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From: Mani Varadarajan (mani)
Date: 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