When I went to watch 'Dashkriya' [ last rites] a Marathi movie, neither did I have any grudge , me being a high caste Brahman, and I definitely knew that it must be anti Brahman, nor did I expected it to be highly thought provoking. For many reasons actually.
As I had not performed the last rites of both my parents, finding them to be utterly tribal and outdated for this century, I did not believe the entire concept in the first place. Any highly educated and thinking person can believe in such mundane rituals was/is beyond me. So whole drama concocted on such an edifice for me , was an exercise in futility.
Well till the end it went on the well beaten track but the end was finely conceived, asking you to think and above all question whether do we really require a priest?
And here I salute the Brahman.
Leaving their ancestral legitimacy far behind, either to be a priest or to be a land lord, 'Watandar' living on some body else's toils, new Brahman of this century has conquered so many diverse fields that it's really a feat to salute.
To start with , there is this Mr Harshawardhan Patwardhan who has done MBA from abroad [Nottingham, to be precise] is way ahead in designing and manufacturing Kolhapuri Chappals so far the domain of cobblers only. In today's times though not considered unusual, and it must not be, he is that Brahman who has catapulted in a profession that was considered to be only for low caste at one point of time.
The profession that was once predominated by the girls from red light area, there came a girl from high caste Brahman family who ruled the roost in forties and fifties, none other than Durga Khote who made path for Usha Kiran, and followed by another one, coming from the same community of Chitpawan Brahmans, Madhuri Dixit, what better can be said about her. Take any field, this caste has shown its mettle on merit alone !
Half of the Silicon valley is being run by the Indian Brahmans either they are Aiyyars/ Aiyyangars from south or Marathi Brahmans from Maharashtra. Today from every Brahman house in Maharashtra at least one child is settled abroad . If the opportunities on home front thinned out or dwindled in totality, this caste did not keep on lamenting about the lost horizons but they made their new horizons !
Cricket would be incomplete without two Marathis. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Both Brahmans. Though from different sub-castes. Every body took Rahul to be a South Indian, but to the contrary he is Marathi speaking blue blooded Deshasth Brahman, originally hailing from Indore. And who would doubt their merit ? But above all, it was their dedication to the field they had chosen, which was in their genes.
Take any, any field and you would definitely find Marathi Brahman on the top. Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. For love of music this lad ran away from his home, in North Karnataka and where his dedication led him to !
Rhode scholar Physicist Jayant Naralikar, highest among-st the humans Dr. Baba Amate and his entire family you name a field and there are Marathi Brahmans who had and are helping to change the history, by their singular merit and hard work !
Even when it came to farming there had to be Late Mr. Shaard Joshi to give the entire movement a concrete direction.
The list is just unending ! And did not even mention Maharshi Karve Bharat Ratna Anay, Keshav Hedgewar oh so many !
Peshwas served as Prime Minister to Maratha Kingdom, till the last. Never ever they considered or declared themselves as kings. They used to get agreement 'Sanat' from Maratha King settled in Satara..Till the end of Peshwai, the Largest and the Biggest Empire in India that spread from Atak [ now in Pakistan] to Tanjore in Tamilnadu, the tradition was followed meticulously without fail. They fought Mughals valiently through out their tenure [ what else !],but were betrayed by our own people, in the last battle, that ended the reign.
The point to be noted is, today you hardly find any Peshwa, enjoying on the deeds of his ancestors, but all the court holders who were supposed to carry out the duties in the name of Chhatrapti from Satara, declared themselves to be kings, once they reached their fiefdoms.Be it Holkars from Indore, Scindias [ Shinde ] from Gwalior or Gaikwads from Baroda ! And just have a look at their [filthy] wealth today ! And the supreme Brahman Peshwas, who really erected the empire, where are they now, just existing, living a lower middle class life !
And that too is a quality. If its not mine I won't ask for it and merit is not one of them !
So 'Dashkriya' tells us in the end, to do away with all these rituals. Many Brahmans like me, have already done that in today's politically vicious atmosphere. But who has time to listen ?
