"We Keralites believe it(*the story of Parasuram,his hatchet and the gift of * *this land to his people,ie;to the* *Brahmans?)* a myth and one can distinguish myth from history"- What does it mean? One can't help being reminded of the famous statement of Ambedkar, which is somewhat like this: *A Hindu believes what he wants to believe.* Hinduism,unlike other faith systems of the world, has nothing in it which makes us well disposed to the concerns of the society at large.The Brahmanic Hinduism, both in theory and practice, is a bundle of imperatives concerned with keeping the institution of caste(and certainly gender ) intact. It is a system of ritualistic imposition of caste and gender.It is also a system that imposes punishment on the defiants of caste and gender norms. Whereas, in any other religion or even outside all religions, we might see structures of gender maintained in different ways, the effects of male dominance & control are allthemore conspicuous in Hinduism,thanks to the rigorous observance of caste from cradle to the graveyard by every Hindu. This is not substantially altered even in the case of a literate/educated Malayali man or woman, despite his/her being born and brought up in a "left"setting. Perhaps this could explain the typically Brahmanic ( casteist+ sexist, to the core) ways of seeing; this happens too frequently and *perhaps many of us still want to believe what we like to believe;*not being even conscious about the existence of the marginalized compatriots around . Hence the boasting about our 'nation' as a gift of god.
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