The history of the Marathas can not be written with the coloured ink of caste

A guru's caste is immaterial

The history of the Marathas can not be written with the coloured ink of caste. We are a proud race, unbending when a fanatical tyrant from the North tries to dictate where the allegiance of the Deccan should lie. And yet, we are not inflexible to the demands of time and modernity. The Empire would not have stood the test of time had it been bothered about superiority or inferiority dictated by birth.

Brahmins took to the sword when the Maharaj gave his call for Swaraj, Hindavi Swaraj as it is called to this date. Brahmins served under him, sacrificing their lives for the saviour. All castes and creeds of the time woke up to the vision of freedom. The Peshwa would not have been able to take forward Chhatrapati Shivaji's enlightened leadership and extend it across Hindustan if he had stuck to the narrow confines of orthodoxy.

And now in the city where it all started, Pune, there is a caste storm being kicked up, and it is spreading to other parts of the state. A concerted attempt is on, by some members of the traditional warrior caste in the state, to obliterate accepted history in the name of self-determination. That former Supreme Court justices should take part in such a caste-championing demonstration without providing evidence to back their astounding claims, is regrettable. Pune Mayor's public acceptance of a mob's demand to remove the image of Dadoji Konddeo showing the path of dharma to a young Shivaji should be a matter of concern for us all.

It is a different thing that the powers that be backtracked the next day, possibly after doing their caste calculations as far as Pune goes, dominated as it is, at least numerically, by Brahmins.

The protesters who want Dadoji Konddeo banished from the Lal Mahal say it is impossible that a Brahmin could have been the guru of a Maratha Shivaji. If Shivaji had thought like them and said it was impossible for him to have a Brahmin or a Mahar in his army or navy, the Maratha Empire would not have had the ability to expand and bring justice to a nation raped by centuries of foreign aggression.

Ram made Laxman bow before a dying Ravan, so that the learning accumulated by a Brahmin over a lifetime of scholarship would not go unattested. With it, the difference between victor and vanquished vanished, and only the light of knowledge remained, to shine forth and illuminate mankind's path to the future.
A guru is a guru; his caste is immaterial.

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