[Advaita-l] The 'Snake-and-ladder' game - The Spiritual path

[Murali k]

Mr Kalyan,

I  did go through this article. For starters, obviously there was a lot of
discrimination. What did happen was totally wrong and uncalled for.

Now, coming to this article at hand, this article quotes a bunch of
atrocities that were committed. As Jaldharji  has looked at the one about
sonars, I won't go into it.  Mr. Ambedkar  does not provide any source for
this claim though.

Be that as it may, he makes a bunch of other claims later in the article.
One was about women from the oppressed castes not allowed to wear
upper-garment in the malabar region. . I went back and checked the source
he attributed it from. In the source book of Madras Census 1891,  it is
mentioned that only prostitutes covered their bosom and that it was common
among women to not cover the upper part of their body - Upper and Lower
castes included. Secondly, the source  does mention in passing that a rule
of law where lower castes did have to adhere to this rule,  but does not
mention anything about the rule being enforced from the Manu-smriti. So, in
a single page, the author describes the mode of dressing of women in that
region and then again writes about this law, which i felt was contradicting
his ealier statement.

Also, for a couple of these atrocities, the attributed source from Mr.
Ambedkar  mentions a book called Hindu Casts and Sects" written by Jogendra
Bhattacharya. And, this Jogendra, in turn, attributes these observations to
the writing of a protestant  Christian missionary as the source of his
views. Now, How are we to ascertain that this missionary, who was not used
to this mode of dressing, came to a wrong conclusion ? Mr. Jogendra does
not quote any source apart from the writings of these missionaries
themselves. I, for one, will always take the views from missionaries with a
huge bucket of salt as they have vested interests. However, he does mention
that this particular class of oppressed were very rich. So basically, they
were rich but socially ostracised.

best,
Murali



On 10 August 2018 at 19:14, Kalyan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> //There must surely be some archeological evidence (an ear-shaped lead
> ingot
> for example) if this ever actually happened.  Surely literature would have
> recorded such a memorable event or atleast the oral traditions of the
> oppressed would have remembered it no?  But those things do not exist
> because regardless of what one line in a book of many lines might say,
> such punishments never actually happened.//
>
> Here are the instances of cutting off of Sudras' tongues under Maratha
> rule (it is from an article by Dr B R Ambedkar). I suggest apologists to
> read the entire article -
> http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd/57.%20Manu%20and%20the%20Shudras.htm
>
>
> Under the Maratha rule any one other than a Brahmin uttering a
> Veda Mantra was liable to have his tongue cut off and as a matter of fact
> the tongues of several Sonars (goldsmiths) were actually cut off by the
> order of the Peshwa for their daring to utter the Vedas contrary to law.
>
>
>
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