Fwd: Varna, Jati and Caste System -- Kalyan Viswanathan (1:57:41)

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From: kalyan
Date: Sun, Sep 20, 2020 at 7:35 AM
Subject: Varna, Jati and Caste System -- Kalyan Viswanathan (1:57:41)
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https://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2020/09/varna-jati-and-caste-system-kalyan.html

Every society has a caste system. There are inequalities in all societies; a few control the major portion of a nation's wealth. So why the hatred against Hindu 'caste' system? Kalyan Viswanathan presents a historical overview on how a non-existent 'caste' was introduced by the colonizers, the Portuguese in 18th century. Colonizers exploited the wealth of and impoverished the nation. The discourse was falsely posited as the Brahmins as the exploiters and the 'lower castes' as the exploited. Such a social organization is NOT validated by historical facts.

Kalyanaraman

https://tinyurl.com/y48p9gbv (Youtube Video: 1:57:41) Varna, Jaati & Caste System Webinar

Saturday, September 19th, 2020

Attended the excellent webinar. Here are the excerpts presented in 24 slides.

The kingdom of Portugal and Caste had been jockeying for position and possession of colonial territories along the African coast for more than a century prior to Columbus' 'discovery' of lands in the western seas. On the theory that the Pope was an arbitrator between nations, each kingdom had sought and obtained Papal bulls at various times to bolster its claims, on the grounds that the activities served to spread Christianity. The bull Romanus Pontifex (1455 CE) is an important example of the Papacy's claim to spiritual lordship of the whole world and of its role in regulating relations akong Christian princes and between Christians and 'unbelievers' ('heathens' and 'infidels'). This bull became the basis for Portugal's later claim to lands in the 'new world', a claim which was countered by Castile and the bull Inter caetara in 1492.

Note:

Papal bulla of Nicholas V

[quote] The bull conferred exclusive trading rights to the Portuguese between Morocco and the Indies with the rights to conquer and convert the inhabitants. A significant concession given by Nicholas in a brief issued to King Alfonso in 1454 extended the rights granted to existing territories to all those that might be taken in the future. Consistent with these broad aims, it allowed the Portuguese "to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery". However, together with a second reference to some who have already been enslaved, this has been used to suggest that Nicholas sanctioned the purchase of black slaves from "the infidel": "... many Guineamen and other negroes, taken by force, and some by barter of unprohibited articles, or by other lawful contract of purchase, have been ... converted to the Catholic faith, and it is hoped, by the help of divine mercy, that if such progress be continued with them, either those peoples will be converted to the faith or at least the souls of many of them will be gained for Christ."

It is on this basis that it has been argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade.^[25] By dealing with local African chieftains and Muslim slave traders, the Portuguese sought to become key European players in the lucrative slave trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Callixtus III (Inter Caetera quae in 1456), Sixtus IV (Aeterni regis in 1481), and Leo X (1514), and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI: Eximiae devotionis (3 May 1493), Inter Caetera

Inter caetera It remains unclear to the present whether the pope intended a "donation" of sovereignty or an infeudation or inv...

 (4 May 1493) and Dudum Siquidem (23 September 1493), in which he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[unquote]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Nicholas_V