How is the word "mleccha" considered offensive?

Question

Recently, many of my questions and answers using the word Mleccha have been edited and replaced with another word conveying a similar meaning, like "foreign" or "christian," etc.

I have accepted these edits because other people may find the word "mleccha" offensive.

Unlike the word "shudra," which is considered offensive in Tamil Nadu and in contemporary speech, the word "mleccha" is rarely used in contemporary speech, and should not be considered offensive. The word "mleccha" is a technical word that means non-Vedic people, or people outside of the Vedic civilization consisting of the 4 castes and the mixture of those 4 castes.

Replacing occurrences of the word "mleccha" with "foreigner" or "christian" does not convey the intended meaning, because foreigners and christians are relative words.

Answer 1

It is offensive to the people who live and host this site in a mleccha-country using a mleccha-technology (Internet). While there are several meanings to the word, in most of your posts you seem to use it in a derogatory sense (outcast, best to avoid contact with, not to marry with, not worthy to live on earth, etc.)

+-----------+----------+-----------------+------------------------------------+
|  Sanskrit |  Grammar | Transliteration | English                            |
+-----------+----------+-----------------+------------------------------------+
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | ignorance of Sanskrit              |
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | man of an outcast race             |
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | person who does not speak Sanskrit |
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | foreigner                          |
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | barbarian                          |
|    म्लेच्छ   |   m.     | mleccha         | non-Aryan                          |
+-----------+----------+-----------------+------------------------------------+

'Unintelligible' or 'ignorance of Sanskrit' is probably the most harmless usage of the word but by that definition, most users of this site should be called Mleccha because they can barely speak Sanskrit. To a native speaker of Sanskrit, all English-speakers (Indian- or foreign-born) must be Mlecchas.

The Mahābhārata goes one step too far and declares:

And surrounded by the Brahmanas, that Brahmana will exterminate all the mlecchas wherever those low and despicable persons may take refuge.

This is why the word is best avoided on this site or also in day-to-day conversations.

Answer 2

My opinion is that in an academic study of Hinduism one cannot ban the use of words such as mlechha if one is to remain honest to the subject, even if the primary meaning of mlechha is — or is today seen as — a derogatory term.

This is for the same reason that historians cannot (read should not) ban the use of words like Nazi in their academic work, or literary critics cannot (read should not) ban the literary works of authors who have otherwise held appalling views, or why scientists cannot (read should not) ban the scientific discoveries and writings of those who are known to be generally awful human beings. There is nothing to be gained by brushing under the carpet any topic that is difficult to confront, and on the contrary it causes a lot of harm.

Now, what this means is that:

1. we should be aware of the controversial, and oftentimes painful, background linked to some of these words and events, and
2. we mustn't misuse the license to use words like mlechha in an academic study to instead use it to abuse any specific person or a general populace.

Hence,

1. we should use such words with care and with neutral intent, being aware of the charged nature of these words, and
2. abide by the CoC at all times.

So, yes, the word should not be banned from use on this site, but it can be used in an academic sense, when used without intent to offend, and without causing unintentional offence.

As a rule of thumb, if replacing the occurrences of the word mlechha in your post with Nazi or racist makes the post sound like it violates the CoC, chances are you need to rephrase your original post.

Answer 3

It's not offensive according to dharma because dharmic-s are supposed to derive criteria of good vs evil from dharmic scriptures but it is offensive for those who have entirely different criteria of good vs evil.

Now, this site is secular & US based (If I know it correctly) so it has entirely different criteria to judge good vs evil. According to its judgement it can be evil according to some translation.

So, The US based site, which is secular & have different criteria of deciding good vs evil, provides platform for Q&A on dharma that has different sets of criteria to label something evil or good.

This is cognitive dissonance & deadlock without any possibly solution. Some party has to be in harm. Better not to open the Pandora's box...

Answer 4

The closest example I can think of is the use of 'Kafir' in Islam. Now Wikipedia says "In modern times, kafir is sometimes used as a derogatory term,[10][3][11] particularly by members of Islamist movements" . However I don't see Islam SE putting a blanket ban on this word. Instead they have plenty of QnA around that word. And no one seems to have a problem.

So I fail to understand why some members in Hinduism SE wants to censor the word mleccha.