At our podcast over the weekend I expressed some reservation about genetic testing of ancestry. I do find that there is a peculiarly Indian & Hindu interest in ancestry and genetics that is otherwise absent.
I was struggling to articulate my precise hesitation until I read this wonderful piece on Ambedkar (I imagine Arundhati Roy is a direct descendant of this powerful tradition of dissent against South Asian classism).
Read what Ambedkar wrote on why Brahmins started worshipping the cow and gave up eating beef
The clue to the worship of the cow is to be found in the struggle between Buddhism and Brahmanism and the means adopted by Brahmanism to establish its supremacy over Buddhism.
Earlier in the book, Ambedkar introduces the concept of Broken Men, whom he describes as follows:
In a tribal war it often happened that a tribe instead of being completely annihilated was defeated and routed. In many cases a defeated tribe became broken into bits. As a consequence of this there always existed in Primitive times a floating population consisting of groups of Broken tribesmen roaming in all directions.
He also makes the assumption that
“Untouchables are Broken Men belonging to a tribe different from the tribe comprising the village community.”
Ambedkar’s third assumption is that
“Broken Men were the followers of Buddhism and did not care to return to Brahmanism when it became triumphant over Buddhism”
Now the genetics data sort of tells us that caste (and untouchability) precedes Buddhism to the arrival of the Aryans. I do believe that any community needs myths, as well as its history, to overcome its present. Continue reading The Pakistani Myth that made us Great-
