| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| ANTI - BRAHMANISM, THE NEW COMMUNALISM OF MODERN INDIA | |
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| Brahmins
are also different from the monks and swamis in Hinduism, who as
part of their renunciation must give up their identification with
class, including that of a Brahmin. Hindus look up to these swamis
and sadhus as their true spiritual leaders, not simply to Brahmins,
who serve a more outer ritualistic role. Brahmins function more as
outer religious functionaries than as inner illuminates.
To compare Brahmins to Catholic priests is inappropriate, as is to cast the European distrust of Christian priests and preachers upon them. The second is the Western democratic dislike of the "higher classes," like the European aristocracy in the days of kings. Brahmins, however, were never higher classes in the Western sense, like the rich aristocrats as in eighteenth century Europe. As already noted they have been neither princes nor the wealthy who live in luxury.They were seldom landowners who ruled by force but rather teachers, scholars and priests wedded to poverty, simplicity and learning. Meanwhile the wealthy classes in India, whom the Western media would assume are Brahmins, are more likely to be Shudras, members of the old servant class, many of whom are now wealthy, particularly in South India (Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu), or Vaishyas, the business class, as in Gujarat and Rajasthan. |
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