I want to tell a story about why Brahmins - even us 'wokest of woke' ones - should be stripped of power everywhere possible. It's my own experience in context of the work I do at @CommunityLibPro which is a free library project in Delhi/Gurgaon.

We met at in mid-March to discuss shutting our libraries due to covid. We met again yesterday - to discuss how soon we can re-open. 'We' is our leadership council - a group of founding & senior volunteers, student & staff leaders. It is a diverse group in terms of caste & class.

Both times I advocated strenuously to remain shut for as long as possible. This was in large part because I was terrified about the spread of the virus in our tightly packed library spaces; and in small part because I was worried about getting infected myself.

I couldn't imagine a fate worse than a child falling sick with covid19 or being responsible for taking the virus to their homes & neighbourhoods. But there were two leaders in our group who spoke passionately about reopening the libraries as soon as possible and pushed us to...

...to find safe protocols and practices to do so. They pushed & pushed & pushed in a way that no one else did. They talked how RTE took decades to come to life, how Ambedkar's statues are routinely destroyed and how even in the best of times, education & reading is denied...

...to our members - a situation that's made a million times worse in the pandemic, when physical schools are shut & only the privileged can continue their classes online. I, a brahmin, could empathise as a 'woke' oppressor but was getting increasingly frustrated...

Why can't they see how deadly this infectious is & how quickly it spreads? We should think SCIENCE! Why are they 'doing politics' at a time like this, my brain went. Thankfully I knew to shut up.
Our director spoke about how the longer we shut, the more we risk..

...our members losing a key part of their identity: 'Mai library member hoon = I am a reader, a thinker, an intellectual & a creator. The longer we remain shut, the farther they drift away from this idea.

As someone who grew up brahmin, I never had to fight for that identity.

I just had it. As an economically privileged brahmin, I never had to fight to be a student/reader/thinker/intellectual/creator. It was mine for the taking.

I would never know what my colleagues do: this fight for identity is as critical as the fight for ones life.

They knew that our library had to fight two diseases, covid & casteism. Despite having read my Ambedkar, having worked in this field for so many years, having done the soul searching & political awakening, I still could not see it.

Now imagine if our leadership council...

...was just comprised of people who started the library project i.e. savarnas.
What would this discussion be like then? Short & sweet. We would have voted to remain indefinitely closed as it would keep everyone 'safe'. We would've made the morally sound decision.

But it would've been the wrong decision for our members. They need libraries as much as they need to stay safe from covid.

And now @CommunityLibPro is trying to do both.
We will reopen as soon as is deemed safe by public authorities. We'll put in systems for crowd movement...

...mask distribution, hygiene & distancing protocols. We might have a 'slot' system for when members come in. Who knows, we might attempt home-deliveries.
Point is: my colleagues' relentless pushing has led to a subcommittee to create a re-opening plan for as soon as possible.

If this decision had been left to me or the other brahmins/savarnas amongst us, I *guarantee* you we would not be reopening before 2021.

So brahmins, get out the way. We will never know what's right for this country or its people. Our job in this age is to listen & make room.