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NAMASUDRA

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 157 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NAMASUDRA  , the name adopted by the See also:

great See also:caste or tribe who inhabit the swamps of Eastern See also:Bengal, See also:India, whom the higher castes are wont to designate by the opprobrious See also:term of Chandal . Their number in Igo' exceeded 2 millions; but if the cognate Pods and also the Mahommedans of the same ethnical stock were to be added, the See also:total would probably reach 11 millions .

End of Article: NAMASUDRA
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Additional information and Comments

There is no logic for why the pod and muslims should be added together to the Namasudras.Actually inter-marriage among them is unacceptable for more than thousand years.The Pods considered the Namasudras as unacceptable.It has been the socio-political motif of the so-called upper-castes to classify them as belonging to same group.This happened only after the Europeans came and labeled all as native irrespective of their castes.Actually Hinduism divides the total population in a profile like the predatory system in nature .Each community gets some shoulders of other castes to keep their foot on.Most probably there was( and is) some ethnic element in the concept.But now its hard to get a sharp ethnic demarcation along different caste lines.However for to enjoy an inborn advantage some people likes to believe and preach it among their caste members. The Namsudras has recently declared the Publication of Swejsanto kotha or Smritokotha where they claim themselves to be originated from Ariban Swej and tobe known as Namaswej or swej. They believe it to be a Revelation by Verhudt ,the messenger- in -dream of Brahma. However this is not well-known yet now.But the community is likely to adopt this in very near future.This would be a very timely addition in this respect . It s basically hinduism or Brahmism with a divine origin theory for every community and each is likely to adopt a name as the revelation is.
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