Z00 Miscellaneous

From From Kedar Gadgil on Facebook:

"So, someone (I still don't know who, but given my last name and my Pune-roots, the list of potential suspects is long) added me to a WhatsApp group called, "आम्ही ब्राह्मण मंडळी".

I have not yet interacted, but the exchanges between the initially 50, then 300, 500, and after a huge dispute, now 250 participants are a fascinating window into the thinking of today's urban Indian-origin (for there are many NRIs too) savarna middle class.

Fascinating like religion to me, because I can view it from a distance without feeling any sense of belonging or ownership.

(But also fascinating like a piece of dog __ I find on my driveway: I wonder what it is doing there when there are no dogs in the neighbourhood, whether I or someone I know has stepped in it already, and who is going to clean it up.)

Within 48 hours of being launched, the group split into two:
1. those who think that daughters of a Brahmin, if married to a non-Brahmin are not Brahmin (nor are their children);
2. those who think otherwise.

Then, it split again into two factions:
1. those who think the spelling should be 'ब्राम्हण';
2. those who insist it is 'ब्राह्मण'.

I kid you not. At this point, it is about to split again based on:
1. those who think the national flag should be plain Bhagwa;
2. those who insist that the original flag of Lord Rama was Bhagwa with a golden Sun at the centre and so that should be our national flag.

Just to be sure, these are people who are current and retired businessmen, bureaucrats, diplomats, C-suite occupiers, politicians, writers, artists, (very) senior (and recognised) military men, bankers, IT professionals, doctors, scientists, publishers, bloggers, airline pilots, lawyers, journalists, other than the usual astrologers, priests, and woo-mongers.

This is not a group that can be dismissed as 'fringe.'

My prima facie observations:

~ Despite all the education and moralistic posturing about 'shaastr', the amount of woo you can see there would make Jaggi Vasudev blush a deep magenta.

~ Despite the liberal posturing about how Brahmins have been responsible for every 'concession' given to the oppressed classes and how magnanimous this caste has been in the past (and continues to be), the amount of bhaktgiri you see there would put make Shefali Vaidya seem like a communist revolutionary.

~ Despite the books they have read, the places they have travelled to and worked in, and the people and cultures they have interacted with, their xenophobia and bigotry would make Tejaswi Surya look like an amateur.

~ Despite the constant appeals to the 'Golden Past' and Akhand Bharat, the cowardice to face reality would make Gen Bakshi seem like Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

In short, the group is a joke. This would be funny, if not so true.

But this is the world we are living in. Not a new world. Not an aberration. Just our world. As it has always been: with the usual, run of the mill, par for the course, garden variety, everyday privileged _.

P.S: After this post, they will probably block me, and speak about 'traitors in our midst' and bring up historical examples, etc. But hear ye, you are obsolete dinosaurs of an age gone past and best forgotten (even if you do not wish to atone for it) and I shall have the last laugh, you irrelevant _."
:

"So, someone (I still don't know who, but given my last name and my Pune-roots, the list of potential suspects is long) added me to a WhatsApp group called, "आम्ही ब्राह्मण मंडळी".

I have not yet interacted, but the exchanges between the initially 50, then 300, 500, and after a huge dispute, now 250 participants are a fascinating window into the thinking of today's urban Indian-origin (for there are many NRIs too) savarna middle class.

Fascinating like religion to me, because I can view it from a distance without feeling any sense of belonging or ownership.

(But also fascinating like a piece of dog __ I find on my driveway: I wonder what it is doing there when there are no dogs in the neighbourhood, whether I or someone I know has stepped in it already, and who is going to clean it up.)

Within 48 hours of being launched, the group split into two:
1. those who think that daughters of a Brahmin, if married to a non-Brahmin are not Brahmin (nor are their children);
2. those who think otherwise.

Then, it split again into two factions:
1. those who think the spelling should be 'ब्राम्हण';
2. those who insist it is 'ब्राह्मण'.

I kid you not. At this point, it is about to split again based on:
1. those who think the national flag should be plain Bhagwa;
2. those who insist that the original flag of Lord Rama was Bhagwa with a golden Sun at the centre and so that should be our national flag.

Just to be sure, these are people who are current and retired businessmen, bureaucrats, diplomats, C-suite occupiers, politicians, writers, artists, (very) senior (and recognised) military men, bankers, IT professionals, doctors, scientists, publishers, bloggers, airline pilots, lawyers, journalists, other than the usual astrologers, priests, and woo-mongers.

This is not a group that can be dismissed as 'fringe.'

My prima facie observations:

~ Despite all the education and moralistic posturing about 'shaastr', the amount of woo you can see there would make Jaggi Vasudev blush a deep magenta.

~ Despite the liberal posturing about how Brahmins have been responsible for every 'concession' given to the oppressed classes and how magnanimous this caste has been in the past (and continues to be), the amount of bhaktgiri you see there would put make Shefali Vaidya seem like a communist revolutionary.

~ Despite the books they have read, the places they have travelled to and worked in, and the people and cultures they have interacted with, their xenophobia and bigotry would make Tejaswi Surya look like an amateur.

~ Despite the constant appeals to the 'Golden Past' and Akhand Bharat, the cowardice to face reality would make Gen Bakshi seem like Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

In short, the group is a joke. This would be funny, if not so true.

But this is the world we are living in. Not a new world. Not an aberration. Just our world. As it has always been: with the usual, run of the mill, par for the course, garden variety, everyday privileged _.

P.S: After this post, they will probably block me, and speak about 'traitors in our midst' and bring up historical examples, etc. But hear ye, you are obsolete dinosaurs of an age gone past and best forgotten (even if you do not wish to atone for it) and I shall have the last laugh, you irrelevant _."