The worst thing the caste system (see below) in Nepal has done is to corrupt the minds of the population, in many different ways too.
One of the ways it has corrupted the minds of the population is inculcating the belief that the so-called High castes are the knowledgeable ones as well as those who are supposed to rule. Made up of two social groups, the High Castes are the Bahuns (Brahmans) and Chhetris (Kshatriya). Traditionally, the former are the priests and teachers while the latter the nobles and warriors.
Systems and structures for the entire modern history of the country have been such that the priestly caste have been able, mostly, to decide and dictate what knowledge and education is. Not surprisingly, they are also accepted as the ones having them and therefore in a position to impart. As for the Chhetris, their predominant roles as rulers and warriors within the borders of the country have also reinforced their high status leading to also their own views of themselves as superior to — and more knowledgeable as well as more powerful than — the rest of the four castes below them.
(To be sure, the gradation of the rest of the people has corrupted their minds too: those above think of and view themselves as superior to those below and behave (misbehave?) and interact with the latter in ways which demonstrate and reinforce that.)
Living and working in Nepal most of the last nine years, following almost twenty-five years abroad, I have come across so-called High Castes, both in person and on social media, who have “acted” with that air of “I know more than you, and so I’ll dictate to you how things are and should be, including what you should believe and practice.” This is one example of that from Facebook.
It all started with my making this post on the social media platform.
A few commented under the post (see below). One of them was an old school mate, a Chhetri man with the surname Thapa (name redacted in red in all the reproductions to protect his privacy). He initiated his comments with, “I beg to differ.” Realizing that he didn’t get what I was getting at in my post, I responded to him by pointing that.
However, not content with my response, he went on to intimate that my post was “probably laced with extreme prejudice against a group of certain persuasion [notably the Hill so-called High Caste Hindus in general or the Bahuns/Brahmins, the so-called Highest Caste specifically].” Emphasis mine. Of course, being a Hill so-called High Caste Hindu man, he would know! š
Neither those two responses above nor the first one below sufficed. So, I asked a direct question: “What makes you think that I may be extremely prejudiced against a certain group of certain persuasion?” Not much different from when he had engaged with me at other times, he responded with some convoluted jumble of words.
So I tried to clarify by stating my positions.
Forget acknowledge what I said, that, instead, got him to change the attack from on my person to my “campaigns” — on the futility of it, characterizing it patronizingly as “bedrocked in naivete and unattainable hope.” Of course, again, being the Hill so-called High Caste, he would know better and more! š So I asked a few more questions of him.
To recap, according to him, what I am doing to contribute to social change or progress is misguided. And, of course, again, he knows what I should be doing instead. But of course! š
And what was it that I was supposed to do instead? “Amassing a critical mass of like-minded folks from within the system”! That tactics, he adds, “provides a level of mathematical certainly towards success.” Example of those who have succeeded by following that tactics? The “mullahs”!!! I am assuming the “mullahs” he is referring to here are the Muslim mullahs!
Not content with attacking me, the guy also attacks the commentator whose name was redacted in blue in the second screenshot shared above. He accuses “blue” of attempting “to score points” with me! But of course, he knows so much more and better! š
That hadn’t been the first nor was it to be the last time he took issue with my posts, opinions, and questioned my intentions etc. Less than two months later, for example, he accused me of “promoting schisms”, revealing “thinly veiled personal vendetta, and [expressing] vitriol” when I shared a chart based on data available in the public domain.
Here’s the histogram he shared with that comment, the top of which appears in the above reproduction too.
Here’s a reproduction of the post containing the chart breaking down crucial positions and bodies in Nepal into Brahmin, Chhetri and others.
The chart and the blog post was about the MAJOR structural issues Nepal suffers from. But of course, creating and sharing the chart, he knows what I intended and why. But of course! š
In other words, as far as he is concerned, what I have been doing lacks a higher purpose — and who would know better than him, of course! I am after all a cow-eating Bhote, belonging to the third caste — “enslavable alcohol drinker” caste! Worse, I suspect, for the same reason, he likely also believes, unconsciously, that I don’t have — or he can’t imagine my having — the ability to do anything, or to engage in any activity, with a higher purpose!
What I have been doing, ever since returning to Nepal in 2013, is the little I can to contribute to education and to establishing a just and equitable society in the country. Regardless, let me reiterate, in slightly different words, the most important point I made earlier about that, which this school mate of mine did not even acknowledge.
If you believe in and are working to contribute towards the establishment of a just and equitable society (such as the Nepali society), being prejudiced against and seeking to sideline a social group that is an integral member of that society (such as the Hill so-called High Castes Hindus), or seeking to DELIBERATELY drive a wedge between them and the rest of the members of the society etc., would mean that you have little or no intellectual integrity.
But, what’s intellectual integrity of the likes of me to the likes of him, people who know more and/or better, right?! š
He is NOT alone in the way he has been so arrogant and cock-sure. I have come across other Hill so-called High Caste Hindus in Nepal who exude that air of greater knowledgability and superiority: “I know more and better than you, including about you, and if you want to get things right, you’d better follow my advice.”
To give another example of such a hill so-called High Caste Hindu man…. This example also comes from Facebook and he is a classmate. The longish exchange we had on the social platform was also on issues of my social media posts around structural issues and caste in Nepal. As far as I was concerned, the exchange had been a conversation between two friends. Neither should have gotten worked-up over what the other had said and/or shared etc. As a matter of fact, if — IF — either one of us was supposed to have gotten pissed off at the other, I should have been the one at him. But NO, it was he at me!
So, why could Hill so-called High Hindus be so presumptuous, so cock-sure, so arrogant? What could make them ignore or appear to disregard what someone like me is saying in an exchange? What could be making them believe that others like me might NOT be anywhere near as capable as them, forget capable of higher purpose in our thoughts and actions? What could be making them entitled to react in the way they do (getting pissed off at someone he shouldn’t, for example)?
They likely are not aware that’s what they are doing or that’s who they are being because they are blinded by the structural privileges and by the sense of entitlement they enjoy and take for granted. Looked at from a different perspective, that, to me, is a demonstration of their unconscious sense of superiority, a subtle form of internalized casteism.
And what would instill that particular kind of corrupt thinking in people like my schoolmates and others like them? The caste system and our long casteist history! What needs to happen? A revolution…a revolution of the mind!
What do you think?
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Additional Readings
If you are interested in blog posts which affirm some of my contentions, here they are.
- The Story of Eklavya and Dronarcharya: More of Caste Supremacy Than Model Discipleship is about how our caste-based social structures, attitudes, and mentality, and more specifically hill so-called High Caste supremacy are based on and reinforced by Hindu mythologies.
- In the Land Everyone Takes Pride in as the Birth Place of Buddha, We are Very Short on Compassion and Nepalis Struggle to Recognize Life Experience They Havenāt Had, or Canāt Imagine Having, Does or Can Happen are both ALSO examples of the subtle ways Nepalis, again both Hill so-called High Caste Hindus and non-High Castes, expose their internalized casteism when engaging with materials in the public domain — Twitter.
- When Form and Protocol (āSanskritiā) Generally Take Precedent Over and Is Valued More Than Substanceā¦ and Nepal: Privilege and Entitlement Fostered Myopic Arrogance are two other examples of the not-so-subtle ways Hill so-called High Caste Hindu men display their privilege-blinded arrogance and sense of entitlement.
- Pointing out structural issues in Nepal, to Khas-aryas, isā¦”pointing fingersā is about how I have been accused of “pointing fingers” at the Hill so-called High Caste Hindus for all the structural issues I have been highlighting!
- Railing Against Structural Inequality Does Not Mean Hatred For Khas-Aryas is about how I have been accused of hating the Hill so-called High Caste Hindus while railing against structural issues the country suffers from!
- If protests against Dassain hurt your sentimentsā¦ is another example of yet another school mate, also a Hill so-called High Caste Hindu man, trying to lecture me on what the likes of me have done wrong or where we are going wrong with our activism (such as protesting symbols of suppression and oppression), and, again, how we should actually go about them.
- Why Nepalis Take Bigger Issue with Issue-Highlighters Than the Issues Themselves and How To Rule 101: Khas-Arya Nepali Eshtyle are about the most horrendous consequences of the highly patriarchal and stratified society of Nepal along caste lines.
- A Graph is Worth a Thousand Wordsā¦It Seems documents the slew of reactions another version of the chart breaking down different bodies into hill so-called High Caste Hindus and others received on social media.
