Why are there so many Brahmin freedom fighters?

This article is from a series of Questions asked on the internet and answered by Shekhar Bodhakar

 All battles for freedom are not on equal moral plane for the simple reason that the motives and purposes behind these battles of freedom are not always the same".

-Dr.Ambedkar,"Plea to the foreigner".

Could, Why are there so many Brahmin freedom fighters, be something to do with this man?

 

Who was Bal Gangadhar Tilak?

The first and strongest advocate of Swaraj ("self-rule") was a Chitpavan Brahmin, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920); also know as Lokmanya. He was known as "the father of Indian unrest" by the British.

The Age of Consent Act, 1891, also Act X of 1891, was a legislation enacted in British India on 19 March 1891 which raised the age of consent from 10 years for sexual intercourse for all girls, married or unmarried, to twelve years of age in all jurisdictions.

The Chitpavan Brahmins, with Tilak as their leader, were against this 1891 Age of Consent bill, seeing it as INTERFERENCE with Hinduism and a dangerous precedent.

REFERENCE: Jai Narain Sharma-Political Thought of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak- Concept Publishing Company-ISBN 13:9788180695841)

Draconian anti-humanity laws practiced in India for centuries, if not millenia, were being challenged by the British. Continual amendments to these laws became a great source of worry for the Brahmins.

Never before did the Brahmins rebel against any other foreign ruler so vehemently. In fact they enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships with all previous invaders and were even happy to give their daughters in wedlock to the foreigners as long as they maintained the social structure designed by the Brahmins. Only the British were hard to convince:

Here is a list (not by any means, a complete list), of other practices abolished by the British, giving the Brahmins further reasons why they should get rid of the Brits ASAP:

1). On 16th May 1775, under the East India regulatory act 1773, Nand kumar Dev became the FIRST EVER BRAHMIN TO BE CONVICTED OF MURDER. Prior to this date the Brahmins had exclusive impunity from state prosecution regardless of the crime.

2). 1795: For the FIRST TIME since the decline of the Ashokan empire, Shudras were granted the right to own property.

3).1813: Slavery abolished.

4). Also in 1813: Right to education for all granted.

5). 1817: Punishments according to Varna system made illegal.

6). 1818 - The defeat of Janeudhari Shudra Rule "Peshwa Rule" at Bhima-Koregaon 

7). 1819: A ban was put on the archaic custom of a Brahmin spending the first three nights with the newly wed Shudra bride.

8). 1830: Human sacrificial rituals made illegal.

9). 1835: Compulsory offering of the first born son of a Shudra to the river Ganga made illegal.

10). Also in 1835 on 7th of March, Lord Macaulay fought for and won the right to higher education for Shudras & untouchables and the right to learn English for all non Brahmins.

Under this newly found freedom to education, the iconoclast JYOTIRAO PHULE became the first person to successfully complete matriculation becoming the most educated person from the ‘OBC Catagory’.

DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR was one of the first from the so called untouchable class to be allowed to enrol for a degree under the same right to higher education and Perunthalaivar M.C. Rajah being the first degree holder of the Scheduled Community in India [ B.A in Madras Christian College, Chennai in 1900].

11). 1870: Female infanticide banned

The Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870, also Act VIII of 1870 was a legislative act passed in British India, to prevent murder of female infants. The Section 7 of this Act declared that it was initially applicable only to the territories of Oudh, North-Western provinces and Punjab but the Act authorized the Governor General to extend the law to any other district or province of the British Raj at his discretion.

12). 1891 - Age of Consent Bill 1891 which was opposed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak enacted. On January 9, 1891, British colonial authorities had introduced a bill to raise the age of consent for unmarried and married Indian girls from 10 to 12 years. The law targeted the Hindu practice of child marriage. Once enacted, the law served to prohibit the consummation of marriage rather than the practice itself. In several high profile cases, husbands had caused the death of their child brides and the British public was outraged. This declared it punishable as Rape Crime.

13) Untouchable were granted the right to sit on chairs.

14) The British banned the custom of ‘sati’ in which it was obligatory for the widow of the deceased to be burnt to death.

AND THE LIST CONTINUES ...

The abolition of these draconian anti-humanity laws was an obvious worry for the Brahmins. Would you blame them for starting a movement to kick the British out?

Who else, other than the dominant privileged castes, would start such a movement?

Should the Shudras and untouchables have joined them? They needed and fought for their own freedom, the freedom from the Brahmins

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