This is Tejasvita Apte's answer to Is caste system mentioned in Hindu sastras and Bhagwad Gita? on Quora.

Okay, I respect what Ms. Tejaswita wants to convey. That Caste system was a great system devised by visionaries in the past and was somehow messed up by the people who came after wards.

This is a comment I posted under it.

My apologies if this comes of as a rude comment.

You haven’t given any citation (proper,relevant and original source) for your assertion that caste system was a system based on pure merit that was later abused to be an oppressive system.

Even if we forgo the insult any justification of caste system delivers to the people at its receiving end, how do you explain the inconsistencies that are inherent to the system even if adopt a ‘sanatana’ version eulogising the caste system?

For example, if caste system is purely based on merit, how do you explain the existence of ‘avarnas’ or the casteless? And the tribals and nomads?

Were they ‘too merit less’ to escape the purview of a truly merit based system?

I can see that you are flaunting a lot of stories they serve as solid evidences to prove your point. Let me add one more story to the portfolio. On how the so called avarnas were created.

The story goes like this - the Brahmins were created from Mahavishnu’s head, Kshathriyas from his hands, Vaishyas from his waist and Shudras from his feet.

Later on, he was cleaning his feet to remove the dust that was stuck on them. He blew off this dust and avarnas were created from this dust.

Hence, they have no caste.

Stories make no sense, but they do throw some light into the way people look at things. The caste system as we know, at least for the past ~300 years is the kind of caste system relevant to us. Romanticising it with some anecdotes from the distant past is not just a futile exercise, it is a crime.

Btw, I will highly appreciate it if you can give any original sources to why caste system is based only merit and later was abused.

Also what makes you think that job based stratification can be justified? In a society with no means and heavy (religiously enforced) restrictions on mass education, one person didn’t have exposure to multiple vocations. He is only exposed to what he sees around him, if he is in abject poverty in a vast majority of cases, he will never be able to acquire knowledge and skills to escape his fate, no matter how skilled he is.

This makes the hereditary nature of caste system an unavoidable consequence of job based stratification. What points do you have against this motion?

Of course there can be outliers, but statistically speaking, this is the case. Look at the amount of Govt jobs represented by the upper castes around you. What do you see? And the private jobs, representation in highest educational institutions?

Would you explain this by stating that the upper castes are genetically superior to the others, if not, what is your explanation?

With all this questions to supplement, I hope you will give a clear answer on why caste system is a good system with enough documents to cite it. Thanks.

I sincerely hope that Ms. Apte will have proper answers to my questions justifying why she eulogised the caste system.

One more point is that she states that the system is completely outdated. I am arguing that the system was unjust from its beginning (only if she comes up with documents/evidences to prove that it was a system constituted in good faith and was later misused) and its hereditary nature is just a natural consequence of job based stratification.

I hope Ms. Apte replies and we can have a productive discussion. All her replies will be documented in this page for open reference.

Dated: 16th November, 2016.

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