A friend told me today that I am a leftist because I was born a Brahmin. Her argument appeared to me to be an oversimplification, but I thought I should present it here:
1) Brahmin/Kayastha dominance in the post-independence elite gave it an anti-business bias
(1/n)

2) This was partly an attack on the traditional mercantile/entrepreneurial upper-caste/community groups - baniya, marwari, khatri, etc, which had a complex love-hate relationship with the Indian National Congress during the national movement
(2/n)

3) The struggle for power WITHIN the upper-castes, made the Brahmin/Kayastha dominated elite anti-business, and the presence of the USSR made it pro-socialist.
(3/n)

4) My friend argues that the 'socialist' elite had no real concern for the poor, or the underprivileged - dalits & OBCs for instance. The commitment to state-capitalism was essentially to keep mercantile caste-communities in check
(4/n)

5) The 'imagined' customs and traditions of Brahminism - which my friend argues emerged in the colonial period - also made the state privilege KNOWLEDGE over MONEY. This worked perfectly for Brahmins & Kayasthas who had the highest exposure to colonial power-knowledge
(5/n)

6) The Brahmin/Kayastha dominance began to wane from the mid-1980s, when India began to turn towards market capitalism. This opened the space for mercantile/entrepreneurial caste-communities to expand their presence in state insitutions.
(6/n)

7) My friend believes, this is the reason why the 'new' elite (where the mercantile upper castes have acquired significant dominance) is willing to accept economic slowdown & even lower earnings for the medium term, to end the rule of the English-speaking Brahmin/Kayastha
(7/n)

8) According to her, the BJP vs INC battle is essentially a fight WITHIN the upper-castes. The BJP is dominated by mercantile castes & NON-ENGLISH speaking Brahmins, while the INC represents the ENGLISH-Speaking non-mercantile Savarna castes.
(8/n)

Both parties have built alliances beyond the Savarna space. THe BJP's alliances - with MBCs and non-dominant dalit castes - are stronger than INC's alliances because the dominant OBC & dalit vote is now with their own parties. Even INC's minority vote is split.
(9/n)

As I said at the beginning of the thread, I find her argument to be an oversimplification. But, I found it worth engaging with it and seeing whether it stands the test of rigorous analysis,
(10/10)