I talked about this friend of mine in one of my posts. I wondered how he reconciles his status as an OBC and his association with the Hindutva.
As I discussed, Hindutva and affirmative action are incompatible. Generally, the Hindutva narrative twists the caste history. According to them;
- The caste system was good (but became bad later)
- There is something great in the caste system and because of which India remained predominantly Hindu even after hundreds of years of Muslim rule (It doesn't bother about analyzing other societies, which of course beyond its scope and logical fallacies don't exist)
- Brahmins preserved India's culture (There is nothing more hideous than this propaganda. A classic twist of Brahmin monopoly of knowledge and deliberate exclusion of other castes)
Now, no OBC brought up in this propaganda can give any rational explanation for affirmative action. As I said, it generally leads to perversion of their thinking. My worry was this friend was one of the victims and that's the reason for him to forward couple of malicious jokes against affirmative action. To top it, his basic education was in a school run by a Hindu organization.
However, I do have to acknowledge he is certainly not fooled by the Hindutva propaganda.
Well, he liked couple of posts of mine on Facebook. In the first one, I mentioned how becoming foot soldiers of Hindutva movement is demeaning for OBCs. In another post, I mocked at a Brahmin priest's contention that the Untouchability was the creation of Dravidians (I suppose the legacy of Brahmin apologist George L Hart).
There are many OBCs and my own cousins drawn to Hindutva among my friends' list. However, none of them 'like' my posts that attack the caste system or Hindutva. So, it does show he is aware of the contradictions.
It probably boils down to their inability to articulate their thoughts and also counter the pro-caste privileged caste propaganda. Also, as one of my friends who is associated with the RSS once confided that there was a fear among people part of the movement that if they counter many of twisted narratives of the caste system it wouldn't go well with the privileged upper echelons.
I'm sure the Hindutvites of privileged caste background will always be grateful that there are Muslims around.
As I discussed, Hindutva and affirmative action are incompatible. Generally, the Hindutva narrative twists the caste history. According to them;
- The caste system was good (but became bad later)
- There is something great in the caste system and because of which India remained predominantly Hindu even after hundreds of years of Muslim rule (It doesn't bother about analyzing other societies, which of course beyond its scope and logical fallacies don't exist)
- Brahmins preserved India's culture (There is nothing more hideous than this propaganda. A classic twist of Brahmin monopoly of knowledge and deliberate exclusion of other castes)
Now, no OBC brought up in this propaganda can give any rational explanation for affirmative action. As I said, it generally leads to perversion of their thinking. My worry was this friend was one of the victims and that's the reason for him to forward couple of malicious jokes against affirmative action. To top it, his basic education was in a school run by a Hindu organization.
However, I do have to acknowledge he is certainly not fooled by the Hindutva propaganda.
Well, he liked couple of posts of mine on Facebook. In the first one, I mentioned how becoming foot soldiers of Hindutva movement is demeaning for OBCs. In another post, I mocked at a Brahmin priest's contention that the Untouchability was the creation of Dravidians (I suppose the legacy of Brahmin apologist George L Hart).
There are many OBCs and my own cousins drawn to Hindutva among my friends' list. However, none of them 'like' my posts that attack the caste system or Hindutva. So, it does show he is aware of the contradictions.
It probably boils down to their inability to articulate their thoughts and also counter the pro-caste privileged caste propaganda. Also, as one of my friends who is associated with the RSS once confided that there was a fear among people part of the movement that if they counter many of twisted narratives of the caste system it wouldn't go well with the privileged upper echelons.
I'm sure the Hindutvites of privileged caste background will always be grateful that there are Muslims around.
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