Historical India's Caste System not Tyrannical

[Guest guest]

>"Yvette C. Rosser"

>[HinduThought] K.S. Lal Books >Thu, 8 Aug 2002 09:38:04 -0500 >

> From the preface to K.S. Lal's book 'Growth of scheduled tribes and >castes

in Medieval India', Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1995: > >"There is sufficient

evidence to show that on the eve of the islamic >invasions, the Hindu social

system did not suffer from the defects >'which it developed at a later stage.

In the meantime , the upper >'castes (the words upper and lower had no meaning

then, it is we who >'refer to them as such) came to the rescue of he lower

castes in >'distress and the lower castes fought under the banner of the upper

>'caste Kshatriyas in the defense of freedom. So well coalesced was >the

'social structure that it not only saved India from the fate of >'countries

like Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt when they confronted the >'Islamic onslaught,

but did not rest content until it had supplanted >'the Muslim political power

in the land even though it took a >'thousand years to do so. Hindus had

suffered only a military defeat >'against Muslim invaders. It was not a

collapse of the Hindu social >'system'." > >I made this suggestion once, and I

repeat it with conviction: > >I urge members of this list, whether in India or

the West or >wherever, to purchase three copies of each of K.S. Lal's books and

>have them mailed to you. Then, take one copy of each to the library >of your

local university or college and donate them, then take a set >to your local

pubic library and donate them, then keep a set for >yourself. > >This would

accomplish four things: >1. Would provide a few extra rupees in royalties to a

retired >professor on a pension in Delhi. >2. Would show that as a concerned

Indian, you put your money where >your mouth is, and support a wider

dissemination of "alternative" or >"indigenous" (non-elitist, non-Marxist)

historiographies of India, >such as written by K.S. Lal, among others such as

R.C. Majumdar. >3. Would show that you cared about the communities in which you

live >and want to make a donation to the scholarly institutions in your >town

(whether that is in India or the USA, etc.) You can put a >donation sticker in

the book. >4. You would have a collection of books that your whole family could

>enjoy for years to come. > >You can find his books for sale on the internet.

"The Mogul Harem" is >always a popular gift. > >Thanks, >Yvette Rosser >

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