Caste bomb in America: Harvard’s Dalit poster boy has a fixation against Brahmins

A caste bomb has been developed in the United States by a few ambitious Dalit activists headquartered at Harvard University and collaborating with Black Americans.

Suraj Yengde, a Fellow at Harvard’s prestigious Kennedy School, has become the central figure popularising the Afro-Dalit movement. He has jumped on the bandwagon blaming American racism on the Indian caste system and his popularity is built around the theme that “caste is the mother of all problems”. In fact, he openly espouses hatred for Brahmins, branding them as criminals and calling for their persecution. Given the clout of Harvard University and the support it has given him, he has rapidly pushed Hinduphobia into the mainstream.

It is ironic that a prestigious university like Harvard is teaching the irresponsible theory as an established fact, while blocking any counter-argument.

Yengde’s modus operandi involves latching on to the Black Lives Matter movement and using it to spew venom against everything Hindu. He says: “Caste obviously transcends geography and takes on new forms feeding on native practices, like a parasite”. In an effort to bring his movement to the front and center of American society, he maps all injustices against the Blacks onto the Dalits of India. The forged unity enables him to ride the coattails of Blacks in furthering his career.

He says: “If a community commits a crime repeatedly, what would you call that community? …in African American struggle, they’re straight up: white supremacist. …Tell me, when we are going to call ‘brahmin supremacists’? … From my vantage point these are criminal castes. There is no other way I will identify them; they have committed a crime on my community, and they are criminals to me.”

While the Dalit cause is not to be sidelined, the coupling with the Black movement is fake and can have devastating effects on Indian society. He ignores that the ancient varna system was re-engineered under colonial rule to result in the modern caste system. He projects all caste abuse today back onto ancient history, thus mischaracterising Hindu dharma as the cause of racial oppression.

Yengde shows little understanding of ancient Indian society when he attacks: “The Dalits and lower caste people are denied capital because the karma theory is used to claim that their bad karma from past lives caused them to be born in an inferior status. Hence, their plight gets explained as a case of ‘paying their penance’. This spiritual justification of birth-based bias makes it different than class, and hence impossible to eradicate.”

This account does not explain how Valmiki (who authored the Ramayana), or Vyasa (who authored the Mahabharata and edited/compiled the Vedas) rose from the lowest strata to be revered by all. Nor does it explain how the great sage Vasishta achieved his brilliance despite being born in the lowest strata of society. Even Kalidasa, who is respected as the greatest Sanskrit poet, had humble origins. But Yengde is not deterred by the facts. He doggedly maintains that “The resources [a Brahmin> is having is not earned on merit. It is by looting; it is by thuggery.”

While there still are unfortunate remnants of untouchability in India, the history is complex, and one cannot simply blame everything on the Vedas. There has also been considerable progress due to government policies as well as social and technological developments that reduce to irrelevance any identity-based prejudices.

He is fixated on Brahmins as the villains. According to him, Hinduism is the institutional cause and main culprit; Brahmins are controlling it; and caste is the Brahmanical device to oppress humanity. Therefore, his life’s purpose is to launch a revolution that will defeat Brahmins and Hinduism in an all-out civilisational war. Even the violence by OBCs against Dalits is blamed squarely on Brahmins: “OBCs are basically the servant castes of Brahminism where they like to serve because the structure grants them superficial superiority. If an OBC is committing a crime, it is because someone above him is authorising to offer that violence, and for that he or she is compensated spiritually, politically and in various ways as we see in today’s India.”

Brahmins cannot even help Dalits without being accused of perpetuating abuse. He says: “Unless we recognise those structures exist around you, you will still be a part of a casteist regime because you have slowly in your patronizing charitable ways very subtly contributed to espousing casteism.”

Even the festival of Holi is seen through the caste lens — Holika is shown to be a Dalit and her burning is characterized as a celebration of the upper caste domination over the lower caste. Thus, he says that Holi should not be celebrated.

Yengde dismisses sceptics who challenge his theories by immediately denouncing them as casteist. No meaningful debate is possible. The only thing acceptable to him is that Brahmins must accept his entire thesis without argument, confess their apparent sins against society, disown family members who disagree, and support his campaign.

When he cites statistics to prove his claims, no backup or evidence is provided. For example, he says: “In India, casteism touches 1.35 billion people. It affects 1 billion people. It affects 800 million people badly. It enslaves the human dignity of 500 million people. It is a measure of destruction, pillage, drudgery, servitude, bondage, unaccounted rape, massacre, arson, incarceration, police brutality and loss of moral virtuosity for 300 million Indian Untouchables.”

Yengde anoints himself as Dr BR Ambedkar’s successor. But in fact, he propagates a carefully-framed Marxist application in an Afro-Dalit shell. He fails to imbibe Ambedkar’s patriotism that was very strong throughout his life.

More on this and related issues available from Snakes in the Ganga. Click .

The author is a researcher, writer, speaker and public intellectual on current affairs as they relate to civilisations, cross-cultural encounters, religion and science. His latest book is ‘Snakes in the Ganga’. Views expressed are personal.

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