Author: Eric Bellman
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Date: December 29, 2007
URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119889387595256961.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Brahmins, as Hinduism's priestly and scholarly
caste, have traditionally occupied a place of privilege in India.
Brahmins have been advisers to Maharajas, Mughals
and military rulers. Under British rule, they served as administrators, a position
they kept after Indian independence in 1947.
But in today's India, high-caste privileges
are dwindling, and with the government giving extensive preferences to the lower-caste
majority, many Brahmins are feeling left out of the economy's rapid expansion.
R. Parameswaran has suffered that reversal of
fortune. The 29-year-old starts every day with a prayer to the Hindu god Shiva,
marking his forehead with red and white powder to let the world know he is a
Brahmin. In his home village, his caste's mark brought him respect, but since
he moved to Chennai, a sprawling high-tech city in the southern state of Tamil
Nadu, in the late 1990s, he has found his status a liability.
In Tamil Nadu, nearly 70% of government jobs
and public-college slots are reserved for people from lower castes and other
historically disadvantaged groups. Although he says he graduated near the top
of his high-school class and had strong test scores, Mr. Parameswaran couldn't
get into any of the state engineering colleges. His family had to borrow from
friends to send him to a second-rate private college.
He now teaches English at a small vocational
school. On a salary of $100 a month, Mr. Parameswaran can't afford an apartment,
so he sleeps in the classroom at night. "I am suffering," says the
intense young man, using the exaggerated enunciation of an English teacher.
"Unfortunately, I was born as a Brahmin."
Although the role of Brahmins has never been
synonymous with accumulating wealth, many are affluent enough to educate their
children in the better private schools. On average, members of the caste, who
make up about 5% of India's population of 1.1 billion, are better educated and
better paid than the rest of Indian people.
The term Brahmin has come to be used globally
to describe those at the top of the heap with an attitude to match, as in Boston
Brahmins. Yet close to half of Brahmin households earn less than $100 a month,
according to the Center for a Study of Developing Societies, a New Delhi think
tank. For these Brahmins, the array of state-mandated preferences for other
groups present a high hurdle.
The reverse discrimination is rooted in Indian
history and politics. For decades, Brahmins were resented for their dominance
of the government, economy and culture. Indeed, political parties in Tamil Nadu
sprang from anti-Brahmin feelings. "If you see a Brahmin and a snake, kill
the Brahmin first" was an old slogan.
A national constitution adopted in 1950 reserved
more than 20% of government jobs for lower castes. In 1990, an additional 27%
were set aside for what were called "other backward castes." Some
states set higher quotas, including Tamil Nadu, which reserves 69% of government
jobs for lower castes and other needy groups.
The ugliest Brahmin bashing in India ended years
ago, but Mr. Parameswaran says that in college in the late 1990s, he still faced
ridicule as a Brahmin. He says one student tried to break his sacred thread,
a simple circle of twine Brahmins wear under their clothes.
After college, he had an internship in a state-owned
chemical company, but says he was told he wouldn't be hired, as there were openings
only for lower-caste applicants. He says he took exams to join national railways,
state banks and other government agencies, such as the immigration department,
but found most posts closed to all Brahmins except the most brilliant.
From his makeshift home where he sleeps with
a blanket on a desk most nights, Mr. Parameswaran still applies for government
jobs. He pulls out his latest application form and shows a visitor where he
always gets stuck: the three squares where he has to write the abbreviation
indicating his caste. "I want government work," he says, shaking the
application, "but they have no jobs for Brahmins."
Mr. Parameswaran has tried to adapt to the lessening
of caste distinctions taking place in many parts of India today, especially
in cities. The changes are less in villages such as the one where he grew up
some 200 miles away. There, his grandfather, who is 101 years old, still won't
wear Western clothes and won't eat outside of his home for fear of mixing with
lower castes.
Mr. Parameswaran's father has a job with the
state telephone company and is more liberal. He dresses in shirts and pants,
doesn't mind eating at restaurants and doesn't expect lower-caste neighbors
to take off their sandals in his presence.
Mr. Parameswaran has had good friends from lower
castes all his life, many of whom have used their communities to grab good government
jobs, he says. He won't eat meat but has no qualms sharing a meal with people
of any caste or creed. His 22-year-old sister, R. Dharmambal, is even more liberal,
he says. "She will take non-vegetarian food," he exclaims, using the
common Indian term for eating meat.
Mr. Parameswaran often visits the sister in
the Brahmin enclave of Mylapore. On a recent day there, dozens of shirtless
priests in the traditional Brahmin uniform of a white dhoti and partially shaved
head were standing around at a Hindu-scriptures school, hoping for work. For
as little as 100 rupees, about $2.50, they offered to perform complicated rituals
and blessings required when any Hindu has a baby, a wedding or a new home.
"My sons can't support me, so I have to
survive by performing Hindu rituals," says K. Narayana, an 81-year-old
scholar. "If we had been from another community, we would have had better
opportunities."
Nearby stands the Kapaleeshwara Temple, with
towering gates of colorful carvings from Hindu mythology. It is one of the most
important places for worship for followers of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
The temple used to be surrounded by rows of simple single-story homes, each
with its own courtyard and well so the Brahmin families wouldn't have to share
water with other castes. Most houses have been replaced by concrete apartment
blocks and small stores.
At the temple's back gate, Brahmins beg for
spare change or look for odd jobs as cooks or even bearers of bodies to funeral
pyres, normally a lower-caste pursuit.
"I see so many Brahmins begging" in
Mylapore, Mr. Parameswaran says. "It's very difficult to see. It makes
me totally upset."
