Being political Hindus in the West #4: Critical race theory and the Hindus
04 Dec 2022 18:00:00
The previous article discussed the Critical Caste Theory (CCT). In this one, we will discuss the father of that theory, ie. the Critical Race Theory (CRT). As this series is about the Political conundrum and options for the Hindus in the West, it is important to understand the vocabulary being used in the West for the Western society and how that new social order, at least in some areas, can affect Hindus living there.
In his introduction to the comprehensive 1995 publication of critical race theory's key writings, Cornel West described CRT as "an intellectual movement that is both particular to our postmodern (and conservative) times and part of a long tradition of human resistance and liberation." The 2021 Encyclopaedia Britannica described CRT as an "intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color." Now as we can see, these two definitions over the period of 26 years have almost nothing in common. The current version of CRT is much closer to what the 2021 definition talks about. It essentially says that it is not just that Race is not and should not be a factor in our social conduct, which is essentially what Martin Luther King JR. said, it flips it on its head and says, not only race should be a factor in our social conduct, but that there is no such thing as race or races in the nature and race is a social construct or a culturally invented category.
Now, of course, when CRT admirers talk about cultural invention and Social construct they are criticizing the West and the so-called Judeo-Christian civilization. (White people in the West started adding Judeo after the Holocaust for the obvious reasons as otherwise, they'd be called Nazis who want a Christian state who want to kill the apostates and heathens.) Since it is criticizing the West and Christianity we might feel a bit of indifference towards it, perhaps some happiness as well as in some cases. But we must not let ourselves be lulled into a false sense of satisfaction on this issue. There are two main reasons for that.
First, Critical race theory creates an order where a person belonging to the most oppressed group historically will be treated with utmost care and delicacy and at the same time, other groups will feel enormous shame for that person’s ‘misfortunes’. In that order, as mentioned in the previous article, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) are at the bottom of this hierarchy because, in western societies, WASPs have historically been the most successful as well the oppressing community of the most people. The proponents of CRT cite examples of how Irish Catholics, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Jews, East Asians, Indians, and Africans were treated as less than second-class citizens. Which is all factually correct. But CRT proposes that the current generation of WASPs be held responsible for the ‘sins’ of their forefathers. It even creates a hierarchy in which WASPs go on the bottom and Black/African American Women go on top. (There is also an adage of Sexuality in which LGBTQ Black Women will be at the top, but that is more of a Woke syllabus adapted by the CRT proponents.) Then there will be Hispanic or Latino women. Then Black and Latino Men. then come Middle Eastern women and men, any Muslim from anywhere. After this comes Asian women and Men, Indian Men and women after that(particularly Hindu, Particularly upper caste), then Jewish men and women, Eastern European men and women, and then, the Catholic white women and men. In this categorization. Hindu men and women do not fare much better than the WASP. Hindus get treated as the oppressor because of the fact that Hindus in Western society are a well-educated prosperous community. And in the Socialist doctrine of CRT, success in the capitalist society itself is the indictment of one’s involvement in oppressive activities. This kind of doctrine does not demand proof of this claim as the success itself is proof enough for them. This is why in the USSR everyone who owned a cow or a bull was termed a Kulak, meaning the wealthy peasants. Not because the Kulak necessarily oppressed anyone, but because they were successful in the capitalist system, which made them complicit to that system. As a result, most of them were sent to the Societ concentration camps AKA, Gulags.
The second reason, and largely talked about in the previous article, is the generation of CCT out of CRT. CCT is nothing but the appropriation of CRT in the Indian context and forcefully comparing caste and race as well as caste-based discrimination with racial discrimination. This creates a false equivalence between the Caste and the Race.
In the next article, we will discuss, which political leaders are either overtly or covertly supporting this CRT.