Stereo Typing a Brahmin…
Truth is neither myself or any of my relatives or friends who belong to this cursed community reveal our cultural identity in a public space. Not that we care to do it is a concious effort to ensure that our religious identity is not revealed at any cost. This is the case with most brahmins in the city i have interacted with and there is a reason why.
Before you judge me as a BJP or an RSS supporter i will kindly remind you that im an atheist of first cadre and the BJP or RSS/VHP did no good for than the Congress for the Kashmiri Brahmins during their reign. So forget the losers and lets move on with our discussion….
Note: I could not figure out quite how to put this from a third person perspective so i addressed it as “I” which is a easier thing to write. Read it as from a common man/3rd person perspective.
Its a delicate situation. Credit the solid foundation work laid by politicians like Anna, MGR, Kalaignar and the long list of dravidian leaders the word “Brahmin” today reminds everyone of arrogant, dis-respective, communal and abusive extremists who whip the lower caste dalits or whomever it maybe till they die. Thats a vivid picture that paints your mind when you hear that word.
Its true that the past is not a clean tale for the brahmins. Their hands are as much covered in blood as it can be. And yes, its a closed community who don’t allow easily outsiders inside their homes and don’t maintain any sort of interactive relationships outside the community. But that has changed all over now to such a drastic extent. Everytime someone happens to find out my cultural identity exclamations fire around “but you don’t look like one!”. The shock on their faces reveal a lot more than what the words can say. I apologize and tell them im a bad one and i dont wear my holy symbol on the forehead.
The point is how long do we stereotype people? Why the hatred? An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, this being cleverly deployed by politicians to keep us blind where in the meantime they rob us off everything.
Some real funny questions come up when some people find out you are a brahmin. I’ve been asked “how come you eat eggs?” and “How come you listen to english music?” “Why are you not wearing the poonal?” “where is your sign on the forehead?”
I mean does that mean that all acharyas today are in the goldsmith trade and all chettiars have oil store and provision stores. I disbelieve that because most of the work with me in a top dog IT company and are good colleagues and friends. I often get asked “Why did you brahmins treat us lower caste people badly? Untouchables huh? You deserve it all!” kind of statements. Its very very funny because i have to travel back in time using a time machine and find out which loser great grand father of mine abused which lower caste person, hand cuff him and probably in a shariya style punishment execute him or something, perhaps that would chill down these questions and statements.
As long as stereo typing exists progress will be lame. We will never have all communities of a society as a whole coming forward to make a change. This my dear ladies and gentlemen is our problem. We need to address this.
To start with the field caste and community could be erazed with all bloody forms both governmental and non governmental. I mean we have cell phones and PAN cards nowadays, sure we dont need caste and community as a means of identification.
Dillip loooks like your statements are true look at the amount of abuse you are receiving here, I have nothing against Brahmins firstly but I do understand the discrimination you face which is a shame. The other thing I do not understand is why do many people no longer use caste surnames I mean it is part of who you are why not use it? People in Kerela and Andrha Pardesh still use Reddy, Rao, Naidu, Menon etc why has this been changed in TN, regardless caste is and will always be a question that will be asked in Chennai and TN. People should not shy away from and people should not discriminate againt each other based on this. We will all lose a sense of who we are if we don’t use titles I mean we can’t all use our fathers name as our name. If you travel abroad Tamilians are the only ones who face problems as we are yet to have the surname concept in our culture all other people in India have it so why not us?
Hi! great debate going on around in this forum. I am living in chennai for the past few months and I am slowly understanding the culture of this place. I guess you guys are really making a big issue of caste. You havent seen the caste based discrimination in the north of this country. I see that there is reverse discrimination in tamilnadu. I was in the US for a while and I saw quite a lot of tamil brahmins doing big time research, business…professionals etc. I was wondering why they didnt do the same here in tamilnadu. I was told by a few of them that they are humiliated and discriminated in all colleges on the basis of their caste etc and hence they left this state. In a few years to come you wouldnt find any tamil brahmin’s in tamilnadu. And yes, the brahmins here (the ones i came across) seem to be very timid…Up in the north my cousin is a bahubali and the community strength is very strong there. and yes, I AM a UP Brahmin ( though i would not be one if you have to really see the virtues of a brahman). But the state of tamil brahmin’s is terrible.
this is perhaps the most nonsensical debate i have ever come across.
khaleel ahmed
this is perhaps the most nonsensical debate i have ever come across.
khaleel ahmed
It is good that few people like you who are willing to look forward to a multi-cultural society, but the fact is most of the Brahmins are trying hard to make sure that their identity is well known to everyone by displaying signs on their forehead or by showing their poonal and if everything fails, they start their conversation in a slang that they have created for them, until these things fade they will be stereotyped.
Brahmins always RULE, shudras lick their asses forever. And, thats the TRUTH!!
What Dravida kazhagam did was more of a balancing act. In today’s world it would be foolish to distinguish men on caste. A brahmin can be a sandiyar and a devar can be a geek. It is just the mind and circumstances that create and shape up people. Even if we clone Hitler, it is uncertain that he would go on to be the same man that we was.
There was casteist identities and occupation based on it, now you can surely say that it is not so – as lower caste people are even allowed to be as temple priests. It is a slow but sure change.
You can be proud on your caste but your caste cant make what you want to be in life. In order to make that happen, you’ve got to be truly multicultural society at all levels as well as transparency and that starts in schools and communities.
Chennai becoming a true metro soon these communal thoughts will be put to rest.
Tamil Brahmin, Telugu Brahmin, Malayala (Kerala) brahmin………. is a common thing not present with other caste people. no Sardar would say tamil singh! no reddy would say tamil reddy or for that matter anyother caste folks. Only Brahmins have the funny way of putting a language name of the state in which they are before their names and then do nothing for the state. Brahmins have affinity or love for the soil from which they come. Enkayavathu poo eppadiyavathu polaichuku aduthavana emmathi! Eppo ellam avoo ellam U.S poiuduraaa. Kids ellam 14 years ana undanee inga vanthu padika vaikiraa, Thirupee anga kutundoo pora.I.I.Tle DASA admission (direct addmision for students abroad) laam vaichuiruka? Thaan prostitute aanathu illama Indiavaiye prostituta aaka pakuraa.ABCD pasnga nariya pera aiyutaa. U.S le aduthava asses ellam lick pannitu inga vanthu, When I was in America appadinu adavadi thanama pesuraa. corporate sectorle enaku avole theriyum ivola theriyumnu solli key postions ellam eduthukiraa. Nation, People, Progressive growth ellam brahmins mattum avaaluke uriyathunuu thappa nenachitaal. Evoloo pannavaal ellorum manishaal thaan enbathaye maruthuutaal. Eppo brahminse ellorum manushaalnu nenaikama marakaraloo appo avoluku ellorukum vulum oru periya aapu!
Enna mama adindu irunthele? Thukitala. I guess this is your last musing you are kicked out of this blog and man its amazing to have a clean blog back in action without u. You better go somewhere else and see if u can prove something. All the best big time loser Dilip…. Hehehehehe!