thanks cheenus, I look forward to;
kaundinya I think brahmins number only 3% too, but someone mentioned in the forum they are like 7%, if 7% were true, we can surely influence the poll decisions and political decisions as well. but then, I guess as you say, may be 3% only. It is such a situation that asks us to work with others, for one to create ourselves among others who are not brahmins, but have similar predicaments (like saiva vellalars, etc...), I know a friend of mine, who is a saiva pillai, who is in the forward (so-called) community, to create a synergy, that way we can address the issue of our diminished numbers. getting BC certificate and all okay for temporary reasons but on a larger level it is important to let other communities learn that reservation alone is not a solution. To squarely blame brahmins or our society for someone being poor is totally illogical. Not that brahmins (and other castes) are a cause of it, but how much percentage is more important. If you look at Scheduled Tribes, they are indegenous people, are not sent to the fringes of the society by brahmins (or other upper castes) for that matter, but rather their own making. They shun outward influence. The tribals are available everywhere, if you see brazil, indonesia (or native indians in eh case of US), they are all tribals, their practices are generally not mainstream one and tend to stay outside!. Similarly, it lacks objective to say, that all the people are poor due to caste issues, as though we have ha d a great economy all along. Meaning, there is no objective study or anything to find out (as far as I know) how much was our job potential (like 50 years ago for eg.,), how much was our economic potential, where the upper castes to have supposedly taken a greater pie and within that, how many of the so-called lower castes applied, or what was the type of job that, they were supposedly driven out etc., were never done. The entire india was itself a economic diaster or in shambles or probably mediocre and the only educated community at that time was brahmins and some upper castes, and brahmins were not the necessarily richest to have dominated the entire spectrum, but middle class, who educated themselves, and whatever government jobs and other jobs were available at that time, they applied for it!. So I think it is unfair to blame brahmins to squarely for all the problems, but then, for politicians it is a easy demagogery!.