casteinstone

Dismantling the propaganda on caste, one tweet at a time. Also, a book in the making.

[Ashish Dhar @infinitchy]

From the Meenas and Koch Rajbongshis to the Nishads and Kaivartas, many communities had kingdoms, military power, regional sovereignty, and distinct historical trajectories. So why are Brahmins blamed for their current status?
https://t.co/NpiIHBgcSe

[Upword @upword_]

In this episode of Pinpoint, we explore the question of Hindu unity by interpreting the debate between Swami Karpatri Ji and RSS's Guruji Golwalkar through the lens of Coherent Pluralism. https://t.co/3BpC4TNnAx

[Upword @upword_]

Before Ambedkar, there was Shahu and before Shahu, there was Phule. We bring you an honest account of the man whose politics and ideology form the fountainhead of anti-Hindu politics of Modern India. Releasing this Friday, 'Seeds of Poison - The dark legacy of Jyotirao Phule'.

[Upword @upword_]

Prof @VamseeJuluri speaks with @infinitchy on 2nd edition of 'Rearming Hinduism', Social Media trends, how to critically watch 'News', the banality of Orwellian propaganda in today's world & has some advice for Indian students aspiring to study in America. https://t.co/nnzfbyprlV

[Upword @upword_]

We're delighted to bring out the 2nd part of our tribute to Swami Karpatri Ji. Our 1st video was mostly about his personal life & spiritual journey, while this one sheds light on his public life, intellectual contributions, and political struggles. https://t.co/RMoLyU7GNm

[Upword @upword_]

https://t.co/8NivbJXzJN

[Ashish Dhar @infinitchy]

*The nested logic of Jaati-Varna*

What is the self? The success of modernity has been in making a mockery of this mystery of mysteries. It has made ordinary people trade their innocent bewilderment with dismissive overconfidence. "Why? The self is that nice guy on the corporate id-card."

Who we are was not as plain to the ancients as it is to the moderns. For the ancients, selfhood was a spectrum, the two poles of which were the individual and the collective. And even today, it is this very spectrum that makes us socially functional. Our position on it is not set in stone, it is a matter of context.

We behave selfishly, i.e. tend towards the individual side of the spectrum, when dealing with the outgroup. We quarrel with the guy breaking the queue. We fight for promotion at our office. We cheat while playing cricket in the park. Competition encourages individualism.

We behave altruistically, i.e. tend towards the collective end of the spectrum, with our in-group, those we trust blindly or for a reason. We care for our family and friends. We fight and die for our flag. We give up a seat for that aunty on the metro. Altruism manifests, as seen above, in specific conditions of interdependence, wherein the selfish individual places the interest of the group above his own.

The genius of jaati-varna is its fractal structure and nested logic, applied at various degrees of separation of biological kinship. Just as the collective reaches a size beyond which biological kinship ceases to drive cooperation among the constituents, conditions that encourage cooperation between groups are sought to be created. The neat separation of occupations based on birth thus creates conditions of interdependence between endogamous groups, forcing them to co-operate rather than compete.

Large scale competition is abhorrent to a Dharmic social order. In fact, Shrimad Bhagwat considers it to be one of the fifteen types of moral calamities, clubbing it with the likes of theft, violence, falsehood etc.

स्तेयं हिंसानृतं दम्भः कामः क्रोधः स्मयो मदः ।
भेदो वैरमविश्वासः संस्पर्धा व्यसनानि च ॥

Thus, interdependence between jaatis (and varnas) follows the same contours as cooperation between individuals of the same in-group. The fabled cultural unity of India, which defied shifting political divisions and sāmpradāyika diversity, is on account of this simple design principle that eludes the modern Hindu mind. For we have consumed the kool-aid of meritocracy that promotes unbridled competition and normalises inequality while singing paeans to equality. The irony! As Sandel remarks in his book on the subject, meritocracy is "not a remedy for inequality; it is a justification for inequality."

The pursuit of cooperation at higher and higher scales prevents the 'tragedy of the commons' from unfolding as natural abundance is respected and preserved in the interest of the whole world. As the Mahābhārata recommends, renounce the smaller self interest for the greater good at every scale of social organisation. In the act of selflessness for the good of the world, one day will give up the world for your greater Self.

त्यजेत् कुलार्थे पुरुषं ग्रामस्यार्थे कुलं त्यजेत् |
ग्रामं जनपदस्यार्थे आत्मार्थे पृथिवीं त्यजेत् ||

***

(From my notes for our elusive book on caste that refuses to get written)

[Ashish Dhar @infinitchy]

Harsh is, of course, totally wrong about what is Sanatana Dharma and what it is not. He is falling for a logical fallacy that if your enemy has a certain view about you, that must be blindly rejected. However, his concern about the reductionism of Dharma to caste is valid though articulated incorrectly. The root of the error is perhaps an unconscious presupposition that modern progress and enlightenment ideologies are beyond reproach. Here is a relevant excerpt from my notes for the book on caste I had once compiled (but never published) that I am sharing in good faith.

<<It would not be wrong to say that caste is the foundation of the social reality of Hindus, so much so, that certain Indologists have reduced all of Hindu Dharma to caste, claiming that if you remove caste from the Dharmic milieu there remains nothing to study. This is, of course, a myopic take on Dharma but it unintentionally reveals a subtle aspect of the Hindu social web. Like a fractal arrangement, the social whole consists of interdependent parts that are further made up of tinier webs. If you isolate one aspect of reality, even for analysis, what remains is not just incomplete in parts but wholly unrecognizable. Just like in an ecosystem, to quote Neil Postman, "If you remove caterpillars from a given habitat, you are not left with the same environment minus caterpillars: you have a new environment, and you have reconstituted the conditions of survival; the same is true if you add caterpillars to an environment that had none."

Once caste was disengaged from religion, culture, and economics by the forces of modernity, what was left of it was unrecognizable and distorted. Therefore, caste, as we know it today, is impossible to comprehend unless it is placed in the context of modernity because a judgement on an ancient institution cannot be passed without investigating the interplay of its antiquity with contemporary norms, of old with new, ancient with modern. Thus, an analysis of the past presupposes a thorough study of the present, through which prism we view what has transpired before. Without that critical study of the present, the past only seems to consist of oppression, inequality, bigotry, and whatever else is the political flavour of the season.>>

[Ashish Dhar @infinitchy]

It was great to be @mayankd_tweets's first guest on his brand new podcast series, 'Insight Out'. We spoke about Kashmir, Dharma, culture, and where @upword_ figures in the mix. Do watch and subscribe to Mayank's Youtube channel and help it grow. https://t.co/dXFrbQDzJQ

[Upword @upword_]

And thus, through unrelenting violence, unceasing destruction &amp; unimaginable bloodshed across three centuries, Pagan Europe breathed its last, and on its still simmering remnants, the foundations of Christian Europe were laid. Research inputs by: @AnkitaPKarthik

[Upword @upword_]

We've begun work on a video tribute to Dharma Samrat Karpatri Maharaj. Our endeavour is to summarise his life and works with stunning artwork, powerful animation &amp; great storytelling. We promise a masterpiece and seek your support in achieving this goal: https://t.co/ULuHTWn0H7

[Upword @upword_]

The Khilafat movement is a dark chapter of Indian history whose shadow looms large over the present in the form of minority appeasement policies of the Indian State. Watch the video to know exactly why Hindus face discrimination in their own sacred land. https://t.co/WB4a5Rr3la

[Upword @upword_]

Pashubali (animal sacrifice) has been widely misunderstood by modern Hindus &amp; they are often found siding with the secular establishment intent on banning the ritual. Not only are these notions inaccurate but also hypocritical.

@TheRajarshi explains.

https://t.co/UjLs2p4U0X

[casteinstone @casteinstone]

Action by Apple will be replicated across corp America. Unless there's a reassessment of colonial assumptions &amp; reframing of debate on caste in India, it's futile to blame agenda-driven orgs like Equality Labs for castigating American Hindus for crimes they never committed. [End]

[casteinstone @casteinstone]

[Thread] The efforts of Equality Labs &amp; their allies in media &amp; elsewhere are beginning to pay off. Tech giant Apple officially recognizes caste as a cause of potential discrimination by including it in its updated general employee conduct policy. https://t.co/zQkth46jUd (1/19)

[casteinstone @casteinstone]

The genesis of this insidious equivalence goes back to Colonial scholarship and pseudoscience. Yet the same tropes continue to haunt the modern discourse on caste and influence lawmakers and politicians to this day. More on it here: https://t.co/gpg73BSi9Y (18/19)