112 "Presenting" the Past
even the animal world along the lines of varna, and those "natural" divi-
sions among the animals helped reinforce the social varnas. Confusing
and coalescing the social and the natural, the non-Aryans/non-Brahmins
were relegated to the status of "the empty husks of real human beings."^7
This classificatory scheme along with the socio-cosmic totality has always
privileged the Brahmins through all different phases of Hinduism: Vedic
sacrificial religion (ca. 1500-500 B.C.E.); the rise of theism, Buddhism, Jain-
ism, orthodox Brahminism, devotionalism, and sects; and finally renais-
sance and reform during the last two centuries.^8 Even during imperial
interruptions, these indigenous elites adjusted to the new regimes by
joining them or becoming collaborators. Pamela Price points out that "the
nineteenth century is sometimes discussed as a time not only of the Brit-
ish Raj, or rule, but as a time of the Brahman Raj."^9 Even today, as former
prime minister V. P. Singh claims, "We [Indians] are ruled by an upper
caste Hindu raj."^10
In a micro-level sociological inquiry of the Brahmin community of
Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh to study their slide from prominence,
an Indian author concludes that "there is no more correspondence between
the sacred or ritual power and secular and monetary power." The most
important reason for the slide from prominence is said to be the "reverse
discrimination" emanating from the reservation policy of the government
for the improvement of the "backward" and "scheduled" castes. With
this economic slide and the increasing boycott of Brahmins in socio-ritual
contexts by the non-Brahmins, the basic organizing principles of the tra-
ditional Hindu society come to be challenged seriously.^11 Though Brah-
mins, who constitute roughly 15 percent of the Indian population along
with other upper castes, may not form a homogenous social or political
group at the national level, the Brahminical orthodoxy is afraid of losing
even the ritual hegemony. Above all, the most fundamental rule of power
and authority in the caste system, that the lower castes must serve the
privileged ones, stands seriously challenged. Consequently, the reaction-
ary forces panic to react, and the emergence of virulent Hindutva should
be seen at this backdrop.
The "innocence" convictions of the Brahminical orthodoxy have it that
Brahmins have always tried "to realise and enjoy the higher and more
excellent things of life by the intensive cultivation of the spirit of renun-
ciation." They have always sought "to guide the secular life and the spiri-
tual life of the Hindu community without dominating it or debasing it."
The caste system, which is "based on equality and mutual aid and service
and interdependence," only "aims at a co-ordinated life in substitution
for a competitive life." According to this reasoning, "we cannot abandon
or destroy or dilute it at the bidding of the novi homines of to-day [sic]."
Loathing about the "many evils" afflicting the Brahmin society, the Brah-
minical orthodoxy lists imitating the other races and communities, "the