In India’s peculiar power structure at the social and state levels, Brahmans occupy pivotal position notwithstanding the fact that this community hardly accounts for 3 or 4 percent of the population, Brahmans as individuals are highly educated and knowledgeable, they have an unparalleled expertise in state craft because they have been in this business for centuries. India just has not learned to live with ‘anon-Brahman prime minister, Almost every institution of state has Brahman domination and the such of a prince minister depends largely on whether this ruling class accepts him or not, The Brahman octopus flourished with the advent of the Nehru dynasty and has become a formidable force during all these decades. A non-Brahman prime minister is just not allowed to make a success of his office. That is why ‘Charan Singh, V. P. Singh and Chander Shekhar flopped as prime ministers. There were doubts initially whether P. N. Narasimha Rao would come up to the expectations of the ruling class and most people considered his a stop-gap arrangement, But the Brahman in Rao has triumphed and he has managed not only to convert his minority in parliament in to a majority but has overcome all hurdles in his way. The ruling class has accepted him as its authentic voice.

Rao has crushed dissidence in the ruling Congress (I) party. He has managed the immediate problems facing the country’s economy by a show of liberalization. The ruthless use of force has silenced Punjab. A similar exercise at present in Kashmir. The army and the police forces are fully cooperating with Rao.

On July 14, he arranged a show of his strength in Delhi when more than two lakh people were brought in from the neighboring states. Rao’s speed at the rally was significant. Instead of concentrating on the most burning issues facing the country inflation, high cost of essential commodities consumed by the common man, the corruption in the administration etc. the Brahman in the prime minister reasserted himself and Rao brought in the question of Ram Mandir to be constructed at Ayodhia in U.P. As if the Indian state is a Hindu state where the Hindu aspirations alone have to be pandered. There was a furor all over the world at the destruction of Babri mosque about two years ago. It was widely believed that Rao had deliberately allowed the Hindu fundamentalists to destroy the 450 year old Muslim religious structure. The prime minister then had spoken of the need for rebuilding the mosque at the same site. But now he is talking only of a Ram mandir to confirm the suspicions that he was personally behind the Babri destruction. In other words, Rao has emerged as a fundamentalist Brahman rather than as a prime minister of a secular state.

India’s ruling class cannot consolidate their hold on the Indian state unless they tame the specter of the Nehru dynasty reemerging and the dissident Brahman challenge posed by the R.S.S. and its family on the Ram mandir issue, Now Rao and the Indian Brahman-dominated state has assumed the role of builders of a Ram mandir. That still leaves the question of the Nehmu’s dynasty’s specter unattended to. In this a former Indian President, R. Venkataraman, a Brahman, has done the Yeoman’s service. In his recently. released book, “My Presidential Years,” he has convincingly, yet mischievously, denigrated the late Rajiv Gandhi (and indirectly his widow Sonia Gandhi who was a star attraction at the recently held session of the Indian ruling party), It is a clever man oeuvre to back Narasimha Rao as against the remnants of the Nehru dynasty. “Rao is doing a very good job in the conditions in which he has been placed,” the former President records. Venkatoraman could not have done a better job of supporting his Brahman brother in office, against the Christian lady from Italy. It is entirely possible that Rao will now provoke the R.S.S. into launching anti-Muslim riots so that the Muslim community comes to the Congress (I) fold after the break-up of the Janata Dal, In the meanwhile to ensure Hindu consolidation behind the present government, anti-Pak tensions are allowed to escalate. All these complex Brahmanical manoeuvres are geared once again as the ruling class holds elections to some of the state assemblies in the next few months.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 29, 1994