Back When We Were Brahmins

In much of India, including Bengal, Nāth/Yogī/Jogī are officially designated Backward Castes. This chapter addresses a Sanskritizing movement that has developed among householder Nāths in West Bengal since the early twentieth century, considering particularly how authors and organizers affiliated with the All-India Rudraja Nath Brahmin Association use historical arguments to support their contention that they are in fact “Rudraja” Brahmins. Implicit in their claim is a critique of how caste has been practiced in Bengal since the twelfth century, since the NBRNBS, promotes the idea that Brahmin Nāths were unjustly declared avarṇa by the Sena monarch Ballāla Sena, the reorganizer of Bengali Hindu society. This chapter explores the somewhat paradoxical approach to caste and Hindu identity in the NBRNBS’s advocacy

BENGAL · Bengali · Caste · Hinduism · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · South Asian Studies and Diaspora