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My condolences. I wish the author could explain why he chooses to disclose that he is a _Bramhin_. The author seems to have emigrated to a different part of t
by null_flavour 3y ago
My condolences.
I wish the author could explain why he chooses to disclose that he is a _Bramhin_.
The author seems to have emigrated to a different part of the world but still mentions labels used for the longest running discrimination of humans in history.
- Thorrez 3y ago> he is a _Bramhin_ By "he" do you mean the author or the author's father?
- shas3 3y agoWhat do you know about the caste system? Do you similarly police posts that say, “he grew up on a nobleman’s estate in England,” or “grew up on a farm in Alabama,” just because those are associated with historical oppression? This smearing of Hindus and Indians with accusations about caste are ridiculous and par for the course on HN where Indo-phobia is pretty commonplace (see any discussion of US work visas, for example).
- rocket_surgeron 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- aaomidi 3y agoCertainly an interesting take. How do you measure this against white pride for example?
- rocket_surgeron 3y agoMillennia of sectarian strife in a region that has always exceeded the population of the "white" world since Europe was covered by hundreds of meters of ice? I suppose you could measure a star against a lightbulb... ...I mean, they'll both burn you.
- atonse 3y agoI don’t know, sectarian conflict is a tale as old as time and afflicted pretty much any religion. But I guess in other cases it wasn’t about “pride” but more animosity?
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoOP has answered this question in the (current) top comment, and others have elaborated further. Tl;dr "Brahmin" is a more complex and less unified category than you assume.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y agoIn the US, we might say "Upper class," or "Privileged," or "Established family." I suspect that was what he meant, but sometimes terms don't age so well. There's a whole bunch of terms that were commonly used throughout our South, that would be considered insults or racist dog-whistles, these days.
- atonse 3y agoMy condolences to OP. My guess is that it tied to the “don’t harm anything” story? I was curious to see how people with these different extremely rigid belief systems adjust in the military. I’m also “Brahmin” by birth but a beef eating atheist so don’t give a crap about it. But grew up around enough relatives that cared and never understood how they reconciled trying to be strict in some areas but being lax in others. That’s why I was curious about how they adjust in the military.
- yunohn 3y ago> never understood how they reconciled trying to be strict in some areas but being lax in others IMHO you’re describing all humans ever. We all live with constant choices between conforming and rebelling - religious, societal, etc. It’s not that surprising?
- atonse 3y agoNo but in this case it’s seemingly dogmatic stuff, like hey cook meat in different pans from the pans used for vegetarians, but then eat at restaurants where you couldn’t obviously enforce that. But yes there is always plenty of inconsistency.
- unmole 3y agoRaised in a strict Maharashtrian Brahmin household That sentance adds background about the father's upbringing. It's no different from saying someone grew up in a secular Jewish household or that their parents were born again Christians.
- Randomizer42 3y ago[flagged]
- yunohn 3y agoVouched for this purely because I’m confused what you’re confused about. There are innumerable households where you follow certain traditions/culture, that come from previously religious influences, without actively practicing. This is common across all religions, across the world. Even within religious families, people end up moving on from some rituals while keeping others. Nothing odd about it, it’s normal and expected the way society functions.
- pcthrowaway 3y agoThis isn't really what the above poster was saying, but "secular Jewish" can also refer to practically nonpracticing ("atheist" or "agnostic") or even practicing a different religion entirely. Since Jews are an ethnoreligious group, the identifier often refers to people with a Jewish ethnic background, vs people who are Jewish as a religion.
- yunohn 3y agoWell yes, that’s an aspect of the same idea I’m explaining. The meaning of ethno-religious is that their culture is intertwined with religion.
- pcthrowaway 3y agoNo, it's more about ethnicity and religion being intertwined. Judaism also references an ethnic group historically tied to the practice of the religion, but not necessarily. If you want to talk about people who are "ethnically jewish" but not "religious jewish", you can say something like "secular jewish" or "nonpracticing Jew". I am a nonpracticing Jew myself. I don't identify with any of the religious or cultural aspects of Judaism (although I have some educational background). But as a Jewish person, I'm still eligible for citizenship of Palestine/Israel (though not interested for political reasons), and also eligible for targeting by white supremicists/neonazis
- CerebralCerb 3y ago> He wouldn't hurt a fly, literally. If he caught a creature inside the house, he would carefully open the window and toss it out. Even when a cobra came out of the grass in the monsoons, he would not let us hurt it. Raised in a strict Maharashtrian Brahmin household and then in the College of Engineering in Pune, he was well-read but hadn't seen much of the real world before entering the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. The first three sentences paints a picture of a man of unusual ethics. The tidbit about his Bramhin background explains why he is that way. An Indian might be able to infer the Brahmin tidbit from the first part. But as an European reader like myself, it is relevant to know that the ethics is rooted in religious upbringing and not just eccentricity (which would be the typical explanation for why a person would behave like that in Europe).