XV
But
there is a set of reformers who hold out a different ideal. They go by the name
of the Arya Samajists and their ideal of social organization is what is called
Chaturvarnya or the division of society into four classes instead of the four
thousand castes that we have in India. To make it more attractive and to disarm
opposition the protagonists of Chaturvarnya take great care to point out that
their Chaturvarnya is based not on birth but on guna (worth). At the
outset, I must confess that notwithstanding the worth-basis of this
Chaturvarnya, it is an ideal to which I cannot reconcile myself. In the first
place, if under the Chaturvarnya of the Arya Samajists an individual is to take
his place in the Hindu Society according to his worth. I do not understand why
the Arya Samajists insist upon labelling men as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and
Shudra. A learned man would be honoured without his being labelled a Brahmin. A
soldier would be respected without his being designated a Kshatriya. If
European society honours its soldiers and its servants without giving them
permanent labels, why should Hindu Society find it difficult to do so is a
question, which Arya Samajists have not cared to consider. There is another
objection to the continuance of these labels. All reform consists in a change
in the notions, sentiment and mental attitudes of the people towards men and
things. It is common experience that certain names become associated with
certain notions and sentiments, which determine a person’s attitude towards men
and things. The names, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, are names which
are associated with a definite and fixed notion in the mind of every Hindu.
That notion is that of a hierarchy based on birth. So long as these names
continue, Hindus will continue to think of the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and
Shudra as hierarchical divisions of high and low, based on birth, and act
accordingly. The Hindu must be made to unlearn all this. But how can this
happen if the old labels remain and continue to recall to his mind old notions.
If new notions are to be inculcated in the minds of people it is necessary to
give them new names. To continue the old name is to make the reform futile. To allow
this Chaturvarnya, based on worth to be designated by such stinking labels of
Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, indicative of social divisions based on
birth, is a snare.
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