Good Riddance, Dudes !
"I know, it's a thankless job" said the Director, smoking the cigarette hardest for the last time before throwing it away in the bin.
Seated across his office table was myself in the first flush of taking classes for competitive examinations to the state recruitment aspirants. He wanted to imply that he would care about my toil and hard work in dealing with the students all of whom were well past 25 and 30. I was by then already used to the thick and thin of teaching. But the impact of the stark and straight-forward truth conveyed in his curt remark on teaching was not lost on me. True, I knew I had that feeling in my guts since long, but it strikes like education when someone puts that in apt wording as he did.
Everyone, I bet, at some or other point in his life, would have surely and certainly hated one or two of his teachers and professors, though not everyone is involved in a direct conflict with them. Direct conflicts are naturally few and far between because those hating their teachers would not allow anyone, including the teachers in question, to know of their hatred. There could be exceptions, but they are just exceptions. For that matter, anyone in a position of some authority and veneration is always a potential object of hatred for his subordinates. The hatred may not be openly manifest to be spectacularly recognized as such right now. At present, it may be mistaken for trivial issues of discontent or passing events of temporary disturbance. Nevertheless, it is nothing but hatred, pure hatred which is invariably present, lurking in the remotest corners of people's minds, waiting to get in control of them and drive them crazy the moment it seizes upon an opportunity.
In the case of the Brahmins, in spite of hailing from a humble background, some of them historically held a good number of high positions only to make themselves the unmistakable objects of hatred on such a scale as we currently witness. I have no doubt that they will continue to be hated and envied by people in the future as well, at least at a personal level, because they are sure to occupy higher positions, given their brand value of sincerety, dedication and hard work.
However, hatred and envy for the Brahmins have their historical roots not in the secular occupations they took up, but in the religious occupations of priesthood and teaching which were made mandatory for them by the Hindu scriptures. Apart from remaining eternally low-paid, these are the two uniquely worst occupations on the earth which are constantly subject to scrutiny by each and every peanut-brained Tom, Dick and Harry in the society. These are the twin activities from which people expect unearthly ethics, divine purity and an unflinching commitment to duty. People are quick to point out their shortfalls at the drop of a hat. But mistakes do happen knowingly or unknowingly. Needless to say, it has never been easy to live upto the popular expectations for the ordinary mortals called priests and teachers, in our case the Brahmins. Professional privacy is a proverbial wild goose chase in these occupations as they are required to perform publicly under the ogling eye of a multitude on a daily basis.
These professions required the Brahmin to lead a life of seclusion in some measure and deliberately distance himself from other Hindus. He was forced to keep himself ritually pure by avoiding association with all sorts of people, which was, in course of time, mistaken for his casteist arrogance. He unfortunately incurred wrath of the same people whose religion he strove to preserve by way of following its principles of holiness in their true spirit. He was hopelessly misunderstood by everyone and left with few friends in the Hindu society. But conversely, the irony is, in case he broke the rules of ritual purity and mixed freely with all sorts of people, the same society would not have taken kindly to it. He would have been considered unfit for the holy vocation of priesthood. The more a community lives higher and above the society, the more are the chances of rumours, minconceptions and misunderstandings doing rounds about it. By the time the Brahmins woke up to this bitter reality, the damage to their repute was already done irrepairably. Later they hastened to make liberal amends to their code of conduct to offset the loss. But it did not help them retrieve their lost good will in the required measure.
Against this backdrop, it gives me immense pleasure that an overwhelming majority of the modern Brahmins have ditched these two monstrous occupations at the long last to pursue a variety of secular professions. Now, I am a happy soul because they started using their superior intelligence on more gainful and useful professions with lots of personal and professional privacy assured. Now, you are far from the madding and envying crowd. Now, you have nobody to peep into your professional performance except your immediate boss. As they developed intimacy with the Brahmins, more and more non-Brahmins are getting convinced that the Brahmins are not such hateful figures as being made out by Brahmin-bashers. Similarly, it also dawned upon the Brahmins that they need not lose either their caste or its traditions for the simple reason of having non-Brahmin friends.
There would be cynics who lament over the loss of the virtues of the old Brahmin life style and denounce the Brahmins' present life style as degeneration. But I don't think so. What good did their old life style do to the Brahmins ? It threw a majority of them in perpetual poverty, not for a day or year, but for centuries and millenia. The Brahmins' history reads like the history of India's poverty. They suffered and struggled a lot for the sake of preserving India's common religion, its culture heritage and literature, only to be hated by everyone in the end. Who does have the magnanimity to thank them for their service ? Who did recognize their greatness ? In stead of feeling gratitude and saying a few words in appreciation, people envy and hate them, try to dispossess and demote them.
The Brahmins are votaries of Hinduism as usual and some of them will continue their services to the Hindu temples as usual. But the duty of standing guard to the religion and culture should not be something exclusive to the Brahmins alone. Let the non-Brahmin Hindus learn to defend their own faith without seeking any help from the Brahmins. As for the Brahmins, they will continue to practise their religion wherever they reside on the earth.
True, the Brahmin did his best all these centuries. He served the nation in excess of his meagre numerical strength. He thought and planned for the nation in excess of his material means. The phase is over and can not be brought back. In retrospect, it now appears that he probably did a thankless job. The contemporary Brahmin is terribly tired and fed up. He is not at all in a position to defend the ancient faith of the Hindus. Stripped of all state protection and patronage, robbed of all opportunities and isolated and attacked by his own people, he is desperately on the run for his own biological survival.
Hindus of india ! Look after the Indian culture yourselves.
Seated across his office table was myself in the first flush of taking classes for competitive examinations to the state recruitment aspirants. He wanted to imply that he would care about my toil and hard work in dealing with the students all of whom were well past 25 and 30. I was by then already used to the thick and thin of teaching. But the impact of the stark and straight-forward truth conveyed in his curt remark on teaching was not lost on me. True, I knew I had that feeling in my guts since long, but it strikes like education when someone puts that in apt wording as he did.
Everyone, I bet, at some or other point in his life, would have surely and certainly hated one or two of his teachers and professors, though not everyone is involved in a direct conflict with them. Direct conflicts are naturally few and far between because those hating their teachers would not allow anyone, including the teachers in question, to know of their hatred. There could be exceptions, but they are just exceptions. For that matter, anyone in a position of some authority and veneration is always a potential object of hatred for his subordinates. The hatred may not be openly manifest to be spectacularly recognized as such right now. At present, it may be mistaken for trivial issues of discontent or passing events of temporary disturbance. Nevertheless, it is nothing but hatred, pure hatred which is invariably present, lurking in the remotest corners of people's minds, waiting to get in control of them and drive them crazy the moment it seizes upon an opportunity.
In the case of the Brahmins, in spite of hailing from a humble background, some of them historically held a good number of high positions only to make themselves the unmistakable objects of hatred on such a scale as we currently witness. I have no doubt that they will continue to be hated and envied by people in the future as well, at least at a personal level, because they are sure to occupy higher positions, given their brand value of sincerety, dedication and hard work.
However, hatred and envy for the Brahmins have their historical roots not in the secular occupations they took up, but in the religious occupations of priesthood and teaching which were made mandatory for them by the Hindu scriptures. Apart from remaining eternally low-paid, these are the two uniquely worst occupations on the earth which are constantly subject to scrutiny by each and every peanut-brained Tom, Dick and Harry in the society. These are the twin activities from which people expect unearthly ethics, divine purity and an unflinching commitment to duty. People are quick to point out their shortfalls at the drop of a hat. But mistakes do happen knowingly or unknowingly. Needless to say, it has never been easy to live upto the popular expectations for the ordinary mortals called priests and teachers, in our case the Brahmins. Professional privacy is a proverbial wild goose chase in these occupations as they are required to perform publicly under the ogling eye of a multitude on a daily basis.
These professions required the Brahmin to lead a life of seclusion in some measure and deliberately distance himself from other Hindus. He was forced to keep himself ritually pure by avoiding association with all sorts of people, which was, in course of time, mistaken for his casteist arrogance. He unfortunately incurred wrath of the same people whose religion he strove to preserve by way of following its principles of holiness in their true spirit. He was hopelessly misunderstood by everyone and left with few friends in the Hindu society. But conversely, the irony is, in case he broke the rules of ritual purity and mixed freely with all sorts of people, the same society would not have taken kindly to it. He would have been considered unfit for the holy vocation of priesthood. The more a community lives higher and above the society, the more are the chances of rumours, minconceptions and misunderstandings doing rounds about it. By the time the Brahmins woke up to this bitter reality, the damage to their repute was already done irrepairably. Later they hastened to make liberal amends to their code of conduct to offset the loss. But it did not help them retrieve their lost good will in the required measure.
Against this backdrop, it gives me immense pleasure that an overwhelming majority of the modern Brahmins have ditched these two monstrous occupations at the long last to pursue a variety of secular professions. Now, I am a happy soul because they started using their superior intelligence on more gainful and useful professions with lots of personal and professional privacy assured. Now, you are far from the madding and envying crowd. Now, you have nobody to peep into your professional performance except your immediate boss. As they developed intimacy with the Brahmins, more and more non-Brahmins are getting convinced that the Brahmins are not such hateful figures as being made out by Brahmin-bashers. Similarly, it also dawned upon the Brahmins that they need not lose either their caste or its traditions for the simple reason of having non-Brahmin friends.
There would be cynics who lament over the loss of the virtues of the old Brahmin life style and denounce the Brahmins' present life style as degeneration. But I don't think so. What good did their old life style do to the Brahmins ? It threw a majority of them in perpetual poverty, not for a day or year, but for centuries and millenia. The Brahmins' history reads like the history of India's poverty. They suffered and struggled a lot for the sake of preserving India's common religion, its culture heritage and literature, only to be hated by everyone in the end. Who does have the magnanimity to thank them for their service ? Who did recognize their greatness ? In stead of feeling gratitude and saying a few words in appreciation, people envy and hate them, try to dispossess and demote them.
The Brahmins are votaries of Hinduism as usual and some of them will continue their services to the Hindu temples as usual. But the duty of standing guard to the religion and culture should not be something exclusive to the Brahmins alone. Let the non-Brahmin Hindus learn to defend their own faith without seeking any help from the Brahmins. As for the Brahmins, they will continue to practise their religion wherever they reside on the earth.
True, the Brahmin did his best all these centuries. He served the nation in excess of his meagre numerical strength. He thought and planned for the nation in excess of his material means. The phase is over and can not be brought back. In retrospect, it now appears that he probably did a thankless job. The contemporary Brahmin is terribly tired and fed up. He is not at all in a position to defend the ancient faith of the Hindus. Stripped of all state protection and patronage, robbed of all opportunities and isolated and attacked by his own people, he is desperately on the run for his own biological survival.
Hindus of india ! Look after the Indian culture yourselves.
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