The ‘Brahmin’ Left Steering Working Class towards the ‘Capitalist’ Right

Ever since the rise of far-right governments throughout the First world and third world as well, leading social scientists were grappling with methodological inquiry to understand what has led to this shift of the working classes from an avowal of left socialist parties to right capitalist ones.

What is it that has led the populism of the right appeal to the working class? No one seemed to have a convincing answer and almost all liberal left intelligentsia were busy in studying and observing the behaviour of the working-class populations worldwide. It was not just limited to studying and observing, the niche working class populations were labelled and berated as racist, xenophobic, anti LGBT etc. as if all these attributes were a particular and specific trait of the working class.

The focus of all academic inquiry was the working-class people, and even the blame was shifted on to them for electing far right demagogues; to shrug the responsibility from their shoulders, the academic world found an easy scapegoat – blame the masses for their own demise.

This is what is called intellectual dishonesty. Recently, Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak, on her being awarded the Holberg Prize (popular as the Nobel prize of Social Sciences and Humanities), in an interview to Times Higher Education said that she wants to see, “If it’s possible to insert the intuitions of democracy in the children of the very poor, without talking about democracy.” (Times Higher Education, n.d.)

This statement of hers is paradigmatic and symbolic of what the ‘Brahmin Left’ stands for, a sense of virtue signalling where in you being a part of the ruling class have adopted all the progressive and liberal ideas, and it is the poor, the working class, who need to be taught these ideas like democratism, fraternity and equality.

Catherine Liu, a Professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California- Irvine, in her book ‘Virtue Hoarders- The Case against the Professional Managerial Class’ writes, “Liberal members of the credentialed classes love to use the word empower, when they talk about ‘people’, but the use of that verb objectifies the recipients of their help while implying that the people have no access to power without them.”

This credentialed class is what Liu calls the ‘Professional Managerial Class’ and what French Economist Thomas Piketty has referred to as ‘The Brahmin Left’. (Thomas Piketty, 2022 Vol. 137 Issue 1)

It should be noted here, that the word Brahmin is used as a noun notifying the section of upper middle professional University educated class who work in tandem with the capitalist ruling class, acting as a mediator between the working class and the capitalist ruling class. It should not be confused with the archaic meaning of the word Brahmin, which stands for the priestly caste in Indian society, the Brahmin(s), although the origin is loosely based on the notions of Brahmin being the intellectual class of India.

This class can also be called the ‘Brokering Class’, as it acts as a broker between the working class and the ruling capitalist class, to secure its own material interests.

The ‘Brahmin Left’ is the one which is leading the liberal ideas in University Campuses. It is the decisive force on what gets to be researched and published in mainstream academia, which accelerates and accentuate public discourse and opinion.

The ‘Brahmin Left’ has co-opted all the movements based on ‘identity’, be it based on Caste, Gender, Sexuality, etc. or any other identity which portrays a marginalised self.

The idea again is to ‘empower’ and ‘teach’ the working class, demeanour, and mannerisms of being virtue laden, without offering them any material security. In short, the Brahmin Left has weaponised identity Politics against the very identities, it seeks to ‘empower’.

It is now easier to get published or accepted in their discourse if you are performative enough, even though that performance might not lead to material betterment of the larger sections of these ‘marginalised identities’ it offers certain individuals’ easy access to their own coteries and make them part of itself (read the brahmin Left).

Everything now becomes an act of performing virtues e.g. A Buzzfeed video on ‘A list of Caste Slurs that you might be using, but should not use because they are casteist ‘.

How does this help these castes against which these slurs are used economically is never considered, but it for sure absolves the people of ‘Brahmin Left’ of any guilt or participation in the oppression of these very castes.

It is not only imagined but performed that by not using caste-slurs, the ‘Brahmin Left’ is doing a favor, and is doing its part in securing the rights of these very castes.

No one has researched whether this leads to further normalisation of these slurs, but it for sure happens that certain individuals get to have a career among the university and public policy led NGO Interventionist human rights spaces.

A large section of Dalits and OBC’s studying in university campuses are part of this ‘Brahmin Left’ and they are alienated from the very demands of the working class.

What they want to talk about is intersectionality (which was meant to be a legal terminology and not a metric of measuring ‘Oppression’) and gender pronouns, while offering little to nothing for the everyday problems of the larger population of Dalits and OBCs and other marginalized identities.

The Brahmin Left not only alienates itself from lived material realities of the working class, but also alienates and steers away the working class from intellectual thought and towards the right.

This habit of virtue laden signalling of the Brahmin Left creates among the working class a deep dislike and discontentment towards the university and intellectuals, and pushes them away to the populist and seemingly relatable demagogues on the right.

References

Thomas Piketty, A. G.-T. (2022 Vol. 137 Issue 1). Brahmin Left Versus Merchant Right:Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948-2020. The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Times Higher Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from Times Higher Education: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/gayatri-spivak-im-not-teaching-get-students-income