#anti caste

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

The "you people are celebrating the return of casteism" crowd is so funny to me. How are you so sheltered that you thought caste went anywhere in the last 10 years?

This is India. A country where you can't utter someone's name without bringing up their caste. Since I don't really use a surname, I've had countless instances where people would repeatedly ask my surname and even when I told them I didn't have one, they'd just be reduced to asking for my caste directly. This is the country you're talking about. If you were oblivious to the caste hierarchy so far, it's because you're privileged enough to not have to think about it.

Not to mention, do you believe the upper caste politics that the BJP and RSS love are normal and free of caste? Trying to assimilate everyone into this upper caste idea of a Hindu without actually doing anything to remove the caste hierarchy isn't the anti-caste revolution that you seem to think it is. You have to meaningfully remove caste barriers for that to happen.

- Mod S

[curtwilde]

"High Tea at the Kapurs" by Karuna Ezara Parikh

[bfpnola]

[foxglovedforest]

I LOVE THIS GENRE OF PHOTO

[kuch-toh-garbad-hai-daya]

स्वाभिमान >>> स्वर्ग

[moonlit-hexes]

i bring the - most of h*ndu concepts that you have stolen and incorporated into witchcraft (karma, yoga, chakras etc) are all rooted in oppression and casteism - vibe that most white and western witches do not appreciate.

[queer-azadi]

Blog Rebrand !!!

We were originally fuzzy-feminists. Our blog had kind of died and our interests had shifted from primarily feminist to a rather more inclusive and Indian view. We will now mainly be posting about politics especially in Indian circles and have a much more intersectional perspective. In the current political environment of India we think it is important to have leftist, secular and queer inclusive voices. We view organised religion critically and are fully caste abolitionist. Also due to the moderators' sexualities we also largely focus on trans and aromantic experiences. We believe pride is political and should be left aligned.

Check us out if you want to follow a leftist and queer Indian blog!

[metamatar]

I don't know the word vomit I did in your inbox earlier is savarna guilt. Holy shit that would be pathetic, wouldn't it? Fuck.

hey anon, i feel like you wouldn't want me to publish your previous ask. sorry i took a while to get to this! what i'd say about your sense of what replaces what religion did for you viz community is this –

not all ritual has to be rooted in caste and a commitment to destroying hinduism is not one to never celebrate a fall harvest festival, which most of the religious holidays this month are. many of these festivals are synthesizing and appropriating preexisting community traditions and the hindutva project is trying to standardise them into an upper caste form – local dalit communities will have different and meaningful practices and traditions. i recommend studying nastika, shaivite, bhakti, buddhist, sikh and all sorts of anti caste traditions from the subcontinent – resisting caste is hundreds of years old and you will find something worthwhile and joyful. you will find rituals to revive and reinvent and remix. this does not have to be a lonely path! guilt does not seem productive, your emotions do not your contribution to a movement make. read and watch movies w your friends and join up with your local amdekarites!

all that said. maybe im the wrong person to answer these questions. im godless and faithless. the clean honesty of it appeals to me. many many people lose their faith across the world, everyday. they thrive. when the old world dies and the new one is born, there is always hurt and longing and pain. it is a worthwhile struggle and you will wonder after how you lived any other way tbh.

[enigma-the-mysterious]

The more time passes, the more casteist and islamophobic desiblr gets. They don't even try to hide it anymore

[seaoafthoughts]

I’m an oppressor caste teenager in the US and, outside of talking to my parents and other family about caste (which has only minimal effect on them no matter how much research I bring up or evidence I use), I don’t know how to better throw my support behind the anti caste movement. I don’t have financial independence yet to contribute monetarily and I’m just consumed by the guilt of not being active enough

hello dear anon,

so i’ve been contemplating how i should answer this exactly and here’s what i’ve come up with-

1. i understand that its hard to talk to your parents and other family members about caste. its the one topic everybody and their mother loves to throw down on at any table and the conversation always goes sideways fast.

but i suggest you don’t give up. you don’t have to have full blown out conversations about it all the time. they will refuse to listen.

so every time someone says something casteist say something along the lines of "what/who made you think this was perfectly reasonable to say out loud?" and wait for them to try answer. you don't have to continue this conversation but this statement you made? its for you. its to remind yourself that the nonsense that they're spouting is bullshit. and they don't even have a reasonable explanation as to why the holy fuck they thought it was okay to say outloud.

2. savarna (oppressor caste) guilt is useless in terms of supporting the anti-caste movement. a parallel example to this would be - imagine how useful white guilt is in a conversation of racism. it occurs, it happens but if one focuses on it they make the entire narrative about themselves again rather than what they're trying to support.

remember - guilt is an easy emotion to succumb to. let yourself feel it but don't focus on it. it doesn't do anyone any good.

3. if you don't have monetary means to help out yet; read, learn and help/volunteer in some shape with organizations who are actively doing some excellent anti-caste work in the U.S right now.

Equality Labs - https://www.equalitylabs.org

National Academic Coalition for Caste Equity

Ambedkar-Phule Network of American Dalits and Bahujans

Ambedkar Association of North America

Ambedkarite Buddhist Association of Texas

Boston Study Group

and so on. these are a few of the organizations that i know of and have been listed in the high profile seattle city council resolution to stand against caste discrimination in all forms.

when you finally do manage to gain some monetary funds, pls do donate. money is the most expressible language in terms of support sometimes.

4. finally, you are a NRI teenager who's aware of the caste privilege you hold. this means you do have more power than you realize. get creative with that knowledge. learn as much as you can about casteism and the number of ways it warps itself and presents itself innocently. you cannot expect DBA people to teach you what you can already find with a simple google search.

the onus is on you. its a personal responsibility. keep that in mind and keep moving forward.

good luck. jai bhim.

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

okay i abhor the manusmriti as much as you do but to compare it with nazis or call it the nazi bible is disgusting.

it's holocaust minimalism. no one who followed the manusmriti carried out a genocide where 6 million people were brutally murdered.

it might feel good to call it wrong and morally depraved, however you need to understand that not every bad thing is equal to nazis. this is exactly what has led to a resurgence of 'hitler was right' posts recently.

It took me a while to sort through the post you were mentioning, and yes. I have found it, it was a post from 4 years ago.

Let me first apologise if this has hurt sentiments. I was wrong in using the words 'N*zi incel' for people who follow the Manusmriti (to the T)

But if you would hear me out, please-

The Manusmriti is the basis of a system that actively suppresses, tortures, and excludes MASSIVE sections of people. It is the set of behaviours encouraged to makes sure people uphold this system. (Caste system)

I will not spend time looking for the exact words again, but that book is FULL of racial (caste) hierarchy and patriarchial practices. Methods very much used by Hitler.

What hurts me when you say that this is holocaust minimalism- is that the Manusmriti has influenced Indian society eons before the Nazis even came. The Nazis systematically executed 6 million people (among them not just Jews, but queer people, disabled people, ROMANI PEOPLE) within 1 or 2 generations of enacting similar rules and policies (remember, the Nazis didn't win in one day) then the Manusmriti took a couple thousand years to establish itself as the rules of a social system which weeded out 'impure' people from 'pure' people (i.e the Savarnas, and Brahmins in particular). This deliberately kept Dalit and Adivasi people (Also conquered indegenous peoples in the subcontient, whose land and culture was taken away for the rulers of the time) excluded from access to even basic essentials, demeaned and dehumanised them THE SAME WAY THE NAZIS DID TO THOSE THEY CONSIDERED 'IMPURE'.

What I mainly am upset about is how can you not consider the caste system equally as bad as the holocaust? Is it because you don't hear about it as much? Dalits and Adivasis are beaten, abused, and killed EVEN TODAY, so imagine what the number of dead people has been over the years it has been practiced. We might not have the counted numbers or even a close estimate of people who have been killed by caste related violence, but does that discount the damage this system has done? Is it because the bodies are brown?

What I want you to understand is that the Nazis were inspired by ideologies just like the ones the Manusmriti thrived off of. Although Germany and India are very distant, the two systems are tied to one thing: Purity and Exclusion.

If you still cannot see how Nazi ideology and Manusmriti are linked, perhaps you do not abhor it as much as you think you do.

-Mod G

[curtwilde]

AMBEDKARITE BACKGROUND ffs just say low-caste itna sharmata kyun hain?

Of course the account is called devi uvacha

[empyreanebula]

i was able to donate a while ago for the library of emancipation (they met their goal!!) & the books arrived today 🥰

[buttercuparry]

I hope I will be able to make myself a stable space financially, because only then can I bring about certain ethical and moral changes that I think is needed in my life. I believe that if I truly am a believer of Indiscrimination, of equality, of humanity- then these changes are things I have to do. And I need to study, make a clear mental space, build myself a support system to make these a reality. And for all that I need money because financial stability would not only help me in achieving my goals, but it would also be a cushion to many fallouts that I know I am going to experience.

[meluhha]

Tarabai Shinde; Savitribai & Jyotirao Phule; & the Truth-seekers Society >>

"his argument that brahmans were Aryan invaders who established and enforced a religion and social system to benefit them and keep them in power, they argued that Phule did not have the authority to rewrite history."

 ..except, he wasn't

“Prior to 1920s, the samaj opposed the Indian national movement because it was a movement led by the elites.”