When Europeans began to rule India, they were trying to understand this complex division of Indian society, they eventually gave an umbrella term, “Caste” for both Varna and Jati. They even included several Jatis, who are actually outside of Varna into the specific four Varnas, as Varna form of division was much more easier for dividing Indian society than the complex Jati system.
On 10th December, there was an article published on The Print titled “Becoming a Hindu is not that easy. Even if a Waseem Rizvi turns into Jitendra Tyagi”. It is written by Dilip Mandal, who claims to have written few books, though he keeps dog whistling against Hindus on his social media handles to maintain his cheap popularity. Now, again in this piece he has made several claims which are false and straight away incorrect historically and religiously.
First of all, let me mention that the dominant caste system is a British gift to India by, Mr. Herbert Hope Risley.
India’s caste system is a “race classification scheme” designed & implemented by Mr. Herbert Hope Risley, a British colonial administrator in 1901 during the first census of India. For this, he cunningly twisted India’s ancient social systems of Varna & Jaati. Varna is a social classification based on work; no inequality here. Jaati (as an extension of kula & gotra) is a voluntary social grouping based on family & village associations to prevent inbreeding & genetic deformities in children; no inequality here, again.
However, in the British caste system, no 2 castes were equal. The British forcibly implemented this caste system over a 40-year period by denying government aid to anyone who would not accept the system. Today, the British caste system is continued by politicians in independent India as a continuation of the “divide & rule” strategy for vote-banking. Foreign enemies of India use this system to raise “human-rights concerns” to threaten India with sanctions & invasions. Misinformed Indians use the caste system to feel inferior/ guilty about themselves & hate other Indians, which was the original intent of Mr. Risley.
Whereas the false claims made by Dilip Mandal in the article about Hindu scriptures including Shrutis, Smritis, Vedas and Bhagwad Gita are debunked by Sanjeev Newar, the founder of NGOs like Agniveer and Sewanyaya. In a series of tweets, he was categorically stated that the views of the author are based on rhetorical statements than an educated reading of them.
Hereby, through these tweets, Sanjeev Newar also challenges the author for an open debate and prove the existence or mention of Casteism in Bhagwad Gita or in the Vedas. Also he has schooled Dilip Mandal on Vedas and Shruti, as they refer to the same thing. He has also given examples of Shuddhi movement by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Shraddhanand. He also cites the great Hindutva icon VD Savarkar, who also had differences with Gandhi over reforms and shunning of Casteism.
Overall, in the entire article, the author has just used the rhetorical statements instead of valid and sensible arguments and also there has been no due diligence from the editorial board.
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.
