The current caste crisis in Maharashtra

The current caste crisis in Maharashtra

Everything starts with not knowing history or background.

It's laughable & ridiculous that people are equating army with caste & fighting about it - totally crazy!! If they had known history this would not have happened.

Let me on the onset agree that India is fundamentally casteist and most Brahmins/upper castes have a superiority complex & most Dalits have a victimhood mentality for right and wrong reasons.

However varna & jaati in society had nothing to do with the army any ANY POINT IN INDIAN HISTORY!!!!!

To understand this one needs to know how standing armies of emperors were formed in those days & how battles were fought. Basically the top troops and nobles numbering less than 10% of the entire army was provided directly by kings payroll full time professional commanders and soldiers. 90% and above was purchased soldiers either by feudal land owners or other temporary workers. These foot soldiers would join only during campaigns or when required and go back to work in fields or other day jobs at other times. Only exception was British who would maintain a full time paid Indian army.

Thus it was just a job for the foot soldiers. Except in extremely rare cases like rebellions or defensive mega battles it was not national pride or regional pride or hindu dharma that was the motivator - it was a simple paycheck and food on table for their families. Just like someone from today won't quit their American job because US government (i.e their tax money) goes for Pakistani aid & breaking India forces. No Indian in Uk sitting away from chaos of India is ever going to give up their passport because Britain starved 50 million plus Indians to death in the past and heavily sponsors breaking India NGOs even today

Do you really think in those times without pukka roads, naval routes & air travel the Delhi sultanate can bring million plus Turks to form a army in india? You really think that Mughals shipped 5 million Persians & Uzbeks to form a Persian Mughal army in India !!!
You really think Peshwas magically created 2 million Brahmins & sent them to places as far as Attock as a "Brahmin" army. You really think Portuguese, British & French pushed half the population of their countries using some magical teleportation into India to form a white skinned British army?

Answer as you all have guessed by now is - NO NO NO

They were only the employers. Bulk of armies of any empire in India including invaders and colonialists was Hindu Indians only and mostly peasants & hence by default mostly lower caste as per the population mix and nothing else.

Dalits, have fought not just for British but they have fought for Delhi sultanate, Mughals, Deccan sultans, Peshwas, Vijayaganara, Cholas everyone!!!

And so have Rajputs,Gorkhas, Pahadis, Bengalis, madrasis fought for British.

2.5 million Indian soldiers voluntarily fought for British in world war 2 inspite of British mass murdering other Indians. Most bullets fired in jallian walla baug was by Gorkhas. Lot of Shivaji fighting was against Rajput armies of Aurangzeb. The army that defeated and killed Tipu sultan was not just white skinned British but a bulk of Indian foot soldiers of east India company and also Maratha, travancore & Nizam's forces.

So basically any victory of any invading colonialist can be effectively termed as victory of one Indian caste or one Indian region over the other!! For the simple reason that the foot soldiers looked at the colonialist as an employer & not as an invader at the time of battle.

How is Koregaon battle any different?