On the one hand, men, women, and children are divided up into separate communities. As the lowest of the low, Dalits are assigned the most “unclean” tasks the removal of waste tending of funeral pyres butchery, etc.Īccordingly, the Hindu caste system has two main aspects. Outcastes from the Hindu fold are those who do not belong to any varna ( avarna): the Adivasi tribes of the subcontinent, and the Untouchables or, Dalits (“depressed” or “broken” people) who are seen to pollute Hindu society. The Varna system outlines four castes, or savarna: Brahmins (priests intellectuals) Kshatriyas (warriors administrators) Vaishyas (farmers traders) and Shudras (workers laborers). The authority of Varna is derived from its codification in the Vedic-Brahmin Manusmriti (Laws of Manu) - one of Hinduism’s most holy books. However, each Jati also fits into the overarching hierarchy of the four-fold Varna system. Now this gradation, this scaling of castes, makes it impossible to organize a common front against the Caste System.The caste system as it actually works on the ground is called Jati. The higher the grade of a caste, the greater the number of these rights, and the lower the grade, the lesser their number.

In its second aspect, it places these communities in a graded order one above the other in social status.Įach caste takes its pride and its consolation in the fact that in the scale of castes it is above some other caste.Īs an outward mark of this-gradation, there is also a gradation of social and religious rights technically spoken of Ashtadhikaras and Sanskaras. In one of its aspects, it divides men into separate communities. The second reason, why I say the task is impossible, will be clear if you will bear in mind that the Caste System has two aspects. When such an intellectual class, which holds the rest of the community in its grip, is opposed to the reform of Caste, the chances of success in a movement for the break-up of the Caste System appear to be very, very remote. Annihilation Of Caste With Replay To Mahatma Gandhi

An annihilation of caste