Joteerao Phooley,
1st June 1873
Preface to Gulamgiri
“The day that reduces a man to slavery takes from him the
half of his virtue.” -------- Homer.
“Our system of Government in India is not calculated to
raise the character of those subject to it, nor is the present system of
education one to do more than over-educate
the few, leaving the mass of he people as ignorant as ever and still mere
at the mercy of the few learned; in fact, it is an extension of the
demoralizing Brahmin-ridden policy, which, perhaps, has more retarded the
progress of civilization and improvement in India generally than anything
else.” ----
Col.
G. J. Haly --- On Fisheries in India.
“Many ages have elapsed since peculiar resources were
afforded to the Brahmins; but the most considerate cosmopolite would hesitate
to enroll them amongst the benefactors of the world. They boast of vast stores
of ancient learning. They have amassed great riches, and been invested with
unbounded power, but to what good end? They have cherished the most degrading
superstations and practiced the most shameless impostures. They have arrogated
to themselves the possession and enjoyment of the rarest gifts of fortune and
perpetuated the most revolting system known as to the world. It is only from a
diminution of their abused power that we can hope to accomplish the great work
of national regeneration.”
Mead’s
Sepoy Revolt
Recent researches have demonstrated beyond a shadow of
doubt that the Brahmans were not the aborigines of India. At some remote period
of antiquity, probably more than 3000 years ago, the Aryan progenitors of the
present Brahmin Race descended upon the plains of Hindoostan from the regions
lying beyond Indus, the Hidoo Koosh, and other adjoining tracts. According to
Dr. Prichard, the Ethnologist, they were an off-shoot of the Great
Indo-European race, from whom the Persians, Medes, and other Iranian nations in
Asia and the Principal nations in Europe like-wise are descended. The affinity
existing between the Zend, the Persian and the
Sanskrit languages, as also between all the European languages,
unmistakably points to a common source or origin. It appears also more probable
that the original cradle of this race being arid, sandy and mountainous region,
and one ill calculated to afford them the sustenance which their growing wants
required, they branched off into colonies, East and West. The extreme fertility
of the soil in India, its rich productions, the proverbial wealth of its
people, and the other innumerable gifts which this favored land enjoys, and
which have more recently tempted the cupidity of the Western nations, no doubt,
attracted the Aryans, who came to India, not as simple emigrants with peaceful
intentions of colonization, but as conquerors. They appear to have been a race
imbued with very high notions of self, extremely cunning, arrogant and bigoted
as Arya, bhudev etc., with which they designated themselves, confirmed us in
our opinion of their primitive time, with, perhaps, little change for the
better. The aborigines whom the Aryans subjugated or displaced, appear to have
been a hardy and brave people from the determined front which they offered to
these interlopers. Such opportunity terms, as Sudra ‘insignificant’, Mahari,
‘the grate foe’, Atanjya, Chandal etc. with which they designated them, undoubtedly
show that originally they offered greatest resistance in their country, and
hence the great aversion and hatred in which they are held. From many customs
traditionally handed down to us, as well as from the mythological legends
contained in the sacred books of the Brahmins, it is evident that there had
been a hard struggle for ascendancy between the two races. The wars of Devas
and Daitya or the Rakshasas, about which so many fictions are found scattered
over the sacred books of the Brahmins, have certainly a reference to this
primeval struggle. The original inhabitants in whom these earthborn Gods, the
Brahmins, fought, were not inappropriately turned termed Rakshas that is the
protectors of the land. The incredible and foolish legends regarding their
forms and shape are. No doubt mere chimeras, the fact being that these people
were of superior stature and hardy make. Under such leaders as Brahma,
Parshuram and others, the Brahmins waged very protected wars against the
original inhabitants. They eventually succeeded in establishing their supremacy
and subjugating the aborigines to their entire control. Accounts of these conquests,
enveloped with mass of incredible fiction, are found in the books of Brahmins.
In some instances they were compelled to emigrate, and in others wholesale
extermination was resorted to. The cruelties which the European settlers
practiced on the American Indians on their first settlement in the New World,
had certainly their parallel in India on the Advent of the Aryans and their
subjugation of the aborigines. The cruelties and inhuman atrocities which
Parshuram committed on the Kshetrias, the people of this land, if we are to
believe even one tenth of what the legends say regarding him, surpass our
belief and show that he was more a fiend than a God. Perhaps in the whole range
of history it is scarcely possible to meet with such another character as that
of Parshuram, so selfish, infamous, cruel and inhuman. The deeds of Nero,
Alaric of Machiavelli sink into insignificance before the ferocity of
Parshuram. The myriads of men and defenseless
children whom he butchered, simply with a view to establishment of his
coreligionists on a secure and permanent basis in this land, is a fact for
which generations ought to execrate his name, rather than defy it.
This, in short is the history of Brahmins domination in
India. They origianally settled on the banks of the Ganges whence they
gradually spread over the whole of India. In order, however to keep a better
hold people they devised that weird system of mythology, the ordination of
caste, and the code of cruel and inhuman laws, to which we can find no parallel
amongst other nations. They founded a system of priest craft so galling in its
tendency and operation, like of which we can hardly find anywhere since the
times of the Druids. The institution of Caste, which has been the main object
of their laws, had no existence among them originally. That it was an
after-creation of their deep cunning is evident from their own writings. The
highest rights, the highest privileges and gifts, and everything that would
make the life of a Brahmin easy, smooth going and happy everything that would
conserve or flatter their self pride, were specially inculcated, and enjoined,
whereas the Sudras and Atisudras were regarded with supreme hatred and
contempt, and the commonest rights of humanity were denied to them. Their
touch, nay, even their shadow, is deemed a pollution. They are considered as
mere chattels, and their life of no more value than that of meanest reptile;
for it is enjoined that if a Brahmin, “kill a cat or an ichneumon, the bird
Chasa, or a frog or a dog, a lizard, an owl, a crow or a Sudra” he is absolved
of his sin by performing the Chandrayan
Prachistya, a fasting penance, perhaps for a few hours or a day and
requiring not much labour or trouble. While for a Sudra to kill a Brahmin is
considered the most heinous offence he could commit, and the forefeiture of his
life is the only punishment his crime is considered to merit. Happily for our
Sudra brethren of the present day our enlightened British Rulers have not
recognized these preposterous, inhuman and unjust penal enactments of the
Brahmin legislators. They no doubt regard them more as ridiculous fooleries
than as equitable laws. Indeed, no man possessing even a grain of common sense
would regard them as otherwise. Anyone, who feels disposed to look a little
more into the laws and ordinances as embodied in the Manava Dharma Shastra and other works of the same class, would
undoubtedly be impressed with the deep cunning underlying them all. It may not,
perhaps, be out of place to cite here a few instances in which the superiority
or excellence of the Brahmins is held and enjoined on pain of Divine
displeasure.
The Brahmin is styled the Lord of the universe even equal
to the God himself. He is to be worshipped served and respected by all.
A Brahmin can do no wrong.
Never shall the king slay a Brahmin, though he has
committed all possible crimes.
To save the life of Brahmin any falsehood may be told.
There is no sin in it.
No one is take away anything belonging to a Brahmin.
A king, though dying with want, must not receive any tax
from a Brahmin, nor suffer him to be afflicted with hunger or the whole kingdom
will be afflicted with famine.
The feet of Brahmin are holy. In his let foot reside all
the thirth (holy waters at places of
pilgrimage) and by dipping it into water he makes it as holy as the waters at
the holiest of the shrines.
A Brahmin may be compel a man of the servile class to
perform servile duty, because such a man was created by the almighty only for
the purpose of serving Brahmins.
A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not
released from the state of servitude; for being born in a state which is
natural to him, by whom can he be divested of his natural attributes?
Let a Brahmin not give temporal advice nor spiritual
counsel to a Sudra.
No superfluous accumulation of wealth shall be made by a
Sudra, even though he has the power to make, since a servile man who has
amassed riches becomes proud, and by his insolence or neglect he gives pain
even to Brahmins.
If a Sudra cohabits with a Brahmanee adulteress, his life
is to be taken. But if a Brahmin goes even unto the lawful wife of a Sudra he
is exempted from all corporal punishment.
It would be needless to go multiplying instances such as
these. Hundreds of similar ordinances including many more of worse character
than these can be found scattered over their books. But what can have been the
motive and object of such cruel and inhuman Laws? They are, I believe, apparent
to all but to the infatuated, the blind and the selfinterested. Anyone who runs
may read them.
Their main object in fabricating these falsehoods was to
dupe the minds of the ignorant and to rivet firmly on them the chains of
perpetual bondage and slavery which their selfishness and cunning had forged.
The severity of the laws as affecting then Sudras, and the intense hatred with
which they were regarded by the Brahmins can be explained on no other
supposition but that there was, originally between the two, a deadly feud,
arising as we have shown above, from the advent of the latter into this land.
It is surprising to think what a mass of specious fiction these interlopers
invented with a view to hold the original occupiers of the soil fast in their
clutches, and working on their credulity, rule securely for the ages to come.
Anyone who will consider well the whole history of Brahmin domination in India
and the tharldom under which it has retained the people even up to the present
day will agree with us in thinking that no language could be too harsh by which
to characterize the selfish heartlessness and the consummate cunning of the
Brahmin tyranny by which India has been so long governed. How far the Brahmins
have succeeded in their endeavor to enslave the minds of the Sudras and
Atisudras, those of them who have come to know the true state of matters know
very well to their cost. For generations past they have borne these chains of
slavery and bondage. Innumerable Bhut writers, with their selfsame objects as
those of manu and others of his class, added from time to time to the existing
mass of legends, the idle phantasies of their own brains and palmed them off
upon the ignorant masses as Divine inspiration, or as the acts of the Deity
himself. The most immoral, inhuman, unjust actions and deeds have been
attributed to that Being who is our Creator, Governor, and Protector, and who
is all Holiness himself. These blasphemous writings, the products of the
distempered brains of these interlopers, were considered as the most
unpardonable of sins. This system of slavery, to which the Brahmins reduced the
lower classes, is in no respects inferior to that which obtained a few years
ago in America. In the days of rigid Brahmin dominancy, so lately as that of
the time of the Peshwa, my Sudra brethren had evn greater hardships and
oppression practiced upon them than what even the slaves in America had to suffer. To this
system of sefish superstation and bigotry, we are to attribute the stagnation
and all the evils under which India has been groaning for many centuries past.
It will, indeed, be difficult to name a single advantage which accrued to the
aborigines from the advent of this intensely selfish and tyrannical sect. The
Indian Ryot (Sudra and Atisudra) has been in fact a proverbial Milch Cow. He
has passed from hand to hand. Those who successively held sway over him cared
only to fatten themselves on the sweat of his brow, without caring for his
welfare or condition. It was sufficient for their squeezing out of his as much
as they possibly could. The Brahmin had in every large or small undertaking, in
every domestic or public business, that the latter is by custom quite unable to
transact any concern of moment without his aid.
This is even true at the present time. While the Sudra on
the other hand is so far reconciled to the Brahmin yoke, that like the American
slave he would resist any attempt that my be made for his deliverance and fight
even against his benefactor. Under the guise of religion the Brahmins has his
finger in every thing big or small, which the Sudra undertakes. Go to his house,
to his field or to the court to which business may invite him, the Brahmin I
there under some specious pretext or the other, trying to squeeze out him as
much as his cunning and wily brain can manage. The Brahmin despoils the Sudra
not only in his capacity of a priest, but does so in a variety of other ways.
Having by his superior education and cunning monopolized all the higher places
of emolument the ingenuity of his ways is past finding out as the reader will
find out an attentive perusal of this book. In the most insignificant village
as in the largest town, the Brahmin is the all in all; the be all the end all
of the Ryot. He is the master, the ruler. The Patil of the village, the
headman, is in fact a nonentity. The Kulkarni, the hereditary village accountant,
the notorious quarrel monger, molds the Patil according to his wishes. He is
the temporal and spiritual adviser of the ryots, the Soucar in his necessities
and the general referee in all matters. In most instances the plans active
mischief by advising opposite parties differently, so that he may feather its
own nest well. If we go up higher, to the Court of Mamlatdar is to get round
him, if not his own relatives, his castemen to fill the various offices under
him. These actively foment quarrels and are the media of all corrupt practices
prevailing generally about these Courts. If a Sudra or Atisudra repairs to his
Court; the treatment which he receives is askin to what the meanest reptile
gets. Instead of his case receiving a patient an careful hearing, a choice lot
of abuse is showered on his devoted head, and his prayers is set aside on some
pretext or other. Whereas if one of his own castemen were to repair to the
Court on the self-same business, he is received with all courtesy and there is
hardly any time lost in getting the matter right. If we go up still higher to
the collector’s and Revenue Commissioners’s Courts and to the other Department of the Public Services, the
Engineering, Educational etc. the same system is carried out on a smaller or
greater scale. The higher European officers generally view men and things
through Brahmin spectacles, and hence the deplorable ignorance thy often
exhibit in forming a correct estimate of them. I have tried to place before my
readers in the concluding portions of this book what expedients are employed by
these Brahmin officials for fleecing the Kunbee in the various departments to
which business or his necessities induce him to resort. Any one knowing
intimately the working of the different departments, an the secret springs
which are in motion, will unhesitatingly concur with me in saying that what I
have described in the following pages is not one hundredth part o the rogueries
that are generally practiced on my poor, illiterate and ignorant Sudra
brethren. Though the Brahmin of the old Peshwa School is not quite the same as
the Brahmin of the present day, though the march of Western idea and
civilization is undoubtedly telling on his superstition and bigotry, he has not as
yet abandoned his time-cherished notions of superiority or the dishonesty of
his ways. The beef, the Mutton, the intoxicating beverages stronger and more
fiery than the famed Somarasa, which their ancestors relished, as the veriest
dainties are fast finding innumerable votaries amongst them.
The Brahmin of the present time finds to some extend,
like Othelo, that his occupation is gone. But knowing full well this state of
affairs is the Brahmin inclined to makes atonement for his past selfishness?
Perhaps, it would have been useless to repine over what has been suffered and
what has passed away had the present state been all that is desirable. We know
perfectly well that the Brahmin will not descend from his self-raised high
pedestal an meet his kunbee and low castes brethren on an equal footing without
a struggle. Even the educated Brahmin who knows his exact position and how he
has come by it, will not condescend to acknowledge the errors of his
forefathers and willingly forego the long cherished false notions of his own
superiority. At present not one has the moral courage to do what only duty
demands, and as long as this continues, one sect distrusting and degrading
another sect, the condition of the Sudras will remain unaltered, and India will
never advance in greatness and prosperity.
Perhaps the part of the blame in bringing matters to this
crisis may be justly laid to the credit of the Government. Whatever may have
been their motives in providing ampler funds and greater facilities for higher
education and neglecting that of masses, it will be acknowledged by all that
injustice to the latter this is not as it should be. It is an admitted fact
that the greater portions of the revenues of the Indian Empire aer derived from
the Ryot’s labour – from the sweat of his brow. The higher and richer classes
contribute little or nothing to the State exchequer. A well informed English
writer states that,----
“Our income is derived, not from surplus profits, but
from capital; not from luxuries but from the poorest necessaries. It is the products
of sin and tears.”
That Government
should expend profusely a large of revenues thus raised, on the education of
the higher classes, for it is these only who take advantage of it, it anything
but just or equitable. Their object in patronizing this virtual class education
appears to be to prepare scholars, “Who, it is thought would in time vend
learning without money and without price.” If we can inspire, say they “the
love of knowledge in the minds of the superior classes, the result will be a
higher standard of morals in the cases of the individuals, a large amount of
affection for the British Government, and an unconquerable desire to spread
among their own countrymen the intellectual blessings which they have
received.”
Regarding these objects of government the writer, above
alluded to, states that:-
“We have never heard of philosophy more benevolent and
more utopian. It is proposed by men who witness the wondrous changes brought
about in the western world, purely by the agency of popular knowledge, to
redress the defects of the two hundred millions of India, by giving superior
education on the superior classes and to them only,”*** “We ask the friends of
Indian universities to favour us with a single example of the truth of their
theory from the instance which have already fallen within scope of their
experience. They have educated many children of wealthy men, and have been the
means of advancing very materially the worldly prospects of some of their
pupils. But what contributions have these made to the great work of
regenerating their fellowmen? How have they begun to act upon the masses? Have
any of them formed classes at their own homes or elsewhere, for the instruction
of their less fortunate or less wise countrymen? Or have they kept their knowledge
to themselves, as a personal gift, not to be soiled by contact with ignorant
vulgar? Have they in any way shown themselves anxious to advance the general
interests and repay philanthropy with patriotism? Upon what ground it is
asserted that the best way to advance the moral an intellectual welfare of the
people is to raise the standard of instruction among the higher classes? A
glorious argument this for aristocracy, were it only tenable. To show the
growth if the national happiness, it would only be necessary to refer to the
number of pupils at the colleges and the list of academic degrees. Each
wrangler would be accounted a national benefactor; and the existence of Deans
and Protors would be associated, like the game laws and the ten pound
franchise, with the best laws and the ten pound franchise, with the best
interests of the Constitution.”
Perhaps the most glaring tendency of the Government
system of high class education has been the virtual monopoly of all the Higher
offices under them by Brahmins. If the welfare of the Ryots is at heart, if it
is the duty of Government to check a host of abuses, it behives them tonarrow
this monopoly, day by day, so as to allow a sprinkling of he other castes to
get into the public service. Perhaps some might be inclined to say that it is
not feasible in the present state of education. Our only reply is that if
Government look a little less after higher education and more towards the
education of the masses, the former being able to take care of itself, there
would be no difficulty in training up a body of men every way qualified and
perhaps far better in moral and manners.
My object in writing the present volume is not only to
tell my Sudra brethren how they have been duped by the Brahmins, but also to
open the eyes of Government to the pernicious system of high class education
which has hitherto been so persistently followed and which has hitherto been so
persistently followed and which statesmen like Sir George Campbell the present
Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, with broad and universal sympathies, are finding
to be highly mischievous and pernicious to the interest of Government. I
sincerely hope that Government will ere long see the error of their ways, trust
less to writers or men who look through high class spectacles and take the
glory into their own hands of emancipating my Sudra brethren from the trammels
of bondage which the Brahmins have woven round them like the coil of serpent.
It is no less the duty of such of my Sudra brethren as have received any education to place before
Government the true state of their fellowmen and Endeavour to the best of their
power to emancipate themselves from Brahmins thralldom. Let there be school for
Sudra in every village; but away with all Brahmin school-masters! The Sudra are
the life and sinews of the country, and it is to them alone and to the Brahmins
that the Government must ever look to tide them over their difficulties,
financial as well as political. If the hearts and minds of the Sudras are made
happy and contended the British Government need have no fear for their loyalty
in future.
