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Parashuram: The icon of neo-Brahminism

News item no.1-
At the Brahmin Maha Mela organizedon June 5 last year by the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) in Lukhnow, Mayavati was presented by Sudhir Chandra Mishra, the Brahmin leader of BSP with a silver axe, the weapon of Parashurama, the warrior who vpwed to kill all Kshatriyas in order to protect the Brahmin community. As all these unfolded, the crowd shouted not only the BSP’s traditional slogan ‘JaiBheem’ (alluding to B.R. Ambedkar) but also ‘Jai Parashuram’.

News item no.2-
There has considerable pressure upon the governments of atleast two states , Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, to announce Parashuram’s birthday as an official holiday.

News Item no.3-
An all India Parashuram Association and Foundation have been formed to promote the economic, political and social interests of the Brahmins. Prior to the national conference of this association in June, 2005 at Surat, a Parashuram ‘Kalash’ (sacred pot) was carried in procession from the Somnath temple to the conference’s venue.

All these stand as evidences of the emergence of Parashuram as the new icon of Brahminism, at least in north India. The Brahmins in India are clearly no longer happy with their age-old image of being scholars, priests, teachers and ascetics like Manu, Vasistha, Panini and Shankaracharya. They would now prefer to carry the image of being intrepid warriors like Parashuram, the legendary Brahmin hero who exterminated the kshtriyas several times.
It is interesting to note that of all the illustrious Brahmins in history, Parashuram should be chosen as the icon especially now, when they are uniting to strengthen themselvrs economically and politically. It is well-known that in every part of India, the Brahmins are divided into endogaous sub-castes and sub-sub-castes. But, nowadays the Brahmins are forging unity first between the sub-sub-castes within the sub-castes and then between the different sub-castes within the Brahmin caste in various ways.
One such way of establishing unity adopted by the Parashuram Foundation is to encourage ‘love marriage’ between the various Brahmin sub-castes by organizing ‘marriage melas’ where boys and girls of the caste are given an opportunity to meet and mix with an aim at marriage. The association also provides scholarships and loans to students to encourage meritorious students of the community. The Parashuram association also organizes festivals, pilgrimages and pleasues trips, and several other activities to strengthen unity within the caste.
The association, in fact, has units at lower levels such towns which form a federation for the region , which in turn becomes a part of the all India association . The grass-root level activities of the organization has contributed towards enhancing its powers I the political arena. One may wonder as to what led to the formation of the brahmin organization and why has there been a sudden rise in its activities.
The reasons may be traced in the growing sense of insecurity amongst the Brahmins, as a result of reservations for the scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes in educational institutions and government jobs. The feeling is particularly strong among the poorer Brahmins who feel that the while the false notion that the Brahmins always corner the high, plum jobs still remain stuck to them, in reality it is the OBCs(Other Backward Classes) who occupy the plum positions mostly. The Brahmins who eke out their living by working as peons, cooks, or bus-conductors feel that they, in spite of their economic backwardness are left out while even the affluent SCs and OBCs enjoy the benefits of reservation. This has been an important cause behind the formation of the Parashuram Association. In order to protect brahmin interests against encroachments by the OBCs, the Association is ready to align with the dalits. In Uttar Pradesh, the Brahmins have already established political alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, which is essentially a party of the dalits. This naturally reminds one of the stories about Parashuram, which say that he had trained many a shudra including Karna of the Mahabharata as warriors. Hence the Brahmin alliance with the dalits who, now look upon the OBCs instead of the Brahmins as their oppressors, is in a way a silent revolution, which is smashing into bits the thousands of years old caste hierarchy.
This mutations go hand in hand with the declining influence of notions associated with caste such as purity and pollution, not only in towns but also in villages. The Brahmins are now competing with other castes in matters such as increasing their strength in educational institutions, employment market and the political arena. In order to achieve these, it is of utmost importance for the Brahmins to enhance their internal unity and bolster their economic strength. They feel that all these can be gained only by adopting the same methods as the other castes have adopted: the methods of militarism. In such a zeitgeist, when the brahmin community is endeavouring to transform itself, it has rightly chosen Parashuram as the new icon of this militant face of brahminism. However, whether they will be able to tread on his path or not and assert their socio-economic and political superiority over other castes, is a question the answer of which can be given only by time.