Even as the controversy around ‘ghar vapasi’ is yet to die down, anti-caste crusader K K Sarachandra Bose is planning a different kind of ghar vapasi based on ‘caste’ – he wants everyone to become Brahmins.
To this end, Bose has urged for support from top Hindu religious leaders to join him in his mission to establish social egalitarianism by joining his upcoming all-India tour that will hold mass upanayana rituals making all members in the fold Brahmins.
In separate letters to four powerful Dharmacharyas, the NRI lawyer called upon Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji, Dandi Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati, Swami Nischalananda Saraswatiji Maharaj and Swaroopananda Saraswati ji Maharaj to ensure that Hindus across the country abided with the Sanathana Dharma that aims at justice, equality, fraternity, liberty, integrity, social status and prosperity of the nation and its people.
Dubai-based Bose, who is prompted to undertake this summer a second Bharat Yathra that would highlight the urgency to root out the deep old malady from the nation after one he led in 2014 monsoon met with silence from the government to which he had served a mandatory notice, said India should be devoid of any socially low or high status among its citizens.
“That is why I will be holding Upanayana ceremonies to the masses in public. I will see that all those who abide with the principles ‘Brahmajnaneti Brahmanaha’ shall be Brahmins,” said the 63-year-old activist who has submitted to the government a draft amendment to the Constitution of India that seeks complete eradication of the caste system.
In his January 1 mails to the Hindu heads based in Sringeri (Karnataka), Joshimath (Uttarakhand), Puri (Odisha) and Dwaraka (Gujarat), Mr Bose recalled his earlier communication with them, and pointed out that Sri Maha Bharat—the name of present-day India—had only black-skinned Adivasis before 5,000 years.
It was after the “aggression by the so-called Aryans or the white-skinned people, our society was divided under their iron rule into four classes: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vysya, Sudra”, he noted, pointing out that this was “on the basis of the skin colour of the Adivasi aborigine and the aggressors”.
“Thereafter the said four colour-based division was converted into four working class—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudra—with the first three classes being allocated to the aggressors and the fourth Sudra class was allocated to the Adivasis. This situation continued for thousands of years under the iron rule of the aggressors,” added Bose, whose 2014 Bharat Yatra with 34 volunteers covered all states of India, criss-crossing a total of 18,000 km, during which he freely distributed copies of his 208-page book Caste Away.
More recently, in the Raj era, “the British India courts ruled that any person who cannot prove that he is a Brahmin is a sudra and thus made our country with a population of 3% touchable Brahmins and 97% untouchable sudras and the situation still continues,” added Bose, a native of Kerala.
All this, when the “injustice done to the tribal people of India is a shameful chapter in our country’s history”, pointed out the crusader, citing a Supreme Court ruling.
The apex court, he noted, had also said “Since India is a country of great diversity, it is absolutely essential if we wish to keep our country united to have tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects.”
The caste system is a curse on India, the sooner it is destroyed the better—this has been another extract from a Supreme Court judgement, he added.
Bose’s main demand for a complete end to the caste system is also backed by points such as abolition to untouchability and remove the tag of ‘impurity’ imposed on females during monthly menstrual periods when there is a ban on their entry to temples. He also wants each and every believer to be able enter into any temple in Sri Maha Bharat (India) and conduct poojas as per ones rites, and has invited people to join the mass upanayana ceremonies being held down the trip for them become Brahmins.
The move is likely to face opposition from Dravidian leaders who consider Aryan customs like Upanayana as culturally alien to the Dravidians, whom they consider to be the original inhabitants of India.
They also consider Dravidians as the descendants of the people of the Indus Valley civilisation and culturally superior to Aryans. Undergoing Upanayana will be considered as accepting the caste system, which they consider as culturally alien to Dravidians.