A vibrant movement has developed in the United States of America with the help of the Indian left to position caste as the universal architecture for racism throughout world history. One of the consequences of this theory is the fabrication of a new identity being projected as the epicenter of victimhood, commonly known as the Afro-Dalit identity. It is the project that purports to paint Dalits as the “Blacks” of Bharat and non-Dalits as Bharat’s “Whites”. But this is a false equivalence of caste as race.

Critical Race Theory has been mapped to Bhartiya society and the mapping has been shoddy, and full of biases. Critical Race Theory is being mapped onto Bhartiya society and exported to Bharat aggressively from America. The Bhartiya Left has thoroughly imported all prior Wester social thought derived from Marxism and Postmodernism and now the newest obsession is the Indianized Critical Race Theory.

Many of CRT’s ideas are being introduced in Bharat one at a time, sometimes informally and casually under the radar. But it seems there is also a formal movement underway, thanks to Harvard University and its network in Bharat, to transfer the entire Critical Race Theory mechanism to Bharat. This includes bringing to Bharat:

1. The theory
2. Its adaptations for radicalizing certain groups
3. Toolkits for activism
4. Development and consolidation of victim identities
5. A large number of activists already trained at Harvard at various levels

Going clockwise starting at the top, the main points of the diagram are as follows:

1. The social structure of caste is said to be equal to the biological characteristics of the race.
2. Caste is treated as an indispensable part of Hinduism while caste systems in other cultures are ignored.
3. The claim is that since it is an indispensable part of Hinduism, dismantling caste is possible only if Hinduism itself is dismantled.
4. Meritocracy is claimed to be a product of caste structures and therefore a part of it.
5. Since all objectivity is tainted with the bias of structural privilege, it is said that objective arguments must be replaced with personal experiences. Only the groups identified as victims are said to have valid personal experiences.
6. Islam is assumed to be a victim group irrespective of numerous historical records to the contrary Therefore, it is eligible for the status of ‘protected class.
7. Global nexuses involving government; multinational companies through their ESG programs; and international groups like the UN and human rights organizations are roped in to pressure Bharat into accepting these frameworks.
8. Harvard is playing a central role in creating and distributing this narrative through its vast and influential networks both in Bharat and overseas.

All efforts are against Hinduism

The end game of Critical Race Theory and Americanization of Caste is to dismantle all structures that were historically built by those branded as oppressors. When applied to Bharat, the end game is to dismantle all structures of the Vedic/Hindu heritage, its texts, deities, symbols, rituals, festivals, customs, gurus, and institutions. Bharat’s IITs have become a target as well because, scholars from Harvard have declared it a bastion of meritocracy, and meritocracy has been declared a structure of casteism set up by the Brahmins (utter level of absurdity). The atrocities against various communities like the Dalits, are not to be ignored at the same time. There is total sympathy with all such communities. But the argument for the wholesale dismantling of Vedic structures is not the solution to the problem.

Social problems have existed in every civilization and in fact, continue to do so. Vedic tradition has often addressed its issues resulting in major social changes like during the Bhakti movement in Bharat. The question is whether external interventions are required and would be the best solution. The external interventions by one civilization or nation in another’s internal social issues have a deplorable track record and mostly that has been done by Western Nations which today lecture the entire world around the same topics. When the Conquistadors conquered the North-American natives, it was often justified on the basis that the natives committed crimes like human sacrifice, but this conquest resulted in their genocide. The same pattern is found in the way Africans were treated at the hands of Europeans. When the U.S.A. invaded Mexico to grab the states of California, Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada, the real motive was pure and simple expansionism because oil had been discovered on those lands. But the reason cited in the US Congress to justify this invasion was that Mexicans abuse their women and children, and a lot of evidence was created and presented as part of what became known as “Atrocity Literature”. The same Atrocity Literature was designed when the US invaded Iraq, and Iraq is developing “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. What later was found to be all false and “Yellow Journalism”. A style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts and used to rabble-rouse sentiments to invade another country.

Caste Considered the Architecture of Global Racism

Varna is a Sanskrit term that is non-translatable into English and was mistranslated as ‘caste’ by the British both for ease of administration, and the subjugation of its colony during their colonial era in Bharat. Bhartiya Constitution later legitimized this new hierarchical structure of caste, which became a foundation of modern vote bank politics. The ‘caste’ idea has been further misinterpreted, this time with an American meaning in the framework of Black/White racial politics. The recent entrant of the arena of misinterpreters is Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning African American journalist, and author.

Wilkerson uses the term ‘caste’ to serve the purpose of describing racial tensions between Blacks and Whites in the United States. This newly defined idea that caste equals race has entered the American lexicon in the frontier of the social justice movement, therefore double distortion happened:-à VarnaàCasteàRace.

Theory of Wilkerson

“Caste is the original sin of racism and has been causing racism globally, according to which caste is responsible for causing racism found everywhere”

This thesis has gained Wilkerson prominence as a public intellectual in the US and breathed new life into the discourse on racism. The popularity of her bestseller “Caste” in mainstream media and in American think tanks has given caste a new meaning, making it a household word. In her book, skin color is often regarded as a marker of caste. Oftentimes assumed that low caste persons in Bharat are dark-skinned and upper castes are light-skinned. This is used to support caste as being somehow linked to race. Wilkerson also refers to one of her Indian interviewees mentioning the ‘Indian fixation on skin color’ and ‘hatred of darker Indians’. The fact, however, is that caste (unlike race) is not determined by physical looks. Most Hindu deities like Krishna, Kali, and Durga are dark-skinned, a fact always glorified in hymns. On one hand, Wilkerson accuses Hinduism of being the cause of racism and yet, on the other, fails to recognize that most Hindu deities are dark-skinned, a fact totally contrary to her thesis.

This is, however, not the first instance of caste being equated with race. In 2001, during a UN conference on race in Durban, South Africa, the Indian government found itself at odds with a resolution being proposed that caste was a form of racism. Among the arguments used was the standard rhetoric that ‘devadasis’ face the threat of everyday rape by the representatives of Hindu gods right in the temple premise. The government succeeded in getting this clause removed from the final resolution.

Hindu Dharma Dismissed as a Frozen and Abusive System of Caste

Wilkerson makes it appear as though the Hindu social structure is something permanent, similar to the way Abrahamic religions are frozen in one book. She assumes that social norms have been applied uniformly throughout time and across all Hindu regions. The pre-colonial and pre-Islamic, prosperity of Bhartiya masses of all strata is bypassed by Wilkerson. She also does not adequately consider the impact of one thousand years of colonization of Hindus first by Islamic invaders and then Christian invaders resulting in a culture that still has not been fully decolonized. This experience is unique to Hindu civilization as compared to any other major civilization because neither Christian nor Islamic societies were ever colonized so intensely and for such prolonged periods. One must examine the effects of these different kinds of colonization rather than condemn ancient Vedic culture. She totally ignores various religious orders that came about as a way of society correcting course. She also ignores the fact that some of the greatest sages of Bharat, held at the highest altar of worship even today, like Valmiki to whom the Ramayan is attributed, were from the lowest strata.

Another blind spot of Wilkerson is that she seems unaware of the strict varna restrictions on Brahmins and Kshatriyas that do not apply to the lower castes. But today nobody follows the varna system as it was designed, which means there is a fluidity in the Vedic system, unlike Islam and Christianity which she never dare to even gaze at.

1. Brahmins are at the top only as subject-matter experts in formal texts and in the authority to perform rituals. They are forbidden from holding material wealth, and most of the material prosperity was earned and enjoyed by the other varna. Thus, they were asked to be poor.
2. Kshatriyas have political power, serving in the military, courts, and as judges and kings. They are not meant to control economic capital.
3. Vaishyas have the dominant position in business and commerce, the equivalent of modern capitalists. But they are not to enter politics.
4. Shudras specialized in expertise that is embodied and hands-on. This includes areas like surgery, arts, farming, and so on. Shudras flourished in some past eras and there was even a Shudra dynasty of rulers.

The Varna system has fallen apart because the boundaries of each varna’s rights and privileges have been violated. These transgressions of traditional safeguards have created some of the problems being criticized. Clearly, there was no uniform and linear ranking of privileges. The four varnas were parallel and complementary to each other, with separate internal hierarchies. The varnas are better seen as occupational specializations that were initially based on individual qualities and merit.

Dismantling Hindu Dharma of Caste is Considered Necessary

Wilkerson believes in the ‘Karma’ concept of Hindus, but she interprets this term according to her own will so that it will support her bizarre theories. She claims that ‘Karma’ for every varna is to follow and practice the ordered behavior according to varna. So that you will be given a good life in your next life. So to be a good Shudra you need to serve all of the other varnas and that’s how far their pea size brain can think. They only focus on their defined oppressed to synthesize atrocity literature to attack Hindus at large. Equating Karma theory with the cause of caste abuse, she sets the stage for arguments to dismantle Hinduism. What clinches this deal in her mind is her dogmatic belief that caste is permanently fixed and beyond repair by way of any policies or social remedies. The implication of such a conclusion is that Hindu Dharma must be dismantled to rescue the lower castes.

Wilkerson celebrates a Hindu man’s gesture of casting away his janeu as an anti-caste gesture. She calls this a powerful renunciation of caste. The implication is that just as Critical Race Theory demands all to prove their anti-racist bona fides, Hindus must be pressured to renounce their symbols, traditions, practices, texts, festivals, and rituals in order to be “Woke”. But she has not asked her Black community to give up the Church and renounce Christianity to demonstrate that they are being anti-racist while the racism originated from Christianity itself. This normal practice can be seen in the “Ambedkarites” who are hijacked by CRT ideology and trying all possible attacks on Hinduism in the same manner as mentioned in the toolkits of these Hindu Dismantling projects.