Kulin Brahmin

Kulin Brahmin is the highest strata of upper caste Brahmins in India's caste system. This term is more generally used to refer to upper caste "twice-born" Brahmins in nineteenth century Bengal considered themselves to be more knowledgeable as regards the scriptures as compared to other Brahmins.

To take a leaf from Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the habitus, it could be argued that "Kulinity" of the initiated caste-conscious Brahmins was (and to a large extent, continues to be) dictated by notions of caste purity and caste pollution and its shared caste memory.

It may not be out of place to mention here that filmmaker Goutam Ghose's Antarjali Yatra is based on the theme of Kulin Brahmin polygamy in nineteenth century Bengal.

The Brahmo Samaj originated to remove the evils of Kulin Brahminism like polygamy and sati (wherein widows were burnt alive to grab their share in undivided property). From 1822, over 500 secular Kulin Brahmins of Calcutta organised themselves into a vigilante force under legal experts like Ram Mohan Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore and Prasanna Coomar Tagore known as the "Brahma Sabha" to report and prosecute such offences. A counter force called "Dharma Sabha" was quickly formed by another set of orthodox Hindu Kulins to excommunicate Brahmins of the "Brahma Sabha" or assassinate them. Finally in 1829 the Governor General William Bentinck outlawed "sati". The excommunicated Brahmins formed their own religion Brahmoism the following year 1830 which was finally codified in 1850, and recognised by the British Government in 1872, and by the Supreme Courts in 1903.

References

*"History of the Bengali-speaking People" by Nitish Sengupta
* "The Literature of Bengal: a Biographical and Critical History from the Earliest Times, Closing with a Review of Intellectual Progress under British Rule in India." (1877); Calcutta, T. Spink (1895); 3rd ed., "Cultural Heritage of Bengal" Calcutta, Punthi Pustak (1962).
*"History of the Brahmo Samaj" by Sivanath Sastri