if there had been only one caste (varna) instead of four, it would
have spelt disaster for the country.

Neither the RSS nor the BJP government has ever spoken against the caste system,
let alone condemn it. This emboldens the crowd, which burnt our constitution with
slogans glorifying the MS. Seventy years after the constitution was written, it is
the writ of Manu that prevails in many areas of our country.

Also read: As Symbols of Discrimination Fall Worldwide, Meet the Women Who
Blackened Manu’s Statue

Casteism will be uprooted only when everyone, irrespective of caste, progresses

equally. When educational, economic and social opportunities are equally and fairly
accessible to all. The caste system as laid down by the MS is a massive and deep-
rooted stumbling block in the way of development and progress, and a constant
deterrent to unity and brotherhood. And yet the Manuwadis still seek to preserve
and strengthen it. It would be pertinent to ask in this context, who then is
unpatriotic, who is the deshdrohi?

Need of the hour

Our country is large. It is multi-caste, multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-

lingual and multi-cultural. Our constitution has set before us a vision which is
humanist, universal, rational and scientific. It aims to unite, and not divide. It
seeks to empower all men and women. It desires to provide equal rights and
opportunities. The inherently inhuman, iniquitous and unjust ancient texts like
Manusmriti are an anathema to the aims and objectives of our constitution. Dr
Ambedkar burnt the MS in 1927, would we have the courage to rise up against it
today?

To remain true to the constitution in letter and spirit, we need largeness of mind
and heart. Instead we seem to be teaching people to hate one another and seek ways
to foment dissent and discord. The practice of divide and rule that the upper
castes so successfully practiced in implementing the caste system, is alive and
well today.

Those who seek to sow hate and mistrust are small-minded individuals, devoid of
vision and wisdom. They do not realise the es, in which family and where, they will
be born in their next life? Every person wishes for a life of peace, security and
dignity. We all owe that to each other. Live and let live.
The Aryans brought with them their language, Sanskrit. The indigenous regional and
local languages (the Prakrits) remained the language of the masses, while Sanskrit,
totally alien to the masses, became the language of the elite.

This brought about a cultural transformation in all aspects of social life, from
religion and literature to art and trade. Learning, being restricted to some
sections, had already created rifts in society, and Sanskrit with its different
orientation, diction, idiom and grammar only widened the gap.east.

The disunity created by the MS made the country easy prey to foreign invaders such
as the Mughals, Dutch, Portuguese, French and the British. Under the British, the
country did get united politically and administratively. What is worth noting is
that under all the foreign regimes, the pre-ordained social structure remained
intact, and the high castes continued to reap the benefits. In fact, they were
loyal and obedient, co-operating and supporting all the foreign rulers during their
regimes, by occupying crucial offices at all levels, in all departments of
governance.

People from the Valmiki community formally embrace Buddhism, on October 14, 2020.
Photo: Twitter/@Raj_Ambedkar

Later, during the rule of Chandragupta Maurya, an aggressive movement for the
revival of Hinduism started, and thousands of Buddhists and Jains were killed and
their places of worship destroyed. What is deliberately glossed over by Manuwadi
historians is that, just as the Aryans looted and plundered the locals when they
came, those who came after them did exactly the same. This point seems to be
conveniently forgotten by the Hindutvavadis of today, who claim to be the
descendants of Aryans, and never tire of talking about the marauding acts of Muslim
invaders.

Islam and Christianity

The advent of Islam, first through trade on the Western coast in the eight century
AD, and later through the Mughal invasion in the latter half of the 16th, was a way
out for the oppressed classes. Most of those who converted were Shudras. There were
some from the other castes as well, including Brahmins. But these were individual
cases, and the reasons were more material.

Contrary to current propaganda, not more than 5% of the Muslims in this land are
forcible converts. In other words, they were all inhabitants of this land before
the invasion of the Aryans, and part of the same Manuwadi social system as the
rest. They called the others “Hindus” or those who live on the banks of the river
Sindhu (the letter ‘S’ being pronounced by them as ‘H’). The word “Hindu” is thus
of foreign origin.

The conversion to Islam during the Mughal period which lasted for about 250 years,
was followed by the conversion to Christianity during the British regime of about
150 years. It was mostly the lowest caste who converted for economic reasons and a
few others for status and power. These conversions were mostly voluntary with just
a few cases of coercion.