A Rascist Bishop
Nov 14, 2006 03:42 AM
by carlosaveline
Friends,
Imaginary and false: so is C. W. Leadbeater?s description of inter-racial relationships in 19th century Brazil (or any other Latin American country).
He talks about ?mutual hatred? among Indians, Spaniards and Negros. He also says there was there was an intense hatred of these three ?races? together, against the ?half breeds or half-castes?. (1) By doing this, Leadbeater of course ignores some simple facts:
* There are no castes and no half-castes in South America, let alone Brazil;
* Spanish people never dominated the Portuguese-speaking country called Brazil;
* Inter-racial conflicts never had that kind of collective intensity in Latin America; especially not in Brazil, and even less from 19th century on.
Yet C.W.L. writes, at pp. 168-169:
?Indian, Spaniard and Negro alike despised them [the half-castes] (...). So strong were those feelings that, when it came to enlistment in the army, the other races absolutely declined to serve in the same regiment with the halff-castes, and these people therefore had to be drafted into regiments by themselves, so that there existed in the army regiments of both types, and their feelings towards each other were decidedly unfriendly. At the time when my story begins these feelings of scarcely-veiled hostility had at last broken out into actual warfare.?
Leadbeater goes on (pp. 169-170) to describe a mutiny involving racial issues. This is even less likely to have occurred than Leadbeater?s famous ?personal visits? to the planets Mars and Mercury, where he ?saw? physical plane cities and agriculture with very particular details.
History books and Historians inform us there were no such conflicts involving Indians in Brazil. There were no racial armed conflicts around here from the beginning of 19th century. Ethnical miscigenation and cross-cultural communication were big enough to prevent that.
In another posting, we?ll see young Leadbeater, an ?Initiate?, proudly killing Indians in South America, at the age of 13.
Regards, Carlos.
NOTE:
(1) ?The Perfume of Egypt?, by C. W. Leadbeater, sixth edition, TPH Adyar, 265 pp., 1978. See especially pages 167-169.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Back to Top]
Theosophy World:
Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application