From the Bhakti List Archives
Mani Varadarajan
• Mon Nov 06 1995 - 11:52:42 PST
I know there are people use 'shudra' in a non-derogatory sense.
However, no so-called 'shudra' has never described himself by
using that term. Invariably, the terms I have heard used are
Chettiar, Reddiar, Vellala, etc., much in the same way a
today's Sri Vaishnava brahmin would use Iyengar. In some
perverse smritis of long ago, as a class of people shudras
are denounced as ``veritable cemeteries, wholly unfit to receive
the Veda.'' This is what the term implies to many punctiliously
orthodox people when they talk about ``that sudracchi over there.''
I cannot prescribe a better term; perhaps non-brahmin is less
offensive, but I am not sure.
Mani
