People's Democracy

Thinking Together

Is  it true that the  BJP's vision of "Hindutva" is directed at cleansing Hindu society of the ill-effects of the caste system?

 Purushothaman, Coimbatore

THE BJP has never unequivocally criticised the caste system. After all, M. S. Golwalkar, the most important ideological figure in the pantheon of the RSS noted in 1966 (in his book _ A Bunch of Thoughts) "Brahmin is the head, King the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet."

The BJP still stands by this "definition" of the four castes as is illustrated by a reproduction of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya's articles on its official web site on the Internet. At one point the article says, "...but we had never accepted, conflict between one caste and another as fundamental concept behind  it. In our concept of four castes, they are thought of as analogous to the different limbs of Virat-purusha. It was  suggested that fhis abdomen and Shudras from legs. ... The origin of the caste  system was on the above basis. If this idea is not kept alive; the castes, instead of being complementary, can produce conflict. Brom the head of the Virat-Purusha  Bhrahmins were created, Kshatriyas from hands, Vaishyas from ut then this is distortion." In other words the caste system has no inherent flaws, what needs correction are only distortions in the system! Can there be a clearer enunciation of the essential upper caste bias in the BJP's philosophy?