Chitpavan Brahmins supplied most of modern India’s major political and intellectual figures.

Evidence

The origin of the Chitpavan Brahmins is traced to the myth of Parashurama, believed to be an ‘immortal’ Brahmin incarnation of Vishnu. Parashurama is said to have burned the bodies of fourteen people who were washed ashore on a funeral pyre, purifying them, and then restored them to life—thus the name chita (pyre) pavan (purified). These fourteen people are said to be of Jewish, Persian or, in some versions, Berber descent. … M.G. Ranade, founder-member of the Indian National Congress; G.K. Gokhale, ‘moderate’ Congress leader and mentor to M.K. Gandhi; Pandita Ramabai, a pioneer of education and women’s rights; B.G. Tilak, Hindu nationalist leader; Vinoba Bhave, ‘spiritual successor’ to Gandhi; V.D. Savarkar, who coined the term Hindutva, and who was one of the co-accused in Gandhi’s assassination; and Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhi, were all Chitpavan Brahmins. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1081

Categorization

• XREF: Strongly relevant to the reader’s caste-annihilation project: the dominant sub-caste monopolizing national leadership is itself marked as inferior by other Brahmins, showing intra-caste hierarchy within the dominant varna.