Showing posts with label brahmin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brahmin. Show all posts

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Anti-Brahmin sentiments ?

Ghatashraddha (Kannada, The Death Ritual; 1977)
Director, Screenplay: Girish Kasaravalli

There must be a reason why Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, George Lucas' Family Foundation, and Film Heritage Foundation decided to restore the film from the original negatives in 2024. In 2002, it was voted one of the 20 best films in Indian cinema. It also snatched the Best Feature Film award, among other awards, in 1977. Looking at current world sentiments about India, the elephant in the room is that the film is about Brahmin bashing.

The colonial masters are to be blamed for anti-Brahminic feelings running high among the Indian public at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The British wanted to understand how the Indian society was spread out. For simplicity, they used the European class system when they commenced their census taking. The varna system in India was too complicated for the Europeans to comprehend. Hence, a hierarchical system was devised with the Brahmins at the top of the food chain. The British had a vested interest. They wanted to dismantle the gokul schooling system and the teaching of Sanskrit. The Brahmins were held for fort for Sanskrit and knowledge. There was a compelling need to paint the Brahmins. So, it came to be. 
 
EV Ramasamy and many South leaders had a beef with the Indian Congress Party during the pre-Independence era. They saw their lack of opportunities to partake in the Independence struggle as a Brahmin-controlled problem. Through the Self-Respect movement, they marketed themselves as anti-Hindu. Their brand of politics persists today. As the world sees leap by bounds economically and socially, the enemies of India look at this distorted interpretation of Sanathana Dharma as the perfect weapon to run India down.

To say that caste discrimination is non-existent may be an understatement, as evidenced by the writings and experiences of many scholars and writers.

The movie is about the experience of a young student, Naani, at a dilapidated  Vedic school. The teacher's daughter, Yamuna, is a sad young widow. Yamuna has an affair with another teacher and gets pregnant. She tries to conceal her pregnancy from the inquisitive neighbours and tries to get it aborted illegally. She is exposed and is humiliated. Her father ex-communicates with her by performing Ghatshradda,  a death ritual signifying that his daughter is dead to her.

Saturday, 29 August 2015

And no religion too

Courtesy: iyermatter.wordpress.com
I have a friend whose ancestors hail from the land of the Kamasutra. Even though born and bred here, he has not quite severed his umbilical attachment to his roots. His roots are still deeply rooted there. His religious conviction handed down by his ancestors are quite strong and has no qualms displaying his beliefs. He makes frequent pilgrimage trips there and is quite in tune with the latest flavour of the month of the sub-continent.

He once told me of a relative holding quite a high post in the Indian Air Force. Like my Brahmin friend, this guy was steadfast in continuing his Vedic practices through rituals, prayers, regalia to display of proof of his theological conviction on his forehead, vermilion, ash, sandalwood paste and all.

But once he dons his uniform and leaves his abode, he makes it a point to take a glance himself at the mirror to erase all traces of his religious beliefs. He, being a servant of the state, had to display a secular image serving all his brothers and sisters irrespective of their beliefs. He did not want his external appearance be an excuse for his actions to be construed as bias towards or against one section of society. What more, in a society whereby the days, everything is viewed in a rose-tinted lens of religion. Even if his move was in accordance to standard operating protocol, his avatar could be an excuse for favouritism!

It has come to this. There was a time when the public viewed a person of faith as a stable individual who would execute his duties with just. He is assumed to perform with a divine force as the witness without fear or favour. That was a different era in a galaxy far far away. Now, it is a question of my God is 'better than yours'! Anything and everything can be penalised and a mountain can be created out of a molehill, dying to be broadcasted to be sensationalised devoid of merits. The place a man of faith held has been hijacked by bad publicity. A group of fame-seeking and attention yearning leaders have no shame in uttering ridiculous statements for their time in the spotlight, just to be in the limelight.

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