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Caste & the Tamil Nation
On Hinduism, Caste & Indian 'Democracy'
Dr. Iniyan
Elango, M.D.
President, Tamilar Human Rights Organization
Letter to Boston Globe, USA
23 November 1999
"...Even though
India likes to call herself a democracy, it is only a
fake democracy as far as the Dalits are concerned.
Large scale bogus voting and preventing Dalits from
voting are very common in India...The tragedy is that
the caste system is being spread rapidly even in the
United States by the Brahmans and other caste Hindus
who have emigrated to the USA during the past forty
years. For example, in the Hindu temples built in the
USA, only those who are born into the most superior
caste of Brahmans are allowed to be priests. Even in
the USA, lower caste Hindus and outcast Dalits are not
allowed to touch the idol in temples to perform
religious rites. ... In 1989, when I was a student in
Los Angeles, the priest (Brahman) in a Hindu temple in
California who knew my background prevented me from
entering the room (sanctum sanctorum) where the idol
was kept because I was a Dalit. Upper caste Hindus in
the United States and the Brahmans in particular, who
live in large numbers in the USA vigorously practice
the caste system. ..I know many castes Hindu friends in
the US, especially Brahmans, who credit their academic
achievement to their intellectual superiority (over
Americans) due to their "natural" intelligence
inherited "genetically" through "caste superiority"...
In effect, the Hindus have managed to bring
untouchability and the caste system into the United
States in the garb of religious freedom even though it
violates the Civil Rights laws of the United
States..."
Comment by Hari
Venkatachalam [[email protected]], 21 July 2005,
Interesting article but I'm not in agreement. Recently
I read an article on your site by Dr. Iniyan Elango of
the Tamilar Human Rights Organization stating that
Hindus in the United States were unjustified in their
protest against the Baptist. I am a backward caste
individual who was born to both Sudra parents. Because
they were not of the same sub caste, one could call me
a mutt of some sorts. However, my parents and I are strict Hindus and
follow our religion with the same vivacity as we
followed it in India. The
Hindus marching in the USA and the Dalits marching in
India are searching for the same goal of tolerance in
an intolerant society. Both our goals are the same. For
Ilango to ridicule our cause here forces me to overlook
the better parts of Ilango's arguments.
For one, Ilango
equate all American Hindus with the upper echelons of
Hindus society in India. This is an unfair and cruel
comparison. Among my family friends, we have brahman,
kshathriya, vaiysa, sudra, and untouchable friends. We
all spend time together, eat together, and
intermarriage between the castes has become very
common. More of my friends are non brahman than are
brahman. However, we all were equally offended when in
a public announcement one of the most powerful leaders
of the Baptist church denounced our faith as
Satanism.
This is no different
from a Shiv Sena leader screaming anti-Islamic
propaganda. The point of our protest was for our faith
to be accepted in the greater American identity. For
Ilango to say we are unjustified in our actions until
the caste system is completely destroyed is similar to
an Israeli individual saying he'll give the
Palestinians rights the day Muslim terrorist actions
cease.
For centuries, the
lower castes, to which I belong to, were defaced and
grouped into an amorphous mass of human society. Today,
Ilango defaces all practicing Hindus and clump us all
into a group of caste-ridden bigots...
We fight for
minorities who are being oppressed by the Bible
oriented government that exists in the United States.
We are fighting for homosexuals to be given common
rights, for separation of church and state, and for a
society that treats its minority faiths in a dignified
manner. Your article was so bitter, it doesn't incite
change; it incites anger.
I was amused to read the article "Baptist
book spurs march by Hindus" by Mr. Thomas Grillo in "The
Boston Globe" edition dated 11/22/99. I was amused
because those who believe in one of the most intolerant
and bigoted religions in the World were complaining of
intolerance by the Baptists. As a victim of Hindu bigotry
and a witness to the social misery bred by Hindu
intolerance, I pray for an opportunity from "The Boston
Globe" to register my protest and to unmask the hypocrisy
of the Hindus.
Hinduism espouses the division of people into
hierarchically placed groups called "castes". These
castes are placed in a stepladder of ascending
superiority and descending inferiority. People who are
born into these castes should follow the ordained caste
professions and marry only within their caste through
arranged marriages. The beneficiaries of this system were
the various Brahman castes who by virtue of their birth
were free to follow intellectual pursuits at the advent
of British colonial education making them modern India's
intellectual, scientific, and bureaucratic class. The
various "Vysya" (trading) castes, placed below the
Brahman castes and the Royal ("Kshatriya") castes, have
enjoyed the monopoly in trading activities for centuries,
by virtue of their birth, thus becoming modern India's
corporate and business class. The "Shudras" are the
various lower castes in the hierarchy who are considered
as Hindus and members of caste Hindu society.
The "Dalits" (which is a Hebrew derivative meaning
"broken people") are the "outcasts" and "slaves" of the
Hindu society of hierarchical castes. That is why the
Dalit people are considered untouchable and made to live
in segregated colonies outside the towns and villages
where the caste Hindus live.
All the political parties in India are controlled by
caste Hindus. When the British offered to give the Dalits
"separate electorates" to enable them to participate in
democracy more securely, the so-called "Mahatma" (Gandhi)
who strongly believed in the caste system went on protest
fast until death. The Dalit leader Dr.B.R.Ambedkar had to
refuse the British offer (of separate electorates)
because he was afraid that if Gandhi died by fasting the
Hindus will use the opportunity to organize wholesale
massacres of Dalit people all over India. Mahatma Gandhi
was a bigot belonging to one of the "Vysya" castes who
believed in the concept of graded superiority of birth
espoused by the Hindu caste system.
The recent killings of Christian missionaries, burning of
Churches and gang rapes of Catholic nuns by Hindu
fanatical elements belonging to the vast supportive
network of the BJP party and the RSS ("Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh") known as the "Sangh Parivar", is
motivated by the caste bigotry of the Hindus. The caste
Hindus want to preserve the outcast status of the Dalits
and tribals by preventing the Christian missionaries from
educating and converting the Dalits. The Hindus feel that
the work of the Christian missionaries will destroy the
Dalits' bondage to outcast status through education,
conversion and spiritual liberation. Even last month a
Catholic nun was stripped naked and urinated upon by a
gang of Hindu fanatics in north India. A Catholic priest
Rev. Fr. Arul Das was murdered by the same Hindu fanatic
(Dara Singh) who also burnt an Australian missionary
(Mr.Graham Staines) and his two little sons alive until
they died in great pain.
Hindu society is a wasteland of hatred spawned by the
bigotry of the hierarchically placed Hindu castes. Apart
from bickering with one another, the Caste Hindus,
whether they are upper or lower in the caste hierarchy
are united in their hatred for the Dalits. No attempt has
been made in the 50 years of India's independence to
integrate Dalits with the mainstream of society. State
sponsored services such as primary schools, medical
clinics, offices of government departments or a public
telephone, are always established in the caste Hindus
section of the village or town and not in the segregated
colonies where the Dalit people are forced to live.
The Hindu identity is forced on all Dalits (despite being
outcasts of Hindu society) and also on all atheists.
According to the Hindu Civil Law all those who are not
Christians and Muslims are "Hindus". Those Dalits who
convert to Christianity are made to lose the concessions
provided in state employment and education. Thus the
victims of the caste system are kept in perpetual bondage
by law and those who seek to escape this bondage by
conversion are penalized.
The single most factor that makes the Dalits suffer and
live in fear is the violence unleashed on them almost on
a daily basis by the Hindus. Every hour, a Dalit person
is raped or killed in some part of India. In the district
of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu State in India, four Dalit
women (Sakunthala, Victoria, Ponnaruvi and Susheela) were
gang raped and killed by caste Hindus during the past
year. In all the cases none of the culprits were arrested
and no investigation was done. Arbitrary arrests,
imprisonment and framing of Dalits for crimes they have
not committed are a common practice. In north Indian
states such as Bihar wholesale massacres of Dalit
villages occurs regularly.
The police force of the Caste Hindus is the worst
oppressor against the Dalits. Dalit women are raped in
the police precinct itself by the cops. In a famous case
that occurred in 1993, a Dalit woman named Padmini was
gang raped by five cops in front of her husband at the
police station of Annamalai Nagar in Chidambaram district
of Tamil Nadu State in India. The cops then killed her
husband after gang raping Padmini. None of the policemen
were punished for the capital offence. They were slapped
with minimal sentences for the gang rape. In a tribal
area called "Vachathi" in India, the police posse, which
came to catch a brigand gang, raped almost the entire
female population of the tribal settlement. None of the
cops who indulged in the mass rape were punished for this
gruesome crime which happened in 1994.
Rape is the most common risk faced by a Dalit woman in
the Hindu society.
The English language dictionary even now carries the word
"Pariah" (which is the Tamil name for the large
population of Dalits living in Tamil Nadu in India) to
convey the meaning of "outcast".
Even though India likes to call herself a democracy, it
is only a fake democracy as far as the Dalits are
concerned. Large scale bogus voting and preventing Dalits
from voting are very common in India. During the recent
parliamentary elections, Dalits (Pariahs) living in the
parliamentary constituency of "Chidambaram" in India
where attacked, molested and their huts burnt to ashes by
the caste Hindus placed at a lower hierarchy called
"Vanniyars" to prevent the Dalits from voting. The
bigoted police force actively participated in the
violence and arson against the Dalits. Totally 17 Dalit
villages were burnt to ashes and three Dalits were killed
in the Chidambaram area. Around 50,000 Dalits could not
vote and all the Dalit votes were fraudulently cast by
the caste Hindu Vanniyars whose PMK (Pattali Makkal
Katchi) party candidate in alliance with the Hindu
fanatic BJP party was declared elected in Chidambaram. He
(Mr.Ponnusamy) is now a minister in the cabinet of Prim e
Minister Vajpayee.
In short, the Hindus of India are so bigoted and hateful
that they will never allow the Dalits to taste a sense of
equality and dignity. Even though the present President
of India is a Dalit he is just a constitutional
figurehead without any executive power.
The tragedy is that the caste system is being spread
rapidly even in the United States by the Brahmans and
other caste Hindus who have emigrated to the USA during
the past forty years. For example, in the Hindu temples
built in the USA, only those who are born into the most
superior caste of Brahmans are allowed to be priests.
Even in the USA, lower caste Hindus and outcast Dalits
are not allowed to touch the idol in temples to perform
religious rites. In effect, the Hindus have managed to
bring untouchability and the caste system into the United
States in the garb of religious freedom even though it
violates the Civil Rights laws of the United States.
In 1989, when I was a student in Los Angeles, the priest
(Brahman) in a Hindu temple in California who knew my
background prevented me from entering the room (sanctum
sanctorum) where the idol was kept because I was a Dalit.
Upper caste Hindus in the United States and the Brahmans
in particular, who live in large numbers in the USA
vigorously practice the caste system. This is evident
from the way they psychologically despise
African-Americans, arrange marriages for their children
strictly within their caste and harbor feelings of
superiority because of their caste Hindu heritage. I know
many castes Hindu friends in the US, especially Brahmans,
who credit their academic achievement to their
intellectual superiority (over Americans) due to their
"natural" intelligence inherited "genetically" through
"caste superiority".
No wonder Adolf Hitler chose the Hindu symbol of
"Swastika" to represent the political message of
superiority by birth of those born into his race.
Hindus who protest the Baptists' criticism of Hinduism
should ponder how the Hindu Civil Law has forcibly
converted outcast victims (Dalits) who were never allowed
membership into the society and religion of the Hindu
castes. The segregated dwellings of Dalits all over
India, the denial of admission to Dalits into Vedic
schools which teach Hindu scriptures and the ban on
Dalits from working as priests in Hindu temples obviously
prove how the Hindu identity is thrust on the very people
who are victimized by it.
Hindus should wax eloquently about the intolerance of
other religions after destroying the hierarchical bigotry
of castes and other inherent evils in the Hindu faith.
Burning brides for dowry, killing people for caste
bigotry, sanctioning inequality and segregation in the
name of God, preventing widows from marrying, burning
widows in the funeral pyre of their husbands, allowing
slavery of Dalits and tribals in the form of bonded
labor, female infanticide, forcing women into
prostitution at temples in the name of serving God
(Devadasis) are all some of the evil practices of
Hinduism which are still prevalent in many parts of
India. Baptists are fully justified in their remarks
about Hinduism.
Hindus should criticize Christian missionaries for their
drive to convert Hindus into Christianity after scrapping
the Hindu Civil Law in India which "forcibly converts"
all non-Christians and non-Moslems, (including atheists,
outcast non-Hindu Dalits, tribals, Buddhists, Sikhs and
Jains) into the Hindu religious fold.
People living in glass houses should not throw
stones.
Dr. Iniyan Elango is a general physician and
psychotherapist practicing at Chennai, India. He also
edits a monthly periodical called "Dalit Times." He
recently shot a video documentary about the violence
and arson that prevented Dalits from voting in the
Chidambaram area in India. The TIME magazine in its
issue dated August 02, 1999 published his letter about
the relationship between violence in motion pictures
and campus violence. He is also the President of the
"Tamilar Human Rights Organization" and a co-founder of
the "Dalit Media Network". He is 34 years old.
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