Less known facts about Hinduism

Disclaimer: This article is intended for peers/light-reading only. Biggies(or anybody) who find this irrational and disrespecting, are not advised to read along. I am not responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any inspirational or eye-opening remark.

Before going through this article, please note that I am NOT THE RELIGIOUS KINDA PERSON. I am fairly different, from exploring scientific explanations to questioning every damn belief on this planet. I do what I like and mind it, it has nothing to do with those "You would be punished by the lord" and "You don’t know about the reality, son" type stereotype statements. And don't call me an Atheist, rather let me be an Agnostic, an Humanist. This (blogging) is the best option to pour my shit out.

Today I will speak of the greatest ill of our society- Education and it's flawed education system. And for (your) god's sake please don't heat up in the middle of it all. For taking a safe side. Before enlightening on Hinduism, let me tell you that I am a Hindu and an upper-caste Brahman(that my parents say).

Hinduism is a universal religion, with primary emphasis on brotherhood and tolerance. It views the world as one family. Man is divine in nature and realization of that supreme truth is primary aim of all human activity. Yet some happen to still believe that Caste system was brought by hinduism.

Perhaps there is no nation in this world that is Tolerant as India. Despite the whole caste issue propaganda, we had lower castes as not only cabinets or chief minister or even billionaires, but even as President.

Let us know about the caste system first. Hindu caste system recognized four distinct classes among people based on the above criteria and enforced it through codes of conduct specific to each class and described
Brahmins- They are the priestly class, entitled to study the vedas, perform rites and rituals for every other citizen and obliged to observe the sacraments. Basically they served as teacher.
Kshatriyas- They are the warrior class, who are commanded to protect the people, bestow gifts to the Brahmins, offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors, study the vedas, and dispense justice.
Vaishyas- These are the merchant and the peasant classes, who tend the cattle, offer sacrifices, study the vedas, lend money and cultivate the land.
Shudras- They are the labour class, whose only duty is to serve the other three classes. But due to there less scope and lack of cleanliness compared to others they allowed weren't allowed in Brahmanical rituals or participate in marriage of higher classes.

Now we can easily tell that none of these classes have changed to day, neither there's any new profession which makes these classes to be irrelevant.

Now we must note, that these classes could be changed, if the profession has been changed, that means if a Brahman is now engaged in menial jobs, he's no more a Shudra, or if a Shudra starts doing priestly work, he's no more a Shudra but a brahman.

The disaster of the Indian society was during the british colonization, when british made the castes for Indian society, no matter which religion, each of them had caste already. Solely because British had a selfish motive, they wanted to exploit Indians perfectly, and they would translate Manusmriti, even change the verses just for making there rule sound ideal or the caste system that they had just brought.

Now lets speak about the status of women now. Historically speaking, until the Vedic India, India had obviously best women rights in the world, however after the foundation of more religions, i.e. Jainism, Buddhism, women rights degraded and later child marriages came into culture, in which marriages of childrens would be fixed by the parents. And after the Islamic rule of Indian parts, it's not hard to tell that now in India women were treated badly, maybe even worse than it is now. The popular Sati practice is forbidden by Hindu scriptures for the Present age, which is Kaliyuga, but this practice started once again, by 12th century, as muslim invaders would rape women, abduct them. And if you are going to oppose them, I would definetly want to know, that what if it was your own wife instead? Later the british came, would show same hypocrisy as they would rape the girls and then oppose if girls would escape from them. Sati actually stopped only after the independence of India. Not before that.

Another thing happened was, that our society was so influenced by these invaders or colonizers, that they would often adopt there inhumane practicies. For example, like i have explained above, Caste were changeable, and they were by the profession, but right after the british's installment of caste, many of our people would really start acting like there castes are unchangeable. After muslim colonization many of our people adopted the bad habits such as domestic violence, animal slaughtering, etc.

I remember reading the writings of Dadabhai Naoroji who is also known as the "Grand Old Man", even he asserted that British are promoting caste system in India, here's his exact quote:-

"It may be said that Hindus of high caste may not respect those of lower castes in the service. Is it for the British to maintain and encourage such distinction and feeling ? Or is it the mission of Britain." (Can be read, in his "Essays, speeches, addresses and writings", page 393)

As a result of this Caste System, higher classes may have enjoyed first decades, but later they couldn't as much either. Initiative and enterprise was suppressed and the progress of the country was severely hampered. People could not marry out of their caste or even eat with people belonging to lower-castes as social mixing was severely restricted. People remained confined to their own castes and were not exposed to different ideas and ways of thought. Thus, their thinking also became narrow and limited. This also led to separatism. People only thought of the welfare of their own castes and not that of the society as a whole.

Let's talk after Independence. These caste prejudices still plague our society and even become influential factors at the time of elections. Politicians encourage and exploit these attitudes for their own gains.

If not, then I would like to ask, why we are having so many Dalits, who are not actually Dalits? It's only because of the given benefits by the government. If you are a Dalit, you can get the government job even if you had scored only 35% in the exams, but if you are a brahmin who scored 99%, you won't get the job.

Not that I let Islam and Christianity off the hook. But i would also mention that why it's just hindu people, even the castes of Christians, Muslims are exploited by politicians, especially Congress, while i would never hear Modi sparking a word about any caste.

The dirty use of politics has been prevalent from time immemorial.

At the end of the day, I just feel that there is something terribly wrong with our country's education system and the prevalence of real Indian history, the ruiling party, especially congress has shown us the history, the way they wanted, why we have to read about murderers like Aurangzeb in schools? Why they don't teach us about some genius like Dayanand Saraswati who is admired worldwide? This is what my point was.

And as long as that’s going on, I am going to continue writing about it.

Note: All these facts have been put up with a lot of research. It's not any personal feud. You are welcome to put up your counter-points. And this is a modified version of an old article of mine, updated with the help of a friend who takes interest in literary findings.

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