Caste system in India Quotes

“British India... was as much infected by caste as Indian India.”

“A Hindu marrying a Hindu may lose his caste, but not his Hindutva.”

“‘The four varnas were created by me on the basis of character and occupation.’”

“[A] problematic assumption in the genetics literature is that caste is unchanging.”

“But I am He Made the Four Castes, and portioned them a place After their qualities and gifts.”

“Today, India has only two castes – those who are poor and those who want to eradicate poverty.””

“Wikipedia: Caste system in India”

“Wikicommons: Indian caste system”

“The new self-styled social justice intellectuals and parties do not want an India without castes, they want castes without dharma.”

“The early Indo-Aryans could no more have thought in modern terms of the race prejudice than they could have invented the airplane.”

“Charsley explains: ‘One census commissioner after another struggled to discern some order amongst the differently-based groups.’8”

“High birth cannot be a certificate for a person of no character. But persons with good character can distinguish themselves irrespective of low birth.”

“The effect of the Mussalman political creed upon Hindu social life was two-fold: it increased the rigour of the caste system and aroused a revolt against it.”

“In fact, there is no record that Indian society on a large scale decided to abandon identities based on varna or jati as a result of the teachings of the Buddha.”

“Not by birth does one become an outcaste, not by birth does one become a brahman. By one's action one becomes an outcaste, by one's action one becomes a brahman.”

“Therefore, my friends, it is no use fighting among the castes. What good will it do? It will divide us all the more, weaken us all the more, degrade us all the more.”

“Similarly, C.F. Magrath, who authored a report on the 1871 Bihar census, wrote that ‘now meaningless division into the four castes alleged to have been made by Manu should be put aside’.”

“The Brahmin of Panjab is racially of the same stock as the Chamar of Punjab". ... "Caste system does not demarcate racial division. Caste system is a social division of people of the same race.”

“The British census by Lord Risley ... was the basis for creating the caste hierarchy on birth on a permanent basis.”

“W.R. Cornish, who supervised census operations in Madras Presidency in 1871, wrote: ‘Whether there was ever a period in which the Hindus were composed of four classes is exceedingly doubtful’.”