The truth about Brahmin superiority

How the artificial selection has shaped it

Why The Brahmins matters?

Why do Brahmins consistently dominate India's intellectual landscape, from ancient Sanskrit scholarship to modern Silicon Valley boardrooms? It's a question that makes progressives uncomfortable and traditionalists defensive, yet the statistical reality is undeniable. For over 3,000 years, this single caste has produced a disproportionate number of scholars, scientists, and thought leaders.

The usual explanations fall into predictable camps: either divine blessing, genetic superiority, or unfair privilege. But what if the truth is far more complex, and far more unsettling? What if Brahmin intellectual dominance is neither accident nor destiny,
but the result of the world's longest-running experiment in human artificial selection?

Samurai crab and Brahmin genes

In Japan, there is a special species of crab with a unique characteristic: its shell resembles a human face—specifically, the face of an angry samurai warrior. This is why the crab is famously known as the samurai crab.

For centuries, these samurai crabs have been avoided by fishermen out of respect for an ancient legend. According to the legend, there was a great naval battle between the Taira clan (also known as the Heike) and the Minamoto clan for control of the imperial Japanese throne. In this battle, warriors of the Heike clan were killed and their bodies sank into the sea. It is believed that these crabs are the reincarnation of these fallen warriors.

For centuries, this legend has been passed down through generations of fishermen. Then Carl Sagan came along and offered a different explanation: humans actually created these human-faced crabs.

How?

To support his hypothesis, Sagan argued that because fishermen believed the legend of the Heike warriors, they avoided catching any crabs whose shells resembled human faces for centuries. As a result, this particular species of crab never faced natural selection pressure. Over the centuries, they were able to pass their DNA traits from one generation to another, making the human-like features among the crabs more distinct.

Meanwhile, several other species of crabs may have been eliminated from Earth due to hunting, but these special samurai crabs slipped through the sands of time and still exist—all because of a legend, or what we call memetics.

What is Memetics?

Memetics is the study of how cultural trends, behaviors, rituals, beliefs, and ideas spread from person to person and generation to generation. Memetics plays a crucial role in safeguarding our culture, traditions, and knowledge.

Now, if you have read this far and understood what I am trying to explain, here is a critical question: Is Brahmin intelligence the result of unintentional artificial selection?

The Brahmin Case Study

Brahmins have existed for over 3,000 years, making them one of the oldest groups in human history. DNA evidence traces the connection between modern Brahmins and their ancient forefathers.

According to the varna system, Brahmins have been associated with study, numerical calculation, consultation, education, and teaching. Centuries later, they are probably the only group among all varnas who have continued performing the same tasks.

Obviously, when a group performs similar professions for centuries, generation after generation, they are bound to master those skills and traits. They continue passing these learned traits to the next generation through memetics.

You might ask why Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, or Shudras were not able to pass their traits like Brahmins did. The reason is unintentional artificial selection.

Remember how we discussed how samurai crabs survived through the years and gradually developed human-like facial features more distinctively? In the same way, Brahmins were mostly respected even during wars. They did not participate in direct combat, which resulted in their survival rate remaining intact compared to other varnas.

1. Even after wars, victors kept Brahmins in their royal courts to enhance their technical skills, education, and knowledge. Brahmins were invited by kings to settle in their states. For example, during Ahom rule, it was the Swargadeu who offered Brahmins safe settlement in Assam.

We can see that Brahmins have been able to invest their time in intellectual activities, which resulted in their ability to reach perfection in these areas.



2. There could be another hypothesis: Brahmins have always been the first target of enemies who understand social dynamics. Each time enemies captured a city, they would first attack and eliminate the Brahmins, knowing that Brahmins held the seeds of the nation's future.

Brahmins who survived through these atrocities and genocides gradually developed their inherited traits more profoundly and richly during their fight for survival—just like Jews and Parsis.

The Unintended Architects of Intelligence

The samurai crab's face exists not because of ancient warrior spirits, but because humans chose to see something sacred in its shell. Similarly, Brahmin intellectual prowess may not be the result of divine blessing or inherent superiority, but rather the unintended consequence of centuries of cultural selection—a society that chose to protect its knowledge keepers while others perished in conflicts.

In our age of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, understanding these patterns becomes crucial. Are we inadvertently creating new forms of selection pressure? Will our current beliefs about intelligence, success, and survival shape the humans of tomorrow just as profoundly as ancient legends shaped the samurai crab's face? The answer may determine not just who we become, but who gets to become at all.