Who are these “caste Hindus”?
…or The Great Joke that is Indian Media - Part XI
Excerpt from an OpEd in the Indian Express (emphasis mine)*:
This (Dalits entering a temple) could have made news 60 years ago. And even then, it would have been shocking. For the fact of Dalits entering a temple to make headlines in the 21st century only goes to show that untouchability is far from a bygone evil.
The injustice is so stark, the story makes easy telling.
When a group of Dalits had previously tried to enter the Ekambareshwarar temple in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district, they found it locked…After many rounds of negotiations with the village panchayat, a group of Dalits reattempted entry — this time under police escort — only to have stones hurled, and the situation spiralled out of control.…It is, in these extremely imperfect and regrettable circumstances, a relief that on Tuesday a group of 80 Dalits, under full police escort and accompanied by district officials, finally entered the temple and prayed. But prayers are not enough, if the government wants to prevent a repeat incident. The law is not the problem.
As it is, many of the caste Hindus in the village apparently piped down after they were told that their actions were illegal and merited consequences — an example of how the law can be made to work.
So who exactly are these caste Hindus?
A news-report in the Times of India casts some light (emphasis mine):
The event (Dalit’s attempt to enter the temple) was part of a series of such temple entry programmes in protest against caste discrimination that prevents Dalits from entering temples in several parts of Tamil Nadu, the state that saw the Dravidian movement in the ‘60s that opposed caste suppression, but has done little to end discrimination.
The Vanniyars of Chettipulam near Vedaranyam — designated among the most backward communities — had initially agreed to permit the Dalits into the Arulmigu Kamatchiamman Sametha Ekambareswarat Temple during peace talks organized by the administration days ago. But, on Wednesday morning, they gathered in large numbers in front of the temple and went berserk at the sight of police and revenue officials escorting the Dalits.
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Why did the editorial writers at Indian Express not mention this? What was the point about using the words “caste Hindu”? Were they not aware of the identity of those who were opposing temple worship? or is it so much easier (and tempting) to write “caste Hindus” and forget about it?
*Thanks to Sh Chowgule for flagging this on a Yahoo! group
Related Posts (do read if you have the time): “The great joke that is Indian Media” series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 and Part 10
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Shantanu,
I would like to assume that IE just wanted to write ‘upper’ caste Hindus, but just forgot to write ‘upper’. A typical typo I would not be surprised to see our media making.
Otherwise, the sentence just does not make any sense.
Even if IE wanted to mean ‘casteist hindus’ (and which, I think, is how you are interpreting it as), ‘Caste hindus’ is still grammatically incorrect!
Comment by Harshit | November 2, 2009
Sorry Harshit!
This word is not a typo and is frequently used also on TV.
The reasons are deliberate, of course.
I came to a stage , quite awhile ago, where I could not bear to read that paper anymore.
Comment by seadog4227 | November 2, 2009
I have seen the phrase ‘caste Hindus’ used instead of (presumably) ‘upper-caste Hindus’ several times in national newspapers.
I agree with the above comment that such use is deliberate.
Comment by manju | November 2, 2009
Are OBCs, MBCs etc., etc., are caste hindus ? After all who are caste hindus ? (Perhaps there may be some casteless hindus too). Obviously Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Banias etc., etc., are supposed to be caste hindus. But where does Vanniars belong ? As usual MSM are indulging in suppressio veri and suggestio falsi. They are not going to leave any chance to throw stones at the so called caste hindus ? If this helps in harvesting of more souls they are going to be sufficiently compensated.
By the way why the so called secular government do not take any stringent action even after 60 years of independence ? Why don’t the authorities simply say that wherever the dalits (who are in the hindu fold) are not allowed into any temple, such temples will not have any reason to exist. I am a strong believer in God but I favour the demolition of such structures (if such a structure is not a privately owned property) where people are discriminated against. God can never be anywhere near such a place.
Comment by KSV SUBRAMANIAN | November 3, 2009
Shantanu,
Sure, media needs to be held accountable.
What distresses me more is one community restricting other community for temple access. Reminds me of the court case that in Karnataka High Court between two Vaishnava sects about how to anoint (what shape of Nama) Yoga Narasimha at Melkote.
The irony of this whole situation is that we take pride (justified in some sense, perhaps?) in resolving God-related-disagreements in a peaceful manner (to an extent?) instead of declaring the other as infidel and employing suicide bombers.
I am guessing that there is some history between these communities of past mutual hate-exchage and temple/god is just a pretense of settling old scores. But then, I may be wrong.
Comment by kk | November 4, 2009
In Tamilnadu, cate Hindu means all hindus other than Brahmins.If Brahmins were to oppose temple entry of Dalits,there would have been Hulla Bulla and would have been arrested.
Progressive Brahmins from Tamilnadu have lead Dalits to the temple long ago.In the clashes between so called caste hindus and Dalits the Brahmins are not involved as a rule.
Venkataraman
Comment by VenkataramanTR | November 4, 2009
I always thought that the word caste hindus, as opposed to naming the caste, in a newspaper’s way of trying to implicate brahmins in the controversy ,thus cementing further hatred for the brahmins. Naming Vanniyars or any of the other OBCs is always risky because they hold great political clout.
Dravidian politics always blamed the caste system on the brahmins and hinduism, spreading the myth of an egalitarian society prior to both of these. Well, the rationalists have been in power for more than 30 years, and nearly all the brahmins have left. So where is the egalitarian society? Perhaps we need to examine the dravidian movement for what it really was. The castes who are currently called OBCs had been in power during the various times prior to the British. Yet, when the British came, they favored the brahmin community and empowered them. This really got the OBCs riled up. So the dravidian movement was the reclaiming of lost power under the guise of an equality movement. That is why OBC’s are not interested in uplifting dalits–they despise them as much as they accuse the brahmins of doing so.
Comment by K. Harapriya | November 5, 2009
Thanks all for the comments..and for the insights into the situation on the ground - Venkataraman and Harapriya.
Comment by B Shantanu | November 8, 2009