How reductive oversimplification of Varna system drives Hinduphobia in US, Canada

“The PM said the Hindus were a foul race…” – John Colville diary entry refers to the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s contempt of Hindus. Importantly, the British hatred of Hindus as a race continues from Churchill to James Mill to Macaulay. They decided to depict the Hindu people as a race, as opposed to ethnicity.   The British imposition of the European ‘Sistema de Casta’ on the Indian people living within the kula-jaati-varna (KJV) system is hardly surprising. The KJV system was simple to understand for any pre-World War Asian peoples, all of whom had occupation-based community systems.   However, unlike Asian systems, the European class systems – casta – were based on racial supremacy, decided by colour of skin. In homogenous western societies unused to accepting diversity, phenotypes were often easy markers for “outsiders”. In contrast, Sakas, Hunas, Kambojas, Ahoms and several successful dynasties were rulers in India. They were hailed as grand contributors to India’s civilizational milieu, irrespective of their appearance. They mingled without imposition of non-Indian systems in agriculture, astronomy, faith or finance. History scholar and software entrepreneur from the Bay area, Savitri Mumukshu, notes that Duarte Barbosa was the first Portuguese to use “Casta” to define Indian communities based on skin colour. This was a system being solidified since some decades in Europe, to separate Muslims and Jews from Christian “true believers”.   Centuries later, his ideological descendant, Indo-Portuguese Catholic priest, Sebastião Dalgado, equated the Sanskrit word “varna” to caste. This deliberate conflation occurred as late as in 1921. Ironically, it gaslit Hindus as racists. Such thinking offered more grounds for the Aryan Invasion Theory in common literature. That this idea, promulgated often with intent of racial discrimination, continues to be taught in Indian schools is a travesty. The propagation of “caste” as an Indian concept has scarred thousands of Indians who carry a skewed understanding of Indian society moulded in a European template. The term “Brahminism” was coined by Gonçalo Fernandes Trancoso to describe Hinduism. Today, hundreds of articles from imperialists and former colonisers justify Hindu-hatred by using the same word, trivialising Nazism by using the words in the same context.   They assume that this implies a micro-minority of Indians born into the Brahmin jaati raised to a position of power by the British during their employment of the Divide and Rule policy. With the superimposition of the Critical Race Theory, the abuse of the term and then the people has taken on a life of its own in America. With brazen abuse towards Brahmins and other Hindus becoming rampant, one cannot forget the murderous havoc raised by the “Dotbusters” only some decades ago. Society in the US is inherently racist, with ghettoised community living passing for multiculturalism. The “melting pots” are often elite concepts, and gangs that beat Hindu, Parsi, Sikh and Jain men into coma and death like the Dotbusters define the hardships of first generation Hindu immigrants. Numerous Sikh men have been killed as a result of hate crimes in the US over the years. Hindus retain little political power in western nations. People of Indian origin often play up the British atrocity literature tropes to better fit in. Born in Cincinnati, Vivek Ramaswamy, Presidential candidate from the Republican Party, talks of escaping “oppressive” “caste” systems. Kamala Harris, Vice President from the Democratic Party is of mixed origin, including Indian, and believes making dosas with a television personality defines Indianness. What was once called lip service passes as virtue signalling to diversity. Such stunts signify and cover up a lack of said virtue in practice. The current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom bears as little inferiority about his Hindu origins as Scottish First Minister Hamza Yusuf bears of his Pakistani roots. As such, the racism against him and former British Home Secretary Priti Patel continue to illuminate the Hinduphobia prevalent in western societies.   Hindus abroad function at an individual level, eschewing the idea of Hindu community in favour of complete assimilation. Temples remain an occasional gathering for the aesthetic aspects of community bonding, rather than a pilgrimage to seek religious solace, unlike with other minority groups. Despite such attempts, identity involves the larger society they function in, assigning them labels. It is not a mere matter of individuals asserting their own affiliations to nation or party. Despite their presence in political positions, there is no lobby that asserts Hindu rights within the western political fold. The number of individuals, lobbies and political parties that espouse the causes of monotheistic faith systems on the other hand, abound.   Several of these are involved in the continued anti-pagan Hinduphobic caste laws being legislated in the US and Canada. Unsurprisingly, a Khalistan sympathiser and ISI associate Amar Shergill is one of the faces behind the “anti-caste” bill in the state of California. Such bills are now law in the cities of Seattle and Toronto, and California may be the first US state to pass it. The new law assumes that caste discrimination is a reality in the US, and singles out Hindus as culprits without cause. The Hindu diaspora in the US remain largely unaware of the hate campaigns against them. Unlike the rallying cries of “Islamophobia” that were weaponised quickly, Hinduphobia is incredibly normalised in western societies. Absolute assimilation involves desensitisation towards disparity to a great extent. It is also unhelpful that the most vocal Hindus of the diaspora happen to be the most privileged and divorced from Indian and Hindu ground realities. Believing the reductive oversimplification of a four-tiered system somehow an exact equivalent of the European ‘Sistema de Casta’ is an easy way to fit into an Indian-American mould. They are happy to participate in the racism meted out to their peers so long as it allows them continued places at their high tables. The author is a Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Bath, an MBA, a columnist, and a podcaster. Views expressed are personal. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.