Our matrilineal future - I

Today I was introduced to Marilyn vos Savant because of this article. I went through the Wikipedia article on her. The following paragraph caught my eye.

She says one should keep premarital surnames, with sons taking their fathers’ and daughters their mothers’.

This has been my position (even thought I might have wrongly termed it as 'ambiliny') too. I might have already written about it (but couldn't find it).

But in a patriarchal society a girl taking up her mother's surname need not necessarily mean it's matrilineal. I believe women in patriarchal societies need to come up with their own surnames which can be inherited afterwards.

Similar is the case with matrilineal society where men have to come up with their own surnames to pass it to the next generation.

However, I also endorse complete matrilineal inheritance for variety of reasons. Generally, in majority regions female lineages are far more autochthonous than male lineages. So, I would say children should take up matrilineal identity in terms of surname, religion and culture.

Reading - Economics, A Primer for India

I'm reading 'Economics, A Primer for India' by G. Omkarnath of Hyderabad Central University. The author makes a point in the preface that considering the failures of most of the economic theories in present day society there is no point in teaching any theory as a dogma. Instead, the approach should be to familiarize the student with the economics of the native country and understand the processes involved. However, at one place the author says,

People meet their material needs through their command over a range of goods (eg. rice, cloth, cooking oil and television sets) and services(eg. bus rides, haircuts, doctors, schools and maid servants).

Let's consider services like doctors and maid servants. A doctor him/herself can get services of other doctors. What about 'maid servants'? Would they work as servants if they can afford to have their own maid servants? So, doctors and maid servants can't be grouped together. And if we consider maid servants as 'people with needs', then they themselves can't be part of services as they can't avail that service for themselves.

There are two types of families who keep 'maid' servants. A middle class family where both spouses work and a rich family. However, a middle class family can only keep a servant when there is a huge economic disparity in a society and many women are forced to take up such jobs. For example, many Brazilian middle class families unlike their parental generation can't afford to keep maid servants owing to improving living standards of poor in that country.

In a nutshell,  a maid servant in  a middle class family basically represents failure of the society. So, I would suppose a student should have a clear view that a command over a service like 'maid servant' isn't equal to other materialist services. It doesn't consider her materialist need as a person.

Movements and Ideologies - India

The Aam Admi Party(AAP) which was formed in 2012 was borne out of a nationwide movement against corruption. Adding them to my list of major political parties:

AAP: Bourgeoisie (many top leaders appear to be atheistic but follow unethical atheism by pandering to religious and casteist elements).

Aravind Kejriwal, the leader of the party comes from a merchant caste. Among the leaders from merchant castes, M K Gandhi overcame "crisis of faith" and even supported the caste system, while EV Ramaswamy became a true atheist and denounced both religion and the caste system. However, in present day, it's believed that majority merchant castes support the Hindu nationalist party, BJP and basically play second fiddle to Brahmins in propagating Hindutva ideology. I wonder if Aravind Kejriwal becomes successful, will they remain loyal to the BJP?

Growing up in Karnataka, I hardly knew anyone from merchant castes. I must say, I haven't met any of them in Kannada and Malayali societies. Also, in Dravidian lands their caste position wasn't much different from weaker Shudra castes. However, the situation did appear to be similar in northern India  in olden days but conversion to Jinaism by some sections and the Raj appeared to have elevated their social position rapidly there. But ritually, their claim to become part of twice born castes and fight over the right to wear the sacred thread wasn't all that different from their Dravidian counterparts in Telugu region. Now they are part of the official 'twice born' or the forward castes or they aren't considered for affirmative action. The term 'Vaisya', which meant common people initially, has almost become synonymous with these castes.

After moving to Telugu region, I came across few Telugu and many northern Indians of merchant caste background. However, among northern Indians all my interactions were with Marwadis (though none of them from Rajasthan). Even though, I can't generalize but all my acquaintances of Telugu merchant background don't show any atheistic or rational bent of mind and appear to be deeply religious. This is in stark contrast to their northern counterparts. Of the four acquaintances, two of them are openly atheistic, another one is a believer but doesn't subscribe to astrology and superstitions. The fourth one, an openly BJP supporter, comes across as a staunch Muslim hater than Hindu believer.

I would think typical merchant castes would be like my Telugu acquaintances. It seems longer educational traditions of these  northern Indians probably have given them progressive attitude. However, there was one exception. One of them, a highly successful businessman, had the basic education of ten years and then went into business. That probably speaks more of his family tradition than his intellect. But what interests me about these atheists from the northern merchant caste is that their strong anti-Brahmin outlook.

Now this isn't new to me. I've seen OBCs in my circle from northern India having strong anti-Brahmin outlook. However,  there is one big difference. Even though OBCs are anti-Brahmins they are also overawed about Brahminism or Hindu scriptures. In this they match many Dravidian OBCs. But these northern Indian atheists don't hesitate to criticize the scriptures too.

But that doesn't mean they are just normal people who overcame all types of indoctrination and prejudices. Both of them are strongly against affirmative action.

It's well known that the BJP is hypocritical about social justice or its Hindutva ideology actually undermines affirmative action. In my opinion, the support of merchant castes to the AAP also depends upon how far it steers clear from social justice agenda.