h o m e

t h e    c a s t e    s y s t e m

c o n t e n t s

The Caste System or varna-ashrama has been one of the most misrepresented, misinformed, misunderstood, misused and the most maligned aspects of Hinduism. If one wants to understand the truth, the original purpose behind the caste system, one must go to antiquity to study the evolution of the caste system. Caste System, which is said to be the mainstay of the Hindu social order, has no sanction in the Vedas. The ancient culture of India was based upon a system of social diversification according to SPIRITUAL development,  not by birth, but by his karma. This system became hereditary and over the course of many centuries degenerated as a result of exploitation by some priests, and other socio-economic elements of society.

However, as Alain Danielou, son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, says: "Caste system has enabled Hindu civilization to survive all invasions and to develop without revolutions or important changes, throughout more than four millennia, with a continuity that is unique in history. Caste system may appear rigid to our eyes because for more than a thousand years Hindu society withdrew itself from successive domination by Muslims and Europeans. Yet, the greatest poets and the most venerated saints  such as Sura Dasa, Kabir, Tukaram, Thiruvalluvar and Ram Dasa; came from the humblest class of society."  In the words of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, " In spite of the divisions, there is an inner cohesion among the Hindu society from the Himalayas to the Cape Comorin."

Caste system has been exploited against the Hindus, for the last two centuries by the British, Christian Missionaries, Secular historians, Communists, Muslims, Pre and Post-Independence Indian politicians and Journalists for their own ends. One way to discredit any system is to highlight its excesses, and this only adds to the sense of inferiority that many Indians feel about their own culture. Caste system is often portrayed as the ultimate horror, in the media, yet social inequities continue to persist in theoretically Egalitarian Western Societies. The Caste system is judged offensive by the Western norms, yet racial groups have been isolated, crowded into reserves like the American Indians or Australian Aborigines, where they can only atrophy and disappear. 

This chapter is not a justification of the abuse of caste system, rather it is a collection of interesting information. Caste system has enabled Hindu civilization to survive all invasions and made Indian society stronger. Caste system served a purpose, performed certain functions, and met the needs appropriate to the times in history. India's caste norms may once have had a rationale; but the norms are outlived today. Caste system is not stagnant and is undergoing changes under the impact of modernization. Caste system should undergo reforms in the social arena so that unjustified discrimination and abuse is eliminated.

A Comprehensive Look: Pro and Cons of The Caste System
Sociology of groups in Ancient India 
Discrimination in Western societies
Mahatma Gandhi and Louis Dumont  
No Religious Sanction in Hindu Scriptures
Degeneration of the Caste System
Manu Smrti: Not a Religious Book
Exploitation of Caste by Christian Missionaries
The Anglo-Indians, Pondycherians and Harijan/Dalit Converts
Abrahamic Super Caste System
Christian and Poor Countries
Gandhi and Brahmins
Conclusion
Articles

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The caste system was never a tenet of the Hindu faith. 

"The universe is the outpouring of the majesty of God, the auspicious one, radiant love. Every face you see belongs to Him. He is present in everyone without exception."    - says the  Yajur Veda.

"The Lord (The Divine) is enshrined in the hearts of all."  - says the Isha Upanishad 1 -1.  

The Upanishads which are a pure, lofty, heady distillation of spiritual wisdom which come to us from the very dawn of time tell us:  

"Reality (God) is our real Self, so that each of us is one with the power that created and sustains the universe." 

In Sanskrit, Tat tvam asi,  “You are That.”

"In the depths of meditation, sages (rishis)
Saw within themselves the Lord of Love,
Who dwells in the heart of every creature."

                             - says the  Shvetashvatara Upanishad. 1 - 3.

Lord Krsna expounds the unique philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.

"I am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the very end of all beings".  

The Bhagavad Gita has influenced great Americans from Henry David Thoreau to J R Oppenheimer.

Listen to The Bhagavad Gita podcast - By Michael Scherer - americanphonic.com.

Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge

***

In Bhagawad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord Krishna says, 

"I am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the very end of all beings".  All beings have, therefore to be treated alike.

Lord Krishna as saying, in response to the question— "How is Varna (social order) determined?"

"Birth is not the cause, my friend; it is virtues which are the cause of auspiciousness. Even a chandala (lower caste) observing the vow is considered a Brahman by the gods."

“The four fold division of castes’  “was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties.” “Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born), but righteous conduct alone causes it.” “Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic, “he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect in everyway.”



A Comprehensive Look: Pro and Cons of The Caste System

Hinduism believes in "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family - an ancient Vedic term). 

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) Was among India's most fervent nationalists, fighting for Indian independence from British rule. Gandhi was a staunch and devout Hindu and he proclaimed it proudly:

"I am a Hindu because it is Hinduism which makes the world worth living." (source: Young India 1-12-26).

He said that the caste system or varnashrama is "inherent in human nature, and Hinduism has simply made a science of it." 

He defended the "much-maligned Brahman" and entertains " not a shadow of doubt" that "if Brahmanism does not revive, Hinduism will perish".

"Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives." 

(source: Hindu Dharma - M. K. Gandhi p. 7-374 and  Harijan 28-3-1936).

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was the foremost disciple of Ramakrishna and a world spokesperson for Vedanta. India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, came to represent the religions of India at the World Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago in connection with the World's Fair (Columbian Exposition) of 1893. His Chicago speech is uniquely Vedantic. Jawaharlal Nehru refers to this universal dimension of Vivekananda in his Discovery of India. “Rooted in the past, and full of pride in India’s heritage, Vivekananda was yet modern in his approach to life’s problems, and was a kind of bridge between the past of India and her present.”

He said: 

"Caste is a plan we want to follow- - .There is no country in the world without caste. The plan in India is to make everybody a Brahmin, the Brahmin being the ideal of humanity. Indian caste is better than the caste that prevails which prevails in Europe or America." 

(source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Kolkata,1985, Vol V, pp 215).

Sir Rustom Pestonji Masani (1876 -   )  a Parsi, distinguished himself when he was elected as the first Indian national to become Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai. Author of Zoroastrianism: the religion of the good life he points out:  

“The seers of the early Vedic period know nothing of caste. Delve as much as one may into the literature of the period, one discovers only classes not castes. …the conception of social segregation and untouchability was repugnant to the genius of the people who sought unity in variety and dissolved variety in unity. Each class was regarded as an integral part of the fabric of society. Each submitted cheerfully to the special functions and duties assigned to it. Even the Sudra appears to have been content with his mission in life; and there were no agitators abroad to sow in the minds of the proletariat the seeds of discontent. There appeared to have been a tacit understanding that different classes of individuals stood at different stages of evolution and that, therefore, the duties, modes of life, and rules of conduct applicable and helpful to each must necessarily differ. The differentiation was, however, regarded only as a means to an end, not an end in itself. It assigned to each individual his due position in the social order; it regulated his relation with other members of the community, and provided means for his orderly development, eliminating possibilities of a clash of interests between master and servant, landlord and tenant, capital and labor, state and subject.”  

"According to Hindu philosophy divine energy manifests itself in different degrees according to the preponderance in each person of one or other of the three gunas, or fundamental qualities, which make up the prakriti or nature, of an individual. These gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas. It follows, therefore, that for his own salvation as well as for social efficiency an individual should be allowed to develop along the lines best suited to his natural endowments and that he on his part should perform the duties assigned to him in accordance with the predominant quality of the strand in his nature. The well-known episode of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita is a typical illustration of this philosophy of life. Dismayed, he refuses to fight; but Lord Krishna, the preacher, prevails upon him to discharge the duty proper to his Kshatriya caste."  

"There is nothing, however, in the whole body of Sanskrit literature to show that the caste system was deliberately devised as a means to attain the coveted end of realizing the divine within man. A remarkable and almost unique feature of Hindu culture is the process of minute analysis and synthesis to which it subjects from time to time the phenomena which leave their impress upon the senses and the mind and the unchangeable soul. Such an exposition has helped succeeding generations to grasp the significance of the philosophic doctrines underlying the social and religious systems of a race excelling in spiritual speculations and metaphysical subtleties."

"According to the Rig Veda hymn, the different classes sprang from the four limbs of the Creator. It was meant to show that the four classes stood in relation to the social organization in the same relation as the different organs of the Primordial Man to his body. Together they had to function to give vitality to the body politic. There was nothing in that account to warrant the assumption, that the order in which the four groups were mentioned, or that the particular limbs specified as their origin, marked their social status."

"A person’s worth is determined by his knowledge and capacity and the inherent qualities which mark his conduct in life. “The four fold division of castes’ says the Creator in the Bhagavad Gita, “was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties.” “Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born), but righteous conduct alone causes it.” “Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic, “he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect in everyway.”

(source: Legacy of India - edited by G T Garratt - Oxford At the Clarendon Press  p. 132 - 140).

Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar (1896-1963) Indian scholar, journalist, historian from Kerala, administrator, diplomat, Minister in Patiala Bikaner and Ambassador to China, Egypt and France. Author of several books, including Asia and Western Dominance, India Through the ages and India and the Indian Ocean. 

He says:

“The fact is that the four-fold caste is merely a theoretical division of society to which tribes, clans and family groups are affiliated. It is a sociological fiction. The earliest available literature gives instances of Brahmins carrying on the professions of medicine, arms and administration."

"In the Jatakas Brahmins are mentioned as traders, hunters and trappers. R P Masani quotes the case of a Kshatriya prince, Kusa, mentioned in one of the Jataka tales, who became an apprentice in turn to a potter, a basket maker, a florist and a cook. Conversely, from even the Vedic days there have been innumerable instances of men born in the lowest rank of caste-society taking to professions which in theory were the monopoly of the other castes. Even the Mauryas royal family came from among the Sudras.”

(source: Hindu Society at cross roads - By K M Panikkar  p. 1 - 17).

P. D. Ouspensky ( ? ) a thoughtful Western writer is of the opinion that "All the most brilliant period of history, without exception, were periods in which the social order approached the caste system." He thinks that the caste system (varna vyavastha) "is a natural division" of society. "Whether people wish it or not, whether they recognize it or not, they are divided into four castes. There are Brahmans, there are Kshatriyas, there are Vaishyas, and there are Shudras. No human legislation, no philosophical intricacies, no pseudo-sciences and no form of terror can abolish this fact. And the normal functioning and development of human societies are possible only if this fact is recognized and acted on."

(source: A New Model of the Universe - By P. D. Ouspensky  p. 447). 

Sir George Birchwood ( ? ) has said:

"So long as the Hindus hold on to the caste system, India will be India; but from the day they break from it, there will be no more India. That glorious peninsula will be degraded to the position of a bitter "East End" of the Anglo-Saxon Empire."

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru. Oxford University Press. 1995. p. 247).

Rev. William H Robinson (1955 - ) in his book By Temple Shrine and Lotus Pool p. 66 writes:  

“The fortress of caste cannot be taken by external assault. Its wall will only crumble when the garrison within ceases to repair them. The only real discipline that India has maintained is the discipline of caste. If you really could create genuine democracy in India it would destroy caste. If it destroyed caste it would destroy Hinduism and if it destroyed Hinduism it would destroy India , at least the India that has existed for so many thousands of years….Far far better that they should remain good Hindus than become rampant atheists!

(source: The Raj Syndrome: A Study in Imperial Perceptions - By Suhash Chakravarty. Penguin Books. 1991 p. 69 - 239).  For more refer to the book online - digilib. bu.edu.

Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji ( ? ) of the India Heritage Research Foundation defines:  

"The Caste system as you see it today is not was originally simply a division of labor based on personal, talents tendencies and abilities. It was never supposed to divide people. Rather, it was supposed to unite people so that everyone was simultaneously working to the best of his/her ability for the greater service of all. In the scriptures, when the system of dividing society into four groups was explained, the word used is “Varna.” Varna means “class” not “caste.” Caste is actually “Jati” and it is an incorrect translation of the word “varna.” When the Portuguese colonized parts of India, they mistakenly translated “varna vyavasthaa” as “caste system” and the mistake has stayed since then. 

The varna system was based on a person’s characteristics, temperament and their innate “nature.” The Vedas describe one’s nature as being a mixture of the three gunas – tamas, rajas and sattva. Depending on the relative proportions of each of these gunas, one would be classified as a Brahmin, Kshetriya, Vaishya or Shudra. For example, Brahmins who perform much of the intellectual, creative and spiritual work within a community have a high proportion of sattva and low proportions of tamas and rajas. A kshetriya who is inclined toward political, administrative and military work has a high proportion of rajas, a medium proportion of sattva and a low proportion of tamas. A Vaishya who performs the tasks of businessman, employer and skilled laborer also has a high proportion of rajas but has relatively equal proportions of sattva and tamas, both of which are lower than rajas. Last, a shudra who performs the unskilled labor in society has a high proportion of tamas, a low proportion of sattva and a medium proportion of rajas. 

These gunas are not inherited. They are based on one’s inherent nature and one’s karma. Therefore one’s “varna” was also not supposed to be based on heredity, and in the past it was not. It is only in relatively modern times that the strict, rigid, heredity-based “caste” system has come into existence. There are many examples in the scriptures and in history of people transcending the “class” or “varna” into which they were born. Everyone was free to choose an occupation according to his/her guna and karma. 

Further, according to the scriptures, there is no hierarchy at all inherent in the varna system. All parts are of equal importance and equal worth. A good example is to imagine a human body. The brain which thinks, plans and guides represents the Brahmin caste. The hands and arms which fight, protect and work represent the kshetriya caste. The stomach which serves as the source of energy and “transactions” represents the vaishya caste, and the legs/feet which do the necessary running around in the service of the rest of the body represent the shudra caste. No one can say the brain is better than the legs or that hands are superior to feet. Each is equally important for the overall functioning of the body system. They just serve different roles. " Look at Bhagwan Ram and Bhagwan Krishna. Both show the example of taking their food from even people of the lowest caste and going to the homes of the lower caste people. It is devotion, purity and commitment which make us great or small, not our caste.

(source: The Caste system - By Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji - India Heritage Research Foundation).

M V Nadkarni ( ?) writes:

"It is necessary to demolish the myth that caste system is an intrinsic part of Hinduism. This myth is believed by orthodox elements within Hinduism and also is propagated by elements outside Hinduism with the mischievous intent of proselytising. Even Vedic and classical Hinduism – not only does not support the caste system, but has taken lots of pains to oppose it both in principle and practice, making it obvious that caste system is not an intrinsic part of Hindu canon, philosophy and even practice.

It is only in the dharmashastras (dharma sutras and smritis) that we find support to the caste system, and not in other canon. However, dharmashastras never had the same status as other canon known as shruti (Vedas and Upanishads) and it is laid down that whenever there is a conflict between the shruti and smriti literature, it is the former that prevails. It is Manusmriti, which is particularly supportive of caste system but where it conflicts with Vedas and Upanishads, the latter would prevail. Though Bhagvadgita (Gita) is not regarded as a part of shruti, Gita is highly regarded as sacred and is very much a part of classical Hinduism. As we shall just see even the Gita is against caste system based on birth, and not supportive to it. Thus, to the extent that dharmashastras conflict with shruti and the Gita, the latter prevails. Apasthambha dharmasutra may have supported untouchability, but it seems to be read more by those who like to attack Hinduism with it than by its followers! It is hardly regarded as canon, even if any Hindu has heard of it.  Vedanta philosophy declares that there is divinity in every lecture. Rg Veda emphasises equality of all human beings. It goes to the extent of saying, which sounds quite modern: ‘No one is superior, none inferior. All are brothers marching forward to prosperity’ "

(source: Is Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism? Demolishing a Myth - By M V Nadkarni - Economic and Political Weekly - November 8' 2003).

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892- 1964) the world-renowned geneticist. In 1922, he joined Cambridge University to take up research in biochemistry. Among his significant contributions is an estimate of the rate of mutation of a human gene. Some of his famous books are The Causes of Evolution, New Paths in Genetics and Biochemistry of Genetics.

He immigrated to India and soon found himself attracted to Hindu culture. Himself a rationalist, Haldane told his colleagues, “I do not think that a Rationalist and Humanist need necessarily break with Hinduism.” He watched with disdain the way the socialist government machinery rooted in sycophancy and corruption, was developing a stranglehold on the budding Indian science. The stranglehold on the progress of India, as Haldane observed was of a socialist government's making and not that of the Dharma. He wrote:

(source: A passage to India - By JBS Haldane 1958 and Science and Indian Culture - By JBS Haldane  1991 p.19 & p.24. For more on J B S Haldane, refer to chapter on Quotes).

(Note: Casteism pales in comparison with 50 million Africans killed in slave boats, 200+ years of slavery with church justification of Africans having no soul, lynchings of young African Americans, decimation of Native Americans with things like disease infected blankets, colonization of Africa, Americas and Asia and sapping their economy totally causing famines and living skeletons, Nazi holocaust of 10 million, burning of witches. Refer to Hinduism Under Threat - protectreligions.org).  

Professor R. Vaidyanathan is Professor of Finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore has observed:

"The metropolitan elite and rootless experts have concluded that caste is bad. They have made it so that every Indian is expected to feel guilty at the mention of caste. Internationally, caste is a convenient stick to flay anything Indian, its religions, customs, culture.

But the caste system is undeniably a valuable social capital, which provides a cushion for individuals and families to deal with society and the state. The Western model of atomising every individual to a single element in a right-based system and forcing the individual to have a direct link with the state has destroyed families and erased communities. Every person stands alone, stark naked, with only rights as his imaginary clothes to deal directly with the state.

While attacking the caste system, Indian intellectuals have borrowed the Western right-based concept of reservation, or affirmative action. In doing so, they have overlooked an extraordinary contribution of the caste system, in consolidating business and entrepreneurship in India , particularly in the last fifty years."

M. N.Srinivas, the late great sociologist, said in Collected Essays brought out by the Oxford University Press in 2005, 

“An important feature of social mobility in modern India is the manner in which the successful members of the backward castes work consistently for improving the economic and social condition of their caste fellows. This is due to the sense of identification with one’s own caste, and also a realisation that caste mobility is essential for individual or familial mobility.”

“The caste system is far from a rigid system in which the position of each component caste is fixed for all time. Movement has always been possible, and especially so in the middle regions of the hierarchy. A low caste was able, in a generation or two, to rise to a higher position in the hierarchy by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism, and by Sanskritizing its ritual and pantheon.” (Srinivas 1952: 127)

Gurcharan Das, the strategic consultant, writer and former vice-president and managing director of Proctor & Gamble Worldwide, says in his book, India Unbound, 

“In the nineteenth century, British colonialists used to blame our caste system for everything wrong in India. Now I have a different perspective. Instead of morally judging caste, I seek to understand its impact on competitiveness. I have come to believe that being endowed with commercial castes is a source of advantage in the global economy.”

(source: Caste as social capital: Why have the Gounders, Nadars, the Marwaris and Katchis done so well - By R Vaidyanathan - newsinsight.net).

Gerald Heard (?) American thinker and writer who has studied the Indian social system, has called it "organic democracy", and suggests in his work, Man the Master, that it is the type of democracy the world as a whole needs today. Heard defines "organic democracy" as "the rule of the people who have organized themselves in a living and not a mechanical relationship; where instead of all men being said to be equal, which is a lie, all men are known to be of equal value, could we but find the position in which their potential contribution could be released and their essential growth so pursued." He calls the four varnas by the names "seers" (Brahmins), "politicians (Kshatriyas), "technicians" (vaishyas) and "coherers" (Shudras). "These four classes are distinguished by unmistakable psychological characteristics which suit them to their particular purpose, function and place."  It is this organization that made Indian society stable, efficient and strong. It produced in India great scholars, warriors, administrators, and producers of wealth.

(source: Man, the Master - By Gerald Heard  p. 129).

Rajeev Srinivasan has wisely noted that:

"It has become a conditioned, Pavlovian reflex for Indians to condemn the entire idea of caste unthinkingly. It has become a cliché to rail against caste, but jati and varnam are just a codification of the fact that all humans are not born equal in their endowments: Some are tall, some are fat, some are musically talented, and so on. We cannot escape the ruthless Bell Curve. 

Allegedly egalitarian Communist states, too, have their elites: Rulers' offspring get the plum jobs. Not too many children of Polit Bureau members toil in the gulags of China , or have their organs harvested on demand. In Muslim societies, too, there are obvious hierarchies: Women are defined to be inferior. Among men, Arabs are top of the heap; among Arabs, Prophet Mohammed's tribe is superior. In that tribe, Mohammed's family members are more privileged. The rigidity of caste as we know it is yet another 'contribution' - as are very many of modern India 's ills, such as dowry - of Christian European imperialists. They capriciously decided that the Manusmrti was the rulebook of Indian society, and used their census to arbitrarily assign jatis to varnams. The objective of the imperialists was simple: To divide and rule. Today, their lineal descendants, the Communists, have latched on to the same idea as a way of subverting India .  

The truth of the matter is that jati is an entirely satisfactory construct for most members of a particular jati, so long as there is no overt discrimination against them. It is not as though people are just dying to get into a 'higher' jati. They are content with their existing in-group, even if they belong to a relatively 'low' jati. It is belonging that matters. Finally, caste makes Indian society robust.  

It is a system theory axiom that a centralised, monolithic system is vulnerable to a single-point failure. But a distributed system, which has many smaller, independent, nodes, is far more difficult to destroy. Castes have functioned as these distributed nodes, and thus no attacker could overthrow the system. Caste, in a fundamental way, has been a reason for the longevity of Indian civilisation. Surely, the distortions in this perfectly sensible construct need to be removed, but it is not per se inappropriate.

(source: Nothing wrong with caste: Birth and berth - By Rajeev Srinivasan - dailypioneer.com - Agenda Special section).

***

The caste system has been the most misunderstood, the most vilified subject of Hindu society at the hands of Western scholars and even today by "secular" Indians. The Hindu caste system has often been described as " the most cruel apartheid, imposed by the barbaric white Aryan invaders on the gentle dark-skinned natives."

(Refer to Aryan Invasion Theory Chapter).

The earliest reference to the four classes is in the Purusa Sukta of the Rig Veda, where they are described as having sprung from the body of the creative spirit, from his head, arms, thighs, and feet. This indicates that just as in a human body, the different organs perform different functions so also in human society different people must perform different functions, according to their predominant traits or temperament.

(source: Hinduism: The Eternal Religion - By M. D. Chaturvedi p. 200-201).

'This poetical image is intended to convey the organic character of society." 

Man is not only only himself, but is in solidarity with all of his kind. Man is not an abstract individual. He belongs to a certain social group by virtue of his character, behavior, and function in the community. The four-fold classification is conceived in the interests of world progress. 

(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By S. Radhakrishnan  p. 355-357).

Sir Sidney Low (1857-1932) in his book, A Vision of India: with a frontispiece says: 

“There is no doubt that it (caste) is the main cause of the fundamental stability and contentment by which Indian society has been braced for centuries against the shocks of politics and the cataclysms of Nature. It provides every man with his place, his career, his occupations, his circle of friends. It makes him, at the outset, a member of a corporate body; it protects him through life from the canker of social jealousy and unfulfilled aspirations; it ensures him companionship and a sense of community with others in like case with himself. The caste organization is to the Hindu his club, his trade union, his benefit society, his philanthropic society. There are no work houses in India, and none are as yet needed. The obligation to provide for kinsfolk and friends in distress is universally acknowledged; nor can it be questioned that this is due to the recognition of the strength of family ties and of the bonds created by associations and common pursuits which is fostered by the caste principle. An India without caste, as things stand at present, it is not quite easy to imagine.”

(source: Hindu Superiority - Har Bilas Sarda p. 32-33).

Nirad C. Chaudhari, (1897-1999) prominent Indian author and scholar, who rejected Western culture in an independent India, has defended the caste system on the grounds that the successive waves of migrant tribes or invaders probably made a class society inevitable in India, and that caste still has a useful function:

"The Caste system has only organized the disparities created by historical forces and movements. By doing so, it has done great good by reducing the competition of the diversities, by freezing them within certain limits, and by making each not only legitimate but even moral.....It canalized competitions and helped the coexistence of elements which otherwise would have been at war. It was a social system specially suited to a country like India, which history has made into a warehouse of civilizations, and a couloir and cul-de-sac of diverse people and cultures." He emphasized that if he considered the caste system in any danger - which he does not - he would add, "Please do not pulverize a society which has no other force of cohesion, into amorphous dust."

(source: The Continent of Circe - By Nirad C. Chaudhari  New York: Oxford University Press, 1965  p. 60).

Alain Danielou (1907-1994) author of several books, including History of India and Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India. writes: 

"It is easy to see that despite all the national and linguistic barriers, even modern Western society is fundamentally, like all societies, a caste system. The problem of Western society derive from the fact that while proclaiming the equality of men, it is entirely graded on a hierarchical system as far as the professions are concerned. Under the pretext of equality, Western lawmakers do not let the various groups cooperate among themselves while keeping their different habits, ethics, and social life. Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Celts, Basques, Albigemsoams, Pygmies, Blacks or Inuits are accorded a relative equality only on condition that they conform to our customs, losing most of their social, national, and religious characteristics and in fact abandoning their own personality." 

Hindu Society is 'caste-ridden' while modern democratic society reveals the presence of 'classes', sociologist explain. They acclaim 'class' and condemn 'caste'. Caste, according to them, has its roots in Hindu (Brahmannical) religion, while 'class' has its roots in economic disparities. 

(source: Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India - by Alain Danielou  p. 33 - 35).

Caste system provided for positive Social Networking and support

Mark Tully ( ? ) was the BBC correspondent in New Delhi and author of several books including No Full Stops in India and The Heart of India. 

He points out: 

 "The alienation of many young people in the West and the loneliness of the old show the suffering that egalitarianism inflicts on those who do not win, the superficiality of an egalitarianism which in effect means equal opportunities for all to win and then ignores the inevitable losers. For all that, the elite of India have become so spellbound by egalitarianism that they are unable to see any good in the only institution which does provide a sense of identity and dignity to those who are robbed from birth of the opportunity to compete on an equal footing – CASTE. Caste is obnoxious to the egalitarian West, so it is obnoxious to the Indian elite too." 

"The very fact that the institution of caste has survived about 3,000 years is a clear proof of the services which it must have rendered to the Hindu society in different periods of history. It is the caste system that has been largely responsible for the preservation of Hindu religion and culture. The caste brotherhoods, on account of their policy of exclusiveness, did not mix with the foreigners. So the Greeks, Huns or Muslims could not conquer Hindu culture. On the contrary, most of these foreigners were themselves absorbed into the Hindu fold."

(source: No Full Stops in India - By Mark Tully).

"The caste system is based on the sound economic principle of division of labor which ensures efficiency of production. A person from his birth knew what profession he was to follow later on. So from the start, he devoted all his energy to the one profession of his forefathers. It was because of this reason that in every period of Indian history, there was no dearth of highly-skilled workers and scholars. Megasthenes, Hieun Tsang, Alberuni, Ibn Batuta, Babar and even the early Britishers were impressed by the talents and artistic skill of the Indians in every art and craft." 

(source: Ancient India - By V. D. Mahajan p. 166).

Note: Mark Tully has spoken in defense of the caste system and denounced the spread of consumerism in the subcontinent. The BBC pushed him out because of his excessive identification with Indian culture. 

(source: India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India 1600-1800 - By Kate Teltscher introduction page).

Michael Pym wrote : "Caste is the secret of that amazing stability which is characteristic of the Indian social structure. It is the strength of Hinduism. Naturally, it can be abused. The moment a Brahmin treats a sweeper cruelly because he is a sweeper, he departs from his Brahminhood. He becomes a usurper and a social danger. And in due course, he will have to pay for this mistake. Because men are imperfect, and because power is a deadly intoxicant, such abuses may and do occur, but they are not inherent in the institution – they are contrary to its principles, though they may be inherent in the make up of the individual. 

Caste in itself is also a protection for the individual, because it permits group action. The reason why a Hindu dreads being outcaste is analogous to the reason why, in England say, a worker would dread being thrown out of his trade union.

(source: The Power of India - By Michael Pym p. 152- 153).

While Marxists and other anti-Hindu intellectuals calling themselves Secularists never miss an opportunity to denounce it, the fact of the matter is that the Indian civilization survived nearly a thousand year onslaught of Islam. Several other ancient civilizations – like those of Iran (Zorastrian), the Byzantine Empire (Christian) and Central Asia (Buddhist) broke down under the same force over a much shortest period. This shows that they must have lacked a social order capable of protecting their societies. 

The so called ‘egalitarian’ Buddhist society lacked the social organization which enabled the Hindu society to survive. It was the same story in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey which were part of the Christian Byzamtine Empire. They lacked the strength and resilience of the Hindu society and succumbed to the Islamic invasion. 

(source: A Hindu View of the World - By N. S. Rajaram   p. 103 - 104).

Dr. Koenraad Elst (1959 -) Dutch historian, born in Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959, into a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking Belgian) Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. He is the author of several books including The Saffron Swastika, Decolonising The Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism and Negationism in India: Concealilng the Record of Islam

"The caste system is often portrayed as the ultimate horror. Inborn inequality is indeed unacceptable to us moderns, but this does not preclude that the system has also had its merits.

Caste is perceived as an "exclusion-from," but first of all it is a form of "belonging-to," a natural structure of solidarity. For this reason, Christian and Muslim missionaries found it very difficult to lure Hindus away from their communities.

Sometimes castes were collectively converted to Islam, and Pope Gregory XV (1621-23) decreed that the missionaries could tolerate caste distinction among Christian converts; but by and large, caste remained an effective hurdle to the destruction of Hinduism through conversion. That is why the missionaries started attacking the institution of caste and in particular the Brahmin caste. This propaganda has bloomed into a full-fledged anti-brahminism, the Indian equivalent of anti-Semitism."

(source: Caste -  By Prof Koenraad Elst - hinduismtoday.com).

T M P Mahadevan wrote about the castes:

"The origin of caste is lost in obscurity. It purpose however, seems to have been the same as that of Plato’s division of the State into three classes, castes, or professions, viz. philosophers-rulers, warriors and masses. (see Plato’s Republic) The underlying principle is division of labor. Originally the castes were professional and subsequently became hereditary. The Brahmins were custodians of the spiritual culture of the race. He was friend, philosopher, guide to humanity. The Kshatriya is the guardian of society, its protector and preserver. The Vaisya is the expert in economics. His was the duty of arranging for the production and distribution of wealth. The Sudra was the worker or manual laborer. By his manual labor he places the entire community under a debt of gratitude.  The system was evolved to keep the social fabric in a harmonious condition; but in later years it became a divisive force. The original designers built the edifice of caste on the secure foundations of obligations; the lesser men who came after them produced a caricature on the shifting sands of rights… 

The four classes were not meant to be warring communities but complementary classes. Mahatma Gandhi said: “It is a law of spiritual economics” “It has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority”. And as the system of caste is purely a social adjustment, there is nothing that can stand in the way of its revision and readjustment except a sense of pride and obstinacy and a demand to preserve the status quo on the part of some of its members."

(source: Outlines of Hinduism - By T M P Mahadevan ISBN 0836457862 p. 69-74).  

When Julius Caesar occupied the Celtic West of Europe, he found that the Druid class was the backbone of this society (the parallel with the Brahmins in the perception of the missionaries is quite exact): therefore, he persecuted the Druids.  

(source: Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society - By Koenraad Elst  p. 100).

Huston Smith (1919 -  ) born in China to Methodist missionaries, a philosopher, most eloquent writer, world-famous religion scholar who practices Hatha Yoga. He has written various books, The World's Religions.  He says:

Men and women that are lining the bathing ghats are all Hindus, but how different they are. But India looked past their bodies into their minds where she found the prolific ness of the infinite exploding like a Roman cantle. 

No other civilization saw, appreciated, and classified so precisely the full spectrum of human personality types…an achievement that has earned for India – the title of the world’s introspective psychologist.

"India identified four such types and once again honored all of them. Likening society to an organism, she pictured Brahmins -  its head, Brahmins are intellectuals, their chief delight in art, ideas, and things of spirit generally. 

Next come the arms and shoulder of society – its administrative  - persons who are talent for getting things done  

Next  personality type – the artisan or craftsmen – the engineer and the farmer – India likens these people to society’s stomach – for they produce and feed us the things on which life depends. 

Finally, manual labor is important too. They are the legs and feet without which society could not run.”

(source: The Mystic's Journey - India and the Infinite: The Soul of a People – By Huston Smith).

Dr. Koenraad Elst has written:

"Increasingly, Hinduism is identified by the international public with the caste system and nothing but the caste system. The caste system, in turn, is painted in the ugliest colors: as a racist Apartheid system designed to oppress the native population. These notions are eagerly welcomed and amplified by outside forces such as Christian missionary centers, followed by their Islamic counterparts. Till recently, American foreign policy agencies made no secret of their designs on India's unity. When she was US ambassador to the UN, Mrs. Jean Kirkpatrick once said that "the break-up of India is one of the goals of the American foreign policy." Patrick Moynihan, who had held the same job, said more recently, "After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the artificial state India is also bound to break up."

(source: Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar - By Koenraad Elst  Voice of India ASIN 8185990042 p. 59-60). 

For more refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught and European Imperialism 

Ronald B Inden has pointed out:

"Caste, the Western scholars held, is the type of society characteristic of India, the institution that distinguishes it from the other civilization dominated by caste from the West. The representation of India as a civilization dominated by caste are legion. Caste, considered the essence of Indian civilization, has often been treated as though it were the unchanging agent of the civilization, from the rise of the Indus Valley culture and the arrival of the Aryans down to the present day of regionalism and caste in electoral politics. It is, thus, deeply embedded in Indological discourse. Many of the more recent accounts of caste have dropped the racialist discourse, but they have not broken with the notion that caste is a unique type of society, one that displaces the economically oriented politics of the West. Accounts of caste can and have been used as a foil to build up the West’s image of itself."

(source: Imagining India - By Ronald B Inden  p. 82-83).

"It would lead to a greater respect for India’s culture, and indeed a better understanding of it, if it were recognized that the caste system has never been totally static, that it is adapting itself to today’s changing circumstances and that it has positive as well as negative aspects. The caste system provides security and a community for millions of Indians. It gives them an identity that neither Western Science nor Western thought has yet provided, because caste is not just a matter of being a Brahmin or a Harijan: it is also a kinship system. The system provides a wider support group than a family: a group which has a social life in which all its members participate." 

In the September 1989 issue of Seminar magazine, Madhu Kishwar, one of India leading feminists, wrote, 

"The caste system provides for relatively greater stability and dignity to the individuals than they would have as atomized individuals. This is part explains why the Indian poor retain a strong sense of self-respect. It is that self-respect which the thought-less insistence on egalitarianism destroys." 

(source: No Full Stops in India - By Mark Tully p. 4-8).

Caste system is often perceived to be an integral part of Hindu religion. This erroneous perception arises when people mix the ancient social tradition (caste system) with Hindu religious philosophy. 

According to V. A. Smith, most of the misunderstanding on the subject of caste system has arisen from the persistent mistranslation of Manu's term "Varna" as caste, whereas it should be rendered class or order or by some equivalent term. 

(source: Oxford History of India - By V. A. Smith Oxford Date of Publication: 1958). 

The Genius of India

Guy Sorman (1944 -  ) visiting scholar at Hoover Institution at Stanford and the leader of new liberalism in France, states:

"Westerners tend to be perplexed and scandalized by the caste system but they forget that the aristocracy which ruled over Europe for a thousand years was a caste of sorts. The guilds of the Ancient Regime resembled Indian castes as they had existed initially, each caste corresponding to a particular trade." When it comes to marriage, in Europe as in India, one looks for a partner from among one's immediate social circle. 

Till the Age of Enlightenment, castes were viewed with interest rather than revulsion. Some French travelers even felt that the caste system had a certain social utility. In 1777, when Desvaulx (1745 - 1825) wrote in his book:

"Indians are as attached to their caste as our gentlemen to theirs." 

(source: Les indes florissantes - Robert Laffont 1991). 

Sorman further said: "The authority of the caste is a check on the possible abuse of their power by the princes." There has never been a central authority capable of imposing a single language, religion or way of life on the myriad castes that constitute India. 

It is for this very reason that in the past the Muslim and British conquerors and prozelytisers have had to curtail their ambitions. 

" India, is the only great civilization not to have been devoured by the West." says Guy Sorman. 

Caste system has also made Indians completely immune to the totalitarian temptations. Overturning Western prejudice, Guy Sorman sees in the caste system and polytheism not a curse but the stuff that forearms Indians against absolutism. It is perhaps thanks to castes, however archaic and oppressive they may be, that India, unlike China, has escaped from totalitarianism and the grip of a single state or a single party. It may be said that the endurance of the Brahmins in India has kept her elite intact, whereas in neighboring China the anti-intellectualism of communist peasants has completely wiped out the intelligentsia of that country. It was the Brahmins who, at the time of British colonization, introduced in India the first notions of public health and modern techniques in agriculture and industry. 

Though caste as an ideology is unique to India, the caste spirit, both as a metaphor and social reality, seems widespread. It is the caste system which holds Indians together and has allowed eternal India to endure. Its religious bases was attacked by Islam and Christianity and since the 19th century both Indian and European reformers have not stopped harping on the social ills of the caste system. But nothing, neither socialism nor nationalism nor republican egalitarianism nor any other doctrine of Western origin, has managed to replace it. 

(source: The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman  ('Le Genie de l'Inde') Macmillan India Ltd. 2001. ISBN 0333 93600 0 p. xiii - 56-58).

***

An Englishman getting a pedicure from his Indian servants.

No Ten Commandments in the East of the Suez Canal?

The Tyranny of British Rule: "The British have set themselves up as the master race in India. British rule in India is fascism, there is no dodging that." 

"It is in India, of all places on the earth, that the superiority of the white over the colored races is most strikingly demonstrated." 

Refer to the chapter on European Imperialism. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

Refer to Think tank alleges British MPs involved in promoting evangelism in India - hinduvoice.co.uk.

Refer to The  Genocidal war being waged against Iraq and its people by the Anglo-American imperialists - Iraq Body Count.

Refer to Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust - By Kevin Annett and documentary Unrepentant and Canada's Genocide

Watch Why we fight (2005) documentary - Imperial and technological arrogance of world's Super power: describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military-industrial complex and its involvement in the wars led by the United States during the last fifty years, and in particular in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The film alleges that in every decade since World War II, the American public has been told a lie to bring it into war to fuel the military-economic machine, which in turn maintains American dominance in the world.

***

Why The British Hated the Brahmins

According to columnist, Meenakshi Jain: 

"The British were not wrong in their distrust of educated Brahmins in whom they saw a potential threat to their supremacy in India. For instance, in 1879 the Collector of Tanjore in a communication to Sir James Caird, member of the Famine Commission, stated that "there was no class (except Brahmins ) which was so hostile to the English." The predominance of the Brahmins in the freedom movement confirmed the worst British suspicions of the community. Innumerable CID reports of the period commented on Brahmin participation at all levels of the nationalist movement. In the words of an observer, 

"If any community could claim credit for driving the British out of the country, it was the Brahmin community. Seventy per cent of those who were felled by British bullets were Brahmins".

To counter what they perceived, a Brahmanical challenge, the British launched on the one hand a major ideological attack on the Brahmins and, on the other incited non-Brahmin caste Hindus to press for preferential treatment, a ploy that was to prove equally successful vis-à-vis the Muslims.

In the attempt to rewrite Indian history, Brahmins began to be portrayed as oppressors and tyrants who willfully kept down the rest of the populace. Their role in the development of Indian society was deliberately slighted. In ancient times, for example, Brahmins played a major part in the spread of new methods of cultivation (especially the use of the plough and manure) in backward and aboriginal areas. The Krsi-parasara, compiled during this period, is testimony to their contribution in this field. Apart from misrepresenting the Indian past, the British actively encouraged anti-Brahmin sentiments. 

Apart from misrepresenting the Indian past, the British actively encouraged anti-Brahmin sentiments.  

A number of scholars have commented on their involvement in the anti-Brahmin movement in South India. As a result of their machinations non-Brahmins turned on the Brahmins with a ferocity that has few parallels in Indian history. This was all the more surprising in that for centuries Brahmins and non-Brahmins had been active partners and collaborators in the task of political and social management. 

(source: The Plight of Brahmins - By Meenakshi Jain The Indian Express, Tuesday, September 18, 1990). 

Refer to The Indian Jews - By Jakob De Roover - Outlookindia.com June 20, 2008.

Author S. Balagangadhara writes: 

"The Brahmins were identified as the ‘clergy’ or the priests of Hinduism. An explicit hostility towards the heathen priesthood was not helped by the inability of the messengers of God’s word to convert Brahmins to Christianity. In Brahmins, they came across a literate group, which was able to read, write, do arithmetic, conduct ‘theological’ discussions, etc. During the first hundred years or so, this group was the only source of information about India as far as the missionaries were concerned. Schooled to perform many administrative tasks, the Brahmins were mostly the only ones well-versed in the European languages – enough to communicate with the Europeans. In short, they appeared both to be the intellectual group and the most influential social layer in the Indian social organization. Conversion of the heathens of India, as the missions painfully discovered, did not depend so much on winning the allegiance of the prince or the king as it did on converting the Brahmins.   

This attack was born out of the inability of Christianity to gain a serious foothold in the Indian society. The ‘red race’ was primitive – it could be decimated; the ‘blacks’ were backward – they could be enslaved; the ‘yellow’ and the ‘brown’ were inferior – they could be colonized. But how to convert them? One would persecute resistance and opposition. How to respond to indifference? The attitude of these heathens towards Christianity, it is this: indifference.  "

(source: The Heathen in His Blindness...: Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion - By S. Balagangadhara p.  82 -149). For more refer to chapter on First Indologists and European Imperialism).

Sesha Samarajiwa ( ? ) from Sri Lanka is interested examining foreign religious agents’ role as Fifth Columnists of neocolonialism/neoimperialism. He has written:

"Evangelists belong to a long line of pests from the West who have come and keep coming like locusts to colonize our souls and cannibalize our cultures.

The latest incursions are merely a continuation of the 500-year-old sorry saga of Asia, Africa and South America , which began with the arrival of the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Some have never recovered from the machinations of their priests and the savagery of their conquistadors. The baton of imperialism has passed from the Europeans to the Americans. That is not to say that the rest of the West has dropped out. They have not. They are very much in the game. It’s just that the Americans are in the lead, the new Romans on the rampage. 

We know well how the Europeans won the West. They won it through mass genocide of the native populations in North and South America . In South America , hundreds and thousands of natives who resisted conversion were garroted. There is a poignant painting depicting such conversions. It shows armored Spanish soldiers garroting native priests, while a Spanish priest holds up a large cross. More terrified natives await their turn. On the side, another Spanish priest feeds stacks of ancient gold-leaf books of the Mayans into a fire. On the face of the Mayan priests, a look of utter sadness mixed with resignation.

In places like India and Sri Lanka , they were no better. They too faced abject horrors. In his book, Christianity's scramble for India , Navaratna Rajaram says that “the Christian Missionary is neither a Christian nor a missionary. In fact, he is a racist and a white supremacist in priestly guise.” Their Buffalo Bills and their Wild Bills, their Custers and their Cortezes, and the long line of predators and priests made sure that the sorry remainder of once-proud nations would remain so, while they ruled the roost in lands drenched with native blood. Many weaker cultures succumbed to the relentless onslaught from the West. They either slaughtered those who resisted or they sowed the seeds of abjection and their eventual self-destruction. Even today, we see the pathetic dregs of once-noble nations staggering around native reservations and barrios in North and South America, in Australia , in Canada , in New Zealand . They have lost their spirit. They have lost their will to live. They seem embarrassed to be alive. They are self-destructing. At best, they are performing monkeys titillating whites with a thirst for the exotic. These are abject peoples, vanishing tribes. Now, not satisfied with ruling their large chunk of raided real estate, they are hell-bent on extending their hegemony over the whole world. They howl in protest when the natives resist. Human misery is happy hunting grounds for these spiritual cartels. They strike when their targets are at their weakest or bomb them to submission to make sure they are at their weakest. Thus softened up, they are susceptible to inducements and brainwashing. They are canny. To ‘convert’ people, you must first make them despise and reject what had sustained their people for millennia. So they vilify their faith or convince them it is a spent force or dark superstition. In so doing, they make us spit on our heritage."

(source: Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing - By Sesha Samarajiwa - Asian Tribune October 9, 2007).

According to Shyam Sashtri, the words, Brahmins, Kshatryas, Vaisyas and Sudras were names of classes rather than castes during the pre-historic period. According to H. G. Rawlinson, caste is a  Portuguese word meaning purity of race. 

But ultimately if one wants to understand the truth, the original purpose behind the caste system, one must go to antiquity to study the evolution of the caste system. When the Vedas refer to the four-fold division of society, they use the Sanskrit word varna meaning "class," not the word jati meaning "caste". The word varna was mistakenly translated by the Portuguese during their period of colonial establishment in India. Four orders of society were recognized based upon the four main goals of human beings and established society accordingly. These four orders of society were called "varna", which has two meanings; first it means "color" and second it means a "veil". As color it does NOT refer to the color of the skin of people, but to the qualities (gunas) or energies of human nature. It is true that the Caste system did degenerate with passage of time.

This mix-up is quite significant because the Varna system of the Vedas was designed to achieve division of labor and help society operate efficiently. 

Dagmar Grafin Bernstorff, (author of 'Das Kastensystem im Wandel' Indien in Deutschland 1990 p 29-51) based on convincing evidence, suggests that varna originally did not refer to skin color but designed the four directions identified by white, black, red, yellow according to which the participants were arranged during the Vedic yajna.

(source: A Survey of Hinduism - By Klaus K. Klostermaier p. 334)

Alain Danielou writes: " The Hindu lawgivers felt that no advanced society could exist without the recognition of certain facts, such as professional organizations; relations between the various occupations needed to maintain the economic, political, and social stability of the state; and the problems arising from the various degrees of development among peoples and individuals, their various aptitudes, and the drawbacks of intermarriage. It should not be forgotten that the so-called equality in aptitude of the sundry human races takes only the capacities of the most aggressive races into account, and not of those that are unable to adapt to modern conditions, such as the Pygmies, the Australian aborigines, the Munda populations of India, and many other groups. Their systematic genocide still continues today, since their existence upsets all ideas of so-called equality of aptitude, values, and aspirations among the various races. For the Hindus, the caste system is not a man-made invention to justify slavery but the recognition of the Creator's will, the codification of a state of fact, an attempt to harmonize human soci