Bhaibunds according to the Amils

for discussing revisions in the history of the Brahma Kumaris and updating information about the organisation
  • Message
  • Author
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Bhaibunds according to the Amils

Post27 Sep 2013

An interesting little footnote from the caste background of the Brahma Kumaris who arose from amongst the Bhaibund (or Bhaiband meaning "brotherhood") and Amil castes of Hyderabad, from 'Cosmopolitan Connections: The Sindhi Diaspora, 1860-2000' by Mark-Anthony Falzo.

Amils are a Lohana sub-caste. The word "Amil" has its origin in the Persian word "amal" meaning "to administer". In the Sindh, the Amils sub-caste was the most prestigious among Lohanas, followed by Bhaiband and Sahitis and consisted principally of bankers, clerks, and minor officials many of whose financial skills were put to good use by the business minded Bhaibunds ... "Amil equaled educated, Bhaibund equalled uneducated".

The difference between amils and bhaibunds was the most marked ... still today, bhaibands are seen by amils as unpolished, having poor aesthetic tastes, and given to vulgar displays of wealth.

Bhaihund women tend not to work.

Hyderabad, from where the BKs arose, was seen as the heartland of the bhiabands but was also home of the educated amils a widely acknowledged as one of the most affluent and fashionable places in north-west India ... the "Paris of Sind". Most Sindhi names end in "-ani" meaning 'descendent of'.

Sindiwork, the trade of the Bhaiband, was not a 'nine-to-five' job the author continues, it was an all-embracing way of life.
Employees were expected to be at the service of their managers round the clock - one informant even remembers having to massage his manager's feet after a day's work ... Various hard words - "exploitative", "bloodsuckers", "slavery", and such - were used by my informants to describe their working conditions ... as Sindwork developed the gap between employers and employees, the bosses and those who were 'in service' widened ... Although bhaibund literally means "brotherhood", it is clear that the Brothers were on unequal terms.

Members of a particular firm ate and worked together, slept under the same roof, and sometimes did puja together - this was partly because of the risk of trade information leaking to another Sindiwork firm was a constant worry to the employers and considered to be too great to encourage a wider socialisation.

The book is very helpful in providing the background with which to understand the form and mentality of the Brahma Kumari leaders and their creation. Not surprisingly, Lekhraj Kirpalani being a bhaihband Sindiworker, numerous similarities immediately jump out.

I suggest BKism is basically more of the same ... but selling the vestments of religion rather than materials.

The book also confirms the tendency of the Sindhis to lean towards Right Wing politics and nationalism, and groups such as the Shiv Sena.
User avatar

Pink Panther

  • Posts: 1885
  • Joined: 14 Feb 2013

Re: Bhaibunds according to the Amils

Post28 Sep 2013

What does Sindiwork mean? Is that any work done by a Sindi, or something else?
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Re: Bhaibunds according to the Amils

Post28 Sep 2013

Pink Panther wrote:What does Sindiwork mean? Is that any work done by a Sindi, or something else?

Funnily enough, no. Typically, the work was not done by Sindis. It was done by local Muslim craftspeople in the area.

The Sindhis were middle men who took and sold others people's labors.

The word Sindiwork, Sindhi work, Sindhi workies etc is applied to the nature of trade of the Bhaibund caste. Initially, it was the trade of local crafts; e.g. embroidered materials, silks, silverware, lacquer ware, pottery and then jewellery; nicknacks they sold primarily to the British and Europeans, first in India and then, quickly, spreading across the Empire of British influence.

They became amongst the first Indians to set up business empires across the English speaking Empire.

It then became the term used for their style of trading, where low ranking males would be sent abroad to work day and night for their high ranking bosses until they earned their way into the "Bhaibund" or 'Brotherhood'. You can see the parallels to BKism immediately.

This is where the Brahma Kumari revisionist then pick up the story putting the blame on the low ranking males who were in such a position that they *had* to go abroad for 2.5 to 3 years *on contract* and then when they came back either had to fit in marriage, procreation and their family duties ... the 2 to 3 years when Lekhraj Kirpalani, as a higher ranking male, was able to grab their bored wives or children and, one would have to presume, act as either a Father figure or a lover (their 'matinee idol' Krishna).

Therefore, the term became used more widely for the way they did their highly successful business.

What's interesting about it are a number of things;
    • they targeted wealthy English speakers who bought their 'exotic' and cheaply produced oriental material - you immediate see the correlation there on a metaphorical level
    • a number of leading bhaibund members were members of freemason lodges and were seemingly took influences by their closed and secretive structures - I've had this confirmed by leading Sindhis within the BKs
    • the BKs, again, have no interest or even distract attention away from class and rank based issues, i.e. it was only the low ranking males who were not "made men" who had to leave their women in Sind (for the sake of economy). The high ranking males took their wives and children with them and that is why, consequently, there are Sindhi families and networks all over the world for the BKs to exploit, e.g. think exactly Jayanti Kirpalani and her mother and Father called Murli Kirpalani. The BKs just blame the men for "being bad" and portray them as vicious (one could almost re-intepret that and portray it as the view of embittered women that their men were weak and low ranking). In reality, they had little or no option.
    • Lekhraj Kirpalani was, therefore, exploiting or abducting the women or low ranking families in the societal structure
    • they used a secret codified language to keep trade secrets, avoid detection, fiddle and avoid paying taxes - bingo BKism ... "give us your cash and earn extra karma as Dadi takes it rolled up in her sari to Madhuban"!
    • they relied on unwritten relationships of trust between eat other once each one was 'made', just as with regional or center-in-charges, and so on.
I encourage you to scan over the book, and others, and pick other elements out of them. It's remarkably obvious. The book even mentions how women brought up in such an environment picked up trading knowledge due to the close nature of their living circumstances. It also underlines their lack of education other than in profit making and other similarity such as the gossipy nature of the women and how they reap information widely from their social contacts which would then be useful for, e.g. arranging marriages.

That reminded me of the Brahmakumai surveillance/gossip vine.

I cannot remember if I quote here or not, but there was also an interesting quote in one researcher who noted how difficult it was to gain any cooperation from Sindhis from mental efforts where there was no obvious financial return for them from doing so.

I have often referred to the BKs as a "mafia" and I genuinely believe that their structure is exceptionally similar to the closed Italian underworld, i.e. they often operate a number of seemingly legitimate fronts but behind them in the real hidden structure. Here I am using the term "made man" which is another mafia term for a man who has gave entrance and trust into "the family" or "Brotherhood". What the authors of these studies clear point out is the lack of concern for playing by the rules, especially when it came to paying taxes etc. that is to suggesting a semi-criminal or illegal nature of their trading, even using a codified language to do so.

They also point out how the British saw the Sindiworkies as being particularly untrustworthy and unpatriotic.

Of course, I am sure there were also perfect decent individuals amongst them and it is noted that in the modern world the nature of their trade has changed, and had to change. There was even a funny aside how the Sindis were hidebound to their amil accountants who knew and could expose their dodgy accounting and decode the secret language.

That too remind me a little of the relationship between the original Sindi BKs abroad and their Patel underclass, e.g. think Jayanti Kirpalani (Sindhi) and then Manda and Jayamini Patel in London.

The term "Patel" derives from the word patidar which refers to a person who was tasked with taking care of or farming a particular piece of land. In the BK system, the "piece of land" being looking after the center business whilst the Sindhis (the Kirpalani Klan) were away doing trade overseas.

Does that sound familiar to you?

BKism is not Brahminism, it merely developed from Sindhiwork for and by the women of the caste. Their own business.

(BTW, it's not written into BK history but apparently Lekhraj Kirpalani had business interests and travelled to then British Burma where many of his gems came from).

There are further humorous anecdotes to this business system, e.g. how much spy, jealousy and distrust there was between competing Sindhis. In one case, one junior Sindhiworker was sent off to tell other Sindhis that his hobby was stamp collecting ... in order to spy on other Bhaibund members and discover with which countries they were doing business!

Return to The BKWSU

cron