I was stuck at the Bangalore airport for almost more than three hours as my flight to Chennai was delayed by almost two hours. I was sort of reflecting on my days activities, I was sort of reminded of the detail discussion I had with one of my colleagues on the rationale for formation of communities, surprisingly he agreed to what I said. My contention was that, during those times of kings and princes, every individual, be it the king, the minister or the common man had his job/task cut out and hence they were classified on basis of his/her job on hand.
The king’s duty was to protect the weaker class and hence they were called kshatriyas. The ministers and the other learned people of the kings ministry has to help the king with day to day matters and strategizing. They were called bramanas. They were not called bramans because they were vegetarians but because they were learned, they were refined in their behaviour.
While the kshatriyas and bramanas were busy doing their work, someone had to contribute to the economy to fill the treasury; they were the vysyas or traders. Now that brings us to the shutras or the untouchables who apparently do all the donkeys work from toilet cleaning to farming.
Coming back to the present age I don’t think the age old classification holds good as every individual or at least most of them are well educated to perform various roles and hence cannot be classified the original way. Today the only 4 classifications that should exist are two of the natural ones of male & female and two by way we eat, vegetarians and the non – vegetarians.
In today’s world, every individual who is learned and cultured and refined and everything that falls under the scope of the above mentioned words can be and in more ways than one shall be called a “Braman”. Any individual fighting for the country to save his country men or fighting for the rights of the common man, a “Kshatriya”.
Well, the irony in life and the reality too is that we are all hypocrites in one way or the other and I guess I am too. I talk so much anti – community, but I did take full fledged use of the quota system in place when I was studying and I guess I will continue to do so as long as I and the system exist. The only difference being, I do not identify myself much with it unless am forced to or want to, because I don’t think one needs it to succeed in life, but there are those whose lifeline is that, not because they love it so much, because they don’t believe in themselves as much as they do in it!!!!
(All views expressed above are mine and belong to no one but me. The views are not intended or directed to anyone in general or in specific and are not meant to hurt anyone individual or the society's feeling)
The king’s duty was to protect the weaker class and hence they were called kshatriyas. The ministers and the other learned people of the kings ministry has to help the king with day to day matters and strategizing. They were called bramanas. They were not called bramans because they were vegetarians but because they were learned, they were refined in their behaviour.
While the kshatriyas and bramanas were busy doing their work, someone had to contribute to the economy to fill the treasury; they were the vysyas or traders. Now that brings us to the shutras or the untouchables who apparently do all the donkeys work from toilet cleaning to farming.
Coming back to the present age I don’t think the age old classification holds good as every individual or at least most of them are well educated to perform various roles and hence cannot be classified the original way. Today the only 4 classifications that should exist are two of the natural ones of male & female and two by way we eat, vegetarians and the non – vegetarians.
In today’s world, every individual who is learned and cultured and refined and everything that falls under the scope of the above mentioned words can be and in more ways than one shall be called a “Braman”. Any individual fighting for the country to save his country men or fighting for the rights of the common man, a “Kshatriya”.
Well, the irony in life and the reality too is that we are all hypocrites in one way or the other and I guess I am too. I talk so much anti – community, but I did take full fledged use of the quota system in place when I was studying and I guess I will continue to do so as long as I and the system exist. The only difference being, I do not identify myself much with it unless am forced to or want to, because I don’t think one needs it to succeed in life, but there are those whose lifeline is that, not because they love it so much, because they don’t believe in themselves as much as they do in it!!!!
(All views expressed above are mine and belong to no one but me. The views are not intended or directed to anyone in general or in specific and are not meant to hurt anyone individual or the society's feeling)
