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Title: Anarchism Against Brahmanism
Author: Sarthak Tomar
Date: June 9 2020
Language: en
Topics: India, Brahmanism, Caste, anarcho-syndicalism
Source: Retrieved on 2020-06-12 from https://sarthak.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/09/anarchism-against-brahmanism/

Sarthak Tomar

Anarchism Against Brahmanism

Caste is, as Ambedkar said, “not just a division of labour but, a

division of labourers.” Wherever this institution went, it tried to

freeze the society into a fossilized rulership and a fossilized

disposable and disciplined labouring class. And just as division of

labour alienates the workers from her work, product of her labour and

life itself; the division of labourers alienated the whole of society

and deeply fractured the spirit of human morality and solidarity. The

caste structure gave birth to the caste society which has outlived the

mode of domination it was invented to serve.

The straitjacket of caste did not emerge in isolation. It is one part of

the centuries old project of societal control – Brahmanism. This entry

is an attempt to find an anarchist orientation towards Bhrahmanism and

its annihilation by looking at some episodes in its history and

mutations.

Brahmanism, primarily, is and always has been a socio-political ideology

and not a religious movement. The ideology consists in the believe that

Brahmans have established links with the higher realms, they are the

natural advisors to the rulers on social and political matters and, that

they hold the highest place in the social hierarchy. The hierarchy

consists in a four tier system of Varna and those who are out of this

hierarchy forming the Avarna strata, based on Brahmans principles of

standardized purity. Within this image of the Brahmanical society the

caste becomes the essential of realizing the dominance of Brahmans as

the priestly caste. To insure the success and reproduction of this

institution every aspect of human life from the cradle to the grave are

governed by strict laws codified in various books and laws of local

kingdoms.

This vision of society was largely realized in significant parts of the

sub-continent with varying degrees of success, modifications and

compromises with other power system. This was not an easy task and

beginning with the invasion of Alexander of Macedon, the Brahmans were

prosecuted in the north-western region of what is now called India, the

only region where they had influence. This continued with Ashoka’s and

later his son, Kunala’s murdering of the “treacherous” Brahmans who were

fueling anti-Maurya sentiments in local courts. The situation was so bad

for the priestly caste that they were sure that the end of the world has

finally arrived – the end of Kali Yuga. But Brahmanism not only survived

but thrived and the impacts of its unfortunate success to this day are

leaving bloody marks on human body and spirit.

Brahmanism conquered not by the blade of the sword but with the succor

of the myth. Brahmans spread stories of their demigod like powers, the

benefits of befriending and dangers of crossing them. Most importantly

they provided to the rulers a divine lineage and right to rule till the

end of time and the practical knowledge of statecraft. The Brahmans

without ever becoming a threat to political power gave rulers a lineage

they can link back to the Puranas and the Vedic era. They were not only

able but necessary for the prosperity of the land, making the ruler the

permanent and necessary fixture in the mind of the masses.

The benefits flow both ways. Kshatriya and the other ruling castes were

essential for realizing the Brahmanical society. It was the duty of the

warrior class to institute Danda for its maintenance. In essence,

Brahmanism is statism. The kingly class is so essential to the ideology

that the end of Yugas are marked by the Kshatriyas becoming incompetent

in maintaining the Varna vyavastha and that the evidence that the end of

time had not yet arrived was the fact that most king’s lineage

maintained their thrones.

This perfect union of the priestly caste and the ruling class is no

accident. Humans, when incapable of making sense of the untimely flood,

failed crops or plague conjure up unseen forces that help us make sense

of the unpredictability and meaninglessness around. Through the combined

effect of general ignorance and the need for self-preservation the first

seed of authority and power is sown in the heart. God becomes the

Supreme Ruler. Once formalized enough, we try to tame the forces through

rituals and sacrifices. In initial stages this practice is

individualistic. The relation of these forces or gods is direct and

intimate, but soon these practices become socialized and a specialized

class of sacrifice experts emerges. The link of individual to the god is

broken and a flesh and blood human becomes a new center of social power.

The same phenomenon repeats itself in sphere of social organization and

to tame the social forces in our favor we learn to surrender to the

Ruler, sent on earth by the Supreme Ruler. To the extent we submit to a

power for self preservation, from corporate bureaucracies to nation

states and families, all forms of rulershipare religion.

It was during this period of renewal of Brahmanism, returning from the

brink of extinction that the pantheon that is now recognized as Hindu

deities was gradually created. First by casting the individualistic,

semi-socialized religious cults of Krishna, Shiva etc into the mold of

Brahmanism and later by making the newer gods the incarnation of the

former. In this process of absorptionreplicating the hierarchy of the

Brahmanical society into the realm of gods. Through economic and

political coercion the religious power now served the interest of the

Brahmans and states.

I skip the changes this Brahmanical temporal authority ordained by the

divine authority underwent over the next few centuries and under the

Mughal rule and turn to its first interaction with capitalism, the

Company Raj, colonization and modern nation states that shook the roots

of the old project. In the preceding decades the merchant caste, with

its control over rural finance and land displaced the Brahmans from the

top of social hierarchy. In Bengal province by the end of the nawab rule

fifteen families controlled 60% of the land and in Punjab the British

administration had to introduce a law to regulate the acquisition of

land by the money lenders on failure of payment of debts. And with the

changing nature of sovereignty from the village level to the new

national imagination Brahmanism had to mutate once more to survive.

The core of this mutation was the deep-seated hatred of the individual –

her free development and initiative. Faced with European capitalism, in

its vulgarized disguise of individual freedom the reformers, who had

taken up the task of reviving the Indian culture by going back to the

Vedic sources, were united in there contempt for the individual. They

found in the Varna system the solution to the modern problems of

nations. Caste does not necessarily have to be based on heredity but the

proper division of labour and social activity based on natural

hierarchies which was necessitated by the needs of social organization.

Caste with natural leadership of Brahmans, was no longer justified by

the metaphysics of religion became the outcome of the theology of social

sciences, its theory of race, competition, gender superiority and

survival of the fittest. Its aim was to serve the New God of “national

interest”.

In search of this nation Brahmanism morphed into Hindutva. This new

outward expression of the lust for power also explicitly presented

itself as a political project and not a religious movement. Within the

Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan that is to bring glory to the nation state, the

Hindu is a casteist structure. This was novel. The Hindu identity for a

political project was necessitated by two factors. First, the apparent

feebleness of the social unity – togetherness and second, the essential

principle of nationhood – unity through separation.

Savarkar understood this principle well – “nothing can weld peoples into

a nation and nations into a state as the pressure of a common foe.

Hatred separates as well as unites.” A nation is that artificial and

arbitrary unit of territory and subjects that a political power has

acquired for controlling and fleecing. It destroys the natural love and

association with the place of birth and our immediate communities

through its industrialization and directs that human feeling towards the

worship of this abstraction, its symbols and submission to its policies.

This form of rulership finds its fullest expression in Totalitarianism

of Nazism, Bolshevism or Brahmanism.

The national identity of Hindu provided the aspect of togetherness

through idea of blood, culture and language, modification of Shudhi,

etc. and its separation through the idea of the Muslim. Whether the

state takes refuge in the ideology and shape of Hindutva or secular

nationalism – two face of the same coin, its true nature remains the

same, that of attuning all human expressions to the beat of this

soulless political machine in the name of “national interest”. This

technical term does not include the interests of the population – free

and quality education and health care, well paid jobs or free or cheap

housing for all, it means the interest of the market, the interest of

the war machine that is the life blood of the state – its defense from

other competing states, its source of expansion outside and control

within.

After the transfer of power in 1947, India has remained a fractured

community with its apartheid of caste and material conditions furnished

by generations of deprivation and violence. In the rural regions it

maintain the old structure of control and coercion while in urban

setting it modified mildly and justified the stratification by logic of

hygiene and merit – that is justifying privilege with privilege itself.

The new Indian state did not start a project of actively constructing a

casteist state but through its passivity towards caste issues it

perpetuated the caste society within the shell of a capitalist state

system, each feeding off the other. The maintenance of hierarchical

corporate structure that is the Hindu family and segregation through the

institution of marriage. The upper castes continued their take over of

bureaucracy and managerial positions in state and cultural institution,

practically, without any reservation mechanism and that continue to

define the Indian society till date.

If we anarchists say that sanctity of the temple of the parliament and

its new priesthood just like the temple of the old gods and the Brahmans

is a lie and deception then, what do we have to say about reservation

and other methods of achieving equality within the current state of

things? To this we say that even the ritual of horse sacrifice must have

yielded results for the masses, not from the blood drawn but from their

organizing for themselves, taking things into their own hand and shaking

things up. This assertive self-organization of the masses in each epoch

of history has realized to the extent possible the moral and social

progress. And within the modern nation states this progress, which is

the collective wealth of our humanity has received a degree of

formalization.

The erosion of this progress and regression will always be a possibility

as long as there is a power whose control it weakens. And when this

social progress is at its highest the instruments of domination have

also become sharper, deadly and now threaten us with the possibility of

ending the only known experiment of life in the universe. Anarchist

believe that through continuing this assertive self-organizing for

securing more and more moral progress we not only improve our immediate

condition but also prepare ourself for the final destruction of social,

political and economic rulership. A liberal welfare state can be an

holding ground that reduces the impact of the blows from the state and

the caste society and gives us opportunity for further progress. But the

ultimate safeguard from Brahmanism or any other form of absolute

domination over human body and spirit is Anarchism.

In an hierarchical society, certain individuals at particular historical

junctures can play a catalytic role in either accelerating the progress

or dragging it back for decades. If the former, then too, it is the

social organization of individuals based on values of equality, mutual

aid and decentralization of power that maintain it. There is further

limit of the strategy of “having the right faces in the high places”.

Once in position of power, the prerogative of the institutions dictate

their actions. Having women, dalit-bahujan or queer people In position

of power, like other holding strategies can make some limited gains but

in the end the only interests these individuals represent are their own.

No person can “represent” another person, a whole community lesser

still. It maintains the relations of dependence and submission and

further dulls the instincts for self-initiative and fosters moral

passivity – a perfect condition for Brahmanism or any form of authority

to exploit.

Even if the major decision of life and society are now made by the

captains of industry and states-persons, and even if these decisions are

not primarily driven by Brahmanical interests (and how different are

these differences after all?) Caste is still alive. Some aspects of

caste have been weakened and at the same time others strengthened. The

general economic inequality, access to housing, well paid jobs – which

means class – is graded on caste lines. As one historian noted, “it is

striking how many of the country’s billionaires today are, though not

direct descendants of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century magnates,

certainly originate from the same communities which began to accumulate

wealth and influence at the end of the Mughal period and during the rise

of the English East India Company.” The social stigma, practices of

untouchablity and the Brahmanical institution of marriage flourish. Two

great forces are gravitating towards forging a new Brahmanical-Hindutva

order and a hazy road for taking in the opposite direction also

gradually becoming visible. Both possibilities, like always depend on

one thing – Organizing.

The force of social reaction to the neo-liberal bloodbath which turned a

preventable health crisis into an global pandemic and in India made 12

crore people unemployed in a single month is the decisive factor in the

fate of Brahmanism. 10 crore young Indians have given up all hope of

finding a job and had stopped searching for work long before the current

economic breakdown. Half of the youth of this country are unemployed.

And those who have work are working 12 hours shifts to survive hand to

mouth. In this constantly changing external world the individual loses

her equilibrium. These uprooted millions turn into a mob seeking a

source of stability and finding themselves incapable of self

emancipation look for external power that would uplift them and give

life a new meaning. Along with religiosity, in some cases the caste

relations are strengthened as they are seen as a source of nourishment.

This combined with RSS’s mobilization and organization is the path

towards strengthening Leader worship and Hindutva. The breaking up of

the process of class reproduction and the erosion of the middle class,

and with it the hopes and aspirations of millions in front of their eyes

is accelerating. By some estimate at least half of the children born in

middle class do not remain in it when they reach adulthood. The

concentrating boss class is eager to exploit the people on caste lines.

This is where one possibility of going in the other direction lies –

poor peoples’ revolutionary unionism. The traditional unions that

replicate the caste structure due to its hierarchical nature will only

represent the interests of the minority leader class and not the workers

themselves.

Its only through Anarcho-Syndicalism that we can achieve the threefold

task of achieving progress in living and work standards, wages,

expansion of reservation to compensate for the generational subjugation

of dalit-bahujans in private and public sector, expanding the public

sector that enables creation of new and greener jobs, progressive

taxation and day-to-day struggles at workplaces; confronting the caste

issue face to face as members of working class as well as part of

oppressed communities through minority committees, along with local

union branches to address caste at workplace and within the unions and;

shedding away the elaborate etiquette of submission of this casteist

society through rediscovering our instincts for self-initiative and

direct action rather being dependent on this or that leader, the despot

of tomorrow. This rediscovery and the development of this instinct and

culture in the organized form within these alternative institutions form

the essential ingredient of the society that shall replace the current

disorder.

John R. McLane noted that, “since an individual’s obligations and

privileges were specific to his or her family, jati, and age, universal

standards of political-moral behavior rarely galvanized people into

cooperative political effort.” Any intellectual current or form of

practice that exclusively promote inward inquiry at cost of building

broad solidarity of all oppressed while understanding the various inner

relations in practice, unintentionally replicates the essential of the

nation and Brahmanical order and play into hand of our enemies like in

2019 general election where Jadav-Yadav dynamic was a major determining

factor in BJP’s victory. We do not wish to repeat these past mistakes,

neither of the Marxist left that minimizes the importance of

non-economic cultural and social factors at work and in society and

address them within their organization and programs nor, of the narrow

identity politics that in the long-run poses no threat to the status quo

that it apparently wishes to destroy and has no space for broad

solidarity based on shared needs and values in genuinely democratic and

workers controlled organizations.

Revolutionary unionism is only one part of the struggle. Anarchists and

other individuals must engage in cultural struggles towards elimination

of the caste society. I cannot pretend to have a solution to this

problem, I can only note that we know that the forces of alienation

aggravates it and that we have a legacy of experiments by the people

from dalit-bahujan castes to build upon and with anarchist emphasis on

the abolition of marriage, dismantling the corporation of family and

building a society based on free love and societal responsibility of

child rearing, we have the impetus to motivate action in direction of

liberation.

Caste being a particular configuration of hierarchy and the method of

its reproduction, it finds affinity with all forms of dominations and

latch on to the one it finds. While through the autonomous and varied

cultural struggles and fighting back the class war as working class

dealing with caste antagonism we make conditions better for both our

class and dalit-bahujans, Anarchism is Brahmanisms only permanent

solution. As long as there is a state or a economy based on private

property, RSS has the possibility of achieving its desired position of

the Raj Guru to the State. Following in the footsteps of the

Saudra-attishudra Dakaits and their direct actions against capital and

domination we organize not to end any particular form of authority but

Rulership itself.

For a Casteless Society! – For Annihilation of Brahmanism! – For a Free

Humanity!

For Anarchy!