My Views on Brahmins

In my experience, I have found Brahmins to be a tad more intelligent than the rest of the folks. By intelligence, I do not mean merely academic intelligence, like being good in studies or in research and scholarship. To be sure, not all Brahmins are intelligent that way. What I found is that even those Brahmins who are not that smart intellectually, have certain other intelligence traits, such as social intelligence, artistic ability, etc.

Now, I do not necessarily think that this is due to their superior genes. It could also be that their intelligence can be attributed to the fact that they have been into the academic and learning fields much longer than other folks over centuries, and given endogamy, some of those advantages do get passed on not only through the genes but also through the family environment and atmosphere that they create at home on account of their being in the learning professions and the value and importance they placed on learning, and also the fact that their livelihood depended on such learning.

Having said that, I do not think, at least in modern times, the Brahmins are any morally and ethically better than other folks nor perhaps are they nicer folks in terms of kindness, empathy, compassion, and love. On the contrary, they may be at a certain disadvantage when it comes to such things because once you are marked out as superior than the rest by birth, it does tend to breed a certain amount of superior-than-thou attitude, and given the religious endorsement of Brahmins, they also tend to have a holier-than-thou attitude.

But, as Bob Dylan would have it — The Times They Are A-Changin’