Shabnam Agarwal
asked:
I think caste of all kinds should be abolished. But why target Hinduism. Target the people who misinterpreted it and made the caste system?
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Annihilation of Caste,
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Pavan Dharanipragada
Caste system is codified in all Vedas starting from the earliest Veda, the Rig Veda. So the claim that Hinduism has nothing to do with caste is plain wrong. Please read Dr. Ambedkar's book for a more precise argument.
Hashin Jithu
Pardon me if this come of as rude, but have you actually read the book? Ambedkar actually devotes great time to answer just this question. Thank you!
Debjani
This is a silly myth that the colonialists misinterpreted the caste system; much before the colonialists, Buddhists and Jains had spoken against the caste system. There are many other written testimonies that the varna system existed and categorised people.
Kraentk
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Shiv
Ambedkar has no doubt done a fine analysis in this book.With due respect,I submit Ambedkar has not fully understood the intricacies of caste system.The caste system is actually a varna(color) system.It is not exactly hereditary always.However hereditary factors cannot be ignored.Why is it that intelligent men have been born only in certain communities and negligible in others?Take the case of North Americans.The best professors or politicians have always been from the white american community.Why almost no one from the blacks?The manusmriti marriage restriction seeks to maintain this predictability of genes for the sake of society's progress.Ambedkar here asks why do you need a label like 'kshatriya'.The fact is society needs intellectuals,military men etc for its own prosperity.You need to maintain almost equal numbers of each of them.But say an intelligent person marries another not so intelligent one,the resultant offspring may either be one of them or mixture.In which case predictability is hampered also is the balance of varna numbers for the benefit of society.True as ambedkar says unity takes a beating due to differentiation.However even today you have people labelling themselves as bankers,IT people etc.4 varnas with mutual cooperation does not amount to disunity.That said it would be better if a man introspects himself and tells his varna based on his interests and abilities.Like a man with business liking should call himself vaishya irrespective of his fathers caste.And must marry accordingly.The hierarchy was not exactly part of varna system initially.
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Oct 11, 2020 06:16PM · flag
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