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Sociology
of groups in Ancient India
The
whole philosophy of Indian social organization may be summarized in one word,
varna-ashrama-dharma, which may be appropriately translated as Social
Federalism. This principle of social integration or synthesis was
understood as early as the times of the Samhitas in the Vedic age. The
Vedic seers realized that the best and surest way of saving society from
frequent suicidal chaos was to divide its members into specific groups, with
well-defined functions and privileges or rewards for each.
 The
first group was that of the Brahmans, the
teachers and the priests. They were the custodians of the social and spiritual
heritage of the group and were to pass it on to the succeeding generations. They
were to preserve the purity of idealism, point the way to the Eternal discovered
by them through study and meditation, while their fellowmen were busy with
life’s daily tasks which left little leisure. The Brahman was a man of
intellect; he came from the mouth of Brahma.
Watch
video - Brahmins
in
India
have become a minority
 The
second group was that of the Kshatriya. They
were men of action. They were the guardians of the race. They were soldiers,
sailors, civil servants and legislators. They kept the peace and order within
the group and protected it from alien aggression. Theirs was a life of service
and sacrifice; they came from the arms of Brahma.
The third group was that of the
Vaishyas, the merchants. They attended to
the distribution of the necessities of life. The vaishya was the merchant who
made wealth; he was a man of desire. He was born from the thighs of Brahma.
 The
fourth and last group was that of the Sudras.
The sudra was engaged in producing life’s necessities, food, clothing and
shelter, so that the physical organism of the group was kept in good health. On
this group of working men depended the physical welfare of the whole community,
its industries, its prosperity. This working class was psychologically, a group
of undefined aptitudes, un-evolved, men of mechanical temperament, the common
men. They came from the feet of Brahma. Look where we will, whether it be a
primitive community or a modern nation, its population falls easily into these
four categories. According to Manu, there are no other groups.
Integration of various
factors
This division of men into four
types, the teacher, the warrior, the merchant and the laborer, is based on sound
psychology, ethics, biology and economics. Some men are intellectually by
temperament, some are active, some acquisitive and others undefined, none of
these. To each are assigned the task true to its type, in conformity with its
inherent temperament, svadharma. All together formed an organic whole. Under an
arrangement such as this, there is conservation of social energies; there is no
necessity of trial and error method. All are not equally endowed with equal
physical and mental capacities, but every one should be given an opportunity for
putting to use the faculties with which he has been endowed. Man should be
treated as man, and not as an economic hand. Danger of exploitation of one group
by another can be eliminated. Social harmony and conscious co-operation were
made the chief characteristics of human association. The
ideal was to evolve a functional and not an acquisitive society. It is this
varna dharma that has been the bulwark of Indian civilization and saved it from
wreckage of time. Each group had its duties and its own rewards or
compensation. The laborer had to work, but he was to be looked after as a
younger member of a family. The man of desire, the vaishya, was to acquire
wealth; power and authority was vested in the kshatriya, while all these were to
honor the teacher, to obey his religious and spiritual injunctions and accept
his guidance. The teacher was to be supported by the gifts of the other three
groups.
It was with the aid of this
mechanism that India sought to solve her racial problem. The
Aryans did not resort to the short cut of annihilating the primitive people with
whom they came into contact as the European races have done whenever they have
occupied lands in America, Asia, Africa and Australia, but they gave
them a place in their body-politic, assigning to them the task befitting their
intelligence and subordinate status. Observant scholars of the West have not
failed to notice the spiritual significance of the varna-ashrama-dharma and
given it its due praise.
 Writing
of this varna-ashrama-dharma, Auguste
Comte (1798-1857) the great French sociologist, wrote in his book Système
de philosophie positive or
Positive Society:
“No institution has ever
shown itself more adopted to honor, ability to various kinds than this
polytheistic organization…In a social view, the virtues of the system are not
less conspicuous. Politically, its chief attribute was stability…As to the
influence on mortals, this system was favorable to personal morality, and yet
more to domestic, for the spirit of caste
was a mere extension of the family spirit….As to social morals, the system was
evidently favorable to respect for age and homage to ancestors.”
These principles formed the
background of the Indian social organization; on them was built a superstructure
of social institution, such as education, marriage, family and the state.
It was
realized by the Indian sociologists that both the individual and the group could
find self-expression and fulfillment only in and through a complex of social
institutions, based on dharma, co-operation, mutual aid, integration, synthesis,
the vision of the whole.
Balance,
orderly progress of individual and group, harmonious relationship between both,
was the ideal aimed at by the Indian sociologist.
(source: India:
A synthesis of cultures – by Kewal Motwani p
120 -128).
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